More on Gearscore

Q u o t e:
Assuming that 15 of the 25 people are geared to the teeth, and 10 are like me (I have some decent stuff, but I could definitely improve), would the raid fail?

I think the fact is that a lot of these groups are not "geared to the teeth" as you say. They're probably appropriately geared, but not enough so to carry others who are under-geared. If, for example, you're trying to beat 25-player Anub'Arak, having just a few DPS lingering around the 3K DPS mark or below will likely invite his enrage timer.

Sure, gear score programs, websites, or UI mods are being misused by some players and can encourage elitism. The fact is though that these scores only serve as measurements of a player's gear. Progression does exist in the game, as do gear checks. Player skill goes a long way, but there are plenty of fights in the game a raid will simply not be able to beat if only a few players lack the necessary stats to do enough damage or healing, or take/mitigate enough damage.

If gear score ratings did not exist, players would still look to achievements and the Armory to determine whether a player has the right experience and gear to join them. These measurements may not fully measure your skill, but they're still useful.

When my guild does 25-player Trial of the Crusader, we take a lot of pick-up players. We don't quite have enough geared 80's to run the instance as a guild, so usually at least half the raid is semi-random. If players are ridiculously under-geared (usually when inspected by the raid leader), we won't let them in. If a player is skirting the line gear-wise, we'll typically give that player a chance to prove his or herself. If one under-performs enough to prove oneself a liability to the rest of the raid, we -- politely as possible -- kick the player and ask them to contact us again when they've geared up a bit more (which now can be done fairly quickly via Heroic instances). We otherwise don't rely on a gear score to tell us how that player is going to perform.

TLDR: Gear score calculators are being misused in unfortunate ways, but it doesn't necessarily make them innately bad for the game. Players will still find ways to be elitist or judgmental from the start. Ultimately everyone just wants to beat the content and get some good gear/emblems without spending too much time on wipes. To an extent I can't blame them.

Q u o t e:
I don't understand why everyone complains. It's no different from pre-bc and BC when people would alt-tab to armory you. This is just quicker.

While it is quicker, I still prefer the Armory/inspection method. Checking out enchants, gems, and talent specializations can really tell you a lot about a player's knowledge of their class.

Q u o t e:


This is the issue

Players think that heroic badge gear is good enough for TOC 10/25.

It isnt.

The player thinking that they can skip naxx and early bosses in ulduar is the problem not the use of gear score.

I didn't suggest skipping Naxxramas or Ulduar entirely. I'm simply saying that focusing on Heroics when a run through Naxxramas or Ulduar isn't feasible is now a very good way of getting enough upgrades to get into 10-player Trial of the Crusader. I do disagree with you that Emblem of Conquest upgrades aren't good enough to get a player to an adequate position to clear 10-player Trial of the Crusader.

We do recognize that the emblem system is a little convoluted and are working on developing a better system for Cataclysm.

Q u o t e:


Fundamentally, its not being used to determine if someone is "good enough" to do the run, its being used to determine if someone is "overkill" for the run, to make the run easy for the person using the add-on.

The Internets already makes it easy for someone to be rude/judgmental and get away with it. If WoW reinforces this attitude, the player base will just degrade more and more, than its already is at now. And we'll be back to the place where there were a few elitists with the uber items, and the rest of the player base will suffer at their hands.

Sounds like a good recipe for making Have's vs. the Have Not's. :( You guys really need to get a handle on this right away, or else it will degrade the game further.

You claim there is an epidemic of players attempting to lump everyone into categories, yet you do the same.