Gamer lables -- why

[Ashkendor]

Man, there are some really negative views on player labels/groupings. I honestly think it's more a case of this:

Humans are hard wired to try and define and organise things they see into systems they can understand.

than anything having to do with epeen waving or thinking that clearing content makes you The Specialest Snowflake Evar. The vast majority of us don't have any illusions about being just another nerd-child behind a keyboard or gamepad here. It's categorization, nothing more and nothing less. Further, it's gamers wanting to play with others that are on the same wavelength. That's not to say that nobody has friends with other interests, but a raiding static that wants to do progression 5 days a week for 3 hours a day probably isn't going to try someone out that's here for glamour and roleplay. This kind of organization is a tool, and like any tool it can be misused. Misuse is not the fault of the tool itself and doesn't make it any less useful to those that use it wisely.

I honestly think that categories are somewhat fluid based on the point of view of the person giving the definition. A six day a week raider would see me as being less into raiding than them (we go 2-3 times generally), but someone that is mostly here for glamour or roleplay might lump all people interested in raiding together into the same category. I'd consider myself midcore. I enjoy raiding, but it's not all I'm here to do. My static's filled our roster (finally) and started on A3S; we expect to make progress on it in the coming weeks. The thing is, I'm just as apt to be found crafting, gathering, redecorating my house, or helping with learning parties as I am to be found in progression. Outside of raid times I'll review videos if there's anything I need help with, but ultimately I find that going into a raid too often is detrimental to my learning it. So I limit my raid time and accept that I'm going to progress slower than others.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with categorizing people; it's when you start pigeonholing them and slapping detrimental meanings on those labels that the problems start. That's where you run into overused epithets like elitists, filthy casuals, etc.