Final Thoughts

[NekoNova]

I remember when we had to grep or parse hundreds of hours of log files to get our damage numbers and figure out where we could be doing better.

"Is my damage okay? Its the single most important thing I add to a raid encounter"

'I dont know, give me a day or two to run this log file through my parser'.

Those were the worst times.

Parsers in MMO's are on the short list of things you absolutely need to have (as long as your MMO has meaningful combat, at least)

Nope, you don't

[Physic]

I remember when we had to grep or parse hundreds of hours of log files to get our damage numbers and figure out where we could be doing better.

"Is my damage okay? Its the single most important thing I add to a raid encounter"

'I dont know, give me a day or two to run this log file through my parser'.

Those were the worst times.

Parsers in MMO's are on the short list of things you absolutely need to have (as long as your MMO has meaningful combat, at least)

you can beat content without parsers. parsers basically make it easier to track your self/group however there are simpler basic methods that achieve the same thing.

an analogy, you could get a fancy watch and gps tracking to tell you how fast you ran, or you could just get an old watch, and time yourself.


parsers big flaw is that they alter the game experience. That being the social experience, and how they interact with the content. It would be interesting to see how developers might handle a game that is meant to make more use of those metrics, but most of these games arent designed with complete knowledge in mind.

[CorbinDallas]

I'm my experience, you aren't called a bad player for not parsing, you're called a bad player for...being a bad player.

[KageTokage]

I'm my experience, you aren't called a bad player for not parsing, you're called a bad player for...being a bad player.

Some people can be short-sighted and reference a player's past logs on FFLogs improperly and draw a wrong conclusion for it.

IE, I had some rather rudely conclude I wasn't ready to beat OS4 on the basis that the only parse I had ever logged for Exdeath was from my very first sloppy clear where both tank and healer mishaps had caused me to die multiple times. He didn't even bother considering my DPS in the current attempts which was more then good enough (Though that group never actually reached Neo Exdeath due to other underperformers).

I didn't, and still don't actively log parses so anything that's posted is strictly from other players which in turn paints a rather inaccurate picture of how well I actually perform, but I honestly don't care.

[Ilan]

I'm my experience, you aren't called a bad player for not parsing, you're called a bad player for...being a bad player.

But you are not allowed to tell that to a player because that makes you a toxic elitist who only parses to harass others!

To the OP: Parsing is not cheating, its a tolerated 3rd party tool as long as people don't get harassed about their numbers. If people permanently tell you that you are a bad player, you should think about it if they are not maybe right and try to improve yourself instead of calling each and everyone a cheater or toxic if they use a parser because you don't have to parse to see if someone plays bad.

Hunt radars and gathering bots on the other hand are cheating and SE should do something about that but that is not really happening which is sad.

[Hash_Browns]

Can't speak for the rest but I fail to see how parsers are cheating.

[NekoNova]

Can't speak for the rest but I fail to see how parsers are cheating.

I don't think the intent from OP was to label parsers as cheating, but more as a negative aspect to the game for the high-end content.

[Dualgunner]

I don't think the intent from OP was to label parsers as cheating, but more as a negative aspect to the game for the high-end content.

Given he listed it alongside actual cheats, I think interpreting otherwise is reading into op's post what isn't there. At that point its bad articulation if he really doesn't consider parsing cheating.

[NekoNova]

Given he listed it alongside actual cheats, I think interpreting otherwise is reading into op's post what isn't there. At that point its bad articulation if he really doesn't consider parsing cheating.

he wrote : For all of you that cheat and use parsers, and hunt radars, gathering bots, etc...


Meaning, you're:


- cheating
- and using parsers
- and using hunt radars
- or using gathering bots
- or something else.

[Iscah]

he wrote : For all of you that cheat and use parsers, and hunt radars, gathering bots, etc...


Meaning, you're:


- cheating
- and using parsers
- and using hunt radars
- or using gathering bots
- or something else.

Rather than the exact words, I would read the intent of that sentence more as "people who cheat [by using] parsers, cheat [by using] hunt radars, cheat [by using] bots, etc..."