Damage Meters Please

I am still confused as to why bioware hasn't been able to put something so simple in their game. Instead we are seeing fans doing the job that bioware should be doing. We have the good guys from Memories of Xendor with MOX and we have swtorcombatlogs.com etc too. Some even have overlays that show liveupdates in the game and I don't understand how a couple of fans are able to do this so quickly and bioware keeps hitting us with their motto of 'soon' anytime damage meters gets mentioned.

In that "other" game, I was tank since it started. And aside from having to watch just a few cooldowns (I only used 2 or 3 addons in that other game, and none had anything to do with combat). If you learn other classes, you get a feeling for what they're doing, and when they're doing it. If you just see auto-attack going off, you know they're not doing much. If you see certain animations, and know what their visual is, you can gauge quite well how they're doing. I had a few who didn't believe me, and ran damage meters a few times, and at the end of the fight, based on gear and animations, you can tell who's pulling their weight, and who's not.

Damage meters when they first came out in WoW were a good thing. It WAS a way to see who was pulling their weight (Still didn't use them), but sometime after BC came out, it wasn't to gauge who was pulling their weight, but it was nothing more then a way for people to "show off their e-peen." Which wasn't a good thing. You had people ignoring basic mechanics of fights, pulling things they shouldn't, and breaking CC just to get their dps and overall damage up high. DPS meters at one point were useful yet, but anymore, even in this game, are nothing more then another way for people to play stupid.

Case in point, though not raid or ops, warzones are a good example. You have people just fighting in the middle of nowhere, not defending nodes or attacking the huttball carrier. Just so their damage is highest at the end. Anything that'll show off overall damage or dps, hurts the group more then it'll help it.

It's funny how whenever a thread about this appears, the detractors rush in with hyperbole and senseless arguments to rail against it. Here's a hypothetical situation:

You and Bob both work for the same company. Your job each day is to complete a specific task. That task requires everyone to pull their weight. Everyone gets paid unless the team fails the task. Everyone on the team contributes to finishing the task, except Bob. Bob slacks off all day, takes 3 hour lunches, and basically fails to contribute in one way or another. In this situation, would you want option 1, a complete free-for-all where there is no accountability? Or would you want a company-provided tool to track people's hours so you know your other teammates are doing their share?

If your answer is "option 1", you are full of it. Having a meter does not mean everyone 'abuses' it. Tanks and healers are instantly held accountable the second something goes wrong. DPS shouldn't get a free pass. If you are being a detriment to the group, even in a pug, even if unintentional, you should be held accountable.

*buzzer sound*

No.

See what usually happens is that this "accountability" is usually in the form of a "group kick" instead of "educating someone" on how to "play better". Due to selfisheness and arogance of "leets" playing the "game".

This proves my point a little more, though that's not what you wanted to do. In that job, they'd have a boss/manager/supervisor (ie, Raid Leader) watching said employees, and if Bob wasn't doing his job, or was slacking that bad, his *** would be gone.

^This.....

I know you cant be fired for it, but we would appreciate if you quit posting and help one of the 47 people in your line to get their car registered.

Gee...this topic comes back from the dead every once in a while like an old-school vampire.
Basically, it is a matter of trust. I spent hours sifting through parser data, comparing notes and exchanging ideas on rotations and energy management. We 'taped' our operations and analyzed the vids together with our guildies. In the end we came up with new ideas on how to squeeze some extra DPS out of our chars without being negligent about boss mechanics. Eventually we developed a sense of trust. We could trust each and every member to be as prepared as they could possibly be for an encounter. Anyone new to the team had to submit him-/herself to the same rigorous system of inquiry and improvement. Parser data helped but it was our mutual respect for each other as gamers which enabled us to do better as a team.
A system like recount relies on anything BUT trust. Such a system basically postulates that there are always some who don't 'pull their weight' and that there is a simple and quick method to identify them: A very basic DPS-count forced down the throat of MMO veteran and newbie alike. The end result is a caste of recount dictators and a brainless army of recount slaves. No room for fun, no room for innovation, just an enormous peer pressure to conform to a streamlined 'server solution'. Those who deviate in the slightest get discarded. Who has time for new players, right?
On second thought: Let 'em have it! This game is a broken dream as it is. Might as well let in the devil.

I don't work for the government, but I have friends and family that do. They probably work harder than you. I know they work harder than I do... I'm posting this from work and they don't post from work.

One way to get these tools in a more positive light is to stop calling them damage meters. They are useful for far more than just seeing damage. And my hard mode EC guild does not throw people out based on damage. We're far more critical on unecessary deaths. We use Mox and Ask Mr. Robot (and dpsmeters.com when it existed) in constructive ways.

All that being said, we primarily use it to analyze boss damage to the player and for learning the names and average damage of those boss abilities. What I would like is something like Recount Death Tracker, which showed you the last few hits the player took before dying. I found it really difficult to analyze this sort of thing without a proper tool.