DPS is role name ?

[Eunys]

DPS is as old as Western MMO gaming. It has nothing to do with younger players or WoW players of any kind. It is simply just a region thing while most Eastern MMOs used Damage, or Damage Dealers. Western MMOs used DPS.

[Anapingofness]

Hi, I'm Japanese player. sorry to my poor English.

I have heard "attaker" or "damage dealer" as damage sauce role.
But that role is called "DPS" at FF14. "DPS" means Damage Per Second, it's a measure of attackpower, not role name, I think.
From when did it come to say so in English ?

Honestly, I was just asking my friend that the other night because I have no clue. It's a pet peeve when I see people shouting as a "DPS" instead of a "DD" because as you pointed out... DD = Damage Dealer, DPS = Damage Per Second...
But hey, each to his own I suppose.
I prefer to use DD in regards to a role in a party. ^^

[Neptune]

I've been playing WoW since Vanilla Closed Beta... I have NEVER heard anyone use RDD or MDD, I have heard rDPS and mDPS. Also, the first time I heard DPS used exclusively to describe Damage centric roles was Star Wars Galaxies, the only games where I've heard Damage Dealer or Attacker used is FFXI and FFXIV

Actually yeah you're right. I remember now. I knew there was some capitalization difference but I couldn't recall xD So it did originate in WoW? But yeah Yoshi-P went ahead and adopted the term for FFXIV so that's why people are saying that now.

[Begeta]

I still disagree. I do healing but I am a heal based class. A damage dealer does dps but is a dps based class. It's just as accurate as any other term. Just like people who use "Heals" instead of "Healer."

And I'll disagree with you as well. DPS by definition is a set of parsed numbers not a class in and of itself. "Damage Dealer" on the other hand is a more appropriate reference to MELEE class. I'm certain you'll disagree again so I'll just say we're going to agree to disagree. :P

[coffeerox]

When you ask for damage dealer, you are asking for any damage dealing class. This is what we mean when we say "anybody can deal damage". If you ask for a damage dealer, and I come forward with my Gladiator with souped up cross-class abilities, damage gear, etc, I'm a damage dealer correct? I deal large amounts of damage with active buffs and correct timing of abilities. I can join your party as a DD correct? What if I want to come in as a DD scholar due to the fact that we can swap our Int/Mnd stats and can wear the same gear as DD's along with the fact that we have all the staple damage abilities?

[coffeerox]

The reality is that you're not going to let me join your party as DD. When you ask for DD, it's like an open ended question and you're just inviting anybody that can deal damage no matter how "specialized" it is. The difference between that, and DPS, is that when I ask for DPS, it's like, can you bring your high DPS? I want you to come in to our raid/HM and do the highest damage per second possible.

In that case it makes MUCH more sense to use the term DPS rather than DD. People automatically know what classes they're looking for, and that they are looking for good damage output. The DD term is much too broad and that's exactly why it was confined to specific game communities. In MOST MMO communities, we use DPS because there are things associated with that term that has come to define what we do. That's exactly why DPS (which used to be a measurement of how much we do dmg) turned into a term we use to describe a role.

[kazaran]

Just like I people are using it incorrectly and creating and changing definitions on this forum for not knowing better, it is how it became rampid and wrong and past games of the same people.

Many times especially before WOOW and newer games it was always DD for a class designated for damage dealing. DPS was properly used as your output or gear relation.

DPS is wrong, nad so are those who adopted it wrong, but it ended up being adopted because many people are stuck in using it wrong.

[coffeerox]

Just like I people are using it incorrectly and creating and changing definitions on this forum for not knowing better, it is how it became rampid and wrong and past games of the same people.

Many times especially before WOOW and newer games it was always DD for a class designated for damage dealing. DPS was properly used as your output or gear relation.

DPS is wrong, nad so are those who adopted it wrong, but it ended up being adopted because many people are stuck in using it wrong.

That's completely incorrect. Before World of Warcraft we used DPS. All the way back to the original EQ (also where the term Mes/Mez came from). Every MMO since then, except for a select few, including FFXI, used DPS. The reason why DD was phased out in favor of DPS is because DD is short for direct damage. It also applies in this game as well. Arcanists do Damage over Time spells (DoT) and we have 1 Direct Damage spell (DD). Meanwhile, Thamaturge specializes in DD.

[Thotor]

That's completely incorrect. Before World of Warcraft we used DPS. All the way back to the original EQ (also where the term Mes/Mez came from). Every MMO since then, except for a select few, including FFXI, used DPS. The reason why DD was phased out in favor of DPS is because DD is short for direct damage. It also applies in this game as well. Arcanists do Damage over Time spells (DoT) and we have 1 Direct Damage spell (DD). Meanwhile, Thamaturge specializes in DD.

I think we all have different experience. We used the term DD (Damage Dealer , not be confused with DD - Direct Damage) for class for main role was doing damage during EQ.
I did not see the term DPS getting much used before WoW where damage meter really came to existence (we had a Parser on EQ but it was on no way used that much).

I am pretty sure the term DPS is mainly due to damage meter.