Any chance of an official data parser so we can test our character builds?

[Peregrine]

"Well let me put it like this, you add an official parser, your saying as the developer, this game is about beating your friends in parsing. It becomes a car race game."

That's your interpretation of the social kinetics. By adding a parser, you're really saying as the developer: here are the tools to test the world you live in and bring out your full fighting potential. Anyone can interpret parser data and react based off it. It's free chance to improve your character. Better than gear, it's knowledge about your discipline plain and simple.

"Right now, in theory an mmorpg is supposed to be about exploring/adventuring in a large world with other people and developing your charachter."

So develop your character by paying attention to how your character develops. Use the parser. Encourage the parser. In fact, only in a MMORPG where you're not supposed to be about developing your character would a parser become "the wrong message" to send.


"What might be interesting though, if they did implement some parsing, would be in terms of a training area or zone, where you can basically test your gear/skills/set up. That way people seeking to test thier builds, or see if an item is worth it can, while not exactly putting it into every situation."

Even better. Set the eva, def, mdef, acc, attack, and stats of a robotic foe in the training ground for players to test their builds. If you just don't want people running parsers on your character, that's fine but that's a little jaded. They have a right to know what kind of adventurers they're rolling with. As you said, the game's about character progression. If you're 15 percent behind, the game's about that too no matter how much you don't want it to be.

[Augury]

Physic-
It is the player's responsibility to learn and understand a game- as well as to build a friendly social environment which promotes ambitious builds/play. The numbers aren't what have failed most games- it has been the players and the environment they produce. Many people who parser do it out of pure fascination, and intrigue to a game's mechanical workings, so that builds may be more scientifically made. In most situations, it wasn't the people who extracted and worked the data who created the bad environment, but the people who read, regurgitated and misused said data to prove how "awesome" they think they are. That's a social dynamic- something we could change as a community, but not as players observing numbers.

[Physic]

Physic-
It is the player's responsibility to learn and understand a game- as well as to build a friendly social environment which promotes ambitious builds/play. The numbers aren't what have failed most games- it has been the players and the environment they produce. Many people who parser do it out of pure fascination, and intrigue to a game's mechanical workings, so that builds may be more scientifically made. In most situations, it wasn't the people who extracted and worked the data who created the bad environment, but the people who read, regurgitated and misused said data to prove how "awesome" they think they are. That's a social dynamic- something we could change as a community, but not as players observing numbers.

I agree with you, running parsers to try and see and understand how things work, or compare the damage between two different styles, It is really just science and breaking the game down to understand it. Lots of good information came out of parsers. But when its an official part of the game, its going to be used mostly to say you need to be this high to ride, or you suck, or im better than you.
Im not morally opposed to parsers, just i know if its officially added, its going to create a certain environment and playstyle, that i dont think adds to the game experience overall. Its pretty hard to control the social dynamic, but if you as a developer put something like that in the game, you are telling players that they should be taking note of the data, and building your social interactions with that in mind.

[Physic]

i really dont care too much about people running parsers, but when the developer puts it in the game, it becomes an official part of the game. Eyeballing some one and seeing what thier doing, and making a spreadsheet about it is a different feeling. just like official sports players do things sometimes with thier stats in mind, people parsing do the same type of stuff.

I rem in vent a friend was talking about how he would have his own personal parse battles with his fellow players, and how they had little dirty tricks to get a bit of an edge on the stat front, it was amusing, but not really something id want to see become an official part of the game. your right about this, once you see the parse, your going to want to compete, just seeing the numbers is going to make you try harder, and look at thier gear etc. But is that the way it should be? to that level?
honestly i prefer just playing with people and having fun, once you add official parse, gear is going to become even more of a factor, then comes gear scores, it really doesnt sound fun to me. annnnnnnd i knew a lot of people that could perform well in a camping parse, but they sucked when it came to actual real play, like in dynamis and nyzul/ salvage.

[Peregrine]

Parser battles are for people new to parsing who get a little carried away with what the parser has done for their game. Those tactics don't impress the people who are veterans of it. We all know the cheap tricks in FFXI so that your weaponskills are placed in such a position to give you more of the damage percent. When players strategically place their weaponskills to maximize their % party damage, they end up hurting sp per hour because the team DPS stats go down. The only thing they're doing is shuffling %'s around while decreasing efficiency, overall hurting the party's output. In XI, no one wants to ws at the start of the fight.

****, I'll do it. There. It's at 60% life.

% party contribution is a less useful stat than accuracy %, critical %, average melee hit, average critical hit. We all know that the best player in a XI party is often the 2nd contributor because they spend more time tanking than number two, who is free to do more DPS. We all know this.

[Balbanes]

http://ffxiv.zam.com/forum.html?foru...7712069&page=1

[Peregrine]

There's one that's more polished and it'll technically calculate whatever you tell it to from the chat logs of battling, crafting, or gathering. It's only limited by your ability to design formulas to spit out relevant data, and the only reason it's not already finished is that the game's performance and stats are so meh that no one is interested in improving their characters any more.

I hope all that changes with the new battle system. Right now player have no incentive to improve their characters and the mechanics don't have complex enough choices to impact performance, so naturally there is no need for such tools. That's not a good thing, that means your game's completely boring and meaningless.