Quote Originally Posted by Preypacer View Post
The question is "Do players in this game, FFXIV, need the parsers to clear content? Are parsers necessary?"

And the answer to that question - definitively and verifiably - is no, they aren't. Players have been clearing the content just fine without them for almost 3 years now - and doing so pretty darn quickly in many cases
Is it so clear as that? Players have been clearing content without an official parser for three years. That much is demonstrably true, but it doesn't mean they haven't been using unofficial parsers. Certainly at least some groups have - the evidence may be found in many publicly available kill videos.

SE have a vested interest in improving the skill level of the player base. The better people are, the more of the content they will do and the longer the game will hold their interest (and therefore their subscription). If one defines that which "the game needs" as that which will keep its population as high as possible, then the game needs a player base that is capable of playing all of the game.

I agree that giving the player base access to officially sanctioned group parsing would put a tool in the hands of those who would abuse it (and sadly I think that that group outnumbers those that would use it to help others). In fact I am almost completely happy with the current state regarding parsers (i.e. yes, but don't talk about it except among friends), with the sole exception that it disadvantages PS4 players. So I support implementation of an official DPS readout for personal use.

For the purposes of seeing how good one's numbers are, perhaps SE could also implement an anonymised built-in leaderboard (basically an anonymous version of fflogs) that would show you where you stand relative to other players on the same job doing the same content and at similar iLvl. That would be a more useful benchmark than the other players in the party anyway.