Stop With the Welfare Talk, Please

Reading the forums and hearing one person after another talk about the "welfare" legendary is starting to get annoying and makes me really feel bad for the future of humanity as a whole.  If this is what the schools around the world teach our children there is no hope for the future of this world.  When a simple word with a simple meaning can be used so wrongly by so many and even after they have been told countless times they are using the wrong word they still keep using it to mean something it doesn't shows this generation can not learn.

Don't get me wrong, we all use words wrong, I do all the time.  But when told I am using it wrong I try to not make the same mistake again.  This is just not one of those cases of making a mistake.  The term welfare is simple enough.  It is just people being stupid, nothing more, and that is a sad state of affairs.

I believe every single person on every single forum that uses the term welfare epics or welfare legendary should be banned.  They should be banned for no other reason than they are the people in the community that show what is wrong with it.  If they all unsubscribed right now and never came back none of us would miss them, they are the cancer at the heart of the community slowly eating away at it.

The most recent occurrence of this was in a tread I read about the legendary rings on use bonus, one that I completely agree with.  It does not feel legendary. 

So as a public service announcement I am going to explain "welfare" in terms of warcraft for the uneducated masses like some in that thread that kept saying "it is a welfare legendary, it is not supposed to feel legendary".

Lets start with some basic facts and then I will try to explain them to people who do not understand the usage of the word welfare.

Fact: The ring is not welfare gear.
Fact: Warglaive of Azzinoth is welfare gear.

Now get ready for the fan boys to come to the defense of a classic burning crusade legendary saying you had to "work" hard to get it.  See the key word here is "work".  For something to be welfare it needs to be given to someone.  It means they do not work for it.

There are many definitions of welfare, such as the "health" or "well being" of a person, but the definition we are going to use for the term of welfare is something given to someone without effort of their own.  As in the welfare system, giving to those in need, as in those that are not working.  I believe this to be the way people are intending to use the term, wrongly, in warcraft, so it is the definition I am going to use to explain the two above mentioned facts.

The case for the warglaives being welfare gear:

Lets say you are sitting at home eating your bon bons while watching dr phil and a package arrives at the door.  You are doing nothing, nothing of consequence, nothing to "earn" you anything other than some added weight from sitting on your butt eating.  In that box is a brand spanking new state of the art gaming computer.  You just managed to get a 5,000 computer for doing nothing, nothing that you would not have been doing anyway, like sitting on your butt watching dr phil.

This computer is a welfare computer.

You were doing what you would be doing anyway which is nothing, it was given to you for nothing, even if you were not going to get  it you still would have sat on your butt eating bon bons watching dr phil.  This is the definition of welfare.  Getting something for nothing.

Now, lets translate that into warcraft.

You are raiding with your guild each week, killing bosses each week.  Even after you killed a boss 5, 10, or even 20 times, you still go back and kill it each week.  It is what you do, you raid, you have fun doing so and you continue to do so.  Then the warglaives drop.  Congrats on your welfare gear.

See, you were doing something you were going to do anyway.  You where not there specifically for that.  You were going to kill that boss anyway this week, even if it had absolute zero chance of dropping said item.  So it is not like going back now and farming for it on an alt.  Now you are going back specifically for it, you are working for it.  But then, when it was current content, you were killing to boss because it was current content, that dropping was just a bonus, a welfare gift to someone in the raid for doing what they were going to do anyway and that is kill current raid tier bosses.

So the person that sits on their butt anyway and got the computer and the person who killed the boss they were going to kill anyway and got the glaives are the same person, a welfare recipient.

The case for the ring not being welfare:

Lets say you work at mcdonalds flipping burgers.  Not exactly a high skill job, it is not something that requires a lot of training or intelligence or even hand eye coordination.

But it is honest work.  Each week you put in your hours, each week you earn a salary, each week you put away whatever you can to save up for something you want to buy.  Some time down the road, be it weeks or months or even years (mcdonalds does not pay much after all) and there comes a knock on the door with a brand new state of the art gaming computer.

That bad boy is the one you have been saving up for.  You worked, even if it was easy work, every day for a long time to save up for it.  This new computer is most definitely well earned.  It is not welfare, you worked your ass off for it flipping burgers.  You earned it.

In terms of our game, warcraft, the ring is like that.  Even if you do it in LFR, the warcraft version of a job at mcdonalds, you are still going into it week after week, collecting your pay in terms of stones or runes or what have you.  Little by little you save up all these pieces until you have earned enough pieces to get the item you want, in this case a shiny new ring.

That ring is one you worked hard for.  Sure it might not have been in a high skill raiding environment, it is not something that requires a lot of training or intelligence or even hand eye coordination.   But you did it.  You put in the time, you earned your pay and by process you earned that ring.  You worked for it.  It is not welfare.  It was not just "given" to you.  You earned it.

Can you see now why it bugs me when people use the word welfare in terms of gear you work for?

If you put in effort, be it flipping burgers or running the LFR, as easy or menial as you might consider it, you are working for something.  By definition if you are working for something you earned it, it is not welfare.

Please use the word correctly people.

Next time you question if something in game is welfare or not use this simple way to decide.  If it took any work to get it, even minimal, it is not welfare.  If you got it while doing something you were going to do otherwise anyway, like sit on the couch eating bon bons it is welfare.

Last example to send you off.

If I was killing some mobs for a quest and the lucky double sided coin dropped, it is welfare because I was killing those mobs anyway.  If I saw one on the AH for 50K and worked to make 50K and bought it, it is not. Getting it for doing nothing special means it is welfare, working to buy it or earn it is not.  See, simple.  So why do so many people continue to use the word wrong?