SE's most difinitive statement yet on parsers

[silentwindfr]

seriously i read fun content, a good rl will know when a dps is low, based on gears and the rotation they do.
anyway, any program outside the game that help you in anyway, are forbidden that said, you use them at your risk and if you think SE will not banned people using parseer... you don't know them, they can and will probably do it.

[Elven]

A Parser lets a static group get more information in the same way. If they aren't beating a DPS check, they can then look to see who is under performing. If its a gear issue, thats easy to see. But what if everyone is the same item level? Do you take every individual to an instance and time them on boss fights? Well guess what? You're parsing by doing that.

All a parser is in reality is a stopwatch and a calculator. Sometimes its a spreadsheet too.

No a stop watch is an essential part of an athlete's program a parser is more of a quality of life thing. Nothing wrong with parsers at all but don't come on here selling the idea they are super essential to playing this game.

[Sebazy]

For those demonising parsers as the root of all evil... Try to think of it this way:

Think of FFXIV as 'going racing'. Much like in MMOs, logging and analysing data is equally common in some circles, FFXIV has many tiers ranging in both difficulty and competitiveness, clearing a 4 man could be compared to nipping down to your local go kart track (Just show up and enjoy yourself, anything more is just going to get you laughed at), whereas coil 1 is more on par with going club racing (Data here would be helpful, but you can be perfectly competitive without it), Savage Coil 2 could be considered to be approaching Formula One's level where unless everyone is extracting 110% and more, you're simply not going to get far at all. To play at the level the content asks of you, you need far more than can be gleaned from the combat window alone.

Also remember that not all classes are equal when it comes the ease of achieving 'good' dps. For example, bard is relatively simple, the difference generally comes from maximising activity whilst handling encounter mechanics and general movement, whilst summoners are much more subtle with effective cooldown usage making or breaking their damage output in a big way.

Back onto the motor racing analogy, parsing much like data logging in it's purest form isn't bad at all, it's not intended to be a tool for e-peen swinging, nor was it designed to break rules. Rather, it's there to facilitate self improvement and a better understanding of how various mechanics and abilities interact with each other. if this game ended at CT, then I would agree that this kind of data would be entirely unnecessary and I would be more inclined to agree with the anti-parse brigade. But it doesn't, so I don't.

On the flip side of the argument, one of the strong cases against having an open season on parsers is of course players using parser data to be abusive towards other players and I'll agree that that is a perfectly sound argument, however do not forget that SE have a pretty good track record when it comes to dealing with abusive players so far. You rarely see people calling out others due to fearing the ban hammer. As long as that continued to be the case, I highly doubt it would ever really be a problem.

Another shady area is of course a particular parser's little 'additional feature', and yes again I agree it's a bit of a step too far. Do note that it's only recently become a problem due to the overcrowding on hunts with the disproportionate and entirely uncapped rewards on offer. Also remember that this feature isn't something common to all parsers.

In short, the next time you read up on a strat for a coil turn, or watch an early kill video, or read up on advice on how to improve on your play style, remember that the majority of that information came from people using parsers. So when you are flapping your arms screaming that 'omg parsers need to be banned!!!1!', consider that perhaps, the parsers themselves are not the problem, rather it's the minority of people that use the data to abusive ends that are the issue here.

[Stormrider]

Want to take a guess which will come first. The ability to send /tell to someone in an instance that you are in or parsers? How many people would harass people in /tell. I never once saw anyone doing it in any game before. But they saw it as enough of an issue to turn it off. Lets be honest no one believes that its a system issue.

[Umichi]

For those demonising parsers as the root of all evil... Try to think of it this way:

who cares about comparing things to rl to this game... Parsing goes against the ToS set forth by SE. I also don't look up strategies and most often times rely upon word of mouth or by coming to the official forums for guidance as I personally believe that using any information except for what is provided to me by the game or the company that makes the game goes against the spirit of what a game is all about.

[Mcshiggs]

once again comparing parsers to something else

It's not that everyone doesn't think parsers should be used, a lot of folks don't think they should be used as long as it is against ToS to use them. Also until they introduce content that cannot be cleared without the use of parsers, you can't say something like "To play at the level the content asks of you, you need far more than can be gleaned from the combat window alone." People clear turn 9 without parsers, so it's obvious that they don't need far more than can be gleaned from the combat window alone.

Since everyone gets to make these absurd analogies showing why parsers are "required." I'll toss an absurd analogy out there too. Let's look at bicycle racing, you can draw your own blood, oxygenate it and inject it right before a race. It's you own blood, and everyone's body already oxygenates your blood, that's why you have lungs. All you are doing is using what you already have to increase your performance. There is no 100% they can prove you did this, so why doesn't everyone do it? Simple answer, it is against the rules, Lance Armstrong can attest to that.

[Sebazy]

And yet, as with the blood doping comparison, you understand the basics, but you haven't quite got it right.

People clear turn 9 without parsers

I beg to differ. All those videos and guides used by day to day average joes that are a month or two behind the content curve came about through extensive parsing and analysis. A group looking to get a clear on a savage coil turn won't simply throw themselves at it for hours on end, rather they will likely run for an evening, then dig through the data the following day to figure out what the content is actually asking of them. Even for turn 8, you will generally have at least one person parsing to work out where the group is relative to that flat dps requirement.

Also until they introduce content that cannot be cleared without the use of parsers

I suspect you are underestimating the DPS and healing requirements of Savage Coil.

[Gormogon]

For those demonising parsers as the root of all evil...

Thing is all that is subjective and everything that can be achieved can be done without the use of a parser.

A rotation will always be self explanatory as long as you're willing to take the time to read your skills and traits and organize your abilities in accordance to their procs and effects. Sure it's not a simple 1, 2, 3. Yet it's not some complicated system to figure out.
A rotation will always be a ST combo or MT combo mixed with timing of buffs, debuffs, and cc with a final mix of situational judgement calls. Simply because not all fights are gonna be tank n spank.

Also mechanics are more based on knowing what abilities are coming and how to react to them. This isn't something that parsers resolve but something akin to WoW's Deadly Boss Mod is the go to mod for those situations and I know many people relied on it for T5. Yet bosses will always be trial and error the first time around until you realize how to react to said mechanic.

It's not that parsers need to be ban it's that they are not this tool that solves every problem because in reality it doesn't. If you as a player aren't willing to read and use every tool in your arsenal then already a parser is wasted on you. Yet if you use every tool at your disposal then the parser is just as much of a waste because it does nothing for you.

I know for some players it's some quality of life thing yet overall it's a tool that is mainly gonna be used to abuse it's purpose by singling out players based on a 1 time performance regardless of gear and skill.

[Kaethra]

No a stop watch is an essential part of an athlete's program a parser is more of a quality of life thing. Nothing wrong with parsers at all but don't come on here selling the idea they are super essential to playing this game.

I'd love for you to quote where I said they were essential. I can quote several times in the thread where I've stated I haven't even used one, much less downloaded one for FFXIV. In fact the analogies I was using a stopwatch for was for a PT test. They weren't essential there either, but they were pretty damn helpful.

For those demonising parsers as the root of all evil...

As I said before, they are just bluffing and probably boarderline trolling (at worst) or trying to get attention (at best) at this point. I just linked three threads showing parser information, a literally gold mine of 'offenders' for them to report. And they aren't reporting them. So... make your judgement on their true intentions based on that.

[DishSoap]

Ok, let's drop the console thing...

VoIP - doesn't touch the game
Parser/mod/addon - touches the game, may or may not be a bad touch.

Okay if you want to make this argument you have no right to bring up "But mah PS3/PS4 users!" since if you do use a voice chat program you DO have an advantage over others that can't use said programs i.e. PS3/PS4 users. It's either okay to have an advantage or PS3/PS4 users or it isn't.