An Elitist Casual

Introduction to the Mindset and Dynamics

The in-betweener. The almost-good-enough. That gal that takes the game way too seriously. However you describe the antinomy, the moderating impact these gamers have on the MMORPG seascape could help chart and navigate the courses of many games and gamers. This discussion takes place in the realm of the raiding game, active guilds, and from the author’s most recent experience: World of Warcraft.

What exactly is an elitist casual? “Casual” is a bit of a misnomer for this class of gamer, but to remain in context, it is generally directly related to the amount of time a person spends playing the game. In other words, It can be considered the opposite of hard-core on a time-spent spectrum. The elitist casual could have a real life career, or could be in-between jobs. She could be staying at home, spending a good portion of her day taking care of a family. She could have many other obligations, such that she is unable to spend enough time in the online game to be able to consider it a full-time occupation. For argument’s sake, we’ll draw a line in the sand at an average of less than 5 active and fully attentive hours per day (35 hours per week) in the game. Any more and you could very well consider yourself hardcore, if you have those aspirations and the skill to back it up.

Some could argue that casual is more of a relaxed mindset than anything else, and this may very well be the case for some individuals. But for the sake of argument, we could call those people “true casuals”, for they are most certainly not elitist. So, what we have left is a casual gamer, who is, interestingly enough, elitist.

Elitist casuals are everywhere.

They are in guild or partial PUG raids, expressing visible (or sometimes vocal) disdain at the baddies the raid leader just won’t replace. They are in casual guilds, always antsy to get more people into the guild that are more competent than some of those already there. They are in casual guild leadership positions. They may even sometimes going the extra mile, building customized strategies, making helpful suggestions, always trying to drive the guild upward and onward. They are members of hardcore elitist guilds, driven by desire to excel, and capable of hanging with the best-of-the-best in all facets except time spent in-game.

Now that we’ve described a few characteristics of our elitist casual, we should understand that these gamers are sometimes unhappy with their circumstances in game. It isn’t because they are just unhappy gamers. No… it’s because there are rarely any environments fostered that accommodate the elitist casual mindset.

The hardcore elitist mindset – We will play this game until we have muscle-memorized 40 hotkey combinations, know every encounter top-to-bottom before we even have a chance to see it in a production environment, and have min-maxed every aspect of our character, even without regard to our own playstyle. We do not pool resources, strategize, explain encounters, or otherwise operate and communicate productively outside of a clique, because everyone we associate with should have enough time to take care of these things themselves. We are not hurting for performance or recruits, so we tend to shun those that buck the status quo. By the sheer amount of time we invest, we ensure we are ahead of the content curve. Because of this, we feel our weakest link is those in our circle that spend the least amount of time in the game. Our 16-hours-per-day gamers may not be the top 99% performers when it comes down to it, but based on sheer play-time, we are confident that they will always be in the top 90%. As long as our bottom line is 90%+, we get server firsts. Our main weaknesses with respect to raiding success: complacent management and blinders over our eyes.

The elitist casual mindset – In general, we love being successful at raiding, and being in close proximity to the highest tiers of achievement. We don’t always have time to farm 20,000 gold and every crafting material we’ll need to make sure we have no possible upgrades before tackling new content, so we’ll make sure every piece of gear we focus on is an efficient upgrade path. When we log in, we want to play toward a purpose, usually raiding. We’ll farm what needs farming. We’ll be ready for the raid, and we don’t want unprepared or unskilled raiders to slow us down. We know diminishing returns applies to everything under the virtual sun, and we want to spend time on every facet of the game to maximize success. In the game, time is our most precious commodity, so we are extremely upset when improper management wastes it. In the meta-game, time-efficiency is something we embrace and focus on. This is natural. Our main weaknesses with respect to raiding success: difficulty working with the two other mindsets and finding other elitist casuals.

The true casual mindset – We want to raid, and have fun doing it. Winning or being the best is not the most important thing. We have ties to other gamers that we view as more important than our ties to our goals. We usually do what needs to be done for the benefit of those ties before we’ll do something for the sake of raiding. Some of us may just want to chill out when we log in. One of our main concerns is that we don’t want any stress. If we aren’t good enough at one particular thing for a raid encounter, well, that’s just the way it is. Our main weakness with respect to raiding success: our own priorities and goals.

Now, why is it hard for elitist casuals to fit in? In the author’s experience, it can be summed up fairly quickly.  The actually details of a circumstance can vary wildly, but most conflicts can be summed up by the following:

Regarding elitist versus true casuals – The elitist casual steps on true casual toes when the elitism is directed at the performance of the true casual, or someone the true casual has a tie with. Due to the way casual guilds operate, this is heresy. The casual raiding guild is, above all, a social entity. Don’t piss off the wildlife.

Regarding casual versus hardcore elitists – The hardcore elitist decapitates the casual elitist when their hardcore elitism is directed at the amount of time the casual elitist spends in game. In hardcore guilds, this can be explained by mere jealousy. Where precious raid spots can be decisioned on a whim, silent and swift retribution for perceived wrongs is commonplace.

Now, this premise is not intended to be a blanket insult. Not all casual raiding guilds fail at raid management by elitist casual standards. Not all hardcore guilds fail at human resource management. Not all elitist casuals are unhappy where they are at. The intent of this article is to stimulate some introspection and help the open-minded raiding community understand some dynamics that this elitist casual has finally come to terms with after many years of gaming.