Macroing
From Toadwater Guide
A controversial issue in Toadwater and many other online games.
Macroing is the act of using a device or program to do the work of pressing keys or clicking the mouse for you so you can do other things at the same time. Non-attended (also called Away From Keyboard or AFK) macroing is a violation (see The TW Administration's Position, below). Attended (also called At The Keyboard or ATK) macroing is frowned upon by some members of the TW community. Using simple keyboard macros (like pressing a button which "presses" the "p" key for you five times) while running the official TWC is not appreciated by some of the community, but it is explicitly allowed by the Toadwater rules.
The TW Administration's Position
Everything in this section is quoted from this post -- refer to the post for the latest verbiage!
Effective immediately, players who circumvent official game mechanics will be removed from rankings without warning. Beginning right now (11:20 PM, Feb 22, 2006), this goes into effect. Anything in the past is in the past and will not be punished.
Circumventing official game mechanics is defined roughly by using a macro program (non-attended: this allows you to play without actually playing), exploiting a bug in the game even more so if you have not reported the bug to Dragoon or myself, using an alternative client which cuts down on action delay times or otherwise violates game mechanics exhibited in the official client, or using popup circumvention devices (something that makes a popup go away without you actually having to type something in).
This definition is prone to change, and will most likely be changed in the future. We reserve the right to changes this definition at any time, without warning.
The reason for this is to promote actual gameplay. Many players have spent a large amount of time by pressing certain keys a lot and dutifully putting up with the popups. This is what Toadwater is all about. It is time they were given a reward for this effort.
If you believe you have been removed from rankings wrongfully, please contact me via PM.
REMEMBER: UNATTENDED MACROING WILL RESULT IN REMOVAL FROM RANKINGS.
We're not really that sorry for any inconvenience this will cause.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2006, 09:19:58 PM by Matt Siegman »
Arguments In Favor of Macroing
- Minimizes the tedious aspects of playing
- Allows more time/effort to be spent on developing strategic/tactical plans, managing inventory, exploring, calculating, interacting with others, and doing things essential to enjoyment of TW
- Reduces risk of carpal tunnel / repetitive motion injuries
- Allows differently-abled people to play faster than they normally could
- It is hard to police (theoretically impossible according to master video game programmer-pioneer John Carmack) and so the Toadwater Development Group has implemented popups to reduce AFK macroing
- Other games allow some form of macroing mainly because it is impossible to eliminate
- Alternative client programs may not mean the game is played differently. Under the definition of macro above, playing a home-made Mac version of the client would also be called "macroing".
Arguments In Opposition to Macroing
- It is not really playing the game so if a player does not want to play, the player should stop playing instead of macroing
- Makes the playing field less even for those who do not, or cannot, macro -- and whenever possible the playing field should be made more even to avoid discouraging lower level players
- Cheapens ingame accomplishments
- Encourages players to gain an unfair advantage by cheating (by reverse engineering, hacking, etc)
- A few high level characters have never macroed which is proof that macroing is not necessary to do well in TW
- Macroing is hard to police but the Toadwater Development Group implemented popups (sometimes called Captchas) to make macroing less advantageous.
