Guild Wars 2

Dawnbreaker, I suggest you to just look at some article talking abut “gaming term”. I a few second on internet I could find a few thread that explain that gaming term evolve constantly and what could stand litterally like “DPS” can quickly end with a very different meaning.

The language of gaming is constantly mutating. For instance, “lag” used to refer to delays in client/server communication, but lately we’ve heard it used as if it’s synonymous with “low framerate.” Baffling. To help clear some things up, we’ve asked regular PC Gamer writer and all-round lexical savant Richard Cobbett to create a brief glossary of PC gaming’s most important terms and their modern definitions (with a few additions of our own).

You can find the full article and a list of gaming term here :
http://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gaming-terms-and-their-true-meanings/

Asking for the gaming community to simply come back to the litteral meaning of all the actual gaming term is… well… litterally impossible. Most people adapt themself to it and I suggest you to do the same. It will be easier for you and for the peoples/players that will play with you. It’s easier to change 1 person than a thousand (especially when this thousand is already used to the fact that 1 term may have more than 1 meaning)

Nate.8146:

And of course when someone refers to DPS on the forums, they’re talking about a closed-minded version of Guild Wars 2 that has only 1 profession and nothing else matters

Which is annoying. Professions that people dislike in some parts of the game are perfect for other parts. Still, people dislike that profession everywhere though.

For example, many people hate rangers because the pet attracts mobs. Meanwhile, they are perfect for winterberry runs because you can pause to gather and your pet can attract the mob.

Dawnbreaker.6215:

Lahmia.2193:

It’s almost as if words evolve to gain new meanings or are used in different ways.

So you’re saying that the term “Damage per second” has evolved to mean something else than damage per second?

To think about how ridiculous this is, imagine you’re talking about km/h, as in kilometers per hour. Any car dealer would ridicule you for saying “how km/h is this car”. Go around flagging it under “words evolve” and the scientific community would also laugh at you.

DPS is what it is, it’s damage per second. It’s a calculation of how much damage an attack is dishing out on average per second based on its raw damage and cooldown. Saying “DPS means to do high damage”, is as silly as saying “km/h means to go very fast”.

Some words evolve, yes, because they’re used very subjectively, abstractively or loosely. But words that stand for scientific measures don’t evolve, because a second will always be a second and a meter will always be a meter.

He’s saying that the association of the three letters: DPS ( which stand for damage per second) has also begun to mean something else in this game.
DPS can mean damage per second but depending on context people use it as a synonym for just “damage” or “high-damage class” ( DPS class).

Where you actually get things wrong is the part where you believe all people (players) are scientists or care about being correct in how they express themselves.

People – when communicating are interested in getting a message across – and generally try to do it as fast and concise as possible ( as to not waste much effort). If the term is “misused” or not is irrelevant – since even in its “misused” form it is still facilitating communication – and that’s what most people misusing it care about.

I could write “damage” instead of DPS – but that would take me longer.
I could write “high damage output class” instead of “dps class” but what would the point be? People get what i’m trying to say with dps class. The message gets across.

Look at this example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_

Before “google” was a verb it was the name of a company. And now it’s the name of a company AND stands for “search for something on the internet using a search engine”.

Language evolves.

Dawnbreaker.6215:

Some words evolve, yes, because they’re used very subjectively, abstractively or loosely. But words that stand for scientific measures don’t evolve, because a second will always be a second and a meter will always be a meter.

And yet you wrote ‘tons of damage’ in your initial post when, according to my knowledge, damage is a concept which in itself does now weigh even a single, much less multiple tons.

D-Does that mean that the word ‘ton’ actually evolved to also mean ‘a lot’?

I will let Stephen Fry explain.

Major Domo.9250:

Lahmia.2193:

It’s almost as if words evolve to gain new meanings or are used in different ways.

Emergent wordplay!

But seriously, this is an interesting quick read on the subject. English is like a quickly-mutating virus.

/mutant

“Language is a virus from outer space” – William S. Burroughs

Dawnbreaker.6215:

So you’re saying that the term “Damage per second” has evolved to mean something else than damage per second?

No. They mean that the term “DPS” has now a wider meaning that just being an acronym for “damage per second”. Which is true – it does.

Dawnbreaker.6215:

To think about how ridiculous this is, imagine you’re talking about km/h, as in kilometers per hour. Any car dealer would ridicule you for saying “how km/h is this car”.

That’s only because a proper descriptive word (“fast”) already exist. If it didn’t exist, you can be sure we’d have created one. Who knows, we might even have used kmh, mph or mps for that.

There’s no single word describing the amount of damage some build does, so of course people are making things up. And they are usually using DPS because it’s short, and widely understandable. Thus the language is evolving.

(just so you know, instead of shouting “dps” when it’s time to maximize the damage output, me and my friends tend to use the word “burn”. There’s no fire involved)

Dawnbreaker.6215:

Some words evolve, yes, because they’re used very subjectively, abstractively or loosely. But words that stand for scientific measures don’t evolve, because a second will always be a second and a meter will always be a meter.

Trust me, when i say “afk a second”, people know they have time to make tea waiting for me. And there’s that guy that always claim that i can’t write “afk” because if i write it, i’m not really away.

Dawnbreaker.6215:

Some words evolve, yes, because they’re used very subjectively, abstractively or loosely. But words that stand for scientific measures don’t evolve, because a second will always be a second and a meter will always be a meter.

Everytime someone says “wait a second” I experience that time (and space) is not fixed but relative and that “a second” can also just mean “a moment”.

Words change their meaning according to the context they are used in and language itself is (in a way) a living thing that evolves and changes every day.

I haven’t been this riveted to a dialectic since I was knee high to a grasshopper.

Do you walk into a car dealership and say “how km/h is this car?” Do you refer to a supercar as a “km/h car” instead of just saying a fast car? No, and yet those terms have been used for a much longer period of time by a much larger amount of people. They still haven’t evolved because people have common sense and understand the difference between “fast” and “km/h”. Even a hillbilly would laugh at you for saying such absurdities.

And the last card you play is pretty much, “I know we’re doing something wrong, but I want to keep doing it wrong because tradition”. Really? This is your ace? Come on.

Time’s never been wasted learning new things. Begin by learning how to use simple terms properly. And don’t go around saying “I can km/h my car a lot” because you’ll look silly, just friendly advice.

you used ‘melee dps’ to describe a class/role in a previous post, how is this different from “km/h car” exactly?

The term DPS, damage per second, is used as a noun. It is also used as an adjective (DPS build; DPS gear). So, now people are using it as a verb? Sounds about right.

Internet game populations never meet a term they are unwilling to evolve/mutate to a new purpose.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Internet game populations never meet a term they are unwilling to evolve/mutate to a new purpose.

“Humans never met a term they are unwilling to evolve/mutate to a new purpose.”

(Fixed that for you. )

IndigoSundown.5419:

The term DPS, damage per second, is used as a noun. It is also used as an adjective (DPS build; DPS gear). So, now people are using it as a verb? Sounds about right.

Internet game populations never meet a term they are unwilling to evolve/mutate to a new purpose.

It just gets more confusing when:

“verb” is a noun
But “to verb” something means turning a noun into a verb (ie, “dps the boss”)
And things that aren’t nouns can, via the verb “to noun”, become nouns.
English is very table-flippy that way.

Niriel.5490:

Dawnbreaker.6215:

Some words evolve, yes, because they’re used very subjectively, abstractively or loosely. But words that stand for scientific measures don’t evolve, because a second will always be a second and a meter will always be a meter.

And yet you wrote ‘tons of damage’ in your initial post when, according to my knowledge, damage is a concept which in itself does now weigh even a single, much less multiple tons.

D-Does that mean that the word ‘ton’ actually evolved to also mean ‘a lot’?

I have a very simple answer for that, and for the “wait a second” metaphor too.

A ton is usually a lot of weight for us humans, while a second is a short amount of time. So saying “there’s a ton of stuff” or “I’m afk for a second” can be metaphors for there being a great amount of stuff or for you being away for a short amount of time. They are constant.

DPS and km/h, however, are variables. The reason nobody says “that car is very km/h” instead of “that car is very fast” (aside from it sounding really wrong) is because “km/h” doesn’t necessarily imply a great deal of speed, it could be 1km/h as it could be 100km/h.

It’s the same deal with saying “a DPS class”. What DPS? DPS could be 1 damage per second as it could be 1 million damage per second. It could be extremely weak as it could be really powerful.

People in previous MMOs have come up with names for power based classes. Nukers, DDers, dmg classes, etc. I’ve never once heard “a DPS class” while playing a MOBA or older MMOs, this is a recent trend that is born from people not being able to speak proper English or not being aware of established MMO jargon.

Niche jargon evolves. If you cannot evolve with it then it is not others who lack the ability to learn.

Dawnbreaker.6215:

this is a recent trend that is born from people not being able to speak proper English or not being aware of established MMO jargon.

I happen to speak proper English and was reading at a college level way back in middle school. I will still use jargon and short-hand because that is what people in niche settings use to quickly communicate unique and specific concepts. This does not make a person dumber. Conversely, being able to assimilate multiple associations for new, unique, or similar concepts is a sign of intellect.

Also, I will, from now on, ask “how many MPHs does this car get” the next time I buy a car (in another ten years, because I just bought one and missed the opportunity to make car dealer look at me funny).

Dawnbreaker.6215:

Niriel.5490:

Dawnbreaker.6215:

Some words evolve, yes, because they’re used very subjectively, abstractively or loosely. But words that stand for scientific measures don’t evolve, because a second will always be a second and a meter will always be a meter.

And yet you wrote ‘tons of damage’ in your initial post when, according to my knowledge, damage is a concept which in itself does now weigh even a single, much less multiple tons.

D-Does that mean that the word ‘ton’ actually evolved to also mean ‘a lot’?

I have a very simple answer for that, and for the “wait a second” metaphor too.

A ton is usually a lot of weight for us humans, while a second is a short amount of time. So saying “there’s a ton of stuff” or “I’m afk for a second” can be metaphors for there being a great amount of stuff or for you being away for a short amount of time. They are constant.

DPS and km/h, however, are variables. The reason nobody says “that car is very km/h” instead of “that car is very fast” (aside from it sounding really wrong) is because “km/h” doesn’t necessarily imply a great deal of speed, it could be 1km/h as it could be 100km/h.

It’s the same deal with saying “a DPS class”. What DPS? DPS could be 1 damage per second as it could be 1 million damage per second. It could be extremely weak as it could be really powerful.

People in previous MMOs have come up with names for power based classes. Nukers, DDers, dmg classes, etc. I’ve never once heard “a DPS class” while playing a MOBA or older MMOs, this is a recent trend that is born from people not being able to speak proper English or not being aware of established MMO jargon.

Ton: a unit of weight equal to 2,000 pounds avoirdupois (907.19 kg).

It’s a scientific unit of measuring for weight that is also used non scientifically to mean a lot. Just like dps has a scientific meaning and a non scientific meaning, unless of course when you’re hitting them with a ton of damage you actually mean you’re hitting them with a 907.19kg weight.