Discuss: Are DPS meters bad for MMOs?

I've read up this article here:
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12...-bad-for-mmos/

What do you guys think?

Please keep it civil.

Its only as bad as the players that uses it.

Just like with anything else in the game, some will use it to abuse others and some will use it for good.

are parsers bad for mmos? no.
are people who use parsers to make people feel horrible bad for mmos? yes.

Its a tool used to gain information, how one uses the information is up to the user. To claim the tool is somehow a negative influence over the user is ignorant.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kaze3434

are parsers bad for mmos? no.
are people who use parsers to make people feel horrible bad for mmos? yes.

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I don't think this is about the parsers, it doesn't matter what you use but if players use a tool to critic someone performances. It's just terrible toward the community. Especially to people you never met or random joined.

Tool is useful for your own information but never use it against someone.

As stated above me, parsers (the program itself) are actually useful for those number crunching people who like to improve themselves w/o having to break out a calculator or spreadsheet.

Like with anything in life, or MMO's there is always those people who either A.)Troll or B.)Grief others in an attempt to make them feel bad w/ tools such as these. Just my personal perspective, you should never limit yourself because of all the bad that might come from it, how else are you going to see the good in it if you don't ever try?

It's always an awkward line.

Having a way to test your own personal DPS and contrast it to your peers can give you a decent measure of how you're doing, and really push players to improve. It can be a slap in the face when you look at your 180 DPS, feel great, and then look it up and realise than an i90 Bard spamming Heavy Shot - and nothing else, no cooldowns, no DoTs, no nothing - does more than you. But it's a slap in the face people can use sometimes. And even if not that severe a realisation, realising you can push forward can get you interested in seeking the how, and improve as a player.

That said, there's also an overimportance placed on it frequently - only a handful of content in the game ever has super strict DPS checks where it actually matters if you're parsing in at 350 instead of 400, but when it's data visible to all players some will inevitably hound others about it (eg 'DPS scoreboards' after an instance). Consider players in i80-85 gear in EX dungeons - it's not that this is insufficient, but any measure players can use to harass others can and does get used. Nevermind that this number won't even necessarily tell the whole story - in Turn 8, a Monk doing more than enough DPS might still drop to the bottom of the list if they keep getting Shrieks throughout the fight, for instance.

The information a visible parser/DPS meter/etc gives to an inidividual is useful - when that information is forcibly handed over to another player to see though it's frequently misused.

Topic had been done to death. Used for constructive introspection or to see where you can help yourself or team mates improve, yes it's overwhelmingly positive. Used as a tool to harass other players no it isn't.

As with a lot of things it is to what purpose you use it for that determines whether it is constructive to the community or not. I sit on the side of it being an overall positive impact but I understand the other perspective. I feel that those who use it to harass others would find a way to harass people whether there's a parser or not so I don't blame the tool for the state of the MMO community.

Not having it isn't half-bad from a causal player's perspective.

People can concentrate on playing the stupid game instead of staring at meters all the damn time then throwing hissy fits over minor deviations from the "expected".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yamimarik

Just my personal perspective, you should never limit yourself because of all the bad that might come from it, how else are you going to see the good in it if you don't ever try?

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I personally absolutely agree with this, but I'm still torn on allowing my personal improvement desires to come at the price of those who may be mistreated due to these being added...

Perhaps if it only showed personal DPS, to begin with. Baby steps.