Would you like an in-game parser?

[JDR388]

No one that is pro-parser here wants it so they can bully people.

Isn't one of the primary points of the argument that you can use the parser to push others to play better? Consider that in dungeons you cannot send private messages to each other so any communication you have is public with the rest of the party. I am curious how you envision a conversation like that playing out. Even with the best intentions I think that it is very difficult to have that conversation without coming across as though you want to shame the individual which is really just bullying by other means. So I think your point about bullying, whether it is intended or not, is moot because the conversation itself will be more frequently read as bullying and shaming regardless of its intention.

Furthermore your numbered points consistently lean on the assumption that the majority of the playerbase actually wants to improve. I know from my experience as an educator that there is a very big difference between a student who wants to learn and a student who does not. No numerically based metric is going to make someone want to improve, especially if they have already learned that improvement is not necessary for the kind of content they want to play. In this sense you are also asking for players to conform to your idea of what a "good" player is but a "good" player may not mean a player that does the best dps to everyone.

That said I honestly couldn't care less about whether a parser is in the game or not. The opposite argument has equal problems and is often mired in emotional appeals. I think you might be better off attacking those points instead.

[SeriouslySalty]

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What I really mean when I say "bully" is verbal abuse, I should have made that more clear. I don't think that constructive criticism can classify as bullying. I guess you are right in that regard that a simple statement of "monk use your rockbreaker" can be interpreted as bullying seeing as how everyone is so sensitive to everything these days.

My points were aimed at people that are actively looking to improve. Of course there will be people that won't want to improve no matter what, but that's not the demographic the parser is aimed towards. There will also be players that would look to improve with a parser; seeing their numbers might give them motivation to doing higher DPS. Being a good player is more about being mechanically sound. When you have two DPS on your team that you believe are already mechanically sound, how do you compare them after that? With how much damage they are doing, of course.

[JDR388]

There will also be players that would look to improve with a parser; seeing their numbers might give them motivation to doing higher DPS.

I agree with most everything you just wrote except for two points. First, for someone to want to get better at something they need be intrinsically motivated to do so. Seeing higher numbers on a parser could be one way to encourage that but wouldn't seeing higher numbers from your attacks do just the same thing? To arrive at the point where a player would need a parser to track their progress they would have have already become motivated to join the dps race so it would not add to the number of players that want to do well, only more players that want to compare.


Which leads me to my second and more philosophical point: in my life experience finding new ways to compare ourselves to one another never really gives us the satisfaction that we hope it does. In fact I find the act of comparison, while thrilling in the beginning if we find ourselves on top, ultimately leads to feelings of anxiety, selfishness, and a tendency to dehumanize ourselves and others. In your second paragraph you made this act of comparison the heart of your argument but I don't agree that there is much joy to be had with this idea beyond only the most superficial. This doesn't mean that comparison never has it's place; in high end content it is a necessity. To further the point, those same high end contents are typically played by groups who know and trust each other and are willing to have their data analyzed.

However, you and I do not seem to be talking about this crowd as you consistently frame the use of this tool in the space of a 4 player party so I have to ask the question: Why do you feel the need to compare in that space? What does it get you? Does it have the potential to take from the person you are comparing against? Are those worthwhile things to pursue?

I cant answer those questions for you, but I do have some idea of the typical answers to those questions and I don't think it is a healthy pursuit in the context for which you are arguing.