Why I Decided to Become an Elitist

[elemental10]

I expect people to be competent when I run expert roulette.

Does that make me an elitist?

I haven't even cleared t5 yet, and only cleared Garuda EX.

And yet... I have set of poetics gears and a zeta....

WHATS WRONG WITH ME

[Twilite]

You want me to answer that?

[tocsin]

I had my first moment today where I truly stopped and called myself an elitist.

I was running Thousand maws of totorak as a WAR. I queued in with a BLM, a THM, and a WHM, the two job classes being level synced. I main heals normally, but am working up the tank for my static. So, I thought to myself, "okay, I can run this on the fast side, and we should be fine. That level heals, has the ability to handle it." so, I let the party know my intentions, then start running off and collecting two to three groups at once. when I do so, I see the WHM sitting there, healing only once every 7-10seconds, and just sitting afk otherwise. I have to pop my cooldowns (Really?), and then on top of that, I get killed. I went off on the whm, telling him to git gud or get out, and essentially just destroyed him on playing his class wrong. he cried and left, and then I realized that I was being an elitist prick, and felt bad. the next healer came, a conjurer, so I slowed down a bit and we cleared it fine.

Figured I would share my story. Even the nicer people can sometimes become elitists, when they see someone isn't playing the class that they main right.

snip.

Yeah, I felt actually pretty bad at the end of it. Although I didn't use the exact "git gud" phrasing, I did tell him that "Dude, my dog could heal better than you. learn to play your class, or find a different game." I was having a bad day.

So, to that person whose feelings I hurt, if you see this, I'm very sorry! If it helps, I don't actually own a dog, so you actually heal at least marginally better than he/she does!

[AriaEnia]

snipped

I've met people who I think didn't play their class to the fullest, but I never say "git good or get out" or anything. When I'm running dungeon mostly as a tank, I just say "I think we need more regen" or "I'm gonna gather up the mobs so you hit em with flare, okay, you can kick their asses!" or "stoneskin hardens my body while pulling" or "don't worry, i'm immune to bane, you can use it" or "windbite+venomous bite = awesome" or "put flaming arrow/shadow flare on the ground, i'll pull the mobs to it", etc.

Most of them were laughing, nodding and finally trying to use those skills and trying to play better.
There's softer way to criticize, and they mostly accept it.

And If you felt bad, then you're not an elitist. Elitists never feel bad looking down on people, from what I usually see.

[nuyu11]

Yes everyone is expecting smooth and perfect run...
If something goes wrong it's not your fault, blame to others.
Then claim you're elitist...

[Kaethra]

Ahhh the good old days of decades past..

I'm glad to see that there are people around that had similar experiences. Sometimes I wonder where everyone went in current MMORPGs.

Though I will say this... I've had many good experiences in the 15-32 dungeons in the last few days. I just came back after a few months. Finally able to level a rogue/ninja. Groups have been pretty decent and sociable. So that might be a good sign.

[Kiroh]

We didn't have elitist/casuals back then.. MMOs were pretty much geared towards hard core players.

There were absolutely elite/casuals and the mentality was already well entrenched in MMO culture. FFXI was released before WoW and there was certainly hardcore campers in XI. I still remember the JP players outright refusing to group with NAs for a very long time. (The game was released in Japan a year or so before it was released to NA and the JP players didn't want to group with noobs, even the ones who spoke english.)

[Reinha]

There's softer way to criticize, and they mostly accept it.

I wish more people were like you. It saddens me to see how new/less skilled players are treated sometimes, especially when it happens in the content that's meant for them too (like duties without the words Hard, Extreme or Coil in it). There are more ways to get the point across than by being harsh or sarcastic.

[GenJoe]

There were absolutely elite/casuals and the mentality was already well entrenched in MMO culture. FFXI was released before WoW and there was certainly hardcore campers in XI. I still remember the JP players outright refusing to group with NAs for a very long time. (The game was released in Japan a year or so before it was released to NA and the JP players didn't want to group with noobs, even the ones who spoke english.)

Well of course there were some veterans.. I did run into a few people who'd had experience from Lineage, DAoC, Ultima Online etc.. But those were the minority of the people, for many it was the first MMO they played and many people simply didn't have a very high expectations of people.. But the one thing different about the playerbase during those times was that each and everyone WANTED to get better and learn.. It was closed beta after all, so everyone there were following the hype and really wanted to play the game, in short, not a single one of those people were casuals, each and every one had signed up for beta and checked their inbox regularly to check they'd gotten in.. Such dedication to games simply don't exist now because MMO market is so saturated, you can move from one to next without ever having dug very deep into the game.

Btw, your anecdote about the Japanese playerbase refusing to play with NA playerbase seems to be motivated by more than just the elitism.. like when I was playing WoW, I'd avoid playing with Brazilian players not because they were noob or anything, they just had a very different way of approaching things, even their basic strategies for dungeons were different sometimes..

[FeiXue]

I mean..is it REALLY that hard to take a minute and just read your tooltips? Or to even ASK what you're supposed to be doing? Let's be real. I'm willing to help, but that willingness only goes so far. If you're so lazy that you can't even be bothered to find out what your abilities do, you're not worth my time.