Survey: Community Opinions Regarding Parsing/Parsers in Final Fantasy XIV

[Nedkel]

I love parsers for myself and my group. Main reason is because you can see where the group is lagging. Not from a blame standpoint, but just from a data standpoint. No deaths except for a team-wide enrage wipe? Let's look at the DPS numbers and see what's going on. Perhaps someone isn't using an optimal rotation or doesn't know any better. A teaching moment! Tons of deaths but DPS was decent? You can see total amount of deaths, and per person. This is usually not understanding mechanics well. Another teaching moment.

You get the idea. Parsers help you with this, and if you're a good human, allows you to try to help others with that data instead of scrutinize them.

But you dont need a parser to see who have died. o.O

[Guulu]

But you dont need a parser to see who have died. o.O

But you need a parser to see the DPS number O.o

[Awha]

Just wondering why bother with an official parser? I understand many play on console and some do not trust ACT being a third party site end of the day is that SE's problem. I enjoy ACT / FFLogs it has helped our group a lot especially since many we tend to run content with members that due to physical limitations perform far below the acceptable standard. Now I will say this that the GM staff do take parser abuse seriously, and are extremely swift when it comes it such issues. In the past said members had issues with parser abuse and the GM staff responded swiftly, while said action did cause drama between our FC and a few others the end result did show that SE GM staff do take this issue seriously. This begs the question is parser abuse rare because of the community, GM staff, or the fact that a parser is not widely available. Who knows, and until we do I do not think it would be wise for SE to release a widely available parser.

I mean as many of mentioned on the forums in the past when it comes to parser abuse we have options to combat it, while far from the ideal options are still available. Same could be said for those that wish to parse. Options are available while far from the ideal they are still available.

Long and short of it: Would I like to see an official parser, yes. Do I see SE making an official parser without finding out why parser abuse is such a rare thing within FFXIV, not really. Do I want SE to invest time and money into making an official parser, yes. Do I think the lack of ingame feedback regarding ones play is a crippling issue that needs to be resolved, no. Honestly though before we even tackle official parse SE really needs to rethink removing the chat feature in feast.

End of the day a parser helps, but it is not needed to improve. If someone wants to improve they would use the wonderful tome of knowledge known as google. No amount of money or time SE puts into a parser or means to teach players their class will ever force someone that currently does not care enough to use google to find info regarding their class and performance. A parser does help refine ones play, but it is far from needed, and often times all someone needs is a quick google search.

[Vstarstruck]

Hmm, I thought I add more prospective to see where I am coming from in why an official parser is likely forever be no (private one or some kind of performance feedback AFTER you exit a run may be a different matter though.)

First off consider the censorship already in the game:
1. Can't send tells/ manage your social list, etc while in a dungeon
2. Chat removal from feast

Now wouldn't you find it EXTREMELY hypocritical to put a parser and leave these other 2 forms of sensorship alone? When things are said like" harassment will still be against the ToS. This is starting to look like those healer dps threads where the pro side kept saying one thing and the anti said kept arguing against something no one even said ever." such things can be used for the SAME EXACT REASON to put chat back in feast or be able to send tells out of a duty. IDK about other people but even in WoW I never had to deal with random tells from the outside giving me harassment. It was useful as hell to send a tell to someone privately that is in your party about another member to work out some way to deal with the less then ideal situation.

The day FFXIV sees an official parser is the day these other 2 issues better be addressed. I think SE made things this way because 1. kick abuse is not reversible, even if found the person is victim of abuses these censorship prevent, SE can't reimburse the person for time, drops, etc, and most impotently do something to make the customer feel better about the experience. How many stories have you read on these forums so in so was close to quitting because of some form of rudeness/harassment/ etc? What about those silent ones that simply quit?

Clearly the ideal way of handling this would give us full tools, while giving out reimbursement when needed but that costs a ton more in staff costs then with the censorship. All this is purely money motivated, nothing more.

[F_Maximillian]

First off consider the censorship already in the game:
1. Can't send tells/ manage your social list, etc while in a dungeon

I may be wrong but I believe you can't do this because there's separate chat servers for the overworld and in instances. I was only around for the beta and returned for the beginning of HW so I can't speak for ARR but I believe for a long time you couldn't send messages to free companies or linkshells while in a dungeon either? I don't think it's a case of censoring so much as a technical issue.

As for the feast, pvp is known to bring out the worst in people. I've seen far more toxicity from pvp in any given game than I have from a parser. PvP games in general are known to have far greater levels of hostility because the playerbase is essentially pitted against itself. Parsers don't inherently pit people against eachother and most people clearly don't care to compete. Even those that do care for a parser mainly want it to either a) improve themselves or b) see that everyone else is contributing fairly. The latter point can be a cause of contention because fair contribution depends on who you ask but given the average player you'll run into in-game is generally pleasant I doubt we'll see a massive spike in "you're doing 2 dps lower than you should" monsters crawling out of the woodwork like people seem to think..

[Adeacia]

You seem to be under the delusion that the current meta didn't spring out of how the game works now, and that it hasn't changed over time as classes and mechanics were altered.

If SE nerfed Shadewalker and buffed incoming damage to the point that tank stance was necessary, raiders would adapt. They always have before.

Raiders would adapt. I agree they would and always do. I have a hypothetical question about that though. Would they be able to adapt to not using any parsers at all? Say the combat log was removed (since that's what parsers read) and thus, they could no longer be used at all. Could raiders still adapt to that?

[VanilleFang]

Raiders would adapt. I agree they would and always do. I have a hypothetical question about that though. Would they be able to adapt to not using any parsers at all? Say the combat log was removed (since that's what parsers read) and thus, they could no longer be used at all. Could raiders still adapt to that?

Probably? I'm not a raider myself but people who are determined to do something will do it. And since fights are so incredibly scripted in this game...

[Legion88]

Raiders would adapt. I agree they would and always do. I have a hypothetical question about that though. Would they be able to adapt to not using any parsers at all? Say the combat log was removed (since that's what parsers read) and thus, they could no longer be used at all. Could raiders still adapt to that?

They can and they will.
But there are other sideeffects from a pure parserfree FFXIV.
Clearrates for Savage will probably go down.
Statweights will be unknown for long periods into the patch cycles if not unknown at all. So gearing would be more like a guessing game.
Job guides will be based more on opinions and feelings instead of facts.

All this won’t change much for the hardcore raiders but midcore and casuals may suffer hard from this.

[Adeacia]

They can and they will.
But there are other sideeffects from a pure parserfree FFXIV.
Clearrates for Savage will probably go down.
Statweights will be unknown for long periods into the patch cycles if not unknown at all. So gearing would be more like a guessing game.
Job guides will be based more on opinions and feelings instead of facts.

All this won’t change much for the hardcore raiders but midcore and casuals may suffer hard from this.

So then they really wouldn't be able to adapt. I figured as much. Just shows how dependant people are on these things.

I'm still on the fence about parsers. I see the benefits, but also the drawbacks. Also in my opinion, things like stat weights are things players are not meant to ever see anyway for reasons I've seen in this very topic.

I shall continue to watch and see where this survey leads.

[Sebazy]

So then they really wouldn't be able to adapt. I figured as much. Just shows how dependant people are on these things..

Hiya, it would undoubtedly make things harder for some initially, but yes. The raid scene would adapt just fine. Parsing wasnt remotely accurate for most of ARR, and logs properly came onto the scene for HW. I can tell you first hand that we coped just fine before then.

Fun fact, my first T5 clear (server top 5 or thereabouts, so it was early) was with a PS3 tank when when the divebomb marker bug was still going strong. It simply wouldnt load in time for some people. So we had her on the phone with us for this to get around it. If that’s not adapting, I don’t know what is.