To address the original topic, it depends--as most things do--on the context.
I personally have never mixed OOC perceptions with IC information, in both positive and negative lights. What I mean by that is that if I'm roleplaying some story with Johnson for a while and his character and my character have interacted fairly regularly, perhaps done some basic RP combat against NPCs and such, and Johnson's character is written as a powerful black mage who can use Enochian, but in-game he's only level 21. In that case, I go with the IC interpretation that his character is a powerful black mage regardless of his in-game level.
On the other hand, let's say I'm out roleplaying in the open world and roleplayer Wilson comes up to me and starts talking about how powerful of a magic user he is ICly. Even if he's levelled every single Disciple of Magic to level 95, his OOC game levels will not make me automatically acknowledge him ICly as a powerful and skilled magic user.
In both cases, OOC characteristics and achievements are completely irrelevant as to how I acknowledge Johnson's character and Wilson's character.
I personally have never mixed OOC perceptions with IC information, in both positive and negative lights. What I mean by that is that if I'm roleplaying some story with Johnson for a while and his character and my character have interacted fairly regularly, perhaps done some basic RP combat against NPCs and such, and Johnson's character is written as a powerful black mage who can use Enochian, but in-game he's only level 21. In that case, I go with the IC interpretation that his character is a powerful black mage regardless of his in-game level.
On the other hand, let's say I'm out roleplaying in the open world and roleplayer Wilson comes up to me and starts talking about how powerful of a magic user he is ICly. Even if he's levelled every single Disciple of Magic to level 95, his OOC game levels will not make me automatically acknowledge him ICly as a powerful and skilled magic user.
In both cases, OOC characteristics and achievements are completely irrelevant as to how I acknowledge Johnson's character and Wilson's character.