Comments on: Elitism – Azeroth Says No!

By: Matticus

Matticus — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:22:49 +0000

I’m going to have to disagree slightly here. If you don’t know anything about a person at all, if you’ve never talked to them, or interacted with them in any way, it’s very hard to judge a player on their progression knowledge. The only way to know for a fact is based purely on their gear, gem, and enchant choices. The level of gear they’re wearing is based on the experience they have. If I’m wearing ZA and T5 level gear, then you know I’ve been at that level and have done those instances successfully.

However, a closer inspection my reveal that this toon is my alt and that I have a T6 geared healer as my main.

So you can never truly know how much players know based on their gear alone. But the gear can be a good measure of what they at LEAST know.

While there may not be a full fledged relationship between skill and gear, I’d argue that there is a slight connection.

Matticuss last blog post..Introducing the Drama Advisory System

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By: Kalfurion

Kalfurion — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:05:25 +0000

I’m not that bad…

Everyone ignore that blog of Sar’s about that peace keeping incident…

Please? I’ll heal real good for you if you’re on Cenarius!

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By: Saresa

Saresa — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:43:03 +0000

Re-reading this now, I definitely wasn’t clear in my writing (the problem with having a cold is that it makes it ten times harder to think!). Basically, I was just making the point that it frustrates me when people can not see past someone’s gear, and say that they ‘probably don’t know very much/aren’t very skilled’. Thank goodness it doesn’t happen all the time, but it does happen :(

Oh yes, I definitely know that progression does not necessarily equal being a jerk :). I do just get tired of hearing things like “Oh, they don’t know anything, they aren’t even out of Kara!” or vice versa “I am with the best tank ever, because their gear is awesome!” (before they even start running lol).

Certainly, different areas need different things. The differences between gear and zones are even noticeable on a DPS level (where very little tends to change from place to place as a rule).

Basically though, I try to stick to my mantra of seeing the person before the gear. And, of course, doing a little research here and there! Generally I tell my friends that one of the best places to look for this stuff is WoW blogs – they look at me a little funny… then they find out I was right :)

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By: Auzara

Auzara — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:57:50 +0000

I think you’ve made a very good point that often less progression isn’t tied to less skill as much as it is less time invested. And vice versa. But I did want to say that at different levels of progression sometimes the numbers you need or the specs you use based on what gear is available and the mechanics of that raid zone.

For example, the buff on the Sunwell bosses makes tank stats weight differently than the same gear against a BT or Hyjal boss. This isn’t to say that someone who hasn’t experienced Sunwell can’t know the weighting, or do the math. But it may mean they aren’t thinking about the class or stats in that context.

On the other side of the coin, further progressed players aren’t always elitist snobs either. I think often if someone is expecting someone to be elitist or condescending they will interpret things said in that light, even when it isn’t what the speaker intended. I’m not saying that’s what happened here, but I’ve seen it happen too many times in my WoW career to leave it unsaid.

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