5 reasons why PS4 players need a parser in game

[Tsunenori]

Unpopular opinion warning.

Time and again players have shown that if there's something they can lord over each other they will. If it can be used to put someone down, ostracize players, or otherwise make the overall play environment more hostile and unfriendly the playerbase will find a way to do it. Any game, not just XIV. All you have to do is look at the responses in any thread about this topic to see it. It's the reason we can't have nice things, because people can't be trusted with nice things. These imaginary players everyone's talking about who are playing incredibly poorly won't improve just because there's a way to measure your damage numerically in-game. Players who want to improve will naturally seek out discussion and practice to improve, with or without a parser.

On top of that, many players misuse and misunderstand the data provided by these tools, or tunnel vision on DPSing at the expense of mechanics because they're chasing a meter. Not having a meter doesn't stop people from doing this either, but if there's an easily available metric with which to competitively measure yourself against your peers you'd best believe you'll see more of it. Not having a meter also doesn't stop a player from working to improve, especially given that there IS a tool in game to measure yourself against time-wise.

Call me a cynic, but I've seen enough damage done over the years whenever players get their hands on a new shiney toy to trust that kind of thing becoming widely available.

[shao32]

Time and again players have shown that if there's something they can lord over each other they will.

and they ask to repeat the story all over again in this game too, he... the proof we are humans after all, but im glad at least yoshi and the team put they hands in the table and say no, but i feel bad every time they have to dealt with the dam question, how many times he need to say no be clear?

[NovaLevossida]

I wish SE would stop treating the parser issue with kid gloves and a look the other way attitude. Parsers would be useful for us on consoles. However, everything else attached to the parser, including fight callouts and assisting in you in how to play your job optimally, is an unfair advantage exclusive to one platform. That crap's been going on for far too long, and it shouldn't be tolerated. Everyone having access to their fight data would be great. But a portion of the playerbase getting fighting assistance / callouts via an unofficial program? Again, take the kid gloves off and treat your customers fairly by having the decency to crack down it.

[ErikMynhier]

The problem with a Parser isn't really people may find out you suck.

Its when you plug it in and look at that lazy ass guy in your static you always assumed was garbage and way below you and you realize his crit damage......

[Jetstream_Fox]

Another one of these threads? When are people going to understand that a parser doesn't instantly promise or even guarantee increased skill. Every time I read a parser post my brain hurts.

[YitharV2]

Well, as I've stated, Yoshi-P's stance on in-game parsers is it's not happening. Whether you agree with his arguments or not, that's his stance.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/123184365?t=1h28m44s
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...arser/ddxxeua/

[Altena]

I think people should stop bringing this up - not because parsers are bad but because the current climate for the use of parsers is reasonably healthy.
I say that because the current "blind eye" approach that SE are taking toward parsers means that people still use them, and allow for an improved skill level for all (by people figuring out optimal rotations, and for self-development etc etc).. However harassment based on parsers is deemed against ToS, so this is kept at a minimum currently..

The more people talk about it, the more likely this climate will change, and potentially in a very negative way.

It sucks for PS4 players that you can't get a personal parser, but there are other tools in the game, discounting getting a friend to parse on PC for you, that give you a "decent enough" indication of how you are performing in comparison to everyone else.

[Yeol]

Having an in game parse will not make players get better. Reading your skills and using them properly will.

Parse is helpful to those who are testing different kind of openers and rotations. Wearing the same item level but with different stats to compare results, it helps to have better understanding for stats and their weights.

Rest of the community are mostly reading and implementing guides, you don't need a parse for that. Practice the rotation and go to Stone, Sky, Sea to test yourself. Would be helpful if Stone, Sky, Sea showed a summary at the end with your crit rate and number of misses since these two affect your dps the most.

[Sebazy]

The issue here is finding a means to promote good standards of play that balances the wishes and styles of both sides of the community.

SSS was a bust in this regard, it's irrelevant to current content (I see it as an answer to Gordias, but I doubt we will see the likes that again, it'll be very interesting to see clear statistics between A4S and A12S) and there's no incentive to use it. Perhaps a better way of looking at this is to consider a way to take the toolkit SSS offers and apply it in a more useful and prominent way.

Perhaps a good compromise here would be to require a player to speak to the SSS npc to get parsed in their next instance? Stone, Sky, Sea, Satchel!

Incentives are a little trickier though, my immediate first thought would be to add achievements for hitting high numbers in various bits of content, but that would fail almost immediately at the first hurdle due to how more casual players will view that. A more balanced approach might be to throw it in the saucer and reward some MGP for getting a 'daily parse'.

I'll openly admit that something like this isn't going to make players better by itself, but then no one approach is ever going to achieve that alone, rather the idea here is to set the spark of interest that gets the ball rolling, thus hopefully getting a better percentage of the player base taking some interest and care in their performance in team content. Couple this with other angles such as content that showcases new abilities as you get them and the ARR trick of using 4 man dungeon bosses to demonstrate EX/Savage mechanics in a more forgiving form and I genuinely think it would be a good step forward towards bringing the player base closer together. They managed a great job of this with ARR's launch and I firmly believe Yoshida can do it again <3

Finally, the key here is finding a good compromise between both sides of the coin, flat out wishing that parsing was gone is as much of a disservice to the community as wanting to throw logs rankings on the front page of the lodestone. Having optional, discrete and non gated but reasonably incentivised content that can help players to improve can only a good thing in my eyes.

[XiXiQ]

I think I know why SE don't want parsers, and we'll likely never see them in game. It's not a level playing field, and never will be. You can have the same player, same skill, parse them at sub 50ms, then at 150/200/300. There will be a marked difference based on ping alone.