How do you think Yoshida would react to the following hypothetical regarding parsing?

[Vnolan]

Have a hissy fit and punish everyone for it, as usual.

Gave me an idea lol. If SE is so against numbers, why not remove them and have the damage show up as "Good", "Great" (target hit while def is nerfed or player dmg is buffed) and "Poor" (target has def buffed or player has dmg nerfed)?

By 'anything wrong' you of course mean the bit that had a 40 minute long lecture about the usage of third party tools in the latest live letter, right? And how they're against the terms of service? All that jazz?

I mean morally wrong. Planned event or not, those players would still be parsing and unlike most other prohibited activities, parsing has no effect on other players, the game's code or game balance.

To be honest, until they start banning streamers they observe using parsers or mods that provide advantages, that lecture can be ignored.

i'd love to see all those people get reported and given suspensions.

Why? It would just be numbers. Would be interesting to see what percentage of parses would be reported or if there would be a surge in requests for a parser by those previously unaware of their performance.

It'd be a pretty interesting experiment to see unfold, since it's the sort of thing that would probably be picked up by the gaming media. Which, in turn, would cause the reaction to be scrutinised very carefully. Rival MMO's could also potentially exploit the situation for their own game by highlighting that they allow for the use of certain mods, too.

Also something to consider. Didn't another company receive bad press for enforcing their ToS against activity that was not morally wrong and did not affect the game's code or balance? Not the same by any means, but being against the ToS doesn't automatically make the company right (that's not to say they aren't allowed to enforce their ToS).

What is the purpose of that question exactly ?

Generating discussion.

If you wanna go public about using a third party system so that you can show your numbers to the world, I don't feel sorry if you're thrown a ban hammer. Game Over

In the hypothetical, posting the party's parse in chat would let the average player know about parsing and what knowledge it can provide. There would be no comments about the numbers being bad or good, so the harassment potential can be ignored.

Uploading the logs to a site, which SE has said nothing about, shows the world. Funny thing, isn't it? Letting the party know how much they did with no comments is bad, but letting everyone else but the party know is perfectly fine.

[linay]

Say several thousand players come together and announce they'll be posting parses publicly in chat on a specified date. Just the numbers, no commentary on them.

Does Yoshida issue temp bans (and potential permabans if they already have a record) to several thousand customers who would not be doing anything wrong, or does he let it slide?

Find "several thousand players" to do it and you'll find out or find a way to ask Yoshida himself. There is no point in asking others who are not Yoshida what Yoshida would do.

[MitsukiKimura]

People would use this to brag or use it as a reason to kick people from the party. That has nothing to do inside their game so they can’t take action that’s on a third party website. Go read Yoshi P’s discussion about the matter if you don’t understand.

[Reinha]

They already said they can't scan what you have on your computer, so discreet users can continue what they are doing without fear of punishment. What more do you want?

[Cabalabob]

Hypothetically if thousands of people got together and whipped their d***s out in public, even though they’re not doing anything wrong with them, do you think the police would arrest them all even though the jail cells would be full and they’d be taking thousands of people out of the economy?

Furthermore do you think proposing this hypothetical will suddenly make the government have some huge revelation and change their mind on laws about indecent exposure?

[Gula]

Have a hissy fit and punish everyone for it, as usual.

Are you one of those people who think people who do petty crimes shouldn't be punished because it's small crime?

[QT_Melon]

I would like to look at your hypothetical with some other ones.

What if hypothetically speaking this was mostly from players in one area/region. How would that be looked upon?

Hypothetically speaking would thousands of players would do this on their main account because they feel that the game in that much dire straits?

[MuseTraveller]

I think Yoshi P will just do one of those "I'm so done with this" faces, look at the ceilling for a bit and then the world and FF14 will carry on as usual.

[Vaer]

Depends how many players in those groups decide to report and it'll probably just be a temp. I've seen people blatantly post logs in chat and not get a penalty.

[Gemina]

Well sir, that would be x1000 favors you would be doing for SE. This is like a farmer having troubles with rodent pests, and a whole herd of them conveniently toss themselves in his snares.

If you think strength in numbers will amplify the voice, prevent expulsion, or the best case scenario for you; get them to cave, you would be sorely mistaken. When bars and nightclubs 86 half of their regulars because they simply can't obey the rules, it normally stays in business. Any guesses why? It isn't necessarily because they attract new customers (even though they eventually do), but it's because the patrons that remain come in more frequently, stay longer, and spend more.

Ultimately, when businesses thrive or fail, it almost always comes down to how they are managed. Another nice little fact I will throw in there, is that the people who get 86'd from public places like those spend the least amount of money, and in addition to breaking the rules of the establishment, they also tend to violate laws that would get said business in serious trouble. So yeah very doubtful Yoshi would be complacent with such an act, and instead would kick over the can of fuel and light the match himself. The guy is pretty passionate, and he has shown no love for this kind of software.