Going on 2 hours of radio silence after logging in to find my character in GM jail

[AlphaFox]

Seeing as a fair amount of youtubers parse to show rotations in guides, they go unpunished and SE has documented proof of them, but because one person didn't like it despite them not being the one wanting to know how they did and thus were not given the info? I am well aware they are illegal but its a silly thing to ban for 10 days versus all the bots that are farming mats right now. Though I would hope the hours in jail counted toward the ban because that is a bit messed up. Especially if you were just logging in to check something and gotta leave for work or whatever, what happens then? You login a few days later to then get the ban?

[Gralna]

Seeing as a fair amount of youtubers parse to show rotations in guides, they go unpunished and SE has documented proof of them, but because one person didn't like it despite them not being the one wanting to know how they did and thus were not given the info? I am well aware they are illegal but its a silly thing to ban for 10 days versus all the bots that are farming mats right now. Though I would hope the hours in jail counted toward the ban because that is a bit messed up. Especially if you were just logging in to check something and gotta leave for work or whatever, what happens then? You login a few days later to then get the ban?

Only form of evidence GMs and STF accept are logs pulled from their own servers.

[AlphaFox]

Only form of evidence GMs and STF accept are logs pulled from their own servers.

Makes sense then though I still don't fully agree on the whole parser thing myself. If it is used to harass others then yeah, please ban them. Though I would like to imagine the greater percent of people who do use them are only trying to improve themselves, not gloat how they beat the BLM by X amount or whatever.

[Awha]

I do hope the OP does post on reddit what exactly happened, lol or maybe I will ask my friends to report me for using a parser and I will mention it in chat. Going on vacation soon anyways worth a try maybe. I doubt this is the whole story and 10 day in game suspension for first offense seems out of character. I have know someone who got three days for openly admitting to boting and rmt in FC chat when they thought it was only us.

[KageTokage]

Only form of evidence GMs and STF accept are logs pulled from their own servers.

Which is basically why non-RMT bots almost never get banned since the vast majority of them are operating within the limitations of a legitimate player and thus will look perfectly innocent from their perspective.

They really have no idea what they're doing if they think all bots are going exhibit quirks that are readily identifiable simply from data logs.

[Liam_Harper]

The whole parser thing is actually getting ridiculous.

What sort of rule is "don't ask, don't tell"? Does it mean that using a parser itself is legal and the act of mentioning it is ban worthy? If they actually saw parsing itself as bad and wanted to combat it, they know they could simply scan a few hundred savage and ultimate runs and go nuts on the ban hammer. What is their real stance on it?

This vague half-rule is tedious. You may parse, but you must sneak around like a naughty child, afraid to even discuss a single parse with fc or friends or your static incase you slip and someone else in the party decides to net you a 10 day ban and 8 hours in GM jail.

They could simply block third party software from communicating with the game, but they can't. They know full well that an outright ban on parsing would wipe out the Savage and Ultimate playerbase, which in turn gives casual players no long-term goal and ultimately deals a nasty blow to the game. So instead they've opted to pretend it doesn't exist, trying to simultaneously please the hardcore players by letting them secretly parse and the casual players by pretending no one can judge their performance and they're awesome... and the result is players like the OP get caught in the middle and booted for 10 days to maintain the farce.

It's about time they faced facts and gave us solid rules. Parsers exist. Either implement them or outright ban them. Enough is enough.

[MariaArvana]

Now I’m about to ask a question, just a question so I don’t want a big fight or anything, but how many bans have to happen because of parsing to make people not do it, or is this a hill to die on?

I mean personally if someone is parsing I think they assume the risk that they know it’s against the TOS(if they agree with the rule or not)and could be banned.

All at once or over time? If you're talking all at once, they'd need to ban a very, very large amount of people and then have to justify whether the lost revenue from banning such a sizeable player volume would be worth it or not (spoilers: no.) While it wouldn't be a complete hill to die on, parsers are so wide-spread that they'd be tripping on that hill and would have to make sure they don't tumble to their doom as a result.

Their "don't ask, don't tell" policy is pretty perfect as far as what needs to be done. They know how popular parsers are, they know it'll cause insane backlash if they try to do anything, so they just silently look the other way while punishing anyone who isn't very bright and mentions them in-game.

If you're talking about over time, it'll never happen. People will just get smarter on how they speak about parsers, keep discussions 100% out of game, making sure to not even mention parsers in any shape or form to avoid giving Square any sort of evidence at all.

[AlphaFox]

Which is basically why non-RMT bots almost never get banned since the vast majority of them are operating within the limitations of a legitimate player and thus will look perfectly innocent from their perspective.

They really have no idea what they're doing if they think all bots are going exhibit quirks that are readily identifiable simply from data logs.

Reminds me of the bot I tried to report long time ago in Mor Dhona. Would teleport in, walk to the crack in the road, mount up, run, stop, turn, run, gather and teleport away. Same time, same distance, never moving from it. Only reason I know is because I was there gathering between the trees for clusters to sell. Bout of a month of this going on (I worked from home so only thing I could do) and he was always there.

[van_arn]

Now I’m about to ask a question, just a question so I don’t want a big fight or anything, but how many bans have to happen because of parsing to make people not do it, or is this a hill to die on?

I mean personally if someone is parsing I think they assume the risk that they know it’s against the TOS(if they agree with the rule or not)and could be banned.

The problem with parsing is in its widespread use of players flagrantly ignoring the TOS. Square can't ban enough people to make a difference without hurting their bottom line, their community, and their content.

This is why prohibition fails; if enough flatly ignore a law, it becomes unenforceable due to the logistics of policing so many people at once. Same with TOS violations: if it would hurt Square more (in subs, retention, or participation rates) to enforce their TOS to the letter than just let it slide, then it slides.

Seriously, can you imagine how much damage content creators like Happy or Work to Game or Larry could do to this company if Square straight-up banned them all for using a parser? Square might be "justified" by their TOS, but there's still significant extralegal risk for them in going up against people that are this important in the community. And that's just three off the top of my head, not all of which I personally consider important.

Of course I would never parse, myself. That would be naughty.

[Penthea]

This thread is depressing.

If what OP is saying is true, this ban is way too long for someone who is only using a parser. If they were being abusive towards other players then fair enough, but if this is not the case the ban should at the very least be lighter.

SE really need to do something about this. We need something better than the dummies to gauge performance. Give players a rating, that only they can see, based on their equipped gear at the end of an instance, or have it up as a damage meter throughout the instance. That way players are given an idea as to how well they're playing for the gear they have on, without having it displayed in front of everyone and having potential drama over it.

As long as we have nothing resembling the above players are going to continue to use third party software. It's not going to go away.