The obsession with DPS is inevitably bleeding into PvE as more people participate in raids, strikes, fractals, PvP, etc because in these other modes DPS and other metrics dictate the gameplay. We then find ourselves in a position where so many people are subscribing to this DPS-centric meta ideology, that everywhere we go we are told it's the only way for an "optimal" result etc. And I can certainly understand this strategy for raids, PvP, even higher fractals and some strikes, so I don't want it to sound like metric assessments don't have a place in MMOs. At the same time, this is why we have players like Guevara who are considering just dropping MMOs altogether, and who can blame them? Can we have one mode where we aren't shamed for our builds? Can we ever have results that aren't optimal? Often times we blame the developers or the game's design for these kinds of issues popping up but i think it's 2020 and we need to start discussing the real issue at the root of all this: players. The fact is MMOs are not single player games, they are public games that put you around a range of personalities and perceptions you might not agree with. I would also argue that the anonymity/"character creation" element of MMOs (I'm going to try to keep this as simple as possible) allows people to behave how they want (within community guidelines). So that means we might have a commander who is very forgiving, tries to res everyone constantly, feels rewarded by helping, etc. It could also mean you have a party member in fractals that has been relentlessly shamed into believing their original ideas suck, only certain builds work, only a so high DPS works, etc. Some people are just trying to get done quickly and want optimal synergy in their parties (which imo is contradictory to public gameplay, but whatever). It could ALSO mean you encounter completely unreasonable people. Ultimately, players are actual people who possess a range of motivations for playing GW2/games in general. We don't about think about this, but it heavily affects the kind the world we live in (in GW2). You have to decide for yourself what to do about it. You could quit the game. You can start your own guild. You can can start your own group content in PvE. I can tell you what will happen regardless: Game devs will not address player behavior unless it falls outside of established guidelinesThe values held by PvPers, raiders, etc. won't changeExperienced players will still have unrealistic expectations, no matter how much it hurts the game's populationPlayers obsessed with winning will stay obsessed, that's quite common even outside of MMOsedit note: I also have to say that if you haven't noticed the population changing to be more aligned with snow crows, meta battle, raider perceptions, etc. you are either very lucky, don't public play/chat much, or are willfully ignoring it because TC is correct that things have changed. I don't know how productive it is to call it "toxic" though. IMO toxic is a blanket term for very specific behaviors we can define.