22.6.09

Elitism

Last thursday I participated in an event that gave me some food for thought. A friend whispered me and asked if I had already done the Vault of Archavon 25 for that week. I hadn't and they were looking for a tank so I got an invite. The organiser and leader of this run was a paladin from a notorious guild on my server. I'll spare you the details on how they became notorious but their name is usualy spat instead of spoken. They are also one of the top guilds, always amongst the first to clear new dungeons.

It was made clear from the start that 'anyone who does less damage than the tank won't get to roll on loot.' - Now that is elitism. It's saying: 'if you're not as good as I expect I get to decide over you'. This does not sit well with people, generally. Some left, but most stayed. We killed the boss no problem.

I find it a bit hard to feel one way or another about this. On one hand, we're all paying, we're all playing, who is anyone to tell anyone else what they should be doing. On the other hand, in a dungeon like the Vault you need to be able to rely on the capability of others to complete the task at hand. Though the ability to do a certain amount of damage is not a great measure, it is -a- measure of someones capability.

It's down to expectation that is only measured compared to what you yourself are doing. I play many hours per week, I research gear, talents, abilties and strategy. When another player is benefitting from that, shouldn't they at least be doing the same?

Well, that leads me to saturday evening. A cobbled together group running Naxx 25. One person is clearly underperforming. Yet, because of the collective effort involved no-one seems to mind. Sure he could do more damage, but a few people at the top end are effectively carrying him. Somehow this seems a lot nicer. It wasn't entirely smooth but we did clear the dungeon in the end. then, last night, he was asking for advice on how to improve his DPS, trying to find better talents.

If results are all you're after, being elitist works. If you want to have more fun and encourage people, you can't afford to. In a guild, you strike a balance.

3 comments:

  1. Alternatively you realise that the top tank DPS (for fights like patchwerk) is about 3.2k, and often < 2k. A level 70 Character can easily push 1K on a boss, a level 80 doing so is ridiculously low. Thats not to say a group cannot support a low dps, I organised a 20 man Naxx run and took along a friend who just dinged 80 (~32s before the invite to her), and she was doing 1.8k overall. Its not wrong to help, but it is wrong to let people be bad for no reason other than they can be.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You nailed it with this quote:

    "It's down to expectation that is only measured compared to what you yourself are doing. I play many hours per week, I research gear, talents, abilties and strategy. When another player is benefitting from that, shouldn't they at least be doing the same?"

    Why should someone else who hasnt' bothered to put in the effort benefit equally with me for my effort? If you want to do that, that's totally fine. Play how you want. It just bites my nads when anyone paints someone as "elitist" (with of course a negative connotation) just for expecting other people to put in effort somewhat comparable to his own if they want the same chance at reward.

    That said, people should play how they want to play! If you want to carry a friend, that's awesome for you! If your guild culture is such that everyone just likes to help everyone, more power to you! I wish you the best!

    But please don't assume that people who are after results are necessarily having less fun than "friendly helpful people". It's just a different way of having fun, stemming from a different personality type and set of preferences. Both should coexist peacefully, instead of the "elitist vs casual" argument, which is really only about feelings getting hurt: "casuals" (overly broad and innacurate name for category, imo) are hurt because they feel rejected, while "elitists" are hurt because they feel like they are being taken advantage of (being a horse yoked to a raid to do all the work while other "lazier" players benefit). Both sides have reason to be mad, and neither side has moral superiority over the other. It's just a matter of preference.

    ReplyDelete
  3. death to dps meters. The worse thing to happen to this game. Everyone spends so much time focused on the stupid numbers and they forget that they're supposed to be having fun because after all...it is a video game!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your thoughts!