Such a sagacious post. Neither abtruse nor recondite, rather simple in form and execution. Such resplendent guild-mates, who surely are unsullied by the tedium of philosophy, can only...oh, what am I saying...BOOBIES!

Loved the read, absolutely beautiful post. /hug____WoW is for me a glorious escape for my own disability. Daily I come home, kiss my family and spend time with them, then escape to Azeroth where my RL and virtual one merge into peace and escape. Thank you for expressing what it has meant to your real life. We cannot truly escape RL, but we can become immersed into a land of beauty where cares of the world fade like the stars in the dawn.

To Quote William Shakespeare:

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts," - Jaques (Act 2, Scene 7)

In other words:

The World of Warcraft creates the story, the background
Each of us are nothing but toons living IN the world
We live, we die, we rez - whether in the Deadmines or in Icecrown Citadel
And we can choose to tank, dps, or heal.

If the metaphor of Shakespears age holds true, then the character is not nor does he/she create the story; it's just a player in a larger story doing it's part to defeat their enemy, from the evil boars to the Lich King himself. The story is not linear, it's surrounding us, and we are merely passing through.

The character's story is solely in the mind of the role-player, and he/she is free to create whatever story they want for themselves, but in the larger scale is nothing but a toon.

Myself (DPS Shaman) and two guildie-priests went into a random. One priest was a newly dinged 80, the other was a seasoned veteran and the kind of healer that can throw out some volleys in a 5-man. The tank, seeing two priests actually doing about the same DPS, around 1K, asked who the healer was and who was the DPS. They refused to answer, so the tank got angry and asked again, less politely. The third DPS in the group chimed in "what does it matter? You're getting healed and the Shaman and myself are both well over 4K and don't even need a thrid anyway." The tank got huffy and quit.

This is just an example, but yes, it's ok to let some newer toons come along for the ride. It may not be the older or more traditional way of progressing, but the rules allow it. And if there's enough DPS at the top, just let the bottom DPS learn how to become better while you continue to get worse (your word, not mine). :)

Was it right for the DPS to refuse to release? For me this is a ethics issue: I was taught growing up to work hard and do as much for myself as possible, not to rely on others (except in childhood) to provide for me those things I could do for myself. Therefore my opinion is that the DPS was lazy because he demanded that somebody else do something for him that he could have more easily and quickly done for himself. It reeks of 40 year old guy living in parents basement, but I digress.

As you say, "it's a bad idea to encourage people to be lazy". This game of chicken actually had more than two players, there were three others playing who were not as lazy as this one DPS, but they still sided with the lazy because most likely that's what they would do in real life. Don't kid yourself into thinking you don't bring your entire personality and set of standards into a game as socially interconnected as wow, because you do. The greater problem isn't the lazy DPS, it's everyone else reinforcing the lazy behavior so that it persists long into the future.