Dril

Off-topic:

Is a working comment system AWOL?

Simple answer: depends on the guild, the leadership and the people in it.

@DancingCow

To be honest, old school and new school sounds even more loaded. People who self-label as either both display disdain towards the other side, both stereotype and both blame the other for problems with a game (whether they actually play it or not).

@NValca

Don't deter Dunraven from commenting on this issue.

Hopefully he now has something new to spout in every thread, rather than "raid or die is killing the game and making casuals feel bad, burn the hardcore".

@jimr9999us

Not really.

Whilst I would tend to side with the view that commitment is an indicator of something, to arbitrarily draw the line there is, well, arbitrary.

It doesn't help that gaming (and especially MMOs) take up far more time than other hobbies would, thus people who are relatively just above average in their weekly playtime amounts would appear to be obsessed if it were another hobby.

All of the labels that might once have meant something are now largely diluted to the point where they no longer matter.

People seem to call themselves "casual" because they just don't like to be defined as "hardcore" (which is most amusing) even though they'd pretty much fit precisely into an archetypal "hardcore" model (even though that's also been diluted to mean really anyone who plays something larger than Facebook games).

"Raider" has, what with WoW's LFR feature, become largely worthless as well, since anyone with two hours a week will be able to indulge in the woeful zergfest that is a LFR raid. "Carebear" doesn't matter, since everything now has instanced PvP where "carebears" participate.

The list is endless.

@KDolo

Why is that a problem? (And, to be fair, I think you're largely oversimplifying his arguments.)

It's either that or they just can't be arsed. And there are lots of people, in my experience and just from looking at these comments, that fit both categories.

Sample size too small to provide an adequate cross-section of society and thus the results are unreliable.

Yeah, I know it's a downer comment, but any analysis armchair economists will draw won't be relevant at all because the study is simply invalid.

@laelgon

"Stuff like this does nothing but hurt the attempt to change the image of the gamer from the basement dwelling virgin that can't interact with people in real life."

Perhaps what would help that cause even more is if people like Dunraven and various other commenters on this site stopped getting praised for making comments calling people who play more than them said virgin dwelling basement nerds with no social skills.

Just a thought.

@Gaugamela

Exactly.

Rift is so nice to people who don't raid (as is pretty much every MMO these days) it's amazing how people still complain about not receiving love for non-raiders.