Friday, April 24, 2015

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?

9 comments:

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    1. I was quite expecting someone to be raging on me in the first reply. Color me surprised someone actually agrees with me. lol

      Glad you liked the post.

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  2. I don't think any gear in wow is welfare. The term is basically meaningless in a warcraft context. Nothing is given for doing nothing. Even leeching honor in bgs at least requires your character to be present. The entire debate is nonsensical to me.

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    1. Depends on how you are looking at it. If I am killing mobs for a quest and a piece of gear dropped that I was not "farming" for, bonus. That is the definition of welfare. Getting something for nothing.

      But I do agree with the concept that even a lucky drop is not welfare as you are still playing the game. So you are doing something.

      It annoys me hearing all these people call things like the legendary welfare. I sometimes wonder if they have ever worked a day in their life, because any one that has can tell the difference between something you work for and something given to you.

      Want to troll the people that use the welfare term? Next time you see anyone use it tell them "Come back and say welfare after you move from mommy and daddies basement and actually work for something for once your your pathetic life."

      Saw a troll say something along those lines once and it was so funny watching their people defend the term and lose miserably.

      I think people people that use the term often on the forms are just insecure and trying to make themselves feel better than others around them. Sadly that is the way the internet goes. People no longer try to better themselves, they try to downgrade everything everyone else does instead.

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    2. Praise the gods. Someone that gets it.

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    3. I'll have to remember that line. Seems like a solid gut punch for the whiney know-nothing crowd.

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    4. But they would still defend their position, it is the way of the net. But if was fun reading them trying to do so.

      I might not participate in the forums but I sure do read a lot and there are a few gems out there once in a while that really rile people up.

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  3. I agree with your basic idea, but the example of the warglaive when it was current I don't really agree with. A large portion of the times I killed that fight the warglaive was the only reason we were still bothering with that long complicated fight. Having a rogue with the full set made such a big difference that you kept running it long after you didn't care about anything else just for a shot at one. It was the same thing with Thunderfury in vanilla where we kept running MC for basically the whole expansion because it made such a huge difference. We weren't running it for any other reason. If a warglaive showed up in your mailbox while you sat in stormwind checking the AH that'd be welfare, like that kid that ended up getting banned because a GM mailed him Martin's Fury and he went around one shotting bosses with it.

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    1. It might have been the only reason you were there but it was still "bonus" loot. It was a special gift for someone for doing something they were going to be doing anyway.

      I am begging for a weapon, have not seen one drop all expansion so far, and each time I kill iron maidens I kill them specifically for that weapon, I want that weapon, I am there for that weapon, but if and when I get it, it is welfare gear because it was given to me for doing something I was going to do anyway. Because even after I get it, I am still going to kill the ladies of iron each and every week. See, that is what I am getting at with reference to a drop. Still going to kill the boss even after you got it, which means getting it was "bonus", a "gift", or "free" if you so wish.

      Once the item becomes the ONLY reason you are going there, it becomes working for it. While it is still the current raid and you are still raiding it because it is current, even if that is the only thing you want, I do not feel that fits. You will keep raiding it because it is the thing to do.

      I want a GM to mail me a welfare martins fury. :D

      The question is, how can you use it and actually get away with it? Wait until 1000 guild killed a boss before you use it? That is what I would do.

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