Suggestion - Make AFK Macroing inside town illegal

[Zane]

I see both sides of the argument here. Some people want to play the "end product" whild others see enjoyment in the build up. Neither are wrong.

Instead of afk macroing being illegal.... what about unattended loitering in high traffic areas. Probably not feasible... but it would be freakin cool if someone went gray from standing in one place too long at WBB.

I'm sure there's a solution that isn't so impactful that it would turn off a large number of players.

[Jimmy Jakes]

I hate to say this to the OP, but who died and made you the police of the shard?

Someone does something that policy dictates is not wrong on this shard, but since you deem it wrong, you have to make it your mission to punish them? Just let other players be and do their thing. But you shouldn't be exempt from taking counts simply because you want to make it your prerogative to punish players that you deem as cheaters. Derrick and his staff obviously disagree with you on that particular point, anyway. That's the end of discussion. At least two staff members have already said it probably won't change anytime soon, so you have been heard out and your arguments considered, and you are not getting your way. That's that.

TK people all you want, but there is a consequence for that action.

I see both sides of this argument, but too many of your paragraphs seem to put off some self-congratulatory air, like you are doing everyone a favor by killing AFK macroers in town. Just get off your high horse and enjoy the game. If all the AFK macroers are really ruining your game that much, then do something constructive like find a group of players that are running around killing mobs or something, and play with them, instead of spending ALL your time hunting down AFK macroers and trying to send them to macro jail.

Your long-winded story about how you came up with your wonderful ideas was indeed harrowing and heart-warming, but it does little to really further your argument. In fact, it does the opposite by making you seem like you're patting yourself on the back and being this self-proclaimed executor of these "evil" AFK macroers.

This is still as close to era accuracy as you will get, and there are still plenty of players who run around PVPing and PVMing. Just because YOU want to gain skill the old-fashioned way, don't force it on the other players. They aren't stopping you from doing YOUR thing, so why do you have to try to block them from doing theirs?

I identify with those who don't have a lot of time to play and just want to enjoy the "endgame" experience with a character who is built up enough to just PVP or PVM or whatever that person wants to do. I see why the old-fashioned players here want to do their natural skill gain by playing the game too, as that's the classic way to do it, but the players who want to do it the quick way because they have less time to play but still actually enjoy the shard, shouldn't suffer because a couple of guys want it done THEIR way or no way at all.

What if a bunch of the AFK macroers posted in here one day, asking Derrick to remove natural skill gain and put in skill balls? You guys would be fighting that tooth-and-nail, right?

Well, allowing AFK macroing is simply a way in which both styles of players can be catered to without one group suffering more than the other. It's balanced, and I believe that's how Derrick intended it. The old-fashioned players get to gain skill the old-fashioned way, and the players with less time get to utilize razor so that they can have a PVP or PVM-ready character.

AFK macroers are not stopping you from the enjoying the game. That's the bottom line. So my advice to you is to enjoy the shard.

[Ulor]

I don't have the time in my busy life to work on skills for hours on end. I get maybe 1 to 2 hours a night (and maybe only play 3 or 4 nights a week) to play, and I don't want to spend it just working on skills. I want to have some fun too.

+1 to this. For some of us, RL is busy and demands priority over the game. I think it's very cool that I am able to set up a macro that will raise my character's stats so that I can better explore the game when I have time.

So, according to those 2 posts, you guys think that UO game play is worthless unless you are GM and there's no legitimate gameplay?

No one ever said that only GM chars make the game playable. People who macro AFK also play the game, too, whenever they feel like it - even at only 0x, 2x..nx GM. Somehow I get the sense that some people just posit arguments and put words in other people's mouths simply for the sake of being argumentative. But I really shouldn't complain about it, since even this makes the shard even more era-accurate.

+1 for freedom of opinion and gameplay.

[Duke Jones]

My point is that we must be careful when we say "You have the freedom to not use macros, we should have the freedom to use them."

Gamers have a natural and understandable habit of making elitist standards. Consider the following slippery-slope:

-You have a macro that would change "normal" (no third-party macros) success rate of something from, lets say 70%.
-Then, you remove the human error/speed and turn it to 90-95% success rate.
-That improved success rate will become the new standard.
-This in turn forces anyone who wishes to not get left behind to use this new third-party standard.
-Then it gets to the point where it's not only the standard, its become expected, and anyone not using this will be (inversely, due to the game being dependent on the player community) at a greater failure rate than without the third party program macros.
-So, in essence, the only freedom non-macroers are given, is the freedom to fail against standardized automated game play which has little/no human interaction.

Iv'e said it before, and I'll say it again. "The UO devs implemented the in-game macro system knowing that it was limited, and they limited it on purpose."

[sirrayiv]

I hate to say this to the OP, but who died and made you the police of the shard?

Someone does something that policy dictates is not wrong on this shard, but since you deem it wrong, you have to make it your mission to punish them? Just let other players be and do their thing. But you shouldn't be exempt from taking counts simply because you want to make it your prerogative to punish players that you deem as cheaters. Derrick and his staff obviously disagree with you on that particular point, anyway. That's the end of discussion. At least two staff members have already said it probably won't change anytime soon, so you have been heard out and your arguments considered, and you are not getting your way. That's that.

TK people all you want, but there is a consequence for that action.

I see both sides of this argument, but too many of your paragraphs seem to put off some self-congratulatory air, like you are doing everyone a favor by killing AFK macroers in town. Just get off your high horse and enjoy the game. If all the AFK macroers are really ruining your game that much, then do something constructive like find a group of players that are running around killing mobs or something, and play with them, instead of spending ALL your time hunting down AFK macroers and trying to send them to macro jail.

Your long-winded story about how you came up with your wonderful ideas was indeed harrowing and heart-warming, but it does little to really further your argument. In fact, it does the opposite by making you seem like you're patting yourself on the back and being this self-proclaimed executor of these "evil" AFK macroers.

This is still as close to era accuracy as you will get, and there are still plenty of players who run around PVPing and PVMing. Just because YOU want to gain skill the old-fashioned way, don't force it on the other players. They aren't stopping you from doing YOUR thing, so why do you have to try to block them from doing theirs?

I identify with those who don't have a lot of time to play and just want to enjoy the "endgame" experience with a character who is built up enough to just PVP or PVM or whatever that person wants to do. I see why the old-fashioned players here want to do their natural skill gain by playing the game too, as that's the classic way to do it, but the players who want to do it the quick way because they have less time to play but still actually enjoy the shard, shouldn't suffer because a couple of guys want it done THEIR way or no way at all.

What if a bunch of the AFK macroers posted in here one day, asking Derrick to remove natural skill gain and put in skill balls? You guys would be fighting that tooth-and-nail, right?

Well, allowing AFK macroing is simply a way in which both styles of players can be catered to without one group suffering more than the other. It's balanced, and I believe that's how Derrick intended it. The old-fashioned players get to gain skill the old-fashioned way, and the players with less time get to utilize razor so that they can have a PVP or PVM-ready character.

AFK macroers are not stopping you from the enjoying the game. That's the bottom line. So my advice to you is to enjoy the shard.

Your rather long response is missing the whole point entirely....I didn't ask for afk macroing to be illegal, I asked for TOWN AFK MACROING become illegal.

[Kraarug]

Guys, I don't think this is going to go anywhere.

Besides, there are some skills that need others around to gain such as hiding, stealing and and I think stealth.

[Lothain]

Talk about touching a nerve. It's good to see people can get worked up about this, on both sides.