Letter to MR Yoshi: Why parses system is destroying the ffxiv world.

[HyoMinPark]

I was just asking myself today when another thread about parsers would come up... because it has been a while.

The concept of parsing in-game is damaging our community and taking all the fun from this game, I always thought the concept of playing videogames is to have fun and online games should create a jubilant sense of aggregation among people, sharing achievements and cheer about but with the parses obsession many gamers have all of that is gone and replaced by a community of selfish people that care only about themselves and numbers

What is fun for one person may or may not be fun for someone else, and it really isn’t up to you or anyone else to attempt to give it a one-size-fits-all definition. For example, you don’t enjoy chasing your numbers, but others do; I know several personally that wouldn’t be subscribed if they weren’t chasing numbers after clearing Savage content. I am among them. I am, however, aware that others do not enjoy that sort of play. The difference, though, is that I don’t try to tell them that their “fun” is wrong or “not actually fun”.

I mean on PF lately the situation degenerated.

PF has always been hit or miss, especially when it comes to current Savage and Extremes. That’s nothing new.

Nobody cares anymore about the game itself

Source? Plenty of people must care about the game to still be subscribed. Don’t speak in absolutes.

I doubt many people still have fun and most important they take all the fun out from passionate players like me.

What makes people who enjoy chasing numbers not passionate players? If anything, I think they are extremely passionate, especially the ones who min-max the jobs they play, create guides for properly playing jobs for others, and who create guides for specific things like BiS builds, higher-end fights, etc..

I personally have a lot of fun min-maxing my job; it keeps content I’ve done over and over again interesting, and it gives me a reason and a goal to continue to run it. But again, I know that that isn’t fun for everyone, and I don’t attempt to define it as such.

As I said above, it’s not up to you or anyone else to define what each individual player finds fun. You talk about others “taking the fun out” of the game for you (or, “passionate players like [you]”, but what you’re doing is attempting to take the fun out of the game for other people. How is that fair?

Gamers greed, greed and greed, I don't see NINs use Shadewalker to help the tanks is ages, or anyone use enmity decreaser anymore, I see people argue about who gets the dragoon DS or PLDs forget about their interventions or other defensive single/raid wide skils, also most of the players don't use stuff like Adle, Reprisal, Feint. Sometimes in a simple weekly clear we need to wipe 3/4 times because of a melee greed on extra skills or they just get killed on basic stuff, the examples could be uncountable.

Literally what you’re describing here is just bad play. That’s not a side-effect of parsers; that’s a side effect of the game itself being too easy up until content like Savage or Extreme; a side effect of people not bothering to read their tooltips; a side effect of people just being lazy.

People who actively parse correctly are not the ones failing to use their toolkits to the full extent. That’s generally the people that either have little experience in content that actually requires those mechanics, people that have little experience on a specific job, or people that are just flat-out lazy/just flat-out don’t care.

For healers like me, it's even worst because all pressure is on you and people judge you not for your abilities or effectiveness on solving a crisis or save others from their own mistakes but for the amount of damage you deal, I mean it is easy to heal in a perfect party but a good healer you see it in difficult times!

Healers should always be casting, be it heals or DPS spells. Everyone else has to be pressing buttons 100% of the time; healers are no exception. The healer DPS debate has long since been settled—if you are comfortable in a piece of content, you should contribute to DPS when you aren’t healing. No fight in this game requires 100% healing uptime; not even the Ultimate fights.

The concept of BIS that everybody is crazy about it's pointless for healers and tanks because what really matters I think are their skills of adapting and solving.

How is the concept of BiS pointless for tanks or healers? It increases their main and sub-stats, which in turn increases defense, healing output, and DPS output. You’re right that skill means more than gear—an unskilled person in i370 is less valuable than a skilled person in i360–but to say its pointless is incorrect, I’m sorry.

The parses don't tell how many people ignore mechs or get hit by laser, beams, missiles or whatever when they shouldn't.

Usually they do, though—it’s call the death-count.

That being said, the game itself doesn’t do a great job of teaching you to abide by mechanics until you get to harder content where it actually begins to punish you.

I can keep everybody alive and do a great job with 2500 or 1000 Crit, with or without food doesn't really matter but sometimes I am forced to heal alone because the other healer wants a purple log and that's not fair!

Nothing in this game is too difficult for a single healer to solo-heal, save for maybe Ultimate (though it has been done before). But since you’re talking about supposed DPS-greedy healers, that playstyle won’t fly in there.

Are you certain that your co-healer is focusing on DPS and not trying to help heal? It’s very common that I get stuck with healers that completely overheal over all the heals I have done (this is extremely common when I’m rolling regens, and I get co-healers that will not let my regens tick up and straight-up overheal over them), so I just stop healing. Because they’re completely invalidating the work I’m doing. Is this what’s happening?

Same concept if someone wants to level up a new class FOR FUN or because it's an enjoyable new challenge, it's not possible because others treat you bad. I mean nobody can't deal 5/6 k of DPS with ALL their classes but still if you don't you get kicked!

What are you even talking about? No one cares about numbers in dungeons. The only thing I’ve noticed people actually care about is party members AOEing large pulls, tanks popping cooldowns, and healers not just standing around doing nothing. DPS only matters in Extreme, Savage, and Ultimate content, which have even more lenient DPS checks than they ever had in the past. 5k DPS for a DPS job is average in the current tier of gear, so if you aren’t doing at least that, then you are not ready for the higher-end content. Even if you are inexperienced, if you join a farm or a weekly clear on a job for Extreme/Savage, you are expected to have a fairly decent understanding of how the job functions. Low DPS is usually a sign of inexperience, barring other factors like extremely underleveled gear.

Same when you release some amazing new EX trial if someone fancy to farm it to get new weapons or to just play, you can't because they expect you to be a top player with their class or they throw you away. Long story short, the parses system create a real sort of DISCRIMINATION in the ffxiv world and that's really sad.

How is it discrimination? Are these players actively trying? Have they cleared the content before joining a farm party, or have they not cleared and are attempting to sneak in? The latter has been an extremely common occurrence in my experience (anecdote, I know), and nothing is more frustrating than someone who hasn’t cleared a piece of content joining a party with an explicit objective to farm said content and expecting that party to carry them.

We are in 2018 and still, it happens, if not for your skin colour or your social status or the clothes you wear, now even playing a game it happens...This system should be changed and I hope you will do something about.

Mother of God... do not liken this to discrimination based on skin color, social status, or clothing worn. There isn’t even an equivalent ground between the three you listed here, much less between them and this supposed “parser discrimination”.

[Claviusnex]

A few less run on sentences and paragraphs would sure help reading your post.

In any event I don't use parsers and have never been called out for my performance by people who might be using them. In fact this game is the only one I've played where I've never seen someone trolled because of parser output. I will admit I question why some of the PF listings calling for BiS or other high level gear for raids/dungeons that are cakewalks with lower level stuff. I figure they are more serious players so aren't the type of folks I like to play with anyway. For the harder stuff I can understand wanting a minimum ilvl or gear selection but am of the mind it is up to the party leader to decide what they are looking for not for me to demand I be shoehorned in. After all there are many PF listings that don't care so why get upset over an easily solve problem.

[Lazlo69]

Ugh…another one of these? Man…some things will never change. Though I doubt you will come back as this seems to be a one-off post, let’s address some things.

I know you’re new to these forums, perhaps, but…what a conceited statement. How are players who use parsers any less passionate than players who don’t use it? Like, what does this even mean? About your posts about skill not being used…what in the world does that have to do with parsers? That point alone runs completely counter to what you are addressing – ideally, for example, NINs would throw Shadewalker on tanks to allow them to stay in their DPS stance. So…what does this have to do with parsers?

Actually…having read through your entire post multiple times, very little of it has anything at all to do with parsing. Leveling up for fun? And don’t get me started on that ridiculous assessment that you said about skin color and discrimination and the like. Maybe this post seems a bit harsh, but this post has little to do with parsers and everything else to do with bad players, inexperience, and lack of hoals in the game.

I invite you to respond and explain yourself. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

edit: Dang, I thought I would've beaten others to this post first. Why are people in the habit to kicking up hornet's nests these days?

I'm new here... though I should be used to this kind of dumb posting from OW and playing wow for a few years

[Odstarva]

While I can understand where you are coming from, (PTSD of a few runs with a friend that wanted orange parses, as a healer, letting me and other casters die because LET THE THE OTHER HEAL SOLO HEAL I WANT MY DPS) you must understand that although that minority does exist, and can be quite obnoxious to deal with, they are indeed a minority.

The vast majority of players who use parsers will likely not identify themselves as using one to begin with.


While I cannot condone it's usage (and I totally don't, trust me!), I can say that if I did (which I really don't! /wink) I'd use it to find whether I am above the average or not, what it is that I should be doing or could be doing to improve and be more useful to my party.

On that note, you'd be surprised how many different rotations and openers can be a DPS buff to your party as opposed to just yourself.


And again, I understand where some of the frustration may be coming from. As a summoner, although I'm not a fan of it, I will compromise my own dps if I have to raise someone who died to a mechanic, assuming the healers have swiftcast on cooldown.
Likewise, I will compromise on a dps gain and stun as a monk if for some reason the tank goofed it and used it when they shouldn't.

I've met a few testosterone-fueled warriors that refuse to put up their tank stance because MY FELL CLEAVES, and I've met more than a few blackmages who will happily risk compromising a clear if it means a few more numbers, but they are far and few in between in my subjective experience. Plus, if push came to shove I can just avoid them and play with someone else - and that is my advice to you OP. Don't expect the devs to try to change how players play the game, instead adapt and don't let people ruin your fun - and likewise try not to ruin their fun.

[Sigma-Astra]

Since parsing isn't a tool given to XIV and a third-party program, there's really no such thing as an in-game parse when, technically, we're not suppose to be using it, and furthermore, it's not discrimination unless someone is actually belittling or harassing you inside the game by trying to name and shame your numbers. You cannot possibly relate 2018 social issues inside of an MMO world, not only does that play you out to be a fool, but someone who seriously reacts emotionally rather than logically towards a situation that they dislike first.

Also, fun is subjective for everyone. Your idea of fun is not the same for the next person and that needs to be taken into account. By suggesting that you are unhappy, this thread isn't about parsing turning the community toxic, it's about you turning against the wide range of community members that are using it and being toxic towards them yourself. You can't have your cake and eat it too, you're not innocent.

Unless someone is harassing you, there's nothing wrong with them and if people enjoy parsing, then let them enjoy it. I don't entirely like crafting or fishing, but you don't see me standing on a soapbox and writing about it, and please take no offense towards this but what appears to be a SJW outcry, that everyone who does like it needs to stop enjoying it because I said so.

The game does not revolve around you, it revolves around everyone, including the people you don't like.

[KaivaC]

I'm new here... though I should be used to this kind of dumb posting from OW and playing wow for a few years

Sadly, sometimes, we get a new person that posts up something provocative (though not necessarily bad in many cases), but they never return to the forums. Sometimes, I wonder how some of the threads here would go at reddit without the rules of the forums to keep a lot of us mostly in check.

[Sigma-Astra]

The concept of BIS that everybody is crazy about it's pointless for healers and tanks because what really matters I think are their skills of adapting and solving.

Also, please tell me you're not that tank who walks into expert roulette with an i310 weapon and complains that they can't hold hate when most have at least an i360 at this point or the healer who walks into a 24-man raid. BIS is not pointless for healers or tanks, your skill is directly affected by what ilvl your gear is, and if your gear is outdated? Well, you're gonna have a bad time.

Please, for the love of cheddar, don't advocate that BIS doesn't matter for healers or tanks. It matters for EVERYONE. Don't be lazy.

[Nixxe]

If you stick to casual content, you can get away with just about anything and nobody will do more than grimace at their screen a bit. Source: I am a casual who lives in casual content.

If you step into more competitive content, be prepared to meet the more competitive expectations of the community or to find your own group of like-minded "lol it's just a game guys" players who have zero interest in theorycrafting or min/maxing. However, in the latter case, be prepared to not get a lot accomplished.

[Lazlo69]

Sadly, sometimes, we get a new person that posts up something provocative (though not necessarily bad in many cases), but they never return to the forums. Sometimes, I wonder how some of the threads here would go at reddit without the rules of the forums to keep a lot of us mostly in check.

Thank you for the response. Glad to see other, older posters, somewhat agreeing with me against the OP.

There are ways to use tools in shitty ways but I, myself, want to know how I do and if these tools can help me improve, I sure as hell want to know about hem.

@OP, this is literally a way to make the community better if well used. See where you do badly and find ways to improve. If idiots shit-talk you? report them. Otherwise you may actually need to learn new ways to play your job or get hints about how to become better. Being a better player usually implies you clear things faster and therefore get currency faster, enjoy yourself and have a better use of your time.

Have fun.

[Rockette]

Any dps who does not make full use off their tool kit, including aggro reducing and damage reducing cd's while also performing optimal dps is not a good dps.

That's not a parse issue. That's a poor player.

Teammates who have the ability to manage aggro: Tanks, DPS, Healers
Teammates who have the ability to provide incoming damage cooldowns: Tanks, DPS, Healers
Teammates who have the ability to provide dps: Tanks, DPS, Healers

The game does not give you abilities as a "nice to have, looks pretty on hotbars" situation. They are there to use. Any savage or ultimate raider will tell you the same thing. There is zero excuse why these abilities get a pass in "casual" content.