WoWGrrl's World

It's amazing to me the wide variety of playing experience that World of Warcraft players have.

I mean, when I get an opportunity to get into a group with complete strangers at a play level that I normally don't have time to go back to as a three-plus-night-a-week Raider, it's amazing the difference in playing experience from one person to the next, and from one group to the next.

What Is An Ivory Tower?

An "Ivory Tower" is a metaphor, like many others in our language. It's a "simpler" way to contain a set of ideas and beliefs in order to explain to others.

Generally when you look it up, Ivory Towers are associated with educational facilities, but I trust one can take a step one further back and see its application in many other areas of life.

For example, while the set of ideas and beliefs that make up the definition of "Ivory Tower" are explained on many other websites I've linked here, here are some of its points relevant to this post, and to the World of Warcraft:

• Originally ironically, used to designate a world or atmosphere where intellectuals engage in pursuits that are disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday life.

• Usually has a negative connotation, denoting a willful disconnect from the everyday world
• Over-specialized
• Academic elitism, if not outright condescension by those inhabiting the ivory tower

Without extending more, let me remind you that I'm trying to keep this context COMPLETELY within World of Warcraft, so there is ZERO reference to "The Real World" in the points above.

The Ivory Tower of WoW

Without a doubt, Raiders make up a large percentage of the people "living" in the Ivory Tower of World of Warcraft. (I'm sure there's some PvP folk in there as well, and some Achievement buffs, too, but this isn't about them ;) )

And in context of the above statements, you can see what Raiders rarely venture outside of their Ivory Tower homes by their lives and actions on World of Warcraft:

• When compared to the "average player", a Raider regularly engages in pursuits that are disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday life.
  • On the Average, I'd bet that players are still leveling up, and are more worried about getting enough gold to pay for their next set of skills or next armor upgrade when they level.

  • On the Average, I'd bet that even if the Average player is at level cap, they're more worried about finding a dungeon group for the right dungeon within a time frame that is reasonable within their personal lives where they have work to do and errands to run and friends to keep up with.
• When compared to the "average player", a Raider is knowledgable but highly Over-specialized.
  • On the Average, I'd bet that since players probably aren't at level cap, they've also never stepped into a Heroic, even. Before Heroics, the game is so incredibly forgiving that an average player doesn't NEED to know every intimate detail of their class. That's why alt-o-holics can play 8 toons to 80, but why so few of them ever step into raids with more than one or two of their characters.
• This difference between Average Player skill and Raider skill may turn into elitism, if not outright condescension by those inhabiting the ivory tower
  • And this, of course, is where the Average Player and the Ivory Tower Raider have their biggest quarrels. 'Nuff said.

Ivory Tower: Benefits, Detriments

While the above may conjure negative images and remind you of negative interactions with annoying players who thought being more skilled on a video game designed to burn spare time actually MEANS something...

There are actually a lot of Benefits of being one of the "elite" members (note, not elitIST) that get the opportunity to roam about the Ivory Raider's Tower.

Benefits that don't just help the one who's been given the opportunity to roam around freely amongst this Raider population, either. Ones that benefit many players who normally couldn't pass the entry requirements on their own, but are friendly players who are interested in learning and getting better - and just need a bit more experience.

Benefits I've noticed include:

• The leveling process from 70-80 included a lot of guildie dungeon runs and paired questing
• The day I hit 80, I had people who were already running Heroics, waiting for me to join them
• Heroic runs with even one guildmate tended to connect me with other High Quality Raiders on the realm, which made future runs even easier as my social network expanded
• The guild you're in can help a lot, especially when it comes into awesome runs. It's a label you don't have to point out, people see it.
• Once we got into raiding regularly, and out of the Heroics scene, the free-flowing group invitations outside of Official Raid Nights flowed just freely as the Heroics ones had.

And of course, in any of those situations where spots needed to be filled, it was easy to be able to bring a non-raider friend or two into the mix to get a chance to benefit from the fast runs associated with skilled players, and with the right group mix, bashing upon the non-raider for mistakes made can pretty much completely be avoided, as well.

After all, the difference between 9-manning a raid and 10-manning it (or 24 vs 25) is negligable once you're comfortable with the fights, and since we're on alts doing it for fun, seeing someone's friend get a handful of upgrades is actually FUN and not taking away from our own experience of the game.

That is not to say, of course, that said friend would qualify for a guild invite and a spot on the main raid team ;)

Ivory Tower Detriments All Too Clear

I could write a bunch about it, but this entry is already plenty long, and I think many players are already quite aware of the negatives that can come about from the Ivory Tower syndrome I speak of above.

Plus, it goes against my "talk about what you want, not what you don't want" philosophy of life these days, so I guess that means this entry is pretty much done!

Have you thought about the Raider's Ivory Tower syndrome? Are there any other Benefits that I neglected to add that I should mention in future discussions about the topic?

If there were a team of Raiders who existed part of their time in the Ivory Tower yet kept themselves with their feet on the ground with regards to the plight of the every day Leveler, what things do you think they'd do to keep that connection with the "average player"?

And ultimately, do you think this connection would be GOOD for your Raid Group or bad?

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Related posts:

1. The Leveling Game -vs- The Raider's World
2. How To Get Into PUG Raids Without An Achievement
3. Looking Back: From Social Guild To Raiding Guild

Tagged as: malygos, naxxramas, raid etiquette, Raiding, raiding gear, ulduar