Change DPS forever, this cannot continue.

[LilimoLimomo]

DPS is Damage Per Second.
Thats not a role, thats an action/verb.

Actually, nothing in the phrase "damage per second" is a verb or an action*. "Damage" and "second" are both nouns. "Per" is a preposition. All together, the phrase "damage per second" is a noun. Which is what you'd probably expect considering it's a unit of measure like meters and miles per hour, both of which are nouns.

In informal slang, people often use nouns as verbs. You can "fashion harder", and as we all know, you can "DPS" harder. That said, I've never heard anyone use the actual phrase "damage per second" as a verb. Though there's of course nothing stopping people from being playful with their word choice.

All other classes are named by their role not what they do in it.

There's actually no established standard. A healer is someone who heals, but a tanker is not someone who tanks.

It's just a hodge-podge of gaming nomenclature that has organically formed over the course of decades of play. There's nothing meaningful to enforce here.


*You could try to interpret the "damage" in "damage per second" as a verb, but it doesn't seem to work if you replace it with any other verb. Kick per second? No, it would be "kicks" (noun) per second. Etc

[AmiableApkallu]

Nothing matters and anything can mean anything. We moved from truth, reason, facts and science to give kids awards for having opinions. And this is the result: People using the acronym DPS as if it was a role.

Etymological fallacy.

Language evolves. "DPS" might have started out as an abbreviation for "damage per second." Now, while it might still be used as an abbreviation, it might also just be three letters strung together that denote the concept of "thing that deals damage."

[LilimoLimomo]

This is the basis of post-modernism. Post-truth.

Nothing matters and anything can mean anything. We moved from truth, reason, facts and science to give kids awards for having opinions. And this is the result: People using the acronym DPS as if it was a role.

I get the impression you've never made a good faith inquiry into what post-modernism actually is. And the big irony is that while your methods are flawed, everything you're doing in this thread is post-modernism!

You're saying, "Hey, everyone thinks this way about this thing. Is that correct?" And that is 100% a post-modernist question.

[Palladiamors]

Que nunca van a tener una obra como Don Quijote de la Mancha. Su idioma esta profundamente dañado. Absolutamente carente.

There is just so many things that english can do well, naming Damage Dealers as DPS is not one of them.



Because FFXIV is a very famous naval combat game.

Clearly not but I spend more time on those forums and almost as much time in that gameplay so hearing the abbreviation DD immediately makes me think destroyer and not damage dealer. If you'd asked me ten years ago before I got in to naval combat games I wouldn't have had that response.

I'm also just going to run on the assumption that you were going along with my attempt at making light by making light of your own.

[Alexandre_Noireau]

DD immediately makes me think destroyer

I can evade metal fishes better than you. Thus im right.

[PintyMcEars]

I am an English Language teacher and I support this message! Nobody cares!

[EgilTheStressedMage]

This is the basis of post-modernism. Post-truth.

Nothing matters and anything can mean anything. We moved from truth, reason, facts and science to give kids awards for having opinions. And this is the result: People using the acronym DPS as if it was a role.

Who hurt you?

[chaotix69]

Tank can also be classed as a verb, so really, the outlier is healer, being the only one that isn't a verb, so we should change that to 'heal'.

In what way is tank a verb?

[Shurrikhan]

Tank can also be classed as a verb, so really, the outlier is healer, being the only one that isn't a verb, so we should change that to 'heal'.

In what way is tank a verb?

"We just tanked it."
"He will tank the attack."
"She primarily tanks."

...In what way can it not be?

*You could try to interpret the "damage" in "damage per second" as a verb, but it doesn't seem to work if you replace it with any other verb. Kick per second? No, it would be "kicks" (noun) per second. Etc

Well...

To "damage per second" (where damage is a verb) would, what, mean to only deal damage on precise one-second intervals.
To "kick per second" would likewise describe a timely (i.e., synced to a specific interval of time) beating.

Like, one could give either as an order or description that, but... when would it matter? /shrug