Results tagged “Elitism”

One of the newer members of our guild wanted to do the Deadmines instance so a group of us got out some low level alts and got set to help out. He was having some issues with his kids so the rest of us were chilling at the Summoning Stone while he dealt with them when who should turn up but a level 70 warlock (Deadmines is a level 20 instance and we, at levels 23-24, were somewhat overpowered for it) with her 'friend'.

"Lol, you're all in the same guild," she says (like that's particularly unusual). "You all re-rolls or noobs?" So far so good, save that we're on a roleplay server.
"Reroll? Noob?" Says one of my associates.
"(ooc) We're alts," said another friend.
"Oh, you're roleplayers ..." replied the warlock with some disdain (cue some bickering about Draenai, Paladins and Warlocks before she wandered off with ther 'friend'.)

Now, on its own I might've shrugged that off, but to my mind there's a growing trend in WOW toward elitism and this 'lock came across as condascending because people were roleplaying (on an RP server no less) and that we were somehow inferior (the truth being that our mains were all level 70 kara/heroic-equipped, easily her peers). In the wider WoW world there's been a number of forum posts from people demanding privelages for their 'elite' characters: "I must be allowed to AFK in battlegrounds because I'm a pro duelist", "I should be allowed to create new characters at lvl 70 as I've already levelled x of them", "Only hardcore people should be allowed to get item X", "Only people who have done SSC/BT/MH should be able to play/test new content", "You casuals are ruining the game by getting the attunements for Raid X removed"

Now, I'm a firm believer in TANSAAFL - there's no such thing as a free lunch - and that you have to work a things to progress. That might be attunement quests, gathering mats/money, collecting gear and so on. I'm well equipped given the capability of the guild and am attuned/have keys for many instances. Does this make me better than a new low-level guildee in greys and greens? Not in the slightest - it makes me *capable* of more, not entitled to more. By the same measure, I'll give the people who do the bigger raid instances respect for their achievement and gear but that doesn't make them "better" (save in their ability to marmalize me in PvP :p), just more accomplished.

However, the "I'm elite so treat me better than everyone else" attitude that some people have is something I really dislike; having earned gear and demonstrated some measure of skill, they want *extra* privellages? Okay ...

For example, one one hand I don't think it makes a blind bit of difference if there's open access to Serpentshrine Cavern or The Eye; Small guilds/pugs are still not going to be able to do them - it's down to the skill and gear of the participants and removing the "gatekeeper" quests just demonstrates that; the accomplishments of those raiding those instances remains. Arguments can me made in favor of the "gatekeeper" quests though: One of my guildees made a comment last week, that the Karazhan attunement quest was divisive, splitting the guild into "them and us." I both agree and disagree with this; yes it does divide the guild into those capable of doing it and those not. On the other hand, the attunement isn't that hard nowadays and if you're struggling to do it you'll certainly struggle in Kara and in many regards its a "check" on the character's ability to survive. It's interesting to note that Zul Aman doesn't have an attunement and on our one visit so far we were brutalized. Had there been an attunement quest that made sure we were up to the task would we have done better?

I think Blizzard are in a tough position - they need to cater to the "hardcore" raiders who are wanting more top-end content (hence the addition of the Black Temple et al) but as this is only a small proportion of the WOW-playing population there needs to be stuff for the masses - daily quests etc help to a degree but additions like Zul Aman and the upcoming Sunwell 5-man are needed to give the smaller guilds/more casual players something to aim for and achieve.

Since starting to adventure in outland at the start of the year I've replaced pretty much my entire gear (I'm down to odd trinkets and mounts from Azeroth really). At first these were green (uncommon gear) that was better than the epics from the Old World, but those were superceded by blues (rares) and more recently purples (epics). In fact I only have a handful of rare items I still use - a hat, a couple of trinkets and (until I get some new gems) a pair of trousers for boss fights - with the rest nice glowy purple stuff.

Some of those epics I made (the robe, gloves and belt of the Spellfire set) others I "found" in my adventures, either as loot (trousers, cloak, necklace, a ring), as rewards from quests or repuation (a second ring, a trinket), or from collectin badges (a wand, and shortly another trinket. The third category of gear I won on the field of battle: boots, wrists, shoulders and weapon (as well as a spare set of trousers as it happens) as well as some gems. The gems, writs and boots (as well as a previous set of shoulders, come from the long-standing battleground rewards (now superceded alas) but the shoulders and weapons are from the season 1 Arena set, the so-called "welfare epics."

Now I can see why some of the hard-core arena players aren't happy with this - they spent weeks gettin them originally and now a few days hard work can net comparable gear - but as someone who has had difficulty getting into Arena games due to scheduling I can see the rationale behind making this outdated stuff available - there's already a trend in battlegrounds for Arena-equipped teams to beat the living daylights out of their regular-geared opponents and having the outdated arena gear available narrows the gap (but still leaves people in S2 or S3 with an advantage).

To be honest, while I love a decent Alterac Valley (or even Arathi Basin when not upagainst a pre-made) I'm not desperately fussed about having maxxed out gear for PVPing; the items I've picked up are mainly because they benefit the PvE raiding in Karazan and the like, either because there's no upgrade gear for me on the bosses we've fought or because the competition is so fierce (a pool of 3 mages, 4 warlocks and 2 hunters competing for the same Tier-4 glove token, for example). As luck would have it, after finally deciding to spend some of my stash on the Gladiator's trousers (from the Arena S1 kit) I aquired the better Trial Fire trousers in Karazan a couple of days later.

Still, not as bad as one of the Guild Paladins who spent a couple of week's worth of badges (in the days before Kara dropped them) on a new shield, only to have a better one drop about 2 hours later in the Chess event ... some days you can't win.