The Real Problem with Parsers

[SpookyGhost]

While I agree broadly with your points.

The 'tactful' example, is very passive-aggressive. Some people find that worse. Meh.

An easy way I've found for saying 'dont do this' is to just say what the problem is and making sure everyone is aware of it:

"We can't have the death zone on the healers, so please everyone watch out for that when it goes out"

Or something like that.

[Viridiana]

Anything I ever said about that and they continued doing it. Didn't affect the run in any way, but it made me sad to see it happen. Majority seems to be pretty chill about random tips, though.

Better than when I tried it. The GLA in my group dropped when I mentioned it right before the final boss of Toto-Rak. Wound up ROG tanking.

[Cynfael]

In my own experience, I've found that a depressingly large number of people seem to ignore or be offended by even the most gently-phrased feedback, which is part of why I want parsers to be an easily accessible part of the game client in some form.

Might not make a difference for the players who are completely out to lunch and wouldn't notice or care about the addition, but perhaps a few of those who are trying in their own way (but who are full-on defensive in regards to anything other players have to say) might look at game data and go "Oh, ok...I guess the numbers don't agree that what I'm doing is the best option."

[Blitzace]

Just had a lovely dungeon. I left out of frustration wiping 5 times on the last boss(The vault)

Lets put it this way, DMG being dealt, 49% was from me. We had a SMN That stood dead center in the middle, Eating the debuffs from the moving horses, We got chained, I ran to the edge, and as he was standing a little off the center towards me so the chain didn't break. We wiped due to the lack of DPS healer was running out of MP And died.

For some magical reason i got blamed for not breaking the chains.

People just love pointing out the finger to someone else, And as i did not mention the DPS from the SMN(Who by the way was out dpsed by our PLD) i know where the problem was and all i said was, We(Keyword WE) DPS need to put out more DMG in that phase. I'm not gonna be like OMFG YOU'RE ONLY DOING THIS MUCH DMg?! No i'm just stating we need more DMG and try to motivate him to do a better job, Even though he was blaming his mistakes on me. So yeah, i like parser and you'll have dicks with it, but thats the game

And you do not need parser to find out the root of the problem btw, Its usually quite obvious if you pay attention.With or without parser, People will take a offense in you saying they should step up their game for the group.

[Linadae]

I have no problem with parsers provided they only show you your own numbers and not anyone else. Coming from WoW I've found that parsers tend to...well enable people to be jerks and the community is already toxic enough without more help.

And to those who feel disabled people shouldn't play if they can't get better, I feel that's a really terrible attitude to take. My mother who is 66 years old plays and not only are her reflexes slowing, but her hand eye coordination and memory isn't as good as it used to be. She tries to get better but as an elderly person she is reaching her skill limits.

However I would NEVER suggest she quit playing because she enjoys the game and has been lucky enough to find a FC willing to put out the extra effort to help her through Alexander and other dungeons.

[Elazu]

Coming from WoW I've found that parsers tend to...well enable people to be jerks

Pretty sure there is a video posted in this very thread proving you wrong.

[Aiselia]

Pretty sure there is a video posted in this very thread proving you wrong.

Pretty sure that one person going into some runs is hardly proof of anything, especially from a game with millions of people.

Unless that video showed him partying with literally every single person in the game, it's no more objective proof than anybody giving their own experience with the game.

[Senfei]

Nothing wrong with parsing. If you think parsing is going to to turn an otherwise well adjusted, wonderfully nice and friendly player into a raving maniac who demands you increase your dps by 5.7% or face the votekick wrath, you are delusional. Someone who is rude is gonna be rude, they don't need a parser to justify themselves.

I may or may not have parsed a Sohm today DPSing as a 54 Bard and with a Monk as my dps co-pilot. They may or may not have achieved numbers around 20% over what my auto attacks do. If all this parser fear mongering were true, I would have supposedly gone super saiyan rage EX god mode and exploded my keyboard with insults and votekick attempts. Fortunately since that is stupid and never happens, I just whined to my FC about how slow the run was and finished. The End.

[Erim-Nelhah]

I have no problem with parsers provided they only show you your own numbers and not anyone else. Coming from WoW I've found that parsers tend to...well enable people to be jerks and the community is already toxic enough without more help.

And to those who feel disabled people shouldn't play if they can't get better, I feel that's a really terrible attitude to take. My mother who is 66 years old plays and not only are her reflexes slowing, but her hand eye coordination and memory isn't as good as it used to be. She tries to get better but as an elderly person she is reaching her skill limits.

However I would NEVER suggest she quit playing because she enjoys the game and has been lucky enough to find a FC willing to put out the extra effort to help her through Alexander and other dungeons.

I would agree with your sentiment, if I thought the community was truly toxic. You'd think, from the frequency of posts about toxic players, the community is very toxic...but for every such post, there might be 10 parties that could have warranted one....and hundreds or even thousands that didn't. If parsers change this, it won't be much - if you want an example, the video linked a few pages back is an excellent one, showing how someone could, in a game with parsers, get carried through any DF-style content. PF would be a bit different, I think, but PF groups can also afford to be more selective, and can post their requirements in the comment. And IMO, if someone doesn't meet those requirements and joins anyway, they deserve what they get. I personally would like to think I wouldn't be rude about it, but I know people who would.

As for the second part of your comment...I don't think that anyone here has said that people who physically can't do great dps shouldn't play. The closest I think was said is that such people shouldn't be playing with other random people in content they know they can't pull the numbers for. IE if you can't do 600 DPS and know it, you shouldn't be joining a Bismarck EX party in the PF unless you know they're good with that.

--Erim Nelhah

[Clarkamite]

Nothing wrong with parsing. If you think parsing is going to to turn an otherwise well adjusted, wonderfully nice and friendly player into a raving maniac who demands you increase your dps by 5.7% or face the votekick wrath, you are delusional. Someone who is rude is gonna be rude, they don't need a parser to justify themselves.

No no no, that's incorrect. If you have a parser you could literally be Mr. Rogers and the nicest guy or gal in the world but the second you turn it on you turn into The Incredible Hulk and just start breaking faces. Everyone knows this.