Would you like an in-game parser?

[Launched]

I dunno the idea that someone is monitoring my game play constantly whether they comment on it or not just makes me feel uncomfortable and it would distract from my enjoyment of the game.

Plenty of people can tell when you're playing incorrectly, even without a parser. I'm watching everyone in the party anyway, a parser would just let me say "You're doing 500 dps less than you should be in that gear, let me help you improve", and I'd have proof so they can't say "I'm playing my job correctly".

[Reynhart]

Plenty of people can tell when you're playing incorrectly, even without a parser. I'm watching everyone in the party anyway, a parser would just let me say "You're doing 500 dps less than you should be in that gear, let me help you improve", and I'd have proof so they can't say "I'm playing my job correctly".

However, it would also allow some to say "Hey, you're doing 100 dps less than you should to be with us" even though they're "playing their job correctly"

[KarstenS]

Parsers are not the magical wand that will fix all problems in FFXIV.

It will not fix them. Thats correct.

But it will finally make them visible.

Thats an important step.

Before you can fix a problem, you have to recognize it at first. Its not possible to do the second step without the first one.

[Kaurie]

It doesn't matter how many people here care. This is polling FFXIV players that bother to come to the forums that speak English that only care about a parser one way or another to even click on the thread to read it. It's like going to an elementary school on a hot day and asking the kids "Do you like chocolate ice cream, vanilla ice cream, or do you not want any?"

Sure, the data is obviously biased, but that doesn't make it useless. Can we say definitively that the majority of players want a parser? No. However, there have been a lot of discussions on the forums about parsers and there is a large vocal userbase who cries out against it. It is interesting to see that in sheer numbers on this community, the number of players who wants a parser is larger than not. This information could help Square read the previous data from other threads on the subject. It also could simply show Square that there is likely a significant interest for a parser. In other words, no it gives no definitive answers, but it does give information - which is still useful.

So the servers would have to constantly calculate the average DPS for every ilvl for every job across all servers and display it every... how often are we proposing here? 1 minute? 30 seconds? 20 minutes? Even if you change that to an ilvl bracket that's a lot of data the servers would have to be constantly tracking.

Why would you need to have it calculated this often? These calculations are already taking place. The server knows what ilvl we are, what damage we are doing etc. I cannot imagine this being a heavy load on the server - but they could simply have a rolling average calculated in a daily basis, during off-peak times.

I can't imagine that what you're asking for is a trivial task for any server or group of servers. I can't even begin to imagine how many attacks are being made with dots and everything every second in game. Then having to link that data to ilvl and weapon ilvl for every single character online then finally average it all out. The amount of processing power for every interval that the servers are polled for such data, assuming they are even logging it at all, and asked to compile it into a meaningful form can't be trivial.

Look, I don't want to imply that all "proparsers" are horrible evil people. I just feel that parsers can potentially do much more harm than good and the sort of fight club (First rule of parsing is you don't talk about parsing) status of them currently is the best way for it. Either way, Parsers are not the magical wand that will fix all problems in FFXIV as many of the "proparsers" in this thread seem to think they are. I honestly don't think I could enjoy the game with a public parser available to everyone and I know it's a horrible example, but this is the feeling that comes to mind:

Let's say the US government implements an opt in Anti-Terrorist plan where you can have microphones installed in certain rooms of your home (bedrooms and bathrooms omitted, naturally) and a website would track and parse partial logs of what happened in your house to prove you are not a terrorist and everything. Well, you have nothing to hide so you opt in because OMG terrorism is scary right. Then one day you're at the line at the supermarket and some guy says, "So I heard about you yellin' at your kid for not doing his homework the other day." Wouldn't that weird you out?

I dunno the idea that someone is monitoring my game play constantly whether they comment on it or not just makes me feel uncomfortable and it would distract from my enjoyment of the game.

I dislike your analogy, because the main reason a parser is useful, is that you are working together as a team to overcome something. In virtually every other team-based environment, performance metrics are monitored and posted. For example, in hockey games, your shots on net, saves, hits, goals, points, time on ice, time on offensive, +/- (etc.) are all recorded and posted for you to see. In a work environment, your performance metrics are undoubtedly recorded (i.e. sales numbers, revenue, expenses, clients, satisfaction rate etc.). In these situations, it is important to have these metrics visible by all for two major reasons. First, your performance often affects your team, and thus it is important to your teammates to know your strengths/weaknesses, where you can improve etc. Second, having this information sparks competition, which is an excellent motivator to improve.

In a game like this, where everyone is working towards a common goal, and there is no parser present. It provides a system which does not promote accountability, cooperation, nor competition. It is in everyone's best interest to let their teammates carry them, so they can receive maximum reward, with minimal effort. This is a well studied principal of human behaviour, and is pretty much the cornerstone of our economy.

I get that you may feel uncomfortable being held accountable, but equally so many people feel that players who are not held accountable distract from their enjoyment of the game as well.

[Reiryuu]

Plenty of people can tell when you're playing incorrectly, even without a parser. I'm watching everyone in the party anyway, a parser would just let me say "You're doing 500 dps less than you should be in that gear, let me help you improve", and I'd have proof so they can't say "I'm playing my job correctly".

You can tell when someone trips and falls while walking down the street too, but that doesn't mean you're going to tell them exactly what they were doing at 5:32PM or exactly how many calories they ate for breakfast this morning.

[Kaurie]

You can tell when someone trips and falls while walking down the street too, but that doesn't mean you're going to tell them exactly what they were doing at 5:32PM or exactly how many calories they ate for breakfast this morning.

Yes, but none of what you are saying has any impact on those people (how many calories you ate, you yelling at your kid for not doing homework). These metrics don't affect the people in your analogies at all. Your DPS does affect the people in your party.

[Reiryuu]

For example, in hockey games, your shots on net, saves, hits, goals, points, time on ice, time on offensive, +/- (etc.) are all recorded and posted for you to see. In a work environment, your performance metrics are undoubtedly recorded (i.e. sales numbers, revenue, expenses, clients, satisfaction rate etc.). In these situations, it is important to have these metrics visible by all for two major reasons. First, your performance often affects your team, and thus it is important to your teammates to know your strengths/weaknesses, where you can improve etc. Second, having this information sparks competition, which is an excellent motivator to improve.

But in each of those situations I'm actually getting paid to put up with said evaluations. I am paying to play a video game here. While I do the best I can, I'm certainly not going to cry if Tommy the Tank can't get out of his dungeon 3 seconds faster because I am not pissing through my mp by spamming holy with Presence of Mind up. Can Tommy the tank tell I'm not doing that without a parser? Sure. Will Tommy the Tank be able to wave numbers in my face of all his buddy whms that do 100dps more than me to finish the dungeon 3 seconds faster? Nope.

I am sorry to say this, but it is people like you who make me avoid raiding. I don't like being a burden and I am extremely self conscious of what I do. As I said, I play the game for entertainment and enjoyment. If I want stress and scrutiny over my every move I'll go to work where I get paid for that.

[Launched]

You can tell when someone trips and falls while walking down the street too, but that doesn't mean you're going to tell them exactly what they were doing at 5:32PM or exactly how many calories they ate for breakfast this morning.

But your employer would point out that you spend 2 hours a week browsing a forum instead of doing work, because that actually affects other people.

[Reiryuu]

But your employer would point out that you spend 2 hours a week browsing a forum instead of doing work, because that actually affects other people.

Because I am totally at work right now at 11:49PM, online waiting for a FATE to spawn for stupid beasttribe quests.

[Kaurie]

But in each of those situations I'm actually getting paid to put up with said evaluations. I am paying to play a video game here.

The hockey one, you are not getting paid - unless you are a professional hockey player. However, in plenty of leagues, you pay for entry.

The important note is not who is paying what, it is if and how your actions affect your teammates.

When I am teamed up with a player who is pressing 1 over and over again, or setting someone on auto-follow and afking, or whatever. I don't care that I am paying x dollars per month, or that they are paying x dollars per month. I care that they are in a team environment and not playing as a team.

While I do the best I can, I'm certainly not going to cry if Tommy the Tank can't get out of his dungeon 3 seconds faster because I am not pissing through my mp by spamming holy with Presence of Mind up. Can Tommy the tank tell I'm not doing that without a parser? Sure. Will Tommy the Tank be able to wave numbers in my face of all his buddy whms that do 100dps more than me to finish the dungeon 3 seconds faster? Nope.

This seems needlessly antagonistic. I also feel you have a very poor understanding of how changes in DPS affect the speed of a run. For example, a run will be ~20 minutes. DPS for the team will be ~3200. If you increase that by 100 DPS, then you are now moving 3% faster. At 20 minutes, that works out to 36 seconds faster. That said, a 100 increase in DPS is fairly minimal, and generally not the kind of thing we are talking about in this thread.

Further, having higher DPS can often help push phases which may slow you down even more (i.e. skipping the 2nd frog phase on the first boss in Anti-Tower, or the 2nd dollhouse, etc.)

(as a side note, a healer can easily exceed 1.2k DPS on AoE with Holy or dots/bane or gravity)

I am sorry to say this, but it is people like you who make me avoid raiding. I don't like being a burden and I am extremely self conscious of what I do. As I said, I play the game for entertainment and enjoyment. If I want stress and scrutiny over my every move I'll go to work where I get paid for that.

I have zero idea why you would avoid raiding because of people like me. Do you care to elaborate?

In terms of raiding, I would say that you will want to take your performance seriously. That said, try to find a team with like-minded individuals. It sounds like you'd want a casual team, one that can laugh it off when you wipe etc. Regardless, you do have 7 other people who are depending on you, and that should be motivation enough to bring your A game. For me, at least, I hate the idea of screwing up in raid.