On Ultimate Off Ultimate

[Asiragan]

You'll note that I don't mention these things until someone brings up something they could only have known by using a parser. Bourne named the parser plugin first, and in this case it was Yoshi-P who brought it up at all. It is still my view that the parsers suck the fun out of the game, and this thread is a perfect example of why.

You want hard content? Then why are you using a cheat tool to win it? That should not count as a clear, and when these same people complain about there not being another "Ultimate" for the 4.x patch cycle, perhaps they should ask themselves why should the developers bother to spend months developing a fight only for a couple of people to spoil it for everyone two days after it's released. Wouldn't it suck for Yoshi-P to go "Well due to the amount of users who cheat using parsers, we're no longer going to invest any resources in high end fights. Enjoy your casual theme park." That would be the ultimate punishment for using parsers, is for everyone to be punished because of a few people who can't even be polite and pretend that parsers don't exist.

The developers will never be able to make the "hard content" you guys want if you keep using the cheat tools to solve it. Yoshi-P's only real solution to this is to make DPS numbers meaningless, randomizing and fake-out mechanics, or even recognizing players who are cheating and give them loaded dice so that they can not use their cheat tools to win it. In a sense, you're asking for Yoshi-P to make a fight that can not be cheated by any means, and that is probably something that will never exist.

*business hat on*

If I was SE's legal department, I'd ask why Yoshi-P has not banned people who blatantly using parsers, and the response would be "that costs money". Ok, so what about streamers who blatantly use parsers? I'm sure they are reported by the vengeful trolls all the time. "that costs money too". There is a specific level of abuse that has to be crossed where "that costs money to do" becomes a better option to "we're losing subs because nobody wants to play with cheaters"

Does FFXIV deserve a reputation of being full of cheaters? No. But people who keep mentioning parsers, ACT, fflogs, etc on the official forums without being being warned or having those posts ninja-edited gives the impression that SE does not care about the integrity of the game. I'm actually surprised Square-Enix hasn't put any pressure on the Reddit for the same.

Just to mention one thing regarding this topic to give an other perspective.

Since the beginning of WoW, players were able to use Addons. One of them was called Deadly Boss Mods and was used by them to call certains mechanics before they happened.

After a few years, the developers openly admitted that fights were designed with the idea of players using DBM. If they didn't use it, most fights would take way much longer to clear, or wouldn't be beatable at all.
I think WoW's devs even go to the length of giving sources code of the fights to DBM's dev before it's released, so that players can have it updated when the patch drop.

So, for a WoW's player a tool like that is absolutely not cheating.

Plus, with the way FFXIV is designed, parsers are necessary. If the devs wanted the parsers dead, they would need to release content that are not savage or ultimate in the first place. An quite honestly, using legal means to fight parsers would be useless. It will just make people flee the game, the parsers devs would probably works faster than S.E. anyway, and FFXIV would become a laughingstock since they would sue parse users while they can't deals with the BoTs.


Finally, while the official stance of S.E. regarding third party tools says that it's not allowed, unofficially they really don't care as long as you don't harass people. Proof is that Yoshida watch streams of people using parsers and doesn't even seems to pay attention to it.


So S.E. probably care about the integrity of the game. They just don't think that parsers and the likes are a threat to it.


Side note : I'm using WoW as an example because it's the only MMO aside of FFXIV where I have HL experience. I tried other but not long enough to know how players are working things out in HL activities.

Maybe ACT and fflogs enhances the longevity of the game for the raiding player-base by providing a system where players are given the metrics and platforms necessary not only for self-improvement, but for competition among their peers. Maybe using these tools as a way of improving is enjoyable, and by having an enjoyble game you can increase customer retention and extend the subscriptions of those who use these tools. Maybe SE thinks about these things; maybe. .

Also this right here. ACT and FFlogs allow players to see their "score" at dps. And counting points probably exists since the very birth of games.