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Also raiding is stupid easy because you can look up the strats [strat-
egies] on any website on how to beat a boss. Someone let me know
whenever you can look up a strat[egy] on how to win and be 2000+
arena rating [a rating this high is reserved for the best teams].
Blizz[ard] please make it known that raiding epics are welfare and
that this issue needs fi xed. Maybe move some of the raiding epics peo-
ple want to the arena point system or honor point system, thanks. 29
Invoking appeals to work, but inverting them such that PvPers are the ones
who are working harder, Imadris turns Tigole's assumptions about labor in
WoW on their head. Imadris alludes to the repetitive tendencies of raiding,
that it is the same thing each week, the monsters being fought do not sud-
denly change their tactics, while human agents in PvP do. He also contends
that strategies are widely disseminated for PvE fi ghts, while PvP fi ghts are
dynamic and surprising. Fundamentally, the post argues that PvPers have
to work harder for their rewards than PvEers and, as such, it is raiders that
are the ones getting epics handed to them by Blizzard.
Beyond the direct turn of Imadris, others focused on attacking raiders
personally, illustrating the simmering “blood feud.” In a column on WoW
Insider, Robin Torres references two refrains voiced by “casuals” in their
critique of raiders, that raiders are the minority in the game and that they
have no lives because they are consumed with success in a video game. 30 Put
more bluntly, Gwaendar states,
If the quality or ease of obtaining Arena gear bugs you, you are a loot
whore. Deep down there where you don't want to admit it, but you are.
And beyond that, if it annoys you that for one hour per week people
have access to same-qualit y gear than you do af ter learning an instance,
putting up with wipes, repairs, farming consumables and whatnot,
could it be that the other secret you won't admit to yourself is that . . .
you're actually not having fun raiding anymore ? 31
A blogger weighed in on the welfare epic issue to knock raiders of their
pedestal, writing, “You've [raiders] done nothing special. You feel like it's
a challenge but it isn't. You think you deserve your rewards beyond people
who aren't 'awesome' like you and your guild but you don't.” 32 Far from
an appeal to all just get along, these posts reify a divide among the types
of players who play WoW . Raiders are portrayed as a privileged minority
who spend inordinate amounts of time playing WoW , rather than engaging
in real-life activities. 33 They are imagined as only interested in rewards and
keeping the best epics exclusive to those in their select cadre. The promise
of spreading gear throughout the WoW community threatens them, as their
ef orts will no longer make them the only ones to “own” and expose them
to the threat of “being owned.” These posts demonstrate a very real split in
 
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