Parsers make you stupid

[Averax]

I hated them in wow. They caused people to develop the most poisonous of attitudes. People got booted from heroic dungeons (not very hard) for not performing up to people's liking, even though things were dying (and in wow people don't pay attention to vote kicks and will blindly click them).

It made me so self conscious about myself that i had to download one just to know that i'm performing well.

I'm glad that they're not allowed here, but i wish it was more enforced. It's currently "if you have it, don't talk about it" but people talk about them all the time.

[m3eansean]

It made me so self conscious about myself that i had to download one just to know that i'm performing well.

You should be self-conscious. This is a group activity. IRL, if you are on a team or at work and see that you are clearly under-performing compared to your colleagues, most human beings would attempt to better themselves so they don't feel the shame of letting the group down. Why can't this aspect of social behavior be extended to a game where you must socialize to succeed?

[Eye_Gore]

IRL, if you are on a team or at work and see that you are clearly under-performing compared to your colleagues, most human beings would attempt to better themselves so they don't feel the shame of letting the group down.

That depends on the pay scale

[Averax]

You should be self-conscious. This is a group activity. IRL, if you are on a team or at work and see that you are clearly under-performing compared to your colleagues, most human beings would attempt to better themselves so they don't feel the shame of letting the group down. Why can't this aspect of social behavior be extended to a game where you must socialize to succeed?

You have a point, but in a group full of random people it really doesn't matter so long as things are progressing smoothly.

In a savage progression group, they do fulfill a purpose because if someone is dragging the group down it helps to know who. But if you're not doing progression, it shouldn't matter. (because if things are going sour outside of savage it's probably a problem with more than one person).

Personal parsers would be great so you can know how well that you alone are doing, without having to compare yourself to others. Then again, you're probably not going to perform to your maximum potential in any given fight due to how movement heavy they can be. People might start standing in bad stuff in an attempt to maximize themselves.

I had a DRG doing that the other day on the last boss of Fractal continuum, he wouldn't move away from the boss unless there were adds, he stood on active pads and bombs in an attempt to maximize his dps, thus causing the rest of the group to suffer for every bomb he stepped on.

TLDR: People who are focused on their dps output aren't focused on their environment.

[Reinha]

Some people say public parsers should be allowed because otherwise dps players have it much easier than tanks and healers whos performance can easily be judged. The way I see it, tanks and healers have it easier (at least outside savage) because when they get to certain skill level the only way to improve is to help another role (dps). Dps however has no "skill cap" to reach, and people demand more and more so that runs go faster.

Tank skills: (can't use cd or hold aggro)---------------(holds aggro and uses cd)

Healer skills: (heals too little, people die)-------------(heals enough without overhealing)

Dps skills: (too little dps, enrage)-----------------------(does enough dps)--------(more dps)----(more dps)----(more dps)--->

The problem with pugs is that if they are parsing they will demand higher than "enough dps", especially if the content has been out for a long time. I saw dps complaints regularly in Crystal Tower when I first started playing, even though the groups never wiped to enrage. This is why I don't think the game should ever allow public parsers. It would be used for measuring epeen, harassing others and demanding dps performance above the requirement. A personal parser however would be fine and it could even discourage people from downloading the group parsers, and therefore reduce the negative effects I described above.

[FaileExperiment]

You should be self-conscious. This is a group activity. IRL, if you are on a team or at work and see that you are clearly under-performing compared to your colleagues, most human beings would attempt to better themselves so they don't feel the shame of letting the group down. Why can't this aspect of social behavior be extended to a game where you must socialize to succeed?

That's horrible. No game should ever make someone feel shame at not meeting other's arbitrary expectations. wtf is that? You want that?

[Assirra]

That's horrible. No game should ever make someone feel shame at not meeting other's arbitrary expectations. wtf is that? You want that?

You can choose to not be part of it you know.

Also, multiplayer games rely on you know, people working together.

[FaileExperiment]

You can choose to not be part of it you know.

Also, multiplayer games rely on you know, people working together.

absolutely. but people working together to accomplish something has nothing to do with shaming people, of all things in a game, and then thinking that is not only fine, but desirable. Totally messed up thinking. In fact, quite the opposite of being sociable and working together.

[Kona_Nightwind]

That's horrible. No game should ever make someone feel shame at not meeting other's arbitrary expectations. wtf is that? You want that?

It's called the real world, not the we don't keep score, everones a winner, and gets a participation trophy crappie forced on kids today. Now I have to put up with kids that expect to be carried and run crying reporting harassment because someone was mean. The truth is regardless of it being a video game these are real people and no one wants to carry dead weight.

[Fendred]

However, the only way to know for certain if you are doing well as a damage dealer is to have a good parser and a rotation guide. Over the years, a lot of us WoW vets developed a type of "common MMO sense" for doing damage because everyone used the same general combat system. New players who have never played an MMORPG before are left to the mercy of their gaming background. Some experiences will transfer well to a theme park MMORPG like FFXIV:ARR, while others don't hold up.

As long as damage dealer is a role and enrage mechanics are present, parsers will become indispensable tools for conquering hard content. There really is no way around it.