People advertising they're running Parsers

[IdowhatIwant]

Correct. Many casual players feel threatened and uncomfortable with this. There’s nothing wrong with that. The developers have always made a point to cater to casual players. It was a founding goal of ARR. Whether someone has completed Savage yet is of no relevance, as the content is open to all who have a subscription. Better yet, it’s even open to those without one; FFXIV has only been able to grow by broadening the audience of who might play an MMO. Seeing one’s own damage might be beneficial, but the social phenomenon of logging is a legitimate concern to the community at large. Said phenomenon is no longer limited to a small group of insular raiders, but instead is publicized openly on Twitch and other places. FFXIV streamers have huge audiences now. The FFXIV population is exploding in America due to it and recent events concerning World of Warcraft, which has a similar logging culture. Thus, the increase in popularity for parsing and logging culture is new, even if said things existed in a smaller form in the past.

If many casual players felt threatened by this they would have quit a long time ago. Parsing and FF logs have been around since ARR.
Now if SE would give us a useful UI that tells what stat values are worth rather than you have 2372 crit that would be nice. But until then we have to use parsers just to know what our % chance to crit is.

The issue at hand isn’t just isolated incidents of harassment, it’s a culture that has taken root within the FFXIV community and occasionally bleeds over into the game proper as OP illustrated. The change in game culture is the root cause of what OP described. Square Enix only deals with the symptoms by addressing inappropriate expression in-game. Far worse behaviors exist outside of the game. People are doxxed and harassed just because of their parse. This happened in Japan to a prominent player, which caused Yoshida to take a firm stance against damage meters to say “just don’t do it”. FFlogs could take initiative against bad actors by making log uploads opt-in instead of opt-out. The webmaster could easily do this. The community could also crack down on harassment within its own Discords and forums, although this is harder. The easiest, albeit unpopular, solution would be for Square Enix to remove the battle log. Regardless, as OP illustrated, it’s a problem and a legitimate concern.

I will be honest, some one picking on me because my DPS is low in a video game is not anything that concerns me. It would not affect my life inside or outside the game in any way. Picking on some one for there DPS is just petty. Who doxxes some one over there DPS in a game and who is actually going to care. Lets drive across country to egg that 3k dps ninja. Do you really read what you are typing this is absolutely stupid. This is not a problem, this is not a concern. Thank you for reminding me that this game makes me deal with dumb people as I forget that some times.

[Velnora]

Actually the TOS prohibits software that modifies the games code, so it isn't "legit." They just choose not to enforce it...for now.

The parser does not modify game code.

[Velnora]

Last I checked its nothing more than a glorified packet sniffer. It's not modifying anything, but instead reading and parsing incoming data.

It's really just a fancy calculator.

[Arazehl]

I thought it wasn't about using but whether or not you are annoying others or abusing the system when it comes to addons. Logs are a great source of self improvement for those that enjoying raiding seriously with friends.

No it's actually against ToS. Your thoughts seem to be based on what other people or players have told you. So say you streamed a session and someone saw you with a parcer and reported you. Regardless if you were or were not pointing out to someone the lack of dps, you'd still would get a warning and mark on your account based on the ToS. Same with any third party software.

[xxmiamorecadenza]

No it's actually against ToS. Your thoughts seem to be based on what other people or players have told you. So say you streamed a session and someone saw you with a parcer and reported you. Regardless if you were or were not pointing out to someone the lack of dps, you'd still would get a warning and mark on your account based on the ToS. Same with any third party software.

This is why I always recommend people - as in my fellow raiders - to just silently kick instead of pointing out any issues you might have.

It's a solid solution. 'Difference in Playstyles' is a viable and SE-sanctioned option.

[PharisHanasaki]

It is against ToS, Yoshida said it in a live letter. Talking about it in game, such as these people advertising 'Barsing' groups, you risk getting reported. If you do get reported, you get banned 100% sure.

[xxmiamorecadenza]

It is against ToS, Yoshida said it in a live letter. Talking about it in game, such as these people advertising 'Barsing' groups, you risk getting reported. If you do get reported, you get banned 100% sure.

I've yet to run into anyone getting banned yet for parse-related activities. And 98% of my friends actively run parses - run parse parties - and so on. They just don't harass people with it.

[IdowhatIwant]

It is against ToS, Yoshida said it in a live letter. Talking about it in game, such as these people advertising 'Barsing' groups, you risk getting reported. If you do get reported, you get banned 100% sure.

Here is the real question though. Does that parsing group affect your game play?

[Caurcas]

It's beautiful bulbous b[redacted] busting buddy barsing.

[Welsper59]

I thought it wasn't about using but whether or not you are annoying others or abusing the system when it comes to addons. Logs are a great source of self improvement for those that enjoying raiding seriously with friends.

In practice, it isn't about whether or not you use it. By all means, go for it if you want to (I would if I cared to anymore). Just remember that it is still a violation and there are potentially (low risk) consequences. It's akin to a kindergarten teacher telling their students that they need to be careful to not play so rough with each other because they might get hurt. The kids are gonna do it anyway and punishment is going to be due to those who are caught, which is usually the most blatant offenders but there could be some unlucky ones too.

I've yet to run into anyone getting banned yet for parse-related activities. And 98% of my friends actively run parses - run parse parties - and so on. They just don't harass people with it.

And that's the point. The likelihood of being banned for just using a parser is next to none. It's what you carelessly do with it that's going to risk getting you in trouble. Even just freely advertising a parse in a party runs a risk that someone will report you for it. It's up to a GM at that point, which they'd be 100% in the right to issue a ban or warning for since it's a violation of the ToS to use any external tool or 3rd party app. There's no middle ground to what is and is not against ToS in this case.