Elitism in PvP and PvE

"HAH your pve gear sucks! Why dont you GTFO of my BG scrubnub!!!!"

"Man vote kick this pvp leach, can't even take the time to learn the fight or earn REAL gearz!!!"

"God I hate trying to grind two sets of friggen gear for PvE and PvP"

Funny how it works, polarized communities of pvpers and pve'ers. Each thinking that THEY alone are the real players. Are they? NOPE. They can be experts in their particular fields of play just as much as they can be completely incompetent. Problem is, they are like angry siblings vying for who gets the most attention from Mom (read Blizzard). Lately there has been an argument about standardizing gear across the board. I have to call horse shit. That stinks of socialism for mediocre performance across the board. I see it already with gear grinds becoming alot easier to knock out. But each system is there to cater to a specific crowd in their own hardcoreness.

Look, iLV gear meant for lv 85 can get you easily into random BG's or baseline dungeons, but you have to push yourself to get higher. For PVPers it means getting into rated BGs and into Arena matches. For PVEers it means getting into baseline dungeons and possibly heroics, but NOT Raids.  Trying to get your feet wet to change things up is all good, but you won't really get anywhere unless you specialize in one thing or another. Both sides have a point. For PvPers its learning to work in the random chaos of the battlefield, there is no set UI response from opponents, things change at the drop of a hat. But there is a ton of flexibility on player actions, not forgiveness for stupidity but a flexibility in tactical situations. For PVEers its all about gearing and learning a specific mechanic and learning the fight with zero tolerance for mistimed abilities. It isn't easy and requires very analytical minds to complete the set boss fights. It requires understanding in detail a class spec to maximize within 99.99% of its Holy Trinity potential. Both types of fighting require significant skill and resourcefulness. Both require a cool headed leader that has complete situational awareness and can keep control of a situation.

In the end, I personally disagree with standardizing gear. I believe in Elitism here. I think there should be a difference between gear to signify the specialty given players have. It is a testament to their dedication towards their game hobby. Lets face it, if you don't want to play a gear based game, WoW is NOT the game for you. There are plenty of FPS games out there or...Minecraft etc. But Blizzard makes it's money banking on players wanting to have "tangible" rewards for their work. The company is still going strong on this formula, proof being them working on the next big expansion. If the formula didn't work, they would stop the development as a whole. So, like it or not, gear grinds are here to stay. I just don't think you should be rewarded for not doing your job in a different style of play.

Rewards for hard fought battles

Grimrhok was pleased. High Command of the Dwarves had awarded him with a War Ram, fast, deadly and armed to the Horn! The black charger looked at him impatiently as he admired it's breeding. Only the finest warriors were awarded with such mounts to show all their accomplishments and deeds.

In Ironforge, only the finest warriors could have such a fine steed!