Maybe it happened to you while you were in Elementary School. Dessert for the day consisted of chocolate ice cream cups, and the freak was trying to trade you his chocolate ice cream for your strained peas. Perhaps you thought you were being tricked somehow.

Now, picture the face you gave to non-chocolate-loving-freak kid. That is your "WTF IS WRONG WITCHOO" face.


Fast forward to present day. You're sitting in Dalaran, scanning trade chat for, oh I don't know, something actually trade related (lol noob), and yet another argument breaks out about how people who don't like to PvP are wimps. Or people who don't think the ease with which new raiders can get gear is lame. Or one of yet another bajillion different arguments that all are based on the same thing - one person not understanding WHY or HOW someone can get enjoyment out of a game doing something different than they do themselves.

If we could actually see each other's faces in trade chat (and for the love of God thank everything holy that we cannot) there would be a lot of WTF IS WRONG WITCHOO faces.

Ever had a Tuesday where your server is down, so you figure what the hell and roll up a toon on an RP server? I like to do this on occasion. I'm not really an RPer, but I'm... well, RP-curious, so I like to sneak on their servers and see what people are doing. I confess to being somewhat fascinated... the same way I felt about D&D before I finally started playing. I try to be sneaky and quiet. Not everyone is like that. There is always that teenage kid who plays a rogue on a PvP server who comes to the non-PvP RP server while his is down to roll up a toon and type in all caps in the starter zone general chat various verbal translations of his WTF IS WRONG WITCHOO face. He doesn't get it. He never will, because he's too busy refusing to understand someone else's perspective.

I like to heal. I don't like to PvP. I like to level professions. I like to run dailies. Depending on how the stars align and my mood at any given minute, I like to raid. I get a lot of WTF IS WRONG WITCHOO faces about all those things (particularly the fact that I like to run dailies and level professions) and it leaves me wondering... why? Why do you care how I choose to play my game?

I mean, if it's something that you are genuinely trying to understand (Such as Fuubaar's comment on my post a day or so ago, sincerely asking what the interest is in having multiple players of the same role) then that's fine, and most of the time I am happy to explain. But if, like the PvP rogue who re-rolled on an RP server to ridicule, you have no interest in learning, and simply want to boggle and berate, just GTFO. I'm too busy doing things I genuinely enjoy to try and explain to someone who demands an explanation but has no intention of actually listening to it.

I don't understand why some people like guns, or NASCAR, or expensive makeup or French food that does not fall under the heading of Gumbo, but to each their own. I don't know why weird kid doesn't like chocolate ice cream... but I do know that since he doesn't value it, that makes it easier for ME to get.

But I DO understand why Mortigan made the difficult choice between a guild that will definitely get shit done... and a guild that might struggle to get it done, but will be a lot friendlier in the process.

Gevlon translates everything into opportunity cost - how much money you can make in an hour, for instance. While this makes sense to me, he places no value on the idea of "pleasure" which is in and of itself a perfect example of opportunity cost. I tried the AH game, and I was incredibly bored. I found I much preferred running dailies - no, I don't make nearly as much gold as Gevlon, but I imagine I have just as much fun running my dailies as he does playing the AH - and I place a lot of value on that concept of "pleasure".

Isn't it something of a moot point to debate how people are morons for not maximizing their gold making potential in a game that not only costs money to play, but is, in effect, an absolute waste of time and money? If you place no value on the idea of pleasure, then I must say, the complete hypocrisy with which you chastise someone who does not make as much gold in an activity that translates into absolutely no real world monetary value just boggles my mind. Not that it doesn't make for an interesting read.

I have nothing against hardcore raiders until they take up arms against raiders like me, who will occasionally run at Hodir instead of rezzing dead bodies shrieking "THE LIGHT WILL PROTECT ME" into vent a split second before I go splat. Or the Tree who is bouncing around on flames around Sartharion as everyone else is buffing up, gets thrown right into Sarth, wipes the whole raid, and whispers "Whoops." into vent. The times when I've wiped miserably or had catastrophic failures are so much more memorable to me than the successes, because, let's face it, they were fucking funny. As long as I'm not doing it in your hardcore raid, why do you CARE how I'm goofing around in my own?

I'm glad if you don't like dailies, because that means there is less lag in Icecrown. I'm pleased you hate leveling professions, because that translates into getting more use out of my own. And the fact that you find healing boring means there are more raid slots left for healers such as myself, who love it.

But in the end, all that really matters is that I get all the chocolate ice cream.