An Alternative? to parsers..

[Gemina]

Yeah uhm... I'm all for this and everything, but I still think the vast majority of people who are against parsers, are actually against it because they don't want to be held accountable for how much they might potentially be SUCKING. All that talk about how it would make players "more toxic" is just a cover argument.

Alternatives to parsing are nice. But in the end there's really only two types of players - those who care about how much damage they're doing, and those who don't. And in the latter group you will find those who are worried other people might find out how BAD they are. Or in this case, it's the actual GAME telling them they need to step things up. They don't want that. They don't want to improve. That is the only reason to oppose personal damage parsers or any other variant.

You do realize that someone against parsers can just as easily state that the only reason why you want them is to identify 'bad' players so you can trim the fat? Yoshi is against them, so by your definition, he is a bad player who doesn't care to improve? You make it sound like toxicity in the game is just in the imaginations of sucky players.

A safer assumption would be that casual players who don't care about how much damage they are causing or improving don't enter content where this is required. There will always be those who want to be carried through content, and I will point that a parser isn't going to help you identify this player. It's only going to point out who is doing the least amount of damage, and that player could be putting in the maximum effort they are capable of.

Of course these players are worried. Why wouldn't they be? They are not worried about being a bad player though. They are worried about being excluded from content they want to clear due to someone else's arbitrary standards.

As far as grades go. I think it would be a cool little feature, but it could never substitute the data a parser provides, so it isn't really an alternative but rather something new. I like the idea.