Do you consider yourself an elitist or a casual and explain your concept of each?

[mikoslav]

Elitism isn't raiding a lot, elitism is being a jerk about the performance of others.

This is actually important.
"Casual" is never as pejorative term as "Elitist".

I think most of us/you, when thinking about someone being casual is prone to forgive him his casualness.
Casual is more of a not caring, easy going (about the game), free... But you rarely mean "casual" as a bad player. If you want to point out that trait you say "noob", or "clueless", "idiot" or something like that.

"Elitist" on the other hand is much more of a negative term. Because it implies thinking of self as an "elite", which is almost equal to being very conceited.

Elitist as a term defines your attitude towards other players, implying it is not cool.
Casual as a term defines your attitude towards the game, being indifferent in reference to others.


Therefore I must say that the title of this thread is not constructed logically well enough to prevent misunderstanding.
Elistist is not opposed to casual. "hardcore player" is more proper as an opposition to casual.

You could be a casual and still elitist in your attitude.
You could be hardcore but still not elitist.


You could be also modest, easy going and lenient - either as a hardcore player, or casual.

Problem is, human's ego is more prone to think better of itself than of others.
An this ego really gets pumped up when you know you can do something better than others, in this matter - playing wow better than others.
Therefore I think hardcore players are more prone to being elitists, cos they usually play better, and have progress/gear/logs to show for it.

OMG this is long post , but I think it clears up the subject.

[judgementofantonidas]

This is actually important.
"Casual" is never as pejorative term as "Elitist".

I think most of us/you, when thinking about someone being casual is prone to forgive him his casualness.
Casual is more of a not caring, easy going (about the game), free... But you rarely mean "casual" as a bad player. If you want to point out that trait you say "noob", or "clueless", "idiot" or something like that.

"Elitist" on the other hand is much more of a negative term. Because it implies thinking of self as an "elite", which is almost equal to being very conceited.

Elitist as a term defines your attitude towards other players, implying it is not cool.
Casual as a term defines your attitude towards the game, being indifferent in reference to others.


Therefore I must say that the title of this thread is not constructed logically well enough to prevent misunderstanding.
Elistist is not opposed to casual. "hardcore player" is more proper as an opposition to casual.

You could be a casual and still elitist in your attitude.
You could be hardcore but still not elitist.


You could be also modest, easy going and lenient - either as a hardcore player, or casual.

Problem is, human's ego is more prone to think better of itself than of others.
An this ego really gets pumped up when you know you can do something better than others, in this matter - playing wow better than others.
Therefore I think hardcore players are more prone to being elitists, cos they usually play better, and have progress/gear/logs to show for it.

OMG this is long post , but I think it clears up the subject.

I like your answer. The title was limited in words I could enter or I would indeed have included terms like newb, scrub, and window licker just to see what people had to say about it. As it stands those terms are also being defined on this thread in other people's words which was my intent. Open discussion on the understanding of terms that people use on a daily basis when refering to this game that we love/hate.

[pld]

This is actually important.
"Casual" is never as pejorative term as "Elitist".

I think most of us/you, when thinking about someone being casual is prone to forgive him his casualness.
Casual is more of a not caring, easy going (about the game), free... But you rarely mean "casual" as a bad player. If you want to point out that trait you say "noob", or "clueless", "idiot" or something like that.

"Elitist" on the other hand is much more of a negative term. Because it implies thinking of self as an "elite", which is almost equal to being very conceited.

Elitist as a term defines your attitude towards other players, implying it is not cool.
Casual as a term defines your attitude towards the game, being indifferent in reference to others.


Therefore I must say that the title of this thread is not constructed logically well enough to prevent misunderstanding.
Elistist is not opposed to casual. "hardcore player" is more proper as an opposition to casual.

You could be a casual and still elitist in your attitude.
You could be hardcore but still not elitist.


You could be also modest, easy going and lenient - either as a hardcore player, or casual.

Problem is, human's ego is more prone to think better of itself than of others.
An this ego really gets pumped up when you know you can do something better than others, in this matter - playing wow better than others.
Therefore I think hardcore players are more prone to being elitists, cos they usually play better, and have progress/gear/logs to show for it.

OMG this is long post , but I think it clears up the subject.

This.

After reading the first page of comments, I was just about to post something along the same lines. Comparing "casual" to "elitist" is like comparing "geek" to "jerk". One describes a demographic of people while the other describes a person's attitude.

I consider myself fairly hardcore because I'm in a progression-focused PvE guild where we all focus on performing at the best of our ability. However, the general attitude of the guild is casual. Our Vent is rarely high-tension and basically feels like a bunch of friends just hanging out (because it is). We let people play whatever class and role they are interested in and understand that RL comes before games. I guess it's a nice mix of both worlds.

To bring up something that's come up a few times in the thread - although I enjoy trying to play WoW at a high level, I definitely understand people who don't mind being "casual" and middle-of-the-pack. For some people, WoW is "just a game". Usually that phrase annoys me because it feels like a cop-out, but I found myself saying the same thing while playing other games like CoD or Halo. I understand that playing well will help my team, but because it's not something I have an emotional attachment to, I don't mind just running around spraying at walls. I'll always try to help the team in whatever way I can, but inevitably, I'll be in the mid-lower ranks at the end of the match...and I'm fine with that. I tried, I had fun, boom.

Now, if someone is joining a hardcore guild with a "casual" attitude, that's a completely different story.

[The Madgod]

I'm casual.

I'm one of the top 100 Brewmasters in the world, but I'm casual. I have a very laid back approach to gaming, even heroic raiding. I do it to has funs.

Really, "casual", "hardcore", and "elitist" are terrible descriptors for people, simply because they are interchanged with terms that don't really have anything to do with them.

Like I said, I'm a casual player, but I'm one of the better players in WoW. I know plenty of hardcore and elitist players who did their jobs terribly and had a major attitude problem. Likewise, some of the best players I know are hardcore players, and I knew some casual players who weren't as good. I've seen elitists in all shapes and sizes.

These are terrible words to use in an argument or discussion because more often than not they barely mean anything relevant to the subject, or are used inappropriately.