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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 9692269" data-attributes="member: 7026594">It's really not, except inasmuch that it's all "playing the game", and we're all on a continuum.  Every one of us.Somewhere down at one end of extreme optimization is the guy who wants to play Pun-Pun in an actual game.  And somewhere at the extreme opposite end is the guy who for the lulz wants to play a Cleric with the lowest possible Wisdom, fail 20% of the time when casting his spells, and make bad tactical decisions with the justification that his character is foolish.The form of basic optimization which most of us engage in is simply "put your highest score in your prime requisite" or the equivalent.  Another one is choosing the weapon with the best stats, if one exists.  In AD&D that's usually the longsword.  I've sat at tables where folks sneered at someone choosing to specialize in longsword, but more commonly that was accepted as just standard play, and someone might be accorded respect and credit for choosing something else because we acknowledged they were choosing to play on hard mode.The quiz doesn't have a separate category for optimizers, in context, probably because Real Men would be expected to be optimizers at a reasonable level.  Real Roleplayers also, but more likely to compromise on power for a character concept ("I'm specializing in broadsword, because that's the signature weapon of Duke Goran's elite troops.").  And Loonies would be more likely to do the 9 Int Magic User and shaft themselves with a 35% chance to Know Spells for the lulz.Maybe the term optimizer is just like that George Carlin routine about how everyone who drives faster than you on the freeway is a maniac, and everyone who drives slower is a donkey cave. Everyone who puts more work into maximizing their characters than I do is a Try Hard Optimizer, and everyone who puts less effort in is a Filthy Casual. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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