Automated tasks - Cheating?

[WizardHawk]

Ran across someone parked in kingshead in the main field area where the group of vets and an 18 officer spawn. This person was casting wither every 9 seconds, whether or not anything was there. This is clearly someone using a macro program to automate mouse movements. Do you think this is cheating? What do you think Disney should do about it? I'd post the name of the person here, but I'm sure POF would delete it.

[Nick]

It is cheating and happened in toontown. Disney can't do much other than ban the accounts.

[JoG]

Clearly this is cheating. Using macro's, packet injection, etc, etc, is wrong. I sure hope Disney jumps on this one if he/she was indeed cheating.

[WizardHawk]

well its several hours later now and that char is still sitting on kingshead throwing down wither after wither. I do admit I pushed him in an area where he wasn't getting any/many hits because I wanted to use some of them myself. Just burns me to see so many playing and working hard to get to higher levels only to see some taking the low and easy road. Glad to know I'm not alone in feeling this is very wrong.

[Vandelay]

Craziness. I wonder how long it'll be before we see people trying to sell their high-level characters on eBay?

Hmm.... (counts money in wallet to buy WizardHawk's character).

[Chickee]

My husband had bought gaming keyboards for each of us to use on Toontown. I have told him I think that is a Macro. He says no. Anyone know for sure?

[Batleth]

Originally Posted by Chickee

My husband had bought gaming keyboards for each of us to use on Toontown. I have told him I think that is a Macro. He says no. Anyone know for sure?

Most gaming keyboards these days can set up marcos using their pre-set buttons to be used for games.

[Vandelay]

Yeah, I suspect that the answer depends on how he's using the keyboard. For example, if he's programming one key so that it automatically performs multiple actions in a row, I'd call that a macro.

[WizardHawk]

To me any time you are having a piece of hardware or software doing something for you that it outside the intended scope of a game, it is a form of cheating. Now setting up buttons to do combos for you isn't as bad as leaving a character online fighting for hours when you are not there, but it still is cheating IMO.

And Vanddelay, you sure could find better characters to buy than mine lol, or at least I'd hope so. Afterall, mine might come with some baggage.

[Plunderin Mom]

Originally Posted by Chickee

My husband had bought gaming keyboards for each of us to use on Toontown. I have told him I think that is a Macro. He says no. Anyone know for sure?

Others have given you good answers, but let me also make it clear that the keyboard itself is not a macro. But if someone programs the keys/board to do specific multiple repetitive actions (like doodle training, fishing, gardening, or even a preset selection of attacks on a weapon), then they are using a "macro program."

If you have a nice gaming keyboard, but dont use it to do multiple repetitive actions for you then don't worry.

[Thalore]

Didn't some people in TT get banned for that? I thought I remember something about that a long time ago.

[NannerFL]

Originally Posted by Thalore

Didn't some people in TT get banned for that? I thought I remember something about that a long time ago.

Yes, quite a few infact and it was a big sweep awhile ago. (year maybe)? Was just reading today of someone using a program to play two games/screens on one computer who was banned. Most of the earlier ones were doodle training macro's. Now I think they use other ones just to do stupid things but are still getting banned.

[WizardHawk]

We will see what happens in this case. I've seen this person around and they are at least a member here so if they get banned we will likely hear about it. I'll also let others know what the response is back from Disney.

So far the support on this game has been disappointing at best so I'm not holding my breath that they deal with this in a swift and decisive manner.

[Thalore]

Originally Posted by WizardHawk

We will see what happens in this case. I've seen this person around and they are at least a member here so if they get banned we will likely hear about it. I'll also let others know what the response is back from Disney.

So far the support on this game has been disappointing at best so I'm not holding my breath that they deal with this in a swift and decisive manner.

Customer support is sorely lacking in this game. I lost 37,000 gold, because of the 60k cap bug (that would have been nice to know about ahead of time), and they just sent me their standard form letters.

I wouldn't expect much more in this case. But who cares. Just keep having fun let everyone else do whatever

[WizardHawk]

Oh I won't lose sleep over this cheater, that's for sure. I've spent lots of time playing in beta and early release games and have been a game helper trying to help stop blatent cheating in others. I just can't stand having people trying to take such short cuts and I will do whatever it takes to at least be a bee in their bonnet, but if Disney is too impotent to do anything about it we will see more of this in the future.

If that is the case then everyone else who doesn't like it can do what I did and push the guy to an area where there are no spawns. This guy casted wither hundreds of times just out of reach of the guys in the kingshead main field lol. Maybe some will get the clue and stop on their own.