Discuss: Are DPS meters bad for MMOs?

[Janhyua]

I will only use it when the raid is not getting the DPS required and there for I am force to bring out the dps meter secretly to know who is that one fella pull us all down but this only happen in party finder or duty finder it does not apply static because most of the time they do great unless is a newly formed raid

[CYoung187]

Parsers are great for the hardcore raiders, for everyone else they are just toxic. If someone is completely slacking you do not need a parser to see that. Knowing your own dps is one thing, but I don't need to see everyone elses. Hell if a parser is added I know I might even get annoyed with whoever is last even if there isn't a problem. I just don't see much good coming from it.

Honestly the current don't ask don't tell approach is probably best. If you start griefing someone with it, you should be punished.

[Rubieus]

1: Any program that may help you be a better player (skillwise or behavioral) ie: autotranslate is a good thing.

2: Content that revolves around DPS checks.. is what makes it fail.

[Bishop81]

1: Any program that may help you be a better player (skillwise or behavioral) ie: autotranslate is a good thing.

2: Content that revolves around DPS checks.. is what makes it fail.

DPS checks or no DPS check, players will still discriminate against each other. Why? "Efficiency".

Corollary to Murphy's Law,

If players can be jerks to each other, they will be jerks to each other.

[Janhyua]

Parsers are great for the hardcore raiders, for everyone else they are just toxic. If someone is completely slacking you do not need a parser to see that. Knowing your own dps is one thing, but I don't need to see everyone elses. Hell if a parser is added I know I might even get annoyed with whoever is last even if there isn't a problem. I just don't see much good coming from it.

Honestly the current don't ask don't tell approach is probably best. If you start griefing someone with it, you should be punished.

It may be toxic but it's great. I used to be a bad DPS till some one pointed out my dps and so that how I got better at it and became one of the highest in my fc is all about change not alway toxic

[Fated]

It may be toxic but it's great. I used to be a bad DPS till some one pointed out my dps and so that how I got better at it and became one of the highest in my fc is all about change not alway toxic

Wait, you mean you used to be bad, someone told you, you listened and became better? It's almost like rational human beings can use parsers for the right reasons.

[Jynx]

Are they bad? No.
Are they needed in this game at all? No.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

A self only parser would be the ideal solution.

[Hyunckel]

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

That's exactly what I was thinking.

• That reminds me of that stupid french canine law severly restricting ownership of some (back then) considered dangerous dog species such as American Staffordshire Terrier, English Mastiff, Tosa race, Rottweiler etc.
  (Restrictions such as: Can't buy, sell, give away, import, bringing them in public places and public transportation modes. Sterilization is obligatory as well as a permit delivered after you prove your skills in educating a dog of one of those species to be allowed to acquire one.)
  All that because there were dickheads in suburbs using those poor dogs as a weapon.
  Blame the dog owners misusing them, not the dogs themselves.
  
  
• That also reminds me of GearScore addon in WoW WotLK... It was a great tool to know in one second what a person was wearing (his average score aka gear level)... Which was then the mandatory characteristic you had to provided for an inv to any high level group content. Needless to say, in the end people asked for outrageous scores just to "ensure" the kill. Hoping more gear would resolve lack of skill / experience / knowledge. Players criticized the addon, when in fact it was just dickheads abusing it.
  Since then, WoW and as I saw FF14, include a way to see one's average item level in one glance ^_^
  Blame the players abusing the tool, not the tool itself.
  
  
• Parsers ARE NOT a bad thing. Thanks to those, you can see your own improvement, by improving your rotation, reactivity, or changing gear optimisation.
  It's the dickheads using them to blame people when they see them doing low(er) dps than themselves. While it's almost never the reason of a wipe, except on DPS races like Ifrit's Nail for ex. Otherwise, if you wipe it's not because of one guy doing less dps than you, it's because someone failed at the encounter mechanics.
  Blame the players misusing parsers to bully other players, not the parsers themselves.
  
  
• Tl ; dr Dickheads everywhere, especially on the internet where anonymity reigns supreme.

[FyrmurlFloerasksyn]

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with parsers at all. The problem lies with the person who is using them and decides to be an ass to other party members based on their dps output.