Confessions of a Toxic Elitist

[KisaiTenshi]

You forgot to mention that people who think they play good,...

Aww, you felt left out. I was thinking of a way to say "Person who keeps digging up the dead chocobos from 2.0 content, or really ANY old content, to say someone is bad at the game." If you forget the context of that conversation it was because it was in one of those many "pure healer, vs idiot dps healer" arguments. Which was the point of "h) Instead of taking advice, looks at players lodestone to try and find a reason to dismiss their advice or opinion" Which is what you just did now, congrats toxic player, here's your award: nothing! you get zero internet points!

Only to those who don't know how privacy laws work. ACT simply calculates information already publicly available by reading the battle logs. This being uploaded is no different than if I were to copy/paste logs from the chat itself. There is not privacy breach because they weren't private to begin with.

From a legal perspective, Square-Enix owns all of the data, so people using the parser have no legal right to send the data anywhere else.

http://support.na.square-enix.com/ru...2&tag=users_en

2.3 Commercial Use. You may not exploit the Game for any commercial purpose (for example, advertising any product or service in-game, or use by the operator of a cyber café) without Square Enix's prior written consent.
...
2.5 Data Mining. You may not intercept, mine or otherwise collect information from the Game using unauthorized third party software.

7. PRIVACY AND USE OF INFORMATION
By playing the Game, you agree to Square Enix's Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into this User Agreement by reference. The Privacy Policy governs how Square Enix will use and share your information, except as modified herein. You agree that Square Enix may use the information you provide (such as IP address, e-mail address, or home address) in order to identify you and contact you to deliver notices, and may send you product-related marketing information. You acknowledge that Square Enix will be monitoring your use of the Game to help you play the Game, for our internal analysis to help us improve our games and services, to investigate disruptive activities or Prohibited Activities, and to confirm that you are abiding by the terms of this User Agreement and related agreements. In order to protect Square Enix's staff and customers, Square Enix may cooperate with federal, state and local law enforcement with or without the receipt of a formal subpoena or search warrant. You acknowledge and consent that Square Enix may provide your electronic communications and data, including e-mails and chat logs, to such government authorities, without any liability to you or any third party. You hereby provide your consent to such actions.

And there's the "you automatically lose" arbitration clause.

Also that Data Mining point is worded so broadly that it would include all the site wiki's and youtube/twitch videos.

At any rate, people who are "using" parsers, third party tools, hacking tools, etc to be better than people who do not have and do not want these tools, (or can't use them like PS4 users) is cheating in a loose sense. Which is why YoshiP/SquareEnix has generally not cracked down on such sites, because they would be gone in one easy DMCA request. Perhaps SE sees value in not being anti-consumer and crushing every bit of unauthorized infringement...

https://support.na.square-enix.com/r...5382&tag=authc

You may not use the Materials for any sales or commercial use, meaning you cannot receive license fees or advertising revenue, except as part of the partner programs operated by YouTube.com, Twitch.tv, Ustream.tv, or similar programs. If the operator of a partner program seeks to confirm our policy, please point them to this page as we do not have the resources to respond to all requests.
If you use a trademark (such as "Final Fantasy" or any related logo), then you must include a notice saying that the mark is owned by Square Enix, such as the following:
FINAL FANTASY is a registered trademark of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
If you use any copyrighted Materials (such as screenshots or gameplay video), then you must include the following notice:
FINAL FANTASY XIV © 2010 - 2018 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.

That fflogs sites has ads on it, so it violates the materials use license, it also has a pateron link, so someone that is not SE is making money from this data mining.
ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com has ads on it, it violates the materials use license, it also has a patreon link, so someone else is making money from this data mining.
The FFXIV Wikia also has ads on it, thus it violates the materials use license too.

The thing people always fail to understand when it comes to legal use of materials is that "fair use" is a defense against copyright infringement. It is not a given. The only reason anything isn't taken down days after it goes up is because it stays under the radar, and doesn't appear to be portraying the game in a negative light. With that said, these sites all give players information that they would have to spend a lot of time figuring out themselves. SE can focus their anti-RMT efforts on the botters who are are larger threat.

I've been in SSS since my last post, so I'm slowly catching up on all the posts thus far, but I have a moment to respond to this one. My peers have been pretty supportive - in fact, it wasn't really an issue with them because I'm not playing horribly. But looking at my logs (I'm on PS4, so I can't parse myself, otherwise, I'd have more than what's uploaded), I can tell I'm not pulling my weight. I haven't had anybody really call me out on my DPS, but the thing with me is that I've come to hold myself to a high standard. I don't look to other party members to push their DPS, because in Savage raiding, since I don't have a static, the only thing I really care as far as the party goes is that we all get the clear as smoothly as possible. As far as DPS goes when I'm playing SMN, I care that I'm only pulling my weight DPS-wise, which I have not been.

I wouldn't say it's so much as that I'm not enjoying it, but rather, I have a lot of pride. Now, to be fair, I have no idea what kind of numbers I've been pulling lately because none of my logs have been posted since March 7th. But the DPS numbers are similar in the normal Sigmascape fights that have been uploaded recently. So it kinda screws with me that I've been wanting a stronger player base when I myself have been playing far below what is considered average. A poster above you said that this bout of depression was deserved, and perhaps that might be true. I admit that I was completely in the wrong.

But I don't personally judge others parses...never have. Not saying anybody here said that I was, just providing extra clarification.

Nah, nobody deserves to be depressed. Some people just get their schadenfreude by seeing people get hurt. If you want a stronger player base, the way to get there is by helping, not demanding, that players improve. That may or may not be the mentor system.

What chases good players away from games is when they feel bored, or something better comes out (let's be real, FFXIV is peak subscription MMO, everything else is has shifted to "publisher-in-your-wallet" lootbox gambling P2W.) I'd rather pay money for FFXIV and Netflix than be progress blocked in a game by not spending enough money on gachapon and praying to RNGesus that I get something that isn't vendor trash.

What attracts good players to games (not necessarily back to games) is a healthy supportive player base, not one that is driven by end-goals. If a total stranger joins your static, and they have none of the EXTREME content completed, are you willing to show them how to do it? Or are you going to tell them to watch a video and don't join until they have mastered it already by somehow only studying a video?

Like the thing I hope that happens is that the "duty recorder" , we eventually have a way to record the extreme primals/raids, and can somehow let other players play it back. That makes it more "sports"-like in that you can review and study where you made your own mistakes, rather then relying unreliable unauthorized tools, or telling people to watch it on youtube.

[akaneakki]

Aww, you felt left out.

I don't see anything about dps from healer in my post. I mention a healer not using the best healing gcd in the game even near end of HW. But please go check my post again where I mention healing dps, like I said you miss the true meaning of elitist. ''Make people cut cutsceene'' doesn't make you elitist. Telling people how to play a class but they aren't even 50% at, is ignorart and elitist. Many of those things you mention are far from elitist vs being a a-hole or just very unpopular things to do/say.
But yeah I'm waiting where you pinpoint that I mentioned healer dps in my post. And why would I look at your lodestone? I have no interest in doing that, again making up things.

[KisaiTenshi]

I don't see anything about dps from healer in my post. I mention a healer not using the best healing gcd in the game even near end of HW. But please go check my post again where I mention healing dps, like I said you miss the true meaning of elitist. ''Make people cut cutsceene'' doesn't make you elitist. Telling people how to play a class but they aren't even 50% at, is ignorart and elitist. Many of those things you mention are far from elitist vs being a a-hole or just very unpopular things to do/say.
But yeah I'm waiting where you pinpoint that I mentioned healer dps in my post. And why would I look at your lodestone? I have no interest in doing that, again making up things.

A toxic player would bring up anything to shut down a conversation they don't want to see, and you're still doing it. The context of those old posts were in regard to 2.0 content during 2.0.

The point is,

1. If you use a parser. You are cheating.
2. If you tell someone else to play the game your way or you suck, you're an elitist.

The game is balanced to play the way the developers intended it, and since they changed how all the combat works with 4.x that did, and no doubt still causes players to realize that the way they've been playing is not the most effective way to play. Look at all the crap thrown at the developers for the lily system when it was discovered it doesn't work with their normal minmax strategy.

[Tridus]

Look at all the crap thrown at the developers for the lily system when it was discovered it doesn't work with their normal minmax strategy.

And how did that work out? Good WHM players ignore the lily system entirely. Trying to fish for lilies makes you worse as a WHM. You could remove it from the game entirely today and people wouldn't skip a beat in terms of playing the job.

The trick is that players as a collective spend far, far more time actually playing than the developers do. Developers ignore that collective experience at their peril, lest they design something like the lily system where what they intend people to do and the reality are a country mile apart. Intentions mean very little when compared to what they actually do.

Or, as programmers often lament: "The computer does what I tell it to and not what I want."

[Mahrze]

And how did that work out? Good WHM players ignore the lily system entirely. Trying to fish for lilies makes you worse as a WHM. You could remove it from the game entirely today and people wouldn't skip a beat in terms of playing the job.

The trick is that players as a collective spend far, far more time actually playing than the developers do. Developers ignore that collective experience at their peril, lest they design something like the lily system where what they intend people to do and the reality are a country mile apart. Intentions mean very little when compared to what they actually do.

Or, as programmers often lament: "The computer does what I tell it to and not what I want."

This is true, especially when they have an "identity design" behind it that they use as a way to limit themselves on what they can do.

And then, when people asked for reduced CDs on DRK, they said Reduced CDs are not always a gain

Q: The adjustment made to dark knight’s The Blackest Night ability was nice; however the effects of Dark Passenger and Shadow Wall feel low compared to the MP cost and length of the recast time. I would like to see dark knight’s defensive properties expanded.
A: Since the major adjustments to warrior, the development team has received requests to adjust dark knight.

Looking at the usage rates of each job within the tank role, we believe that the balance between them is currently quite even, so we are carefully considering how we should adjust dark knight.

Content is balanced around the recast time of buffs, so a reduction in recast time may not always lead to strengthening the job.

Dark knight is under careful consideration at the moment, so please wait a bit longer.

[akaneakki]

A toxic player would bring up anything to shut down a conversation they don't want to see, and you're still doing it. The context of those old posts were in regard to 2.0 content during 2.0.

You still make up a lot of things here. Where did I say whatever that healer said was from 2xx? This was said last barely under a year ago, from the threads i've been looking at.
Again, making up things.
1: How is using a parser cheating? You have to tell me in very good details how you cheat gameplay with a parser. I'm looking forward for you to explain why it's cheating.
2: I never tell people how to play. There are better ways to play, but exactly my way? I need you to quote me on that. Again, waiting on you for quoting where I mentioned healer dps in my previous post.

[IttyBitty]

They are calling parsing "cheating" because it violates the sanctity of the EULA (lol) and gives you the "advantage" of knowing whether you're putting out garbage DPS or not. Which is more of a failure of the game that anything else, really.

[KisaiTenshi]

They are calling parsing "cheating" because it violates the sanctity of the EULA (lol) and gives you the "advantage" of knowing whether you're putting out garbage DPS or not. Which is more of a failure of the game that anything else, really.

That, and PS4 users can't use it. You can look at it either as using steroids, sure it may make your cyber muscles better, but it makes you subject to elitist roidrage.

I'll reframe this for people who don't get it:

"If Square-Enix announced they would ban every single person who used a parser in 48 hours before the next content patch, would you try to call their bluff, or are you so dependent on parsing that you don't actually know how to play?"

Because people who start using unauthorized tools to improve their performance over others, sure sounds like cheating to me.

Correct. And they may enforce their own rules to their discretion. That, however, does not make parsers a privacy violation. Hence by response.

No more than video recording.

[Dualgunner]

That, and PS4 users can't use it. You can look at it either as using steroids, sure it may make your cyber muscles better, but it makes you subject to elitist roidrage.

But parsers aren't at all like using steroids, and in no way improve ones performance alone. They allow one access to the data needed to improve performance, sure, but that's like saying practicing at the batting cages is cheating baseball.

I'll reframe this for people who don't get it:

"If Square-Enix announced they would ban every single person who used a parser in 48 hours before the next content patch, would you try to call their bluff, or are you so dependent on parsing that you don't actually know how to play?"

I would. It'd be funny, actually, to watch SE annihilate their entire raiding population and then watch the game drown afterward.

Because people who start using unauthorized tools to improve their performance over others, sure sounds like cheating to me.

Except the parser itself doesn't improve one's performance. DRG A and DRG B, all else equal, would still perform the same even if DRG A had a parser and DRG B didn't.

EDIT: What follows is what I believe your argument to be: "Parsers improve performance, third party programs that improve performance are cheating, therefore parsers are cheating." It seems pretty sound, and agreeable entirely, but that relies on the first premise, "Parsers improve performance" to be true, which they do not inherently improve performance.

[Miste]

would you try to call their bluff, or are you so dependent on parsing that you don't actually know how to play?"

So if someone who uses a parser closes the program...they suddenly forget how to play the game and their job/role?

Okay....