What does "elitist" mean to you?

A lot of people are throwing around this word recently, and I've come to realise it means something different to everyone.

Some people call anyone better than them "elitist", some people call anyone who welcomes harder fights "elitist", most people call the pug leader who declines them because of no gear and no experience "elitist"...

e·lit·ism

/ɪˈlitɪzəm, eɪˈli-/  [ih-lee-tiz-uhm, ey-lee-]

–noun

1.

practice of or belief in rule by an elite.

2.

consciousness of or pride in belonging to a select or favored group.

Well that's the dictionary definition.

Practice of or belief in rule by an elite:

This is an interesting one because of the competitive nature of WoW.  Top guilds are the elite - but do they rule us?

By definition, no they do not rule us.  They don't govern us, nor do they levy taxes on us, nor do they discipline us for any transgression or even have any authority over us at all.

But we use their strats.  And we look at their toons to check their specs and the way they gear.  We use their maths, their datamining, their rotations.  They may not govern us directly, but they do dictate a lot of our actions.

Consciousness of or pride in belonging to a select or favoured group:

This is more like it.  But then, this is just human nature.  Everybody who has ever been on a winning team, no matter how small the field of battle, knows what it is to be proud to be in that group.  Or at least aware of being in said team.

Neither of these really covers what people in WoW mean when they say it though.

Ok so then what does it mean?

Most people use it as a derogatory term referring to people who are arrogant and/or who express the opinion that they are better than themselves.

But then, this isn't entirely fair.  What if I can prove quantitatively and objectively that I am better than you?  Then am I "elitist" when I offer advice?  Or when I say you've messed up your gearing or spec?  Or that your strat is a bad one?  Is trying to help more or less "elitist" than laughing at you and mocking you for being worse than me?

Now you're just being difficult.

I'm a girl.  There's a rule somewhere that says I'm allowed.

But the point here is, it's difficult to apply the term as in it's current WoW-incarnation to anybody.  Especially considering that everybody defines their own "elite" group differently.

There is a group of people who think that people who played in Vanilla are the "elite" of WoW.

I agree that having played in Vanilla is a status symbol.  But it's no guarantee of being better at anything that someone who hasn't played that long.  Both our tanks played in Vanilla - and they both are, in my humble opinion, very good.  One of them is capable of handling any role with ease and efficiency.  Dps?  Top of the meter - by a significant margin.  Healing?  Why did we bring these other 2 losers?  Tanking?  Aware, intelligent cooldown usage, respectful of healers...  Our hunter played in Vanilla too and he's solid and reliable, as well as habitually high dps.  Only our new shadow priest has managed to knock him off the top of the damage meter for longer than a couple of weeks.  Tell our hunter to do something and it just gets done, quietly, efficiently and without complaint, even if it knocks him down a spot or two on the damage meter (I totally saw him get knocked down a spot the one time when we asked him to do something - but he was back up to the top the next week so I don't know if that counts).

We also have a mage social in our guild who played in Vanilla who can barely stand her staff the right way up without hitting herself in the face.  Another friend of mine has played since Vanilla and to be frank, I have no idea at all what he does with his time.  He doesn't instance, he doesn't hunt achievements, he doesn't pvp, he doesn't play the auction house, he doesn't collect reps.  As far as I can tell, he just levels.  Picks a class, levels it to max and then starts again from the beginning.  At last count he had 12 toons that are 80+.

I also have a close friend, as well as a few friendly acquaintances, who are in a world top 60 guild who started playing in WotLK. Our dps dk doesn't know a world where there is such a thing as a Daily Heroic quest - he only started playing after 3.3.

So quite obviously, having played in Vanilla is a bit like having a rare vanity pet.  It's shiny and rare, but doesn't guarantee that you're better than anybody else at anything at all, except perhaps at playing a game without getting bored for more than 5 years.

Some people claim that those who put up a fuss when people who play casually and/or not very well have access to similar gear that they will be getting are elitist.  Being able to buy Tier 9 and 10 in WotLK from doing heroics was very controversial.  Yes, those items had lower stats than items that required tier tokens, but still you could get a full set of the latest tier gear without ever setting foot in a raid.  "Casuals should have access to the same gear and perks as raiders do!"  they cried.  How would you feel if you got paid exactly the same salary as the guy in your office who works for half-days and only ever gets anything done properly by accident?  Probably not very good.  My personal opinion on the matter?  Cool, latest tier for my alts in a few months.  Did it make me cringe to see a rogue running around in top tier gear that was unenchanted and gemmed with pure stam?  Sure, but my priest had upgraded her 4set long before he had 2set, so who cares?

Some people claimed that those who applauded the massively increased difficulty of heroics were elitist.  This is quite possibly the most controversial topic yet.  I was one of the people who welcomed it.  I like being challenged, I like being pushed to improve myself.  Hearing that the difficulty of healing was going to be increased put a smile on my face for months.  Before that announcement, I had been running my daily heroics with a warlock tanking just so that I could find some challenge in my daily grind.

What does it mean to me?

To me, it means someone who uses a random set of criteria to assume that they're better than someone at something.  "I played in Vanilla, so obviously I'm a better strat-crafter/raid-leader/player than you."  Er... what?  "I have 10 85s, so obviously I'm a better dancer/ice-skater than you."  Um... ok.  "My guild does 25mans and we have the same progress, so obviously we're better than you."  Really?  Do you actually believe that?  Despite the fact that there was a blue post saying that they made 10mans harder than 25s accidentally, and that they'll try to balance 10s and 25s more carefully in Firelands?

To all the people who I classify as "elitist": do yourself a favour and check that your means of measuring your ability is actually related in some way to said ability or that you have any form of quantifiable evidence before you go telling people that they're worse than you and making yourself look like a fool.