Parsers add replayability for casual players

[LianaThorne]

Just because you play a game casually doesn't mean you can't care about your performance, especially when it can be pretty "fun" to see that you're doing well or that you're improving. I honestly don't know where this idea came from that casuals need to automatically be fine with mediocrity at best because they're "just casuals"

Because the idea of a "casual" player is that they pick up the game maybe once or twice a week to play for an hour before they have to go back to their real life duties. Such as, people who have families, people who have multiple jobs, people who's wives/husbands don't like them gaming all the time, etc. Casual players do not have the time to give a shit about getting better the same way those who have 8+ hours a day online will. They'll hop on to do their roulettes and any other dailies/weeklies and call it a day.

Do I think that it should be the mindset? No. But I also can't fault someone for putting their real life over a game. I understand the frustration as well, but at the end of the day, it's up to the person behind the screen to decide how they want to play.

If it's an issue, there's a leave button in every dungeon.

[Deceptus]

All it needs is something like this at the end of every boss, but personal and not for the group.

Target kill time, personal damage, mechanics missed etc.

[Absurdity]

Because the idea of a "casual" player is that they pick up the game maybe once or twice a week to play for an hour before they have to go back to their real life duties. Such as, people who have families, people who have multiple jobs, people who's wives/husbands don't like them gaming all the time, etc. Casual players do not have the time to give a shit about getting better the same way those who have 8+ hours a day online will. They'll hop on to do their roulettes and any other dailies/weeklies and call it a day.

Do I think that it should be the mindset? No. But I also can't fault someone for putting their real life over a game. I understand the frustration as well, but at the end of the day, it's up to the person behind the screen to decide how they want to play.

If it's an issue, there's a leave button in every dungeon.

I currently play the game for maybe an hour a day, sometimes I don't actually play at all for several days, so technically I would probably fall into the casual category.

I would still hit the training dummy to see if I got rusty on a certain job before queing into any duty, because I find it pretty satisfying to know that I contributed to the party's success.


Like I said, just because you rarely play this game doesn't mean you can't care about doing well, casual does not equal "not giving a shit"

[LianaThorne]

I currently play the game for maybe an hour a day, sometimes I don't actually play at all for several days, so technically I would probably fall into the casual category.

I would still hit the training dummy to see if I got rusty on a certain job before queing into any duty, because I find it pretty satisfying to know that I contributed to the party's success.

Congratulations on being a rare one then. The majority I meet don't follow the same mentality because to them, the game isn't important enough or on the same level as the effort they should put into their real life responsibilities.

I.e. "It's just a game, man." mentality.

[Caurcas]

I agree with this. Furthermore, I would suggest making it visible to the whole party. Why? Because it would spur rivalry and competition between party members. As a tank I want to beat the other tank into the ground, same for when I heal or dps. I hope my fellow party members feel the same. Promoting this mindset would improve player skill tenfold and make the community healthier as honesty would be allowed to flourish instead of barely held back distain of our current ways.

[ZedxKayn]

Congratulations on being a rare one then. The majority I meet don't follow the same mentality because to them, the game isn't important enough or on the same level as the effort they should put into their real life responsibilities.

I.e. "It's just a game, man." mentality.

It's a hobby. It's not rare for people to enjoy putting effort into their hobby to learn and do it the best they can even if they aren't responsibilities.
Kinda like taking lessons for an instrument.
That effort will be fun and rewarding and not tedious and annoying if they enjoy it.

[Liam_Harper]

Do I think that it should be the mindset? No. But I also can't fault someone for putting their real life over a game. I understand the frustration as well, but at the end of the day, it's up to the person behind the screen to decide how they want to play.

If it's an issue, there's a leave button in every dungeon.

I don't get why this is the case. It's not a single player game. It's multiplayer, play MSQ and housing however you like, but instances and raids are designed to be teamwork with each player having a role to perform. If you join any team activity or hobby in real life you don't just decide you're going to play it completely wrong and "who cares if it ruins things for the rest of your team, it's not your job". You'd be thrown out. Why is this mentality accepted so much here?

Because the idea of a "casual" player is that they pick up the game maybe once or twice a week to play for an hour before they have to go back to their real life duties. Such as, people who have families, people who have multiple jobs, people who's wives/husbands don't like them gaming all the time, etc.

Definitely not true. I know plenty of people with busy jobs, family and real life who still dabble in Savage and EX and put in their best effort when they do. They're generally grateful for advice or tips and enjoy the activity. Having limited time to enjoy a hobby does not mean you don't care about it. I do know many players who play all day and couldn't care less though. It comes down more to the type of person and bad mindset than time schedule.

[LianaThorne]

It's a hobby. It's not rare for people to enjoy putting effort into their hobby to learn and do it the best they can even if they aren't responsibilities.
Kinda like taking lessons for an instrument.
That effort will be fun and rewarding and not tedious and annoying if they enjoy it.

Fair enough, just requires people to view it in that way and not as just something to kill time for an hour a day. The way I see it, if the majority of casuals viewed it as a hobby and something to improve on, there wouldn't be a 100 page thread on this forum discussing about how common it is for people to not care about playing their roles right.

[Equitable_Remedy]

Lately I've found myself wondering why I bother running level cap content. Sure, it earns me better gear, but it's not like I can notice those incremental improvements without a parser. I'm on console so I can't even download one sneakily if I wanted to.

If I were into Savage/Extremes, you could make a case that I should care about my gear so that I can make those clears easier on my group. But I stopped doing PF content in Stormblood because it just causes me to burn out super fast. Regular content is pretty faceroll without great gear so my gear doesn't make or break my party.

So without any way to notice my improvement in normal content, why should I care about my item level? All I care is that I have the ilvl to enter content to get through the story and that's literally it. I don't even care to get my ilvl up for Endwalker since it'll all be available for Poetics in November anyway.

I know I don't need to have the best gear for my content. But having a parser, or even being given a grade at the end of a duty, would add so much replayability to end game content for me. I would keep working toward perfecting my gear because I could see the fruits of my labor.

Yeah I know, no one is forcing me to play level 80 stuff, I can level other jobs, there is side content, etc. Yeah I play other parts of the game. But I really wish I didn't feel like abandoning something the second it hits 80 because I've run out of goals for that job.

Please add parsers to your game SE. Casual console players would have more reason to play end game content. Item level is not fun to track. Output/throughput is!

I think that parsers are fine, but I also think that this is just about the worst argument for them. It seems largely divorced from the way actual people play actual games.

[Equitable_Remedy]

Congratulations on being a rare one then. The majority I meet don't follow the same mentality because to them, the game isn't important enough or on the same level as the effort they should put into their real life responsibilities.

I.e. "It's just a game, man." mentality.

It literally is a game. You do you, but I put significantly more effort into my career than I put into my hobbies. You can be good at the game without treating it like your job.

Gamers are so dramatic these days.