Parsers add replayability for casual players

[SturmChurro]

While I'd never try to push people towards danger of a strike against their accounts, I'm kind of the opposite in that I can't wholly forgo giving advice when it seems lucrative.

I exaggerate. I do actually chat in-game, on occasion (usually completely silent in DF though). Sometimes a lot. Depends on my mood. However, not using the chat function (at all) is a sure way to never get banned in this game. I will offer advice or thoughts - if asked - or if the conversation is leading in that direction. Never unsolicited however.

There's a real reason why many in this community are so passive-aggressive, and a lot of it is due to enforcement, I'd say. I took a good long look at the ToS after getting banned here on the forums a couple times, and that certainly straightened me out quick - and I was already more reserved in this game than others beforehand. I obsessively edit my posts (for more than just grammar), especially if I am in an argument with someone. I learned quickly, that their enforcement here is so broad, many things can be misconstrued as "slander", in just a general conversation - and yes, when you get forum banned, the post in question gets sent to you - unlike in-game, apparently. If the GMs in-game ban players like how the forum mods have banned users here, then I will not take that chance, I have spent WAY TOO MUCH time and money on this game, to risk my account. No way.

Now, to keep this relevant to the thread, the, in my opinion, heavy-handed approach to ToS enforcement certainly means that even if there was to be an official parser, I don't think players would have to worry about harassment. The policies wouldn't change. The difference here is: players would be able to talk about their own numbers openly, without fear of account action taken for the admission of using a third party program. Actual harassment? Nothing would change. Players who don't understand this will be banned, and the players who do won't. Underperforming players are even now already getting kicked out of duties - silently - for that matter.

Anyway, If someone really has to chat in this game, they should keep it G rated, PG at worst.

[Shurrikhan]

I exaggerate. I do actually chat in-game, on occasion (usually completely silent in DF though). Sometimes a lot. Depends on my mood. However, not using the chat function at all is a sure way to never get banned in this game. I will offer advice or thoughts - if asked - or if the conversation is leading in that direction. Never unsolicited however.

There's a real reason why many in this community are so passive-aggressive, and a lot of it is due to enforcement, I'd say. I took a good long look at the ToS after getting banned here on the forums a couple times, and that certainly straightened me out quick - and I was already more reserved in this game than others beforehand. I obsessively edit my posts (for more than just grammar), especially if I am in an argument with someone. I learned quickly, that their enforcement here is so broad, many things can be misconstrued as "slander", in just a general conversation - and yes, when you get forum banned, the post in question gets sent to you - unlike in-game, apparently. If the GMs in-game ban players, like how the forum mods have banned users here, then I will not take that chance, I have spent WAY TOO MUCH time and money on this game, to risk my account. No way.

Anyway, If someone really has to chat in this game, keep it G rated, PG at worst.

The only strike I've ever had against me was following an entirely silent (aside from opening "hellos" and my "good run, all" at the end), entirely normal Expert Roulette (that Ixali dungeon in Heavensward). Rather, it was the only time I'd had to log in that week (finals), so I'm 99% sure it was that run, but I can't technically be certain, as the GM never said. As for the actual reason for complaint, I'll never even be able to guess, let alone know why. So, at least it's nice to know that forum vacations at least give you pointers as to where you'd be coming back from.

That said, that still seems so absurd to me that socializing would ever be bottlenecked by some sort of absolute need. If someone really "has to" chat? It's a friggin' MMO. Why should we be afraid to speak to one another? Is the treadmill-grind concept so intrinsically attractive that we make due with the unfortunate presence of others known not yet known to us?

And while we should certainly keep ourselves in check, there's an opposite extreme to that, too. Surely we shouldn't we be so intolerant, in a social setting, as to blow up over the first dubious word or inadvertently sensitive topic, removing it from whatever context or humanity is behind it? If it's something that'd be fine at the kind of workplace or cohort environment we'd like for yourselves (and that's not to say people can't prefer a workplace where they are wholly isolated or perfectly reserved with one another), why should we draw a more stringent standard for a place of play?


(Sorry if this comes off as directed at you specifically, Sturm. It's not. I'm merely venting.)