ANet's stance on macros?

Has it changed at all? I forget what they said before anyways...

I have a macro for SF that I can toggle to loop forever. So I could ideally leave my PC for days and come back and my sin would still be maintaining SF. Is this a questionable practice?

If it plays when you're not at the computer, it's bannable. Nothing questionable about it.

If it gives you an advantage over other players, its bannable i think.

i hope they change their policy for guild wars 2...i've been playing WoW for the past year (dropped it because it became too much of a grind after naxx) and I admit I've become a bit of a macro-kiddie!

Good thing GW is generally anti-grind
And if a wow debate comes up
WoW PvE > GW PvE
GW PvE > Wow PvE
Now i must leave if it escalates...

Only mods (UI edits) are the only 3rd party things allowed to directly influence the game.

Yes, it doesnt make u better or worse, just mods the look of the game, that only affects you.

However it cannot be supported if anything gets broken

Basically, the macros that are allowed are ones that help you while you play at the computer. The macros that are not allowed are the ones that let you automate what your character does while you are away from the comp (at work, school or whatever your doing while not at the PC)

with this in mind it makes me question putting my account to "offline" and going to work while i'm deathleveling (would that be thought of as botting?) lol but yes macros if caught using will get your account banned whether it is a perma ban or temp is up to the anet team.

I'm not saying I'm going to leave the computer while my toon spams SF just for show. It's mainly a perfect-timing setup for the off-chance I happen to forget to renew. My statement was just an embellishment to emphasize what my macro really can do.

I'd stop using this if I were you. Having a 3rd party program that can use skills for you (even 'I just forgot to renew') gives you an unfair advantage against other players. Besides, what's next? Eventually, if this is allowed, people are going to keep pushing the boundaries on what is acceptable, and arguments/qqing will begin.

If maintaining SF during absence of mind is an unfair advantage then I'm inclined to believe binding a hotkeys to quick-select party members and cast Prot Spirit on them is also an unfair advantage, as anything else would be.

This is too blurry.

Deathlevelling charr? That can't be considered as botting, and shouldn't require the use of macros, as the only thing that is happening while you are away from the computer is that you are being ressed at the nearest res shrine.

Basically you should refrain from doing anything that can be interpreted as botting. The scripts they run to monitor the servers cannot tell the difference between a keyboard macro and a bot program.
The official view seems to be that if you click like clockwork you are not doing it by yourself and need to have your account banned!

I don't think deathlevelling anything is considered botting, since they introduced the title in pre that forces you to death level, they wouldn't ban people for playing their game the correct way. Besides, its not animating your character with macros while you are gone, you are just standing there and getting beat down to death every few seconds, lol.

it isn't an unfair advantage since anyone can do that through the official GW client.

I don't think they will change their policy. The ArenaNet mindset is fixed on a level playing field for all. That is a large part of what made GW such a success (besides the FTP). Macros give one player the advantage over someone not using macros. Once you allow one such macro, where do you draw the line.

What if you use a macro just to maintain SF but do all the other stuff yourself while at the computer?

Bannable! Anet makes no exceptions about macros. If you can leave your keyboard and the character's actions will continue without your presence, you are in violation of the rules.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but you can stop a macro before leaving the computer, and it's possible to program macros to auto-terminate as soon as your character goes idle.

I'm thinking the relevant part of the EULA is this, under item 7:

"The Game(s) is designed for official play only as offered through the Service by NC Interactive at the Web Site and not through any other means. You further agree not to access, create or provide any other means through which Game(s) may be played by others, as through server emulators. You agree not to use any hardware or software, including but not limited to third party tools, or any other method of support which may in any way influence or advantage your use of the Service which is not authorized by NC Interactive, including but not limited to the use of 'bots' and/or any other method by which the Service may be played automatically without human input."

On one hand there's the "without human input," so that "along with human input" would seemingly be okay. Then again, there's "influence or advantage" and the classic "including but not limited to" phrase that could potentially make anything not-okay. Oh legaleze, gotta love it.

There's no reason why anyone couldn't use a macro. There's plenty of free programs that allow you to do that.