Would you like an in-game parser?

[Kaurie]

I think the analogies of school grades are pretty accurate. Everyone gets a number from a test and they have a right to not show it to their peers. This could be a different case in your country. I've seen pupils afraid or attention for both good and bad grades, annoyed by their not-high-enough-grade, satisfied with their grade, bullied for their grade, congratulated for their grade, unable to get a higher grade because of their mental limitations, unable to get a higher grade because they just don't put in enough effort to practice, and getting ridiculously competitive over grades. Now bear in mind, everyone knows what the best grade, the lowest grade and the average grades are because the grading system is known to all. There is no need to compare to peers because the scale is already known. Everyone has extensive experience getting graded. Yet, that doesn't change the fact that half the people don't get the grade that represents "good" performance. Knowing their previous grade very rarely resulted in a better grade next time as far as I saw. Even in the case of co-operative projects and tasks that affect every team member's grade, people performed at their usual level.

In terms of school grades being posted, this depended on the grade/teacher/school for me. I specifically remember my Chemistry 11 grades being posted and my buddy saying "YES I BEAT <my name>!" look at grades and it was like 92.01% vs 92.02% or something stupid.

In terms of an analogy, this is just as bad as the rest - it leaves out a crucial criteria for which I mentioned. This is a cooperative game, so the numbers that we have actually affect those around us - whereas my grade in school had no effect on my peers.

There is also another major factor, where the desire to do better in grades is fueled by more than just bragging rights or finishing faster (like DPS in FFXIV). People want to do well in school as it opens more opportunities for careers, universities and so on.

Maybe this is why I can't take very seriously the ambitious goal of "improving the player base as a whole" when we're talking about public parsers in DF. Has there ever been a case where the public visibility of grades made the whole school get A-grades or even Bs? I doubt it. Peer pressure does not affect everyone and it's effect diminishes the older we get. There is also a gender difference: males are affected by peer pressure more than females are. On average, males become more competitive and more engaged in the activity when there is competition involved, whereas females do not and in some cases become mentally withdrawn and disinterested in the activity. Some people do not flourish in a competitive environment and it would be unfair to give them no choice in this regard (i.e. the ability to choose to show their numbers / choose the content without public parsers / choose groups without public parsers). This is not even taking in to account bullying or test phobia, just regular people who do a bit worse and enjoy it less when it's a competition. Competition also doesn't just mean people getting rewards. It's a situation where people can be put in order from worse to better in some way, like based on dps numbers. Asking people to avoid the subconscious effects of a competitive atmosphere (negative or positive) is not realistic and hence we need to allow people to avoid such an environment altogether as they have been able to so far.

This is difficult to compare directly, as they are completely different circumstances. We would need to have a sample of students who go through school and are only told that they have either passed or failed, with no metrics to tell by how much. We'd then need to compare that with a sample of students who are given their grades. We'd then need a sample of students who had grades psoted. We could then test for any correlations on performance per group. We'd then need to re-create this study several times over before coming to any significant conclusion. That said, I am fairly certain in a classroom where you are given pass/fail and no visible percent/grades, the students would perform worse.

I also wonder if there is an effect to performance when people know or don't know how well they personally did. I recall Sweden having schools where pupils were not given grades at all, but other kinds of feedback. I would be interested to know if there are studies that have measured change or difference in the pupils' performance compared to ones that know their grades. If there is no change or difference then that would make me believe it's not the grade itself that helps people learn but rather the quality of teaching and cultivating internal motivation.

We could compare cross countries, but then there are more things at play than simply if the classroom provides grades or not. We're now allowing plenty of outside factors affect the outcome and to skew the data. That said, it sounds like we would both be interested in said studies.