What's Wrong With WOW - Elitist Assholes
Opinion from Matt - Wednesday, 12 May 2010 @ 12:32am
As described in my Timesink article there are a lot of people who spend a lot of time playing World of Warcraft. There are people with spreadsheets to calculate maximum damage effectiveness using a series of variables, such as weapons and enchants. They’re called Theorycrafters. Or losers.
These people consider their time in the game reasonable, and that anyone who isn’t up to their standard is a “scrub”. “Scrub” is a derisive term used in wow to describe someone who has been to busy fucking girls to properly gear up.
The elitism takes many forms. My gear is better than yours, look at all the achievements I’ve got that you don’t, check out my epic mount that I got from killing Satan himself with a spoon, etc. The elitists are abusive and abrasive when it comes to stupid questions – defined as any question they know the answer to.
“Would there be any benefit to a Titan's Grip Fury Warrior wielding a 1h in his offhand to get faster and more consistent rage generation?”
“YEAH IF U WANNA NERF UR DPS OMG FUCKWIT”
A more normal human response would be “You’d still get the fury 2h hit penalty, without the benefit of the 2h damage. It wouldn't help.” But no. The elitist is better than you, and it’s important that you know it, not just through correction, but through belittlement.
The elitist is unforgiving of mistakes. The ones they make are dismissed as someone else’s fault (g0t no healz while I was in fyre?!). When the elitist's uber DPS (on the wrong mob) pulls Agro it's because the tank is a scrub who needs to l2p. By contrast, the mistakes of others are unforgivable example of the player's incorrigible uselessness, not to mention proof of account ebaying.
The elitist wants to skate through content. They're not willing to consider any "scrub" for their group, even if the group is going to old content. They don't want to "carry" people. The elitist has the best DPS of any group, regardless of the actual dps of other members - that mage doesn't count because I was on the boss and he was just aoeing the adds. And the DK doesn't count because he died near the end (what a scrub). And the warlock doesn't count because he was being buffed by the Elemental Shaman.
The most interesting thing about the elitist is that it's a person who's managed to turn the willingness to dedicate hours of time a day, every day to gather the best fake items in a fantasy world, and is so proud of this they think it makes them a better person than you.
The probable description for the actual player behind the elitist is not that cool a picture. In order to really be particularly "elite" you have to dedicate massive amounts of time. This is rarely possible for older people with families, or for people who work full time. Even a girlfriend would cut into that time, relegating him to a "casual raider". Many of these "elite" players are therefore young men, single, and students. In a sense the elitist by virtue of being elitist admits to the world that his real life is not that special. He's a kid who lives with his mum.
In fact it's for this reason that elitism is both possible and necessary.
I've seen articles that describe lonely and nerdy young men who imagine they're a great warrior, escaping the patheticity of their own sad lives by living in a fantasy where they're a powerful mage astride a giant flying horse. But that isn't the case. Few people playing games like WoW actually imagine they're the character, or associate with that character in any way. That would be delusional, and isn't the
The reality is both more subtle and more significant. More insidiuous in a way.
For an elite wow player who is young and going through the typical shit that assaulted us all in high school, World of Warcraft isn't an escape from reality. It's just a game. But if they truly are elite their guild becomes a major part of their social life. After the stereotypical "getting picked last for soccer" it's a team that picks them first. The impact and importance of that can't be overstated. It's not the fantasy that has the appeal it's the reality. Being good, being valued - that matters. And no wonder people without much in their lives feel the need to be assholes about it the one thing they're good at.
How Do We Fix it?
We probably can't. And really, let them have it. They need all the elite they can get.
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And again... what was your point exactly?
My point was that this looks like an angsty post by a 13 year old on their blog, and not a post I'd expect to see from a contributor to this site, let alone one of it's founders. You guys do good work, so I was little taken aback when I read this.
You have a point?
And I'm not whining about the people in the guild. They pretty much have the same attitude as me. And they're mostly ON this forum. If I wanted to complain about them I'd certainly name names. Like Croikey. I hate that guy.
The point is you don't agree. Fine, I don't care. But if you honestly think this website has a good reputation that I could bring down I'm kind of worried.
This is an OPINION article. It says so in caps. This is where we allow our writers to say what they want about shit that bothers me. We encourage it, because it gives more personality and subjectivity than our normally high journalistic standards (*cough*) allow.
And again... what was your point exactly?
I haven't really logged into my account or had much to do with this community but I felt I had to comment on this article, because it came off as a whiny live journal post. It sounds like the OP wants to bitch about players in his guild without having to name names. Instead of making massive generalisations and not really making a proper argument about anything, making a story out of something that actually happened and drawing a point from it would've been much more compelling. I know it probably looks like just another forum post to most regulars, but this website has better rep than a post like this.
It's nice that you've clarified what you meant with a bit of discussion Matt, but when you boil it down, all you've said is "I hate dickheads who think they know more than everybody," and expressed some frustration from your previous piece on the WoW timesink. I think I related to that piece more actually. I quit WoW when our guild was on C'thun in AQ40 when it basically came down to my girlfriend or more raiding. By that point organising raids was the only fun thing about the game, so that was it for me.
I find this common use of the word 'scrub' makes me laugh too. Back when I was playing WoW in 2006 nobody used it except in the fighting game community, and it was mostly used to describe people that lost poorly and would just pass blame rather than learn and get better. Now obviously it just means the same thing as 'noob.' Kinda funny to see it being used everywhere now.
I just want to point out one small thing.
People who remember their history will notice that the level of "elitism" seems to grow worse the closer we get to a new expansion with WoW. This comes with people wanting to be extremely well geared so they can see all the end game content as they possibly can before the new expansion makes them all not worth doing.
However with the existence of the "GearScore" add on for the game, it's just become a way for people to exclude others. This game has always had a level of elitism, which is on its basic level, is a bunch of losers who can afford to spend all day everyday playing the game and are in fact the typical "WoW Player" that has given gaming, especially playing WoW, a bad name.
Just on a personal note. Matt, can you try and do something about WoW that's positive. I like that this site is somewhere that has people who can make extremely logical opinion pieces, but after playing WoW for 3 years I'm sick of reading nothing but negatives about the game. So please, while its fine for you to point out whats wrong with WoW, don't forget to point out some things that are right with it too.
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Btw Trookat. If you are having trouble with your dps as a Hunter; take a look at small things like your rotation and what spec you are. I've found that being a Survival/Marks Hunter works extremely well (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Dath%27Remar&cn=Lilthica&group=2). Also make sure you have enough hit rating that enough of your shots are actually hitting. You'll find most of the time it is your rotation that'll kill your dps, not your gear. If you are looking for gear and don't know what would work for you, there's always maxdps.com
Two things
what was your previous weapon?
And how much did you pay for that? You must have spent literally thousands of gold on probably the worst fuckin hunter weapon i've ever seen in my life.
last ranged only did 120dps, it was crap I don't remember what it was called ( it was a blue drop ). I only paid 2k for it so it was a bargin considering that AH is very light on Ranged weapons on my server and I needed to change my ranged on the spot.
Doing twice the DPS for 2k was a good price for me. Its not the worst weapon a hunter can use , as far as I am conserned the last one sucked more ass then this one.
It goes without saying it's a tank gun. No shit. But ultimately it's still his game, and his gold.
This. I knew the stats aren't fantastic for a hunter but I least now I can compeate on par with other DPS in pug's untill I get geard for the raids where good hunter gear will drop.
The biggest issue is, if you can't pull your weight in dps or you fall below a partular gear score, you have little to no chance of getting into the raids you need to get correctly geared. So I spent 2k more then I wanted but now I "qualify" for the raids I need.
Its all subjective , sure its not the best weapon in the world , but it will do till another better one comes along.
