If running a parser makes you cynical and depressed, why do it?

[Miminming]

So that i know who to praise and who to not, nothing worse seeing someone praising a grey parse... and the grey parse think he is actually godly enough to provoke and look down on the others only to be mocked in 5ch(jp reddit)... and that grey parse is someone i knew... and they stop logging in for 3 weeks... ignorance is the worse...

(And i keep wondering who is to blame my friend or the one who keep praising him or me who know he is grey but never say anyhting ...

[SerLuke]

Yes it does, and I don’t want to entertain the idea that it’s somehow my fault that I’m seeing bad performance. Me not looking doesn’t make lazy people good. The game is not that complex, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to understand you do more damage by AOE skills than single target, for example. You can learn the optimal opener and rotation in a mere hour of hitting a training dummy

To be fair through you don’t need a parser to tell if someone is aoeing or not.

[Rilifane]

I don't think there needs to be said anything about Extremes/ Savage, because that's obviously the type of content where a more critical look at your own and your team mates' performance becomes mandatory and ACT (plus fflogs/ xivanalysis) is the only way to really to that. People can feel like they're doing good all day, the analysis often tells a completely different story.
Sure, it's not pleasent to have various tools tell you "you sucked" after you thought you did well, but at least I know what I need to work on and where my mistakes are. Because I don't remember every little thing I did over a 10min+ fight.

If I have a parser running for non-endgame content, it's usually either to get a better overview over how the others play and know who gets my cards, dance partner and priority when raising and adjust my gameplay accordingly or simply to see how I'm doing on a newly leveled job in casual practice. It also helps me handing out comms to someone who definitely deserves it. Bonus points for people who use things like Shield Samba or Second Wind regulary to support the team.
And after running the three experts for who knows how many times, it's fun for me to try and expeririment here and there to see if I can squeeze out a bit more dps by adjusting some things. Optimization in content where nobody cares about is just for the sake of being less bored after running something for the umpteenth time, I guess.

[Reap00]

Proof?

I mean, even mentioning you parse is against ToS so who are you going to brag to? I've ran hundreds of EX trials for example, I know they parse because the run appears on fflogs, but I've never once had someone brag over it.
Or do you mean that they simply like to privately feel good about a fight they did well on? How dare they.

I don't have or need to prove anything to you. You stay on your ACT band wagon. That is a good way to be popular on the forums. What a rebel.

[Vidu]

To be fair through you don’t need a parser to tell if someone is aoeing or not.

See, thats why I believe your general assumption in this thread is wrong: Its not the parser thats making people "cynical and depressed". All the parser does is display something you can already see or suspect into cold, hard numbers.
I'm always doing my expert roulette together with my boyfriend - me as paladin, he as BLM (we both know our jobs, are fairly good at them and always try to give it out best shot). I dont need a parser to be upset about the other dps or a non-dps-healer after a 25 minute run. And I also dont need a parser to know that our PLD-BLM-combo will ensure faster runs - instead of me playing my favorite dps, bard, and having him come as DRK once in a while.
Both of those things might "upset" me without even needing a parser to see them.

I wont deny that theres the odd person who will beat themself up over a bad run or someone who'll drop a job alltogether (even though they were enjoying it) after being frustrated by the numbers they're seeing. But in general I dont believe that parsers are causing this problem, they're just clearly showing how bad the actual issue that people are frustrated about is. Posts that include hints that someone might have been using a parser and saw "that samurai only pull 5k dps" often mention the parser and the numbers as some sort of "proof" how bad said samurai really was - the reason someone is upset is "the samurai was bad", the reason they know that includes things like observing the playstyle, how fast bosses died etc. and the parser and the numbers are just a confirmation in the end. Hard evidence, if you like.
Something similar can be applied to job-balance: You can already observe that using certain jobs will influence the speed of a run. A parser makes that easier and puts actual numbers on it, but even without it you'll notice that a run with a paladin, WHM and two BLMs will be faster than a warrior, scholar, maschinist and bard (...I'm actually not 100% certain about tank balance here, but I hope my point is still clear).

Personally I rarely consider using a parser - and I still get frustrated by the things you mention, because I see them regardless of being able to put a number on them.
And I'm getting frustrated by those things because, as I mentioned before, I care.
And its frustrating to run a dungeon - yes, even a simple dungeon like expert - with someone who does not care. About their performance, their teammates, the run.
And its frustrating to know that me playing bard instead of paladin will do more harm than good.

[SaberMaxwell]

I don't have or need to prove anything to you. You stay on your ACT band wagon. That is a good way to be popular on the forums. What a rebel.

Well enjoy Hitchens' Razor then.

[Alucard135]

I don't have or need to prove anything to you. You stay on your ACT band wagon. That is a good way to be popular on the forums. What a rebel.

How can you be a rebel and follow the bandwagon?

[Hash_Browns]

I don't have or need to prove anything to you. You stay on your ACT band wagon. That is a good way to be popular on the forums. What a rebel.

Honestly sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder.

[TaleraRistain]

I think you can kind of see the answer from some replies on this thread. Some people get their knickers in a twist if someone else, even in basic MSQ content, is not playing the way they think and want them to. Since they go in with expectations toward other people, they get upset by the data provided by the parser. Those who are using it for self improvement don't get upset, because they are going in with a mindset of using the data to enrich themselves in some manner.

For people who get depressed by the numbers X or Y class does, they sound like they aren't playing the class for the right reasons. If you love the class, don't let someone else's opinion or expectations make you hate it.

[dasmause]

I think you can kind of see the answer from some replies on this thread.

It looks to me you saw that answer before you came to the thread...