The health problem of hiding numbers while catering to high-end raiders

[Lunalepsy]

Final Fantasy XIV is currently fighting with a contradiction of its own design. Extremely fine tuned high-end content requiring perfect execution of rotations and min-maxing of stats exist while those same numbers are hidden from the players. The issue is that the highest end raiders are effectively e-sports players. These are the kind of people who will do things that take a tole on their health to complete content within a single lockout, if not aiming to be world first.

Due to the nature of enrages and damage tuning, the threat of an improperly balanced encounter always exists and goes up with the more jobs introduced to the game. Without some objective measurements to know when something is realistically achievable, these players can (and in fact have, in the case of FFXI's absolute virtue) hurt themselves chasing an impossible goal.

The issue is it must be possible for parties external to SE to check the metrics of a fight for the sake of safety of that particular player segment regardless of how excellent the devs are at balancing the fight. A good first step would be to fill in basic details on the player UI, like what is a player's critical hit chance vs a target of his level under the critical hit tooltip. It's absolutely acceptable to want to display necessary numbers under their own terms, but to not do so at all makes forces the player segment they are catering to use external tools which the dev team does not approve of.

Had the very tools they condemn not exist, many parties trying to complete the 6.2 raid tier prior to the hotfix to tank damage could have found themselves chasing an impossible goal, hurting themselves in much the same way as the players that tried to take down Absolute Virtue in FFXI.

I remember when playing games was a fun thing to do instead of showing off your e-resume.

[Azuri]

I remember when playing games was a fun thing to do instead of showing off your e-resume.

Have you ever considered that some find showing off their e-resume fun?

Nah, preposterous...

[Atelier-Bagur]

Have you ever considered that some find showing off their e-resume fun?

Nah, preposterous...

Sad way to have fun but oh well. Its not like there's a huge pot of gold waiting for you at the end of that rainbow.

But I really shouldnt be judging what people find fun anyway.

[Dzian]

Sad way to have fun but oh well. Its not like there's a huge pot of gold waiting for you at the end of that rainbow.

Not Really. It's a combination of many factors including the basic difference between a Hobbie and a Passtime, basic perceptions of self-esteem and other psychological traits, drive and motivation etc.

The difference between a Hobby and a Passtime for example can be boiled down to effort. A hobby is typically something you are passionate about and want to do well. want to improve yourself. It might be playing video games on harder modes, Going to track days with your car, Carpentry or DIY, or It might even be cake decorating. or playing on a local 5-a-side sports team. It's something you strive to do well and get better at and grow yourself.

A Passtime is pretty much exactly as the name suggests. it's just something you do to pass the time. without as much effort or passion. You might just blast away some hours on a video game on easy or watch Netflix, Have a kick about with your mates in the park. Neither is right or wrong. both are very valid ways to do things.

Then there are the psychological factors, and how people perceive their self-worth and self-esteem. Video games often get labelled as escapism for example, and this tends to come from a more negative psychological impact of people who are unhappy with life, they can't succeed in life so they escape to video games where they play on easy and can accomplish things. it's also where a lot of the fomo bs comes from because if there's something they can't accomplish they feel inferior or do not measure up..

It also means that people who play on harder difficulties often get labelled as try-hards or elitists and it's often claimed these people need video games to give them their self-worth by doing or having something other players can't or don’t have.

But this is often wrong, As the people who play games on harder difficulties tend not to do so to escape their lives. they do so to supplement their lives to continue to challenge themselves and grow.. In much the same way the guys who entered a local 5-a-side tournament wanted to do something more than just have a kick about in the park.

I myself don't really raid anymore here. I find it pointless and just no fun with all the dumbing down and simplifications they've done over the years. but often when it comes to other games I play I generally do ramp them up to hard mode. That doesn't make me a hardcore elitist or anything though. It took me over 9 months to finish Sekiro for example as I might have only played it for a few hours one evening a week. It’s a long way from being elite or hardcore. it's actually super casual but to some people just the fact I beat Sekiro means I’m a hardcore gamer.

Here I do use ACT sometimes and while my logs and stuff have been hidden since the earliest days of Heavensward. Its not uncommon to see myself in the 60th-70th percentiles. Which is funny because it's right there where the casual lazy players call you a try-hard. but also right where the more competitive raiders be like "git gud scrub" either way I dont care too much. as I've said time and time again i don't care for the treadmill grind or bis bs so if my i597 samurai can rock out 69th percentile in Storms Crown Ex. with a 595 or whatever ilevel the Endsinger blade is. I'm more than happy with that. If gear was better and more interesting and if the treadmill wasn't so tedious I'd probably make more effort to have better gear.

But when everything is just throw-away junk on an endless treadmill... Mehhhh fk it. That's not fun to me. but to many people it is.. so yay for them..

[kaynide]

Have you ever considered that some find showing off their e-resume fun?

Nah, preposterous...

Weird choice of game for showing off your l33t gamer ski11z, especially in a world where a) professional e-sports exist and b) better/tighter competitive platforms exist.

Being really really good at 14 is fine, nothing wrong with that… but it’s comparable to being good at like… dance dance revolution or skeeball.

[Jojoya]

Have you ever considered that some find showing off their e-resume fun?

Nah, preposterous...

It's fine for those who find meaning in it and want to compare themselves against others who likewise find meaning in it.

It's not fine when they try to drag others who want nothing to do with e-resumes down into it so they can get an even bigger ego boost.

I'm not against parsers at all. They were a great tool for self-improvment back when I was still seriously raiding. What I'm against are the people who use them the wrong way, such as to shove their e-resumes in the faces of people who aren't interested. As someone else pointed out, FFXIV being a casual game makes it a bit of a strange choice for those who want to show off. Most of us just don't care.

Don't ban the parser. Ban the players who misuse them.