SE's most difinitive statement yet on parsers

[Ryel]

This post neither supports nor discourages the use of parsers, but hopefully brings some clarity to the situation.

Officially, This:

You guys are really over-complicating this whole issue. In the end it boils down to one, simple thing.

Welcome to my amazing guide on software in FFXIV.

Was the program developed by Square-enix?
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              Yes            No
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   safe! -------              ------- ban!

And now you all know and knowing is half the battle!

It really is that simple.

However in regards to Yoshida's comments on parsers,

You have to remember there are two sides to Yoshida; The First is the director/producer and head developer for FFXIV:ARR and a representative of Square-Enix and it's policies, The second is longtime player of various MMOs.

Depending on the interview he often has the opportunity to answer questions from both of these perspectives.

As far as regarding SE policy, then yes the usage of all forms of parsers / 3rd party applications that are not approved by SE leave you vulnerable for account suspension / termination should you be reported.

On the other hand, the benefits of parsers in regards to things like personal performance measurement, community gear discussion / BiS guides, optimal ability rotations, higher endgame play, mechanics breakdowns and various other topics are recognized and are not discouraged evidenced by the existence of the majority of the threads posted and still allowed in the job forums.


The major issues with parsers stem from two points.


Software and features:

As it is third party and untested (in house) software, SE cannot speak for any issues that players may encounter when downloading or dealing with any programs that they haven't published and distributed themselves (malware, interference with the game etc) and also that any 3rd party program has the potential to add features that could offer unintended player advantages (possible hacks, data manipulation / exploitation, radar, etc etc.) or cause an imbalance of systems Ps3/Ps4 vs PC.

Player Harassment:

The other issue is the obvious potential for player harassment, and while this is very much a YMMV issue the possibility is always going to exist. Which is most likely why an official in-game parser has not been developed by SE as they have already been hesitant to add other systems that provide the potential for player harassment like allowing /tells in dungeons for example.

TL;DR: As long as parsers are against the ToS if you choose to use them you are doing so at your own risk regardless of what other MMOs are doing or if they offer tangible benefits.