#0 - Feb. 5, 2010, 8:40 p.m.
The ability to play well in Wow and complete a dungeon is a very complex thing. Things that affect it include not only your damage output, but whether you bother to buff people, whether you buy reagents, whether you've repaired beforehand, how well your coordination works in game, whether you move quickly with the mobs or it takes you ages to turn around, whether you integrate and play well with others or whether you're always playing against them with your only focus being the damage meter position.
Other things include whether you're considerate, whether you're polite, whether you go afk for drinks during combat, whether you try and get the best gear you can for your stage in the game, whether you've bothered to get gems and enchants, whether you use your disaster buttons at the right time and for the right reasons, whether you understand how other classes actually work, whether you understand how threat and line of sight works, whether you interrupt spells or ignore them, whether you' remain relaxed and in control when it all goes wrong, whether you have a screaming fit when it doesn't all go your way, whether you beg to be given loot before you even start, whether you demand loot or threaten to leave before you start, whether you've put talents into threat reduction and survival abilities as well as nuking power, whether you're nice to others or insult everyone you meet, whether you leave the dungeon half way through because the guild needs you, whether you leave after one wipe because the embarrassment of wiping is too much to handle, whether you follow advice which someone in the group gives regarding the dungeon strategy and whether you appreciate that just because you know how things go that doesnt mean others know as much as you.
Lots of factors make up whether you're a good player or not. The wall of text above is just a few of them and I'm only scratching the surface.
So how can an addon claim to summarise all of these attributes and more in a single number. I'm talking, of course, about Gearscore. The joy of elitists everywhere and the curse of Wow as a whole. It's even more damaging to Wow than damage meters.
It's not just Gearscore though, it's also peoples attitude towards others who may be good players and possess many qualities, but may not have the gear yet to be able to output the same kind of damage as the Wow elitist crew. Should they be persecuted because of it? Or could it be that they're trying to work their way through the heroic system, getting gear as they go (and learning), and these things just take time?
In two heroics now, I've been told by people to "put my tank gear on". Even though every single piece I'm wearing has defensive stats. Are they inspecting me? No. All they're doing is looking at one number - Gearscore, and on the basis of that one number they're judging every single thing about me. They haven't seen me tank, they haven't seen me play at all, all they know is my Gearscore magic number and that's enough for them to hate me from the start. For the record, my gear is a mixture of heroic badge epics and a few blues and of course I'm crit immune. So why is that not enough to do a heroic dungeon?
Think about what heroic dungeons are supposed to be for (Blizzard should think about this too because I think even they've forgotten). Are they for boosting elitists in their tier 10 for a quick instant blast to get easy badges and money? Are they the new daily for elitists who are bored with Wow? Are they a show-off arena so that people in very good gear can look down on people in levelling gear and angry kids can vent their frustration with life in general? Or are they a method by which levelling characters can work their way up through the gear tanks to get the required gear to raid and to learn about how their class works in high end dungeons?
Now, the answer used to be the last option - they were there for levelling characters who want to work their way through the gear ranks to get better quality gear to take on more challenging events. However, sadly, a lot of heroics are dominated by the first three options - elitists in very good gear who just want an instant blast to get easy badges and money. To them, it's a new daily, it's also a place for them to show off how awesome they are in comparison to others who are just learning the ropes.
The world of elitists and the world of regular players don't mix very well. The elitists don't want low-geared people in group because it slows them down. Whether low geared people want elitists in group depends on your pursuasion. I personally find elitists obnoxious and I'll take low geared people any day of the week in exchange. I would rather spend longer doing a dungeon with nice people than doing it in half the time without someone shouting "Lol, L2P noob, your DPS sucks, get a life!", etc, etc.
The elitist community uses Gearscore to decide a players skill level, that's how single-minded they are. They don't look at gear or any of the factors in the wall of text I typed, all they look at is one number and that's enough for their small minds to come to the conclusion that a player is good or bad. That's what Wow has come to - a single number stat instead of a million different reasons why you're a good or bad player. Pretty soon, we won't have names, we'll have Gearscore numbers. "Oh, hi, I'm 3600, Wow you're amazing, Mr. 7200" and of course the reply will be "Go away noob, I don't talk to anyone below 6000, how dare you even look at me?"
Think I'm being sarcastic? I joined a group the other day. We hadn't even started buffing yet when the rogue said "pfft, sh*t tank, sh*t healer". Someone asked him what he meant, and he replied that our Gearscore was too low for the dungeon. So what dungeon do you think we were doing, readers? Halls of Reflection? Nope, it was Violet Hold.
Yep, that's right, Violet Hold. And for elitists, that means we need people in full epics from ICC25. I mean, what the hell has happened to people for them to dismiss a large section of the Wow playing community just because we turn up to a Violet Hold heroic in half epic/half blue gear? The people in Violet Hold heroic should be there to get gear, we don't want people there in full tier 10 ridiculing us, and we don't want Gearscore fanatics telling us we suck just because we haven't reached a magical number which they deem is appropriate for an instance which should be used for gearing up, not showing off.
Thanks for reading.
