Opening Wintersday Gifts

So I (along with everyone else in the game) have accumulated many wintersday gifts. I was wondering if a macro to open them would be officially against the terms of service. I know that there is an auto hotkey script in the tools and resources section of this forum, but is it against the terms of service? I would appreciate input and I'm sure everyone would like to use a hotkey to open gifts if they WERE legal. Thanks.

It is considered a breach of the EULA and can result in your account being banned.

That being said, there are plenty of people who do it who have not been banned. They either have not been caught, or ANET does their best to ignore it.

But the tools and resources thread requires the approval of a moderator to start a new thread. Why would a moderator approve an auto hotkey thread if it were against the terms of svc?

The wording most likely got it approved. The way it is worded does make it sound possible to use without breaking the EULA.

What the creator of that program may not realize is that the player does not have to be present. They say it requires a person to physically hold down the Ctrl button on the keyboard, however, one could simply put a weighted object on the key just large enough to push the key down. Then that person can leave and effectively use it to use points (be it party, sweet tooth, etc.) while AFK.

Also note that the moderators of this site are not ANET employees and as such may not know exactly everything what is and isn't against the EULA.

So if one were to physically be at the computer using this program and holding down the ctrl key that would not be against the rules? It only becomes illegal while you are afk?

Hypothetically speaking, yes.
But if you do for whatever get banned while using the program, good luck proving you were physically at your computer.

Many people, myself included, have asked support for clarification on what macros were allowed. They send the same response every time. Their response boils down to: We refuse to answer the question.

If a script opens the gifts automatically, it can be defined as a bot and can result in a ban. If a script repeats mouse clicks while a button or key is held, that is a gray area that support has yet to define, and has refused to define when asked. Any script or macro is used at your own risk, and ANet reserves the right to terminate the account for any reason, including a violation of their vague and unclear third party tool and automation policies.

As far as I know using keyboard binds on the G110 or similar keyboards is kosher. For opening my gifts I just assigned one of my G keys to "quadruple-click" and mashed it on my stack, took about 10 seconds to open them all.

Rules of Conduct #22

User Agreement: 7 - Official Service

Any third party program can be against the EULA depending on how the support staff views your case. It's open to human interpretation which is a scary thing. Is it directly against the rules? No. It does have human interaction. Could you get banned for it? Yes.

It's entirely up to you what you want to do, I'd rather be safe than sorry and just double click to open my presents.

Hello everyone! I have talked with Regina about the Auto Hotkey program and it is confirmed that it is indeed a 3rd party program and thus goes against the user agreement. One of the programmers commented that a program like that allows someone to do something much faster than humanly possible and that it can slow/lag the server for everyone.

I have removed the thread from the Tools section but I caution anyone that has the program that there is a possibility that you may get banned for using it.

Is it really that hard to click on a stack of presents a few hundred times? o.0

One stack is ok..but 20 stacks and you can get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Most mice these days have software that allows you to assign functions to extra buttons/wheel. I've set my wheel to "double click," so at least I only have to click half as many times.

I doubt I would get banned for this, but anything is possible, I suppose.

Its a shame that ANet would rather see their players crippled with RSI. Wouldn't it be nice to do something like Shift-click to open all in a stack or utilise the split dialog to open a multiple, or even consume multiple other things, like snowman summoners etc.

RSI from a few stacks of gifts?

They aren't making you farm lots of gifts.
They aren't making you open them all at the same time.

Just open a stack of gifts every 2hrs or whatever. It'll be slower but, hurray! Your hand wont hurt!

agreed. u can open 10 while waiting for the SD dialogue to be finished if ur doing SD like crazy.

otherwise i open my gifts about every 12-25 times. ususally its 12. that way im just opening 120 gifts, using Snow Sum and fruitcakes, and storing the booze for later.

imo i would think a macro of double clicking wouldnt be against the eula but its however Anet defines it. but anymore than double would be against the rules imo

You probably could open all your gifts manually in less time than it takes to find a macro to do it - but your widdle fingey would be so tired.