1773 not 1773ist

This post started as a response to a issue I've been seeing on my server (Fenris-US). From what I can gather this is also happening on other servers as well. There are a plethora of players who are attempting heroic dungeons without the necessary gear. On one side they're stuck in a catch 22, at the same time they're inclusion in a 5 man group may and has resulted in wipes.

On New Years Day (BTW HAPPY NEW YEARS!) I was in an UP PUG and we wiped on the 2nd and 3rd pulls. I looked at all the other members of the pug and realized that two of them were not geared for the instance. One was in blues ranging from 76-78, and the other was still clinging to his hard earned epics from Burning Crusade. I left the pug and let the tank & healer (who were geared for the instance), that it would be a wipe fest & I wasn't going to bang my virtual head against a virtual brick wall.

When I brought this up in guild chat a couple guild member's busted on me for being snobbish, but I clarified my position to them. There are 1773 players then they're 1773ist jerks.

And my dear readers there is a world of difference between the two. Being 1773 means you have a firm understanding of the game as a whole. (Note: I will not go into how much that entails.)Being 1773 means that you understand the progress treadmill and have made peace with it. And by made peace I mean that you accept that if your gear isn't up to spec well today isn't your day to run Malygos 25 man. Being 1773 means that you know runs and can give strategy to players on the fly without sounding like a know it all.
In all my hours of gametime, and all the countless players I've met I can think of only 10-20 players who fit this definition of 1773.
On the other hand I've met hundreds of 1773ist jerks in my game time. To save space i've broken them up into a couple main groups.
1.) Crustified Old Schoolers: These players I divide into two groups:

a.) Those who have been burnt so many times by so many bad experiences that unless you fit their idea of a good player your worthless. These players are like a tough stain on the carpet, it's been there for 10 years and will be there until you replace the carpet. I've made peace with these players by avoiding them unless absolutly neccessary.

b.) Those that wish WOW was an unchanging enviroment where Priests Healed, Warriors Tanked, and DPS knew it's place. With the gameplay changes introduced in 3.0 these crotchy old farts (even if they're only 21) have been hiding in a corner rocking back and forth.

2.) CotU (Center of the Universe): These players whether they were neglected by their parents or are shy IRL, need to be the center of the universe in game. You can hope they'll change but the odds are against that as I was reminded yesterday when I setup my first 25 man vault pug (a personal achivement I must admit) and watched the raid dissolve due to 1 players need to dominate the raid. From my experience CotU's are either Warrior Prot Tanks, or Healers (usually holy priests or resto druids.) The difficulty with CotU's is that some can back up the trash talk, but then it becomes a question or is their social aggro worth it.

I know what you might be saying "They're are so many more bad player types" Very true, but I wanted to just focus on the 1773ist jerks in this post. I may go over other player types in a future post.

Until another day

The Musing Moonkin