There has been a bit of a hooha over the recent ban wave in WoW. I'm not going to get into that side of things as Big Red Kitty and TJ have blogged extensively about it over their guildie who got smacked around the face with the ban hammer.The majority of the bannees were people who had bought the "un-detectable" bot called Glider.
Seems Bliz got into a bit of lateral thinking here and instead of trying to detect it they must have finally won their court battle and got a court order to seize the credit card details of all the people who bought it. A simple cross reference to the payment records and ... BANG ... ban all the matches.
Tip to you cheating bastards out their - buy your bot software with a different credit card!!
Anyway, so with that all said and done, the glider clamp down wasn't all of it. It seems that a lot of people with Logitech G15 keyboards and Nostromo n52's also got banned.
Now, why is that? WoW even has a pipe into the G15 to display things on the LCD screen so it can't be illegal* hardware now can it?
A little further investigation around the blogosphere and WoW forums has it confirmed that the G15 is allowable, and therefore by proxy the Nostromo n52 and n52te.
SO LONG AS ... you don't use the macro capability to automate play (botting). What does that mean? It means 2 important things to me.
1) Multiple Key Strokes: Do NOT program your macros to make repeated keystrokes just by holding one of your macro or keypad buttons down. That buggers up PS the Rogue. Although I didn't use it** I had found a very useful macro for Sinister Strike. Hold down the button and it spams Sinister Strike. OK, you wouldn't be able to leave the keyboard while doing this so it's not truly botting, it would be seriously inadvisable to use this because you cannot replicate this with a WoW macro*** So, that's one of my macro's deleted err that I now won't create when I finally start playing my Rogue again.
2) Programmed Delays: My Warlock EZ Mode Macro is illegal. I never got round to creating it on my n52te and my new PC and I have deleted it from my old PC and n52. The idea behind this macro was to set up a sequence of casts with the exact duration of the GCD between them so there was no latent downtime. Press the Keypad button and it would cast CoA instantly, wait exactly 1.5 seconds and then cast Corruption, wait another 1.5 seconds exactly and then cast Unstable Affliction etc etc. Of course I never used this** I just proved it could be done** You cannot emulate this in a WoW macro. You can make a cast sequence but this requires you to press the button for each spell. The Nostromo macro allows you to cast multiple spells for one key press. OK this is hardly Glider setting off on a days worth of Talbuk farming while you are at work but it DOES automate gameplay (if only for 10 seconds) so don't do it!
2b) Multiple non-GCD Spell Casts: This is similar to point 2 above but it maybe OK. What about casting multiple spells where you don't have to worry about the GCD because the first doesn't have one, or throwing a trinket into the mix? ie /use slot 13 damage boost trinket > PoM > Pyroblast or more important for me a macro that I haven't written for my rogue yet. /use 13 Dodge trinket > /use 14 increase AP trinket > Evasion > Adrenaline Rush > Blade Flurry as my "Uber burn down multiple mobs and finish on full life" macro. I'm not at home so can't check, but if the Ev and AR have no GCD and kicking off the 2nd trinket is allowable instantly then you COULD do this with a WoW macro so you can do it with the n52 or the G15 - but why bother? Do it in a WoW macro anyway!
These are hardly going to effect anyone else's gameplay because with good timing you can do these things yourself, just with a lot more button pressing or mouse clicking and not quite so efficient. BUT, they are deemed illegal* by Blizzard. So don't do it.
I am in no doubt that if someone sees you out in Nagrand harvesting the voidies and suspects you are a bot, or are just jealous that you are too good that they will report you. I am also in no doubt that with the amount of logs Blizzard take that it would be no leap for them to have a look at your actions in that time and see that you have 0.00 seconds between Sinister Strikes or that you manage to get the next cast off exactly 1.5000 seconds after the previous one; time after time.
That's gonna flag you as botting and end up with the Banhammer :(
So the Moral of the Story? Rule of thumb: If you can it in a WoW macro then it's fine. If you can't do it in a WoW macro then DON'T DO IT FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY!
* OK, when I say illegal I mean against Blizzad's ToS, EULA etc etc blah blah
** cough cough!
*** This is the benchmark as to whether something is allowable.
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