I’ve yet to encounter one of these “elitist jerks” in the wild. It’s more likely if I talk to a geared player, they’ll be a nice guy who helps carry people through low level keys and such. Even in GD, I’ve never felt alienated from a discussion because I don’t have 2400 arena rating or an M-N’Zoth kill or whatever.
The stereotype of the elitist jerk seems to spring from a few things:
- EverQuest discussion forums from nearly 20 years ago, from which OG devs like Jeff Kaplan sprung from. A lot of the exclusionary attitudes from back then were necessary due to the extreme ignorance of the day, when there was no way to just google a game mechanic or look up how to do something on Youtube.
- GearScore, R . IO, and similar addons. They have little relevance to any in-game social environment that matters. If your guild refuses to take you along to a bit of content because of something like them, you’re not in a high-trust community and should get out.
- The guild name “Elitist Jerks”, because NPCs don’t understand facetiousness or irony.
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Consider your self lucky then. They’re not as ubiquitous as you might think if you spend too much time around here but they’re definitely not entirely fantastical either.
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Those kinds of folks do exist, but I can assure you that most top-end players are either completely neutral and don’t get involved in any extra stuff, good or bad, or are more than willing to help out a player that comes to them with the will to improve.
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I am an elitist jerk, only nice people are allowed to hug my Singing Sunflower. 
PS; Okay, the mean ones can too. They likely need some extra love.
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On the same page as you.
I’ve played fairly actively for a year, have seen maybe 2 people I’d classify as that.
As always if there is an issue you can rely on people to drum it up until it looks like a pandemic.
WoW has been pleasantly surprising with how many nice people there are.
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Elitist has no meaning anymore, you could be called elitist for being selective on who to pick on your dungeon run.
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depends on your definition. like check the classic forums. If you point out that ret paladins are not a desired dps for any content you are immediately classified an elitist min maxxer telling people how to play rather then someone helpfully trying to help people not make a poor choice.
From my past experiences, the idea of a being an “elitist jerk” is simply a conflict of interest between two parties.
I’d say I’m usually down to help a player, but sometimes I just don’t want too right that second, or I can’t be so hand-holding because I want to play the game myself, and some people take that personally.
Sometimes I think people see someone better geared or have an higher I.O and just feel entitled to their time and/or expertise, and when that person says no it’s considered “elitist” or “toxic”.
Have I encountered someone I’d consider an “elitist”? Yeah, one person. And they were really bad. And it was really satisfying for our group to kick them. 
So maybe it’s a confidence thing for some people. They’re too insecure in their own ability without dragging others down.
If and when you encounter those players you just gotta laugh it off and move on.
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It’s pretty much exactly that, if you are an lfr raider making a stupid comment about mythic raiding or rated pvp, the people with experience in those fields correcting you are just being “elitist”.
It’s a joke.
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That’s because all the elite Chad’s play on horde so you won’t find Any in the casual lands of the alliance faction
Kinda is though. What if someone wanted to play a ret paladin? Classic isn’t so hard as to require that level of min-maxing.
I wanted to play a shadow priest originally, but was kind of afraid no one would take me to groups because of the elitist min-max mentality so prelevent in that world, so I picked warlock instead. But I wasn’t much of a fan of that option and that’s why I ended up quitting Classic.
I find that most of the people that call me an elitist jerk just don’t like being given tips at all. I like to carry my less geared friends through keys and what not but some pugs just don’t like advice. I get called an elitist jerk for suggesting a different route in a dungeon.
Really goes back onto my topic of conflict of interest.
Could you be successful in Classic as a Ret or Shadow? Definitely.
Will you get picked for groups over Warriors or Mages? Probably not.
I don’t think it’s elitist to point out the lack of viability in a spec, and your sucess will largely depend on the group of players you run with to match your gameplay expectations.
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The Ironic part of this statement is that the kind guy you call an “Elitist Jerk” is the guy who went from a complicated Elitist game and helped create the most casual game possible that could cater to the lowest denominator.
EQ back then would be Mythic plus
WoW Vanilla would be an old world dungeon.
There’s dbags at all skill levels. But with increased difficulty comes higher chances of failure which causes people to lash out more.
It kind of is elitist to refuse to let that ret or shadow play, just because they have certain playstyle/aesthetic preferences.
Classic Shadowform looks unbelievably badass. Can you blame anyone for wanting to play as that spec?
If they want to raid as Shadow, but no one’s letting them, is that not a problem?
I’ve been lucky to only meet nice people in-game. Mostly because I spend all my time in Goldshire… it’s been great!
Not at all. I was leveling this Priest as Shadow for a reason. 
But like I said it’s going to depend on the expectations of the group of players you run with. You can’t expect a raid slot in a min/max speed-clear guild. But a casual raiding guild that still full clears? You’ll have a solid chance if you’re a chill dude.
I think it’s more of a problem to expect others to conform to your ideas of how to play the game, and less of a problem to find like-minded individuals with similar expectations.
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I agree that most elites are in this group and simply aren’t seen/heard that often. Most of the “elitist jerks” people encounter are those who go out of their way to punch down, and even though they’re few in number they’re detrimental to the image of their entire player group.
Really not all that different from the handful of ultra-entitled super-vocal casuals that exist among the vast sea of mostly quiet casuals.
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There are the elite players, and then there are the elitists.
Also some groups like to play the villain. 