Damage Meters and compensation

I've been putting off writing a post about damage meters, recount, and other such addons for quite some time, because it always seemed like a very clear-cut issue to me. The addon has its good side in that it can be used to help DPS better themselves and improve their contributions to the group. It also has its bad side in that it can be used as justification for one DPS to belittle another DPS, it can be used by a good DPS to show off how good their DPS is, in both cases serving as an ego boost, and it can cause DPS to become myopic about what really matters in a group setting. As many of you who frequently do heroics know, the people who link damage meters in party chat tend to be the ones doing top DPS, leading to the impression that they are just showing off because they have abnormally small man parts (to quote Frostheim).

It's this latter group that interests me the most, the people who are top DPS in a group and feel the need to show that off publicly. There are also variants of this group, like people who ask for recount to be linked in party chat and just happen to be at the top of the list. What I've always wondered is, why can't they be content to know that they have the highest DPS and not need to show it off? Conventional wisdom says that it's because they are compensating for something, but conventional wisdom never makes any real guesses as to what they are compensating for. That's what I plan to do today.

One of the complaints most frequently lobbed at recount and the like is that it can't measure any of the DPS's contributions to the group other than damage. It can't measure off-healing he may do to lighten the burden of the healer (which, in instances like Halls of Reflection, is a much appreciated contribution), it can't measure when he eschews certain abilities that boost his own damage so that he can increase the sum damage of the group, and it doesn't take into account the drop in damage that comes when the tank dies and a DPS jumps into action to tank the pull. (I've seen a DPS be threatened to be kicked from a group because their recount was low because they tanked when the tank died.) All it can measure is how much damage the DPS put out, a rather shallow way of measuring the contributions of a DPS. That's why it is a tool that is best used sparingly and discretely.

But perhaps that's the reason why it is so popular with DPS that need to compensate for something. Because recount only measures the DPS's damage, all they need to do to top the meters is focus on doing as much damage as possible, or on getting better gear that will boost their damage without them even trying any harder. DPS don't need to try to contribute to the group in any ways other than damage in order to top the meters, and in fact, doing so will probably lower their numbers, since they'll be spending less time and resources on doing damage. In short, it is a very simple matter to reach the top of the meters, even though doing so limits your other valuable contributions to the group and can actually make you more of a burden than anything (tank who's still gearing up + ICC-geared AoE-happy mage = disaster).

Because recount works in this way, perhaps the people who post their numbers in party chat are the ones who can't contribute to the group in any way other than damage. Maybe they aren't skilled enough to take advantage of the full capabilities of their class, or maybe they play a class that doesn't have many valuable ways of contributing to the group's success other than damage (such as rogues), or maybe they are just good at damage but stink at being part of a group, so to compensate for their lacks, they try to cause as much damage as possible and top the meters, thus affirming their only valuable contribution to the group. It's a sad idea, if it's true, but its no surprise, considering that since the dawn of WoW, DPS have been eschewing good group play in favor of doing high damage (of course, when they are new, they do it because they don't know any better, but now the reason may be more complex). Recount and the like just give them the tools to inflate their ego without putting forth much extra work; you can hardly blame the mod for exacerbating what is already a festering problem.