Do you support an in game version of Recount. Please give reasons for your answer.

[Ascendant]

This thread cracks me up when I consider that its probably filled with a bunch of level 30s who haven't done anything outside of a couple flashpoints.

 

Here's my viewpoint from the perspective of someone who's successfully cleared all but one Hard Mode encounter and half the Nightmare ones:

 

Disappointing news for some of you, the endgame is almost entirely based on enrage timers. DPS is king in the endgame. Tanking is extremely easy, healing a little less so. Actual fight mechanics are laughable compared even to Cataclysm WoW raids. Virtually every encounter has some kind of enrage timer. Most are tuned so tightly that your healers are going to want to spend any spare moment they have to throw out some extra DPS. It makes all the difference.

 

The Infernal Council encounter where every character chooses an NPC to "duel" is even more demanding. If even one of you fails to beat the enrage timer, everyone has to start over. One or two overgeared DPS cannot carry you quite so easily here, since you can only attack another persons mob once every 8 seconds, and that's being nerfed to one minute in 1.1

 

The problem with tight enrage timer tuning is that it means a single DPS not carrying their own weight means you aren't killing that boss for another week or two until you get more gear so that your better DPS can carry the poor fool.

 

All the DPS in my raid group get checked out in a best case scenario stop-watch powered DPS meter whenever they've changed their spec or had significant gear upgrades. We go to a 50 Champion mob with a generous health pool. We check my tanking DPS average, and then I tank it while a DPS beats on it. We subtract my DPS and arrive at their DPS.

 

Its a tank and spank best case scenario against something that isn't quite a raid boss, but it allowed us to come up with a minimum DPS needed to beat Hard Mode enrage timers. (1100 DPS)

 

Some sort of damage metrics, whether it be a combat log we can parse, or an in-game parser like Recount, will improve our quality-of-life significantly.

 

The comment I see most often is "Herp derp, if teh boss is dead, you have enough DPS, if the boss is alive, you don't." Obviously this sort of comment, while technically true, doesn't address the issue.

 

The focus should be on the times the boss isn't dying. It's easy to say "We don't have enough DPS." but that doesn't offer any potential solutions. How do we know which player isn't performing up to par? Most of us have seen first hand that two people in equivalent gear aren't necessarily going to put out equivalent DPS, so it's not simply a matter of booting the least geared player until they get more gear.

 

I'm sorry for anyone who is upset by it, but damage metrics are coming in one form or another, and well they should. Bioware has chosen to balance their endgame almost solely around hard DPS checks, as you'll find out when you get there. This means that DPS will be under even more pressure to perform optimally.

 

If you thought TOR was going to be the MMO where you could go into the endgame with your Special Flower three-tree hybrid spec and perform well, you were wrong. You will cause your raid group to miss enrage timers and will waste everyones time.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Ascendant

[wikimon]

I play mmos since 10 years and didnt know what "Recount" or "Gearscore" is someone had ot explain to me:eek:.

 

And the answer to the initial quesiton is No i dont need stuff like this.

 

he probably said:

 

recount shows everyone's DPS so people can kick you out of raid for not doing good and gearscore is so people can see how bad your gear is and ban you from raiding before it even starts.

 

both would be wildly biased and pessimistically viewpoints

 

truth is:

 

recount allows you to optimize and target problem points in your raid composition and performance. gearscore while not necessary, makes it simple to pick-up people who have the gear necessary to complete content.

 

both of which have no negative effects of their own

[Setanian]

This thread cracks me up when I consider that its probably filled with a bunch of level 30s who haven't done anything outside of a couple flashpoints.

 

Here's my viewpoint from the perspective of someone who's tanked all but one Hard Mode encounter and half the Nightmare ones:

 

Disappointing news for some of you, the endgame is almost entirely based on enrage timers. DPS is king in the endgame. Tanking is extremely easy, healing a little less so. Actual fight mechanics are laughable compared even to Cataclysm WoW raids. Virtually every encounter has some kind of enrage timer. Most are tuned so tightly that your healers are going to want to spend any spare moment they have to throw out some extra DPS. It makes all the difference.

 

The problem with tight enrage timer tuning is that it means a single DPS not carrying their own weight means you aren't killing that boss for another week or two until you get more gear so that your better DPS can carry the poor fool.

 

All the DPS in my raid group get checked out in a best case scenario stop-watch powered DPS meter whenever they've changed their spec or had significant gear upgrades. We go to a 50 Champion mob with a generous health pool. We check my tanking DPS average, and then I tank it while a DPS beats on it. We subtract my DPS and arrive at their DPS.

 

Its a tank and spank best case scenario against something that isn't quite a raid boss, but it allowed us to come up with a minimum DPS needed to beat Hard Mode enrage timers. (1100 DPS)

 

Some sort of damage metrics, whether it be a combat log we can parse, or an in-game parser like Recount, will improve our quality-of-life significantly.

 

The comment I see most often is "Herp derp, if teh boss is dead, you have enough DPS, if the boss is alive, you don't." Obviously this sort of comment, while technically true, doesn't address the issue.

 

The focus should be on the times the boss isn't dying. It's easy to say "We don't have enough DPS." but that doesn't offer any potential solutions. How do we know which player isn't performing up to par? Most of us have seen first hand that two people in equivalent gear aren't necessarily going to put out equivalent DPS, so it's not simply a matter of booting the least geared player until they get more gear.

 

I'm sorry for anyone who is upset by it, but damage metrics are coming in one form or another, and well they should. Bioware has chosen to balance their endgame almost solely around hard DPS checks, as you'll find out when you get there. This means that DPS will be under even more pressure to perform optimally.

 

If you thought TOR was going to be the MMO where you could go into the endgame with your Special Flower three-tree hybrid spec and perform well, you were wrong. You will cause your raid group to miss enrage timers and will waste everyones time.

 

So what you're saying is; The tank has an easy job and all you need to win is dps. Sounds like easy-mode raiding to me. And you want more tools to help you?

[Ascendant]

So what you're saying is; The tank has an easy job and all you need to win is dps. Sounds like easy-mode raiding to me. And you want more tools to help you?

 

Yes, the current content is surprisingly easy, aside from the enrage timers.

 

But what I want the ability to make informed decisions about who needs to improve their DPS and who is performing well in my raid group.

 

I fail to understand why you and others like you feel that I should be obligated to carry poorly performing players.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Ascendant

[DragonAgeOrgins]

This thread cracks me up when I consider that its probably filled with a bunch of level 30s who haven't done anything outside of a couple flashpoints.

 

Here's my viewpoint from the perspective of someone who's successfully cleared all but one Hard Mode encounter and half the Nightmare ones:

 

Disappointing news for some of you, the endgame is almost entirely based on enrage timers. DPS is king in the endgame. Tanking is extremely easy, healing a little less so. Actual fight mechanics are laughable compared even to Cataclysm WoW raids. Virtually every encounter has some kind of enrage timer. Most are tuned so tightly that your healers are going to want to spend any spare moment they have to throw out some extra DPS. It makes all the difference.

 

The Infernal Council encounter where every character chooses an NPC to "duel" is even more demanding. If even one of you fails to beat the enrage timer, everyone has to start over. One or two overgeared DPS cannot carry you quite so easily here, since you can only attack another persons mob once every 8 seconds, and that's being nerfed to one minute in 1.1

 

The problem with tight enrage timer tuning is that it means a single DPS not carrying their own weight means you aren't killing that boss for another week or two until you get more gear so that your better DPS can carry the poor fool.

 

All the DPS in my raid group get checked out in a best case scenario stop-watch powered DPS meter whenever they've changed their spec or had significant gear upgrades. We go to a 50 Champion mob with a generous health pool. We check my tanking DPS average, and then I tank it while a DPS beats on it. We subtract my DPS and arrive at their DPS.

 

Its a tank and spank best case scenario against something that isn't quite a raid boss, but it allowed us to come up with a minimum DPS needed to beat Hard Mode enrage timers. (1100 DPS)

 

Some sort of damage metrics, whether it be a combat log we can parse, or an in-game parser like Recount, will improve our quality-of-life significantly.

 

The comment I see most often is "Herp derp, if teh boss is dead, you have enough DPS, if the boss is alive, you don't." Obviously this sort of comment, while technically true, doesn't address the issue.

 

The focus should be on the times the boss isn't dying. It's easy to say "We don't have enough DPS." but that doesn't offer any potential solutions. How do we know which player isn't performing up to par? Most of us have seen first hand that two people in equivalent gear aren't necessarily going to put out equivalent DPS, so it's not simply a matter of booting the least geared player until they get more gear.

 

I'm sorry for anyone who is upset by it, but damage metrics are coming in one form or another, and well they should. Bioware has chosen to balance their endgame almost solely around hard DPS checks, as you'll find out when you get there. This means that DPS will be under even more pressure to perform optimally.

 

If you thought TOR was going to be the MMO where you could go into the endgame with your Special Flower three-tree hybrid spec and perform well, you were wrong. You will cause your raid group to miss enrage timers and will waste everyones time.

 

 

If you thought you were going to get recount. You were wrong. See I can bold words too and look important. Game is fine. I hate to say this but l2play. Everyone, over a million people have been doing flash point's just FINE.

 

We don't need to open tools. Why because we don't NEED it. You may want it. But the Bosses are seriously easy faceroll. You just want a tool to yell at other people. This game has been doing FINE without recount for over a month. And no near plans to add recount and if they do.

 

I won't play with recount. I will quit. So bioware can cater to the hardcore's just like warcraft did with CATA and look how that turned out. Over 2 million people quit inside of a year. Do not cater to hardcore elite modes ever.

[guided_by_voices]

So what you're saying is; The tank has an easy job and all you need to win is dps. Sounds like easy-mode raiding to me. And you want more tools to help you?

 

/agree

 

If you thought TOR was going to be the MMO where you could go into the endgame with your Special Flower three-tree hybrid spec and perform well, you were wrong. You will cause your raid group to miss enrage timers and will waste everyones time.

 

No. I thought (hoped) they would able to come up with interesting mechanics and not dps races with no imagination. whats worse is those of you already doing that content seem content with it. if that is case then this game won't last long.

Edited January 16, 2012 by guided_by_voices

[Buur]

If you thought you were going to get recount. You were wrong. See I can bold words too and look important. Game is fine. I hate to say this but l2play. Everyone, over a million people have been doing flash point's just FINE.

 

We don't need to open tools. Why because we don't NEED it. You may want it. But the Bosses are seriously easy faceroll. You just want a tool to yell at other people. This game has been doing FINE without recount for over a month. And no near plans to add recount and if they do.

 

I won't play with recount. I will quit. So bioware can cater to the hardcore's just like warcraft did with CATA and look how that turned out. Over 2 million people quit inside of a year. Do not cater to hardcore elite modes ever.

 

Good news for you! If they add it you won't have to play with it!

[Setanian]

Yes, the current content is surprisingly easy, aside from the enrage timers.

 

But what I want the ability to make informed decisions about who needs to improve their DPS and who is performing well in my raid group.

 

I fail to understand why you and others like you feel that I should be obligated to carry poorly performing players.

 

Ah now, hang on.. I'm not obligating you to do anything. I'm saying players requesting all these add-ons are looking for easy-mode. You've already agreed the raids are easy-mode, where is the challenge? Do you just want to win every time with no worry about ever losing?

[Ascendant]

If you thought you were going to get recount. You were wrong. See I can bold words too and look important. Game is fine. I hate to say this but l2play. Everyone, over a million people have been doing flash point's just FINE.

 

I'm pretty sure there aren't a million people doing Hard and Nightmare mode raids, which are what I am talking about. I don't care about your level 30 flashpoints or whatever you're doing with your time. I'm talking about the current Hard and Nightmare endgame content.

 

No. I thought (hoped) they would able to come up with interesting mechanics and not dps races with no imagination. whats worse is those of you already doing that content seem content with it. if that is case then this game won't last long.

 

On the contrary, I'd love for them to create some actual challenging endgame. But if they are just going to throw DPS check after DPS check at us, then they should give us some better information about exactly how much DPS each of us are doing. I don't care if its an addon, a combat log we can parse, or a built in raid metrics tool.

 

But if the only challenge is going to be DPS, then we should be able to see what that DPS is. That sounds reasonable does it not?

 

Ah now, hang on.. I'm not obligating you to do anything. I'm saying players requesting all these add-ons are looking for easy-mode. You've already agreed the raids are easy-mode, where is the challenge? Do you just want to win every time with no worry about ever losing?

 

Of course not. I want challenges. Preferably challenges that aren't just meeting some arbitrary DPS minimum. Easy is boring. But currently that's the only challenge in the game, so I'm asking why it is inappropriate for me to know how my raiders are going in meeting that challenge.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Ascendant

[racsofp]

Awww. Someone reported my post. It was even politically correct to a fault.

 

I say boooooooo.

[Setanian]

I'm pretty sure there aren't a million people doing Hard and Nightmare mode raids, which are what I am talking about. I don't care about your level 30 flashpoints or whatever you're doing with your time. I'm talking about the current Hard and Nightmare endgame content.

 

 

 

On the contrary, I'd love for them to create some actual challenging endgame. But if they are just going to throw DPS check after DPS check at us, then they should give us some better information about exactly how much DPS each of us are doing. I don't care if its an addon, a combat log we can parse, or a built in raid metrics tool.

 

But if the only challenge is going to be DPS, then we should be able to see what that DPS is. That sounds reasonable does it not?

 

 

 

Of course not. I want challenges. Preferably challenges that aren't just meeting some arbitrary DPS minimum. Easy is boring. But currently that's the only challenge in the game, so I'm asking why it is inappropriate for me to know how my raiders are going in meeting that challenge.

 

I think, in all honesty, you are one of the few people who does actually want a challenge.

 

How-ever, the game mechanics sound like a PoS to me and don't invite or encourage challenge.

 

Adding more dps inspectors or more add-ons will only make the existing dare I say challenge even less challenging, there by, negating any hope of challenge you may aspire to.

 

Any game that allows you ensure a win by having the necessary dps present is just a face roll. In my opinion, that is not a challenge.

 

We are already seeing the cookie-cutter specs and the default rotations. WHat this does is take the 'game' away and replace it with this-spec, this-rotation with this-addon at this time.

 

That's not a game, it's a painting by numbers pictogram.

[Truga]

But if the only challenge is going to be DPS, then we should be able to see what that DPS is. That sounds reasonable does it not?

 

Personal DPS/log is already confirmed.

[guided_by_voices]

On the contrary, I'd love for them to create some actual challenging endgame. But if they are just going to throw DPS check after DPS check at us, then they should give us some better information about exactly how much DPS each of us are doing. I don't care if its an addon, a combat log we can parse, or a built in raid metrics tool.

 

But if the only challenge is going to be DPS, then we should be able to see what that DPS is. That sounds reasonable does it not?

 

I see your point but still respectfully disagree. Adding one tool to help perpetuate one problem will only lead to another to tool to fix another. we need to be stripping the game of tools not adding them IMO.

 

once dps races get boring for more then they will add other mechinics that we will need another tool to be able to fix it. and i'm not just talking dbm and recount here.

 

look how many people are asking for for advanced class duel spec, a cross server LFD tool. The amount of requests being demanded for these "fixes" is disheartening. Now we are back to the game a vast majority are trying to escape from.

 

I came here for something different not that other game in space.

[Mynden]

Personal DPS/log is already confirmed.

 

that doesnt help me as a raid leader, or if i'm organizing pugs and slackers lie about their damage. not good enough

[trublmaker]

 

Here's my viewpoint from the perspective of someone who's successfully cleared all but one Hard Mode encounter and half the Nightmare ones:

.

 

 

Excellent! By your own admission you seem to be doing fine without recount.

[wikimon]

Excellent! By your own admission you seem to be doing fine without recount.

 

obviously didn't read the post about how much of a pain in the *** it is to do DPS testing without recount.

 

these trolls...

[Setanian]

that doesnt help me as a raid leader, or if i'm organizing pugs and slackers lie about their damage. not good enough

 

A real raid leader would be leading a guild and not PuGs..

[trublmaker]

obviously didn't read the post about how much of a pain in the *** it is to do DPS testing without recount.

 

these trolls...

 

 

No I "get it" perfectly...

 

You want everything handed to you on a silver platter. Heaven forbid you have to endure the "pain in the ***" of working for something.

[Ascendant]

No I "get it" perfectly...

 

You want everything handed to you on a silver platter. Heaven forbid you have to endure the "pain in the ***" of working for something.

 

I think you're confused. All people want is information.

 

Is it fair that Derp J. Derpington is in the raid with his 400 dps while you and everyone else are doing 800? Isn't he wasting your time, and lowering your chances of success? There's nothing the rest of you can do except scratch your heads and wonder which of you is Derp J. Derpington.

 

As I said earlier, I love challenge. I want nothing handed to me. I fully admit the current raid content doesn't pose enough of a challenge. But I also want the challenge to come from interesting mechanics, not finding Derp J. Derpington when I have no Derp Detector.

[Mynden]

A real raid leader would be leading a guild and not PuGs..

 

yes, cause i never pug on my alts.

[Setanian]

yes, cause i never pug on my alts.

 

You don't raid lead in PuGs.. You Group lead.. no need for any add-ons at all..

Edited January 16, 2012 by Setanian

[Xhieron]

The Problem

 

I have a deeply impressed knee-jerk reaction to Recount, Gearscore, and their related ilk because I feel they represent the edge of the slippery slope toward the mathematization of relationships. A system that provides detailed relative data among participants in content is less useful for evaluating one's own performance, and more useful for judging the performance of others. In a sense, Recount is the standard bearer for heavy-handed guild dictatorships and exclusivism. It is the refuge of the min-maxer and a menace to the targets of his ire.

 

That said, I will gladly concede that there may exist in the community a subset of players who value data for data's sake--those players who take no offense to the heavy beast breathing over their shoulders, and embrace the risk of abuse the same way one embraces Vegas slots, with the outstretched hope that perhaps this time things will be different.

 

 

The Solution

 

For those players I would like to propose the following:

 

Do not allow recount. Allow, instead, absolute, complete data transparency. Upon initiation by any group or raid member (with a cooldown for spam control), the party members may vote anonymously to enable data parsing. If parsing is enabled, all players have access to a complete, unabridged record of the group's/raid's activities. To be more blunt, this is a keylogger, and it reports every action taken by a character in-game, with the exception of recording chat as "[timestamp] Entered chat until [timestamp]." It reports actions, cooldowns, player movement (coordinate by coordinate, including facing and rate of turning), button mashing, interface actions, and millisecond-to-millisecond reports of states, statistics, incoming and outgoing damage, healing, and effects. Moreover, it should report the technical calculations involved in getting from base numbers to final numbers. Thus, you can see how much someone would do in base damage and how much the damage is modified by gear. Additionally, you can see the odds of a given occurrence whenever there's interaction between an effect and an enemy, so you can gauge whether a player is performing poorly by his own fault or just unlucky. You can also see if a player is extremely efficient and just undergeared, or performing poorly but being carried by his or her gear.

 

You want data? You got it. All of it. Everything the server knows about what a player is doing during the raid, the system makes available.

 

 

The Reasoning

 

Why all this information? Why not? You want to data mine; have at it. The data is the key to a successful end-game guild.

 

I advocate for this because Recount just doesn't go far enough. It goes far, by MMO standards, but it's ultimately just organizing data the server already reports. It's a tool for judging player performance. If you're getting into the business of judging others, though, why not be more thorough? Would you be shocked to find out that your raid leader never touches his mouse in a five-minute encounter? What if your tank is just coasting along in gear three tiers higher than the content and is only doing the bare minimum to keep aggro (and you were ************ at the sorc for not ramping his dps!)? Maybe you'll discover that someone missed an interrupt because it was on cooldown from the last interrupt--just like he's been telling you for the last six times you ran that fight. Maybe you'll learn that that whore the GM's been cybering is spending more time talking to people during the raid than she is contributing? Who knows what remarkable secrets you might uncover!

 

It is only then, once you have had the opportunity to examine your colleagues with the most powerful microscope possible and comb through their errors with only the finest instrument, that you can accurately assess whose fault it is that you're not succeeding where you know you should. Only then can you assist them in improving themselves.

 

 

Know that the other members of your guild may fear such a thing, and I trust many of you receive my suggestion with some trepidation at first blush. Once you embrace the power that comes with this knowledge, however, you will find that your guild will succeed and thrive as an organic machine, stripped of the trappings of trust and relationships. This is a computer game, and so it is driven by data, by numbers. The numbers are what matter, and no one has anything to fear who is giving proper dedication to his role in the guild. Often people laugh when someone says poopsock. Those people aren't cut out for end-game content.

 

Your guild members may be angry with you if you suggest that such a thorough, robust system be implemented. Some of them will no doubt become furious at the notion that you or anyone else can prowl through the minutiae of their online behavior during raid time. Remind them that that time is sacrosanct, and it is a sacrifice they must be willing to make to the guild. If they cannot make it, then cast them into darkness. Once they have been cast out and been deprived of life-sustaining end-game epics, they will return, humbled, and submit.

 

Your guild will hate RecountRedux. They will despise it as its claws hook themselves into their petty lives. But it will unite them, unite you as a guild, and make you stronger. You must channel the very reasonable repugnance at the idea that game performance Big Brother is the gateway to success, harness it, and make that repugnance serve you. When your guild begins to squabble, and members fight among themselves over the truth revealed by this system, you have nearly arrived. Direct their fury away from their destroyed relationships and to the unliving, inhuman game content, where it should be. In the end you may find yourself and your guild miserable shells of who you once set out to become, but you will be shells wearing gear with spectacular stats. And that's what matters, isn't it?

 

 

 

TLDR: Recount is the path to the Dark Side. And not the cool storytelling dark side. The guild-imploding, enemy-making one that makes the game antithetical to fun. If you think someone is under-performing, ask. Maybe talk with your raid before and after encounters and find out why things are or aren't working. No one needs a blue ribbon for top DPS or a brown one for worst healer. Build a guild with a raid force composed of people you know and can trust. It might mean that you have to repeat encounters a few more times before you get them down. But you won't end up hating your guild afterwards. That's all.

[Xploits]

I have a few questions, I am not really for or against this since, I play with friends and I won't need a damage meter to figure out where I am lacking. I have guildies fro that.

 

1) Would damage meters actually make sense in this game?

 

Taking the obvious comparison which is wow, raids in that environment seem to be setup based on timing mechanics, and resources (IE Mana), which will eventually reach a point where you cannot heal and fail the raid, where as the mechanics for SWOTR are different. Resources are just short of infinite and the role settings seems different.

 

Now I can think of some useful tools recount has that make sense, such as interrupts, dispels, etc, but I have never seen any other usage for the damage meter other than to say you are the top performer, within the top 3, or used as a tool to judge others.

 

The fact is that if you gear up, you going to be able to complete an heroic and the precision that damage meters give, are for the most part, not needed.

2) What about gear level restrictions?

 

Now I am not say you need certain level of gear to be able to compete, if a guild want to pull a member through, let them, but I think giving the community a point where players know they can be relevant in heroic makes sense.

 

3) Why recount?

 

As a point, recount is the furthest from my mind for better raid management. I'd like macros, and APIs for layout customization, and screen management, warnings, indicators, timers, etc. All of these, which are fairly important to the raiders at some level, are not in yet, and I would give priory over.

[Truga]

that doesnt help me as a raid leader, or if i'm organizing pugs and slackers lie about their damage. not good enough

 

As a raid leader that mostly lead PUG raids in every game before this (and I'll do it here too, once I get all 8 stories out of the way), I can say that while recount would help me, I won't lose a minute of sleep over the one or two failed raids I get per month which recount could have prevented.

[trublmaker]

The Problem

 

I have a deeply impressed knee-jerk reaction to Recount, Gearscore, and their related ilk because I feel they represent the edge of the slippery slope toward the mathematization of relationships. A system that provides detailed relative data among participants in content is less useful for evaluating one's own performance, and more useful for judging the performance of others. In a sense, Recount is the standard bearer for heavy-handed guild dictatorships and exclusivism. It is the refuge of the min-maxer and a menace to the targets of his ire.

 

That said, I will gladly concede that there may exist in the community a subset of players who value data for data's sake--those players who take no offense to the heavy beast breathing over their shoulders, and embrace the risk of abuse the same way one embraces Vegas slots, with the outstretched hope that perhaps this time things will be different.

 

 

The Solution

 

For those players I would like to propose the following:

 

Do not allow recount. Allow, instead, absolute, complete data transparency. Upon initiation by any group or raid member (with a cooldown for spam control), the party members may vote anonymously to enable data parsing. If parsing is enabled, all players have access to a complete, unabridged record of the group's/raid's activities. To be more blunt, this is a keylogger, and it reports every action taken by a character in-game, with the exception of recording chat as "[timestamp] Entered chat until [timestamp]." It reports actions, cooldowns, player movement (coordinate by coordinate, including facing and rate of turning), button mashing, interface actions, and millisecond-to-millisecond reports of states, statistics, incoming and outgoing damage, healing, and effects. Moreover, it should report the technical calculations involved in getting from base numbers to final numbers. Thus, you can see how much someone would do in base damage and how much the damage is modified by gear. Additionally, you can see the odds of a given occurrence whenever there's interaction between an effect and an enemy, so you can gauge whether a player is performing poorly by his own fault or just unlucky. You can also see if a player is extremely efficient and just undergeared, or performing poorly but being carried by his or her gear.

 

You want data? You got it. All of it. Everything the server knows about what a player is doing during the raid, the system makes available.

 

 

The Reasoning

 

Why all this information? Why not? You want to data mine; have at it. The data is the key to a successful end-game guild.

 

I advocate for this because Recount just doesn't go far enough. It goes far, by MMO standards, but it's ultimately just organizing data the server already reports. It's a tool for judging player performance. If you're getting into the business of judging others, though, why not be more thorough? Would you be shocked to find out that your raid leader never touches his mouse in a five-minute encounter? What if your tank is just coasting along in gear three tiers higher than the content and is only doing the bare minimum to keep aggro (and you were ************ at the sorc for not ramping his dps!)? Maybe you'll discover that someone missed an interrupt because it was on cooldown from the last interrupt--just like he's been telling you for the last six times you ran that fight. Maybe you'll learn that that whore the GM's been cybering is spending more time talking to people during the raid than she is contributing? Who knows what remarkable secrets you might uncover!

 

It is only then, once you have had the opportunity to examine your colleagues with the most powerful microscope possible and comb through their errors with only the finest instrument, that you can accurately assess whose fault it is that you're not succeeding where you know you should. Only then can you assist them in improving themselves.

 

 

Know that the other members of your guild may fear such a thing, and I trust many of you receive my suggestion with some trepidation at first blush. Once you embrace the power that comes with this knowledge, however, you will find that your guild will succeed and thrive as an organic machine, stripped of the trappings of trust and relationships. This is a computer game, and so it is driven by data, by numbers. The numbers are what matter, and no one has anything to fear who is giving proper dedication to his role in the guild. Often people laugh when someone says poopsock. Those people aren't cut out for end-game content.

 

Your guild members may be angry with you if you suggest that such a thorough, robust system be implemented. Some of them will no doubt become furious at the notion that you or anyone else can prowl through the minutiae of their online behavior during raid time. Remind them that that time is sacrosanct, and it is a sacrifice they must be willing to make to the guild. If they cannot make it, then cast them into darkness. Once they have been cast out and been deprived of life-sustaining end-game epics, they will return, humbled, and submit.

 

Your guild will hate RecountRedux. They will despise it as its claws hook themselves into their petty lives. But it will unite them, unite you as a guild, and make you stronger. You must channel the very reasonable repugnance at the idea that game performance Big Brother is the gateway to success, harness it, and make that repugnance serve you. When your guild begins to squabble, and members fight among themselves over the truth revealed by this system, you have nearly arrived. Direct their fury away from their destroyed relationships and to the unliving, inhuman game content, where it should be. In the end you may find yourself and your guild miserable shells of who you once set out to become, but you will be shells wearing gear with spectacular stats. And that's what matters, isn't it?

 

 

 

TLDR: Recount is the path to the Dark Side. And not the cool storytelling dark side. The guild-imploding, enemy-making one that makes the game antithetical to fun. If you think someone is under-performing, ask. Maybe talk with your raid before and after encounters and find out why things are or aren't working. No one needs a blue ribbon for top DPS or a brown one for worst healer. Build a guild with a raid force composed of people you know and can trust. It might mean that you have to repeat encounters a few more times before you get them down. But you won't end up hating your guild afterwards. That's all.

 

Bravo! +1