SE's most difinitive statement yet on parsers

[Elven]

Parsers in itself are a nonissue, but it's a 3rd party tool and is mostly used to berate people, not "help you do better" - That's why they said they're iffy on including one officially and the only one they do have is to check balance on encounters. If the "more efficient" players didn't use it to belittle the console players, I'm pretty sure SE would still turn a blind eye to it, but the more harassment that keeps happening with it the more likely SE is to say "nope no go."

So realistically, you only have the players to blame for misusing such a harmless tool.

I actually think that is the only reason why there is no official parser because players will harass other players with it. If SE came out tomorrow and said they were working on one please look forward to it. I would have no problem knowing everyone is on the same playing field.

[Souljacker]

I actually think that is the only reason why there is no official parser because players will harass other players with it. If SE came out tomorrow and said they were working on one please look forward to it. I would have no problem knowing everyone is on the same playing field.

What constitutes "harassment" though? Kicking a player from a party because they aren't doing well and won't improve? This already happens and I don't think that is in any way, shape or form "harassment". If I put up a PF because I want to complete a mission, you'd better believe I'm going to kick any weak links that aren't showing signs of improvement. That's because I respect my time, and the time of the other people who have joined the party hoping to complete content.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say the person who is doing the "actual" harassment is the tool who refuses to improve himself because he's a special snowflake that should get to be carried and everyone should just stop being so MEAN to him. You've been in*that* party with *that* player who doesn't know how to count (consistently attacked wrong mob), doesn't know how to position himself (I was in a group once with a monk who circled the mob, just kept circling it and circling it as he did his attacks - wow), or just uses one attack because they don't understand how their job works (a Sunken temple with a blm who did nothing but blizzard because he "never runs out of mp".... sheesh).

THOSE are the players who are harassing the REST of us, and they DO need to be educated properly. But in each case, even without the benefit of a parser because these were such glaringly obvious fails, instead of listening to advice, these players brought attitude and hid behind the ToS because this is what SE apparently wants to protect by vilifying parsers.

This is a bigger issue than being able to gauge the performance of the group. It's an attitude that bad players should be carried by good players who work harder to learn the encounters and their rotations and I will never, ever, agree with that. Players should be expected to perform their jobs adequately and in a way that is consistent with the accepted standards for that job. In 4 man parties it's easy to pick out the idiot circle-strafing a PvE mob or the blm using nothing but blizzard. In a large-scale encounter you can't just sit there and watch what every single person is doing every single second. You have to be able to go back through logs to see what can be improved.

It's true in real life, and it's true in game theory as well.

[Parawill]

I actually think that is the only reason why there is no official parser because players will harass other players with it.

In a business standpoint, with the amount of complaints coming from parsers--albeit the fact that everyone seems to be blaming the tool rather than the actual person who is harassing people with gathered data (facts) and then speculating and blaming the entire group--it's better to not have an official parser as it seems the majority has a dislike on parsers and also that the game is apparently catered towards casual gamers.

So... Square Enix's stance on anti-parsers (which by the way, seems to be very lenient) is to benefit the business as a whole while reaping the side benefit of not having to deal with harassment issues for when it wasn't a pressing issue. That's how I see it anyways.

If only there wasn't such a negative stigma towards those who parse. Oh well.

[Elven]

If only there wasn't such a negative stigma towards those who parse. Oh well.

I think it's because those that do parse don't see it as cheating and the arguments and rationalization they present that it isn't always over look the fact that it is simply cheating because it's not allowed under the current Tos.

[ispano]

I think it's because those that do parse don't see it as cheating and the arguments and rationalization they present that it isn't always over look the fact that it is simply cheating because it's not allowed under the current Tos.

Sorry, like Krr said. Not allowed by the ToS != Cheating.

[Krr]

Account sharing, an almost ubiquitous item across MMORPGs, is an extremely good example of this. While sharing your accounts isn't "cheating" and they're more or less exchanged or gifted like bought property (materially, not legally,) the concern is not that account sharing is inherently destructive to the game or the community but that they cannot officially support it happening, due to player safety concerns and liability.

("X logged into my account and stole my credit card! You're responsible!" "No, sorry, account sharing is against the ToS so we have no liability beyond our obligation to ban your account to prevent this behavior.")

Many, many things condemned by policy are done not because they are "immoral" or "wrong", they are done to protect the interests of the company in terms of legal liability in the event that an innocent activity turns into legal damages.

As a side-effect the universal bans of say, both account sharing and third-party software, also give the company convenient outs to ban actually destructive behavior, like people operating botter hiveminds. But their only purpose isn't to "identify cheaters" by a long shot.