DPS mentality in MMOs

[Shurrikhan]

I'm curious if anyone else has noticed that the game and many other MMOs have been going in the direction of DPS first tank/heals last. The crux of this has two primary issues.
1.) The developers of MMOs in general are caring less about tanks and healer then they do about DPS (development wise). Some even go as far as eliminating them altogether. (Tactical flashpoints for example).

Development goes where the things capable of being developed goes. When all mechanics boil down to maximizing DPS, with very few layers of indirectness between, then of course development will end up pointed towards DPS. They have the most ways to control damage. Mechanics are damage. Thus DPS most experience content over both lull and burst periods. Simple math there.

If you want DPS to feel less pandered to, you need less than mechanics that are more than just dealing damage while moving and minimizing damage taken only so you can continue dealing more damage.

2.) People tend to encourage dumb behavior in dungeons in favor of DPS.

The majority of encouraged behaviors are actually optimal. The amount of behaviors tolerated is a different story.

They want in and out of the instance as fast as possible.

As I said, optimal. Would you want to run with someone who finds it necessary to pay a toll of love to you, and accepts its currency only by proof of not doing what you want as quickly as you want and could otherwise do it, any longer than you have to?

I enjoy those who do what it takes to do a run about as fast as possible, and not just because it I save a bit of my own time. Consider what goes into that. I get all warm and fuzzy at a Bard moving into position for my next Aetherial Manipulation, or a Black Mage taking advantage of my Yaten-Enpi when I make sure to dodge in the direction that preps their movement. It gives off far more a sense of closeness, of "I see what you're doing and I like it," than salutations. There's tons of unspoken communication in running if you're on the look out for it, and the jokes are often more obviously found in the movement, in gradual overextension as we hype each other up for a (given current gear or the healer's skill or the nice-but-clearly-new guy's AoE damage) near-impossible massive pull. No words, yet no one is shocked when no one's angry that it didn't go right, just each laughing (save, perhaps, for the confused healer of apparently less macabre humor). That dungeon/bite-sized bit of rapport didn't come from talking over chat anywhere near as much as from watching our screens and manning our controls.

If you never see those kinds of interactions, ever, you may want to consider your own mood and perspective. Admittedly, they're more common among competent and less entitled players, who can be the minority in typical content, but they're out there, if you dare see them.

-Don't pull before the tank, You are a DPS

Yes, god forbid my Bard pull a couple distant mobs into my Overpower so I can save some TP and the healer can heal mid-pull without getting slapped about...