In simple words someone would say: “Cause OW is a team based Hero Shooter/FPS. In shooters/FPS it’s naturally more fun to be focused on shooting / killing the enemies than babysitting teammates”.
Well, every character in this game is more or less a damage dealer, so shooting / killing enemies is there for all roles (Except Mercy, devs managed to design her with the most pocket / supportive playstyle + kit of all characters, but even then she, at least, has potential to inflict damage with her pistol as a form of self agency).
But protection and healing are additional expectations the playerbase developed about the playstyle of these damage-dealer-characters under the roles labeled Tanks and Supports, cause some of them have abilities that can provide it (and some even consistently), but not all of them do… →
→ i.e. Hog and Ball don’t provide team protective abilities, they basically are mid-close ranged damage characters (Ball could also be considered a flanker) who happen to be able to absorb more damage with their bigger health pool. Similarly Zen and Lucio heal less than the other supports and again they both can be played as mid ranged utility-DPS (and Lucio could also have a flanker style). Of course DPS characters are more equipped with bust damage (and damage consistency when it comes to mid and long distances), but the playstyle-idea of killing enemies to clean up the area is still there for tanks and supports as well.
Those expectations lead to:
1.) a sense (or idea) of obligation / responsibility about healing and protection,
and:
2.) an idea that Tanks and Supports should be less equipped with burst damage or less damage consistency in further ranges so they aren’t more overpowered than DPS.
It gives the impression that they could have been better equipped for a certain playstyle, but since they are not DPS characters they are held back by those limitations and/or “responsibilities”, so when applying those ideas to Tanks and Supports designs philosophy it’s the minority of the playerbase that enjoy it or are okay to do/play it, that’s why playing the damage role feels more fun for most.
To me, tanking/supporting is less fun because this is more of an enabling role, rather than lone wolf DPS where you get to do your own things. With that being said, there are exceptions in the tank roster like wrecking ball and hog, who doesn’t need to shield for their teammates or peel.
But my guess is that only 2 tanks not having to babysit their teammates isn’t enough variety. There’s also the fact that Overwatch is played in a perspective of first-person view, and most games that are in first person tends to be FPS. But in Overwatch, tanks like reinhard is like playing Dark Souls, but a more boring version.
You are responsible or more then just yourself when playing tank/support. Dps can be selfish even on hog you are more responsible for your team then any dps except maybe mei sym sombra.
I actually quite like playing tanks and support roles provided the DPS play along WITH the team. And when I say play along I mean not going lone wolf every minute of play just trying to get kills. and constantly trying for crazy flanks that usually end up getting them killed.
Off angles, flanking strategically and keeping track of where the supports are makes the game a more fun team game.
I often try to remind medal-seeking DPS that if they help keep the supports and tanks alive by doing DPS rather than going for kills, they will probably get more medals/kills.
I’ve played barrier tanks just to give DPS cover and have found nobody behind the shield. At that point, I just switch off to D.Va and usually end up living longer and doing more damage.
In any game where you have a choice of class, the dps role is always the most popular. This isnt exclusive to OW.
And even in OW, the tanks and supports that are more dps oriented are the most fun to play in their own class as well. Like Hog, or Zen.
A big reason that the devs are making changes to the game and heroes for the sequel.
Just because its the most popular role, doesnt mean that a large majority of people that insta lock DPS are actually good. I tend to avoid dps players more than any other role.
Less variety. Not just in number of characters but tank/support metas are generally more stagnant and more strict.
For example, in every rank other than GM Ana has been BY FAR the best healer for about 2.5 years now, and it’s not even particularly close. Now what happens if someone doesn’t particularly like Ana? Then they just don’t queue support because they don’t want to be bullied into playing her.
And this isn’t the only case of something like this happening. Moth meta, GOATs, Double Shield, Rein brawl, the list goes on. If you aren’t playing the optimal tank/support line up there is a notable disadvantage, and your teammates feel it too and will get angry for it (and they might not even be in the wrong for doing so, after all who wants to lose SR just so someone can play Moira?).
I love playing support/tank myself and can’t stand DPS, but I’m not gonna queue for tank if I’m going to be forced to play Sigma, and I’m not gonna queue support if I can’t play Lucio without getting bullied for it.
Fundamentally, dealing damage and securing kills is commonly considered to be more fun than playing a supporting/tanking role for your team. This is a universal rule for all class based games. All characters are capable of attacking, but for tanks/supports it’s not their primary job and so people who aren’t interested in those other tasks are naturally always going to prefer DPS.
OW2 should help with this by both reducing the required number of tank players and making tanks more aggressive like DPSers (e.g. Roadhog). It won’t do anything for Support, but if they succeed in fixing Tank queues, then flex players will always be placed on Support for their priority passes and that should balance out the queues better.
i always watch tanks when i play support or dps. if its rein the are usually crazy and reckless lol. no regard to their own safety they go in swinging or are suicidal. many times they charge just over a cliff just to pin someone and take them with them. its funny but it does create a one for one scenario especially if the one they pinned is the enemy rein.
if its ball or roadhog they usually play selfishly and more like a dps. road flanks to get picks but is not really thinking like a tank. there more concerned about getting hook kills then their own team. if its ball they are trying to be disruptive but with no communication with their own team they are pretty much on their own unless your supports are playing suicidal also and try to heal him. most of the time they cant since position. d.va’s are more like reins but they dont have a shield to protect themselves so they usually end up as ult batteries. or they hit and run but are pretty much at a disadvantage against shield tanks.
orisa’s are more of a defensive tank. a lot of times i seen orisa players not even try and get to the point but form a defensive position away from it or back from the objective which is fine if your team has the firepower to burn the enemy team but it usually means the enemy team has like 50 percent or more of a 2cp objective so basically your at a disadvantage from the start if orisa didnt manage to set up defensive in the point. so that sucks lol.
then you have sigmas which is a 50/50 toss up of someone learning to play him or is a bit below decent or having the ones that are masterful of juggling their defensive abilities.
all in all tanks seem like a hard role to manage and it does come down to tank difference. whoever has the better tanks for sure have the advantage in random queue games. especially uncoordinated games
I honestly think that most of the issue is from people, not the game. Most people have this power fantasy of being the superstar and carrying their team, and DPS appears to them to be the best avenue to pursue that.
Having more choices for characters than the other two combined certainly helps make DPS more fun though from an objective standpoint.
This is patently false. You’re just as beholden to your team on DPS as any other role. A lot of DPS players just don’t see it or don’t want to see it, and the chaos of solo queue lets them slip through the cracks relying of mechanical skill and ignoring the team game. Countering a DPS player who relies solely on mechanical skill is quite easy in group queue.
There are plenty of players who enjoy focusing on protecting and helping teammates…
The issue is that defensive playstyles in Overwatch have been hard-capped in effectiveness. Which isn’t fun.
Being able to outplay the enemy team by getting really, really good at thwarting their attempts to kill your own team used to be not only possible, it was a major selling point for the game. But… thanks to cheesy multi-tank meta abuse and OWL-centric balancing (that prioritizes deathmatch-y gameplay to wow audiences), the viability of a defensive mindset/playstyle has been whittled away to nothing over the years.
It doesn’t help that literally every post-release tank and support is a dps hybrid that’s designed to spend most of their moment-to-monent gameplay focusing on getting getting kills, while treating their role as a protector as a side job at most.
That kind of game design isn’t appealing to core tank/support mains who WANT a gameplay experience that revolves around protecting and helping teammates.
I recently started playing Sigma and I’m having quite a bit of fun with him. He can soak up so much damage as well as put out tons too. If more people just played alongside with him the team can dominate. Sig just needs to tank and pull aggro (with big support help) and the DPS can do their jobs amazingly if they stop flanking for kills.