Quote Originally Posted by Catsby View Post
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter how valuable a tool is in an online game. People will piss and moan about the negatives or strawman it out of viability.
It's not strawman to say that parsers bring out the elitists in any MMO community. In my opinion, a healthier community is far more beneficial overall than knowing that someone in your group is doing worse than someone else. It's been proven time and time again, in practically every MMO that introduces or openly allows parsers, that the existence of such parsers acts as a catalyst for the poisoning of a soon-to-be toxic community. Players just can't help themselves. When that information is available to them, they will use it. That's the nature of a gamer, really.

Parsers are hardly necessary. Content is being cleared. A lot. By many people. Even when it's relevant.

However, I do think there should be some way for players to understand their overall individual performance. I understand the desire to know where one is standing in comparison to the norm or average. However, I do not think, even slightly, that this feature should come in the form of a parser. A different, innovative solution that does not foster interpersonal elitism should be found.