The issue nobody wants to address

[Preypacer]

Is this.. a legitimate question?

Okay.. we can go there.

...

All that in mind, I have a serious question to ask in response... Simple yes or no question:

Have people not been clearing all that content without a (official) parser?

(the only correct answer to that is "yes", by the way).

And if you disagree, then answer me this: What content in the game, to date, has been impossible to defeat without an official parser being present?

(the only correct answer to that is "none of it", by the way).

A follow-up question.. How would a parser make it any easier to do so? What would you glean from that data?

Aren't people - those who care enough to want a parser in the first place - doing that anyway? Isn't that what the gear climb is all about? Isn't that what the tomestone farming and repetitive dungeon grind is all for? Isn't that why people experiment and try out different rotations? Isn't that why people get the BIS gear, to make the content easier to defeat?

Is knowing a definitive number to be reached going to change the process by which a player attains it? No. You're just going to do the same thing you've been doing already.... and that's been working.

Is a parser going to add anything to the game that isn't do-able and being done already? No, it isn't.

And all the while... the content is being cleared. But that's not enough. It's not good enough until everything is broken down to numbers and min/max and "optimal" this and "most efficient" that.

And then, when all the content is broken down to the 4th decimal place... people can complain that MMOs feel too much like a second job, or an endless grind, and aren't fun. I wonder why that could be? I wonder if them treating it like a second job and endless grind, and not being able to just enjoy clearing the content, because "they don't know the numbers" could have anything to do with that?

I wonder.

So, for those who continue to argue and fight for an in-game parser... I realize you're going to continue anyway. Because numbers are really all that matter to you. I get it. But, at least be honest about it, and stop trying to portray it as something that's "needed" or somehow "missing" from the game. It's neither.