DPS display could easily be solved with a system already in game.

[Malevicton]

The whole "don't talk about it" policy works well enough for people who know what's up, but it is very schizophrenic and confusing if you aren't already familiar with everything involved. I mean, how many threads have there been on here and on reddit from people asking for clarification? As a new player (and especially as a first-time MMO player) it's a frustratingly confusing situation. "yes it's bannable but you won't get banned" sounds more like someone trolling you than a legit dev response. It's not like allowing parsers means allowing harassment, so I don't see the point. For me it's just a minor inconvenience at worst, but it's an inconvenience that serves no function whatsoever.

Imo the question isn't why we should allow parsers, but why we aren't. Since there are already 3rd party parsers, it's even simpler to implement than the op thinks. They don't have to add anything -pre-existing system of otherwise- they just need to stop disallowing 3rd party parsers. It's literally a negative amount of work, so I feel like the burden of justification is on the anti-parse side of things.

[Welsper59]

The whole "don't talk about it" policy works well enough for people who know what's up, but it is very schizophrenic and confusing if you aren't already familiar with everything involved. I mean, how many threads have there been on here and on reddit from people asking for clarification? As a new player (and especially as a first-time MMO player) it's a frustratingly confusing situation. "yes it's bannable but you won't get banned" sounds more like someone trolling you than a legit dev response. It's not like allowing parsers means allowing harassment, so I don't see the point. For me it's just a minor inconvenience at worst, but it's an inconvenience that serves no function whatsoever.

Imo the question isn't why we should allow parsers, but why we aren't. Since there are already 3rd party parsers, it's even simpler to implement than the op thinks. They don't have to add anything -pre-existing system of otherwise- they just need to stop disallowing 3rd party parsers. It's literally a negative amount of work, so I feel like the burden of justification is on the anti-parse side of things.

See this argument, I really like. It's rather solid in justifying a personal dilemma based on impression, something you can't really deny or fault someone for, and one that does not actually involve others. In other words, when making a professional decision based on satisfaction, this is among the hardest parts to react to (e.g. GMs justifying a ban when dealing with legit players). There are a couple things in reply to it that I can think of, and this is just based on how business/design decisions works, as well as the typical sort of replies you'd officially get.

First and foremost, it's their final call and reasoning. It doesn't have to make sense, regardless of it being something you like or don't like. Consumers may not be happy about a situation, like not officially allowing parsers, and while people may complain... it's not a big deal, and the devs know it (deep down, so do the consumers). I mean, there's a reason people still happily play (for the most part lol), and parsing is probably not one of them for practically everyone.

The other is that in the case of 3rd party parsers, identifications are harder to deal with if you're looking to ONLY include damage reading programs (or other harmless uses). The ToS is a contract, which is a legally bound document. Any halfway decent legal department will stress how important wording, detail, and terminology is there. By opening the doors on 3rd party programs, it becomes harder to pursue action against misuse. If we allow 3rd party parsers, then problems arise like the issue with parsers detecting Hunt mob spawns a while back. People will always find loop holes, it's how things are. The solution to just make it an actual function of the game is one thing, sure... but then we go back to the first point. They have the final say, regardless of us knowing or understanding their reasons.