Cheats, exploits, and macroing are a part of every game, but I believe in no other game are they more destructive. And even though I like everything else about the game, these may very well drive me away from it quite soon.

Macro:

1. Those who macroed their skills on NA1 from the start are now coming out to completely destroy normal players. This imbalance can, with time, be corrected, but the question is do you want to spend the next few months getting destroyed while you attempt to use all of your playtime to grind up and catch them. This game will be virtually inaccessible to new players in a few months time because of the grind.

2. The game itself is so grind heavy, and the grind itself so boring, that a macro capable keyboard is a required accessory. You won't just need it to be comeptitive, but you'll need it if you don't want to spend 12 hours a day manually button clicking to get anywhere.

3. Adventurine is completely unable to stop macroing, although sometimes they do permaban people for it in which case it's probably the newbie macroers who got caught while the more experienced ones go on with it. They are also unwilling to adjust the grind to make macroing irrelevent or less of an issue.

Exploits:

1. The number one method of fueling your economy in this game is through exploited high level mobs. The real power in this game flows from those who know of the spots, know how to exploit them, and who have a clan willing to fight for control of them. If you don't exploit mobs, you will be crushed by other clans who have superior risk free gear and higher skills because theyhave the gold to afford grinding out their skills as much as possible.

2. Adventurine is even more powerless to stop exploiters than macroers, and the negative impact of exploiters is far worse in the long run.

Hacks/Cheats

1. There is a cottage industry built around hacking in MMOs, and darkfall is particularly worse off because of it given the nature of the game.

2. If you report someone hacking and they can find evidence in the logs, they will be permabanned, but this is very unreliable and they catch only a fraction of the observed cheaters. I've seen clans dedicated to hacking, exploiting, and macroing terrorize entire regions without repercussions from the GMs, no matter how many times they are reported. A single small hacking clan can cause dozens of people to quit, clans to fall apart, because nobody wants to waste their time and effort fighting against someone who blatantly cheats. I personally will probably be quitting because of this. I don't have any trouble getting owned by legitimate players, but I've got better things to do than subject myself further to those abusing the game. I didn't play this game as a contest to see who can out-exploit/hack/macro the other.

3.  Many hacks are completely undetectable and they will probably never be banned for it. I hope the scum selling these hacks online will have their testicles eaten by an animal and then die in a fire.

That is proof of how many people think they can say and do what ever they want on the internet and get away with it. In most cases yes and that is where the respective authorities really have to put some of their attention on.

It is probably better for you to leave the game than put up with it.

People have been saying this and pointing it out for months. While people shot them down, accused them of never playing and being the almighty carebear. People should learn to maybe be more open minded. DF has a few good points but the bad will trump the good everytime since the bad is what ruins the fun. Also AV itself is why people should not play DF.

Originally posted by Trenchgun

Cheats, exploits, and macroing are a part of every game, but I believe in no other game are they more destructive. And even though I like everything else about the game, these may very well drive me away from it quite soon.

 

Macro:

1. Those who macroed their skills on NA1 from the start are now coming out to completely destroy normal players. This imbalance can, with time, be corrected, but the question is do you want to spend the next few months getting destroyed while you attempt to use all of your playtime to grind up and catch them. This game will be virtually inaccessible to new players in a few months time because of the grind.

2. The game itself is so grind heavy, and the grind itself so boring, that a macro capable keyboard is a required accessory. You won't just need it to be comeptitive, but you'll need it if you don't want to spend 12 hours a day manually button clicking to get anywhere.

3. Adventurine is completely unable to stop macroing, although sometimes they do permaban people for it in which case it's probably the newbie macroers who got caught while the more experienced ones go on with it. They are also unwilling to adjust the grind to make macroing irrelevent or less of an issue.

 

Exploits:

1. The number one method of fueling your economy in this game is through exploited high level mobs. The real power in this game flows from those who know of the spots, know how to exploit them, and who have a clan willing to fight for control of them. If you don't exploit mobs, you will be crushed by other clans who have superior risk free gear and higher skills because theyhave the gold to afford grinding out their skills as much as possible.

2. Adventurine is even more powerless to stop exploiters than macroers, and the negative impact of exploiters is far worse in the long run.

 

Hacks/Cheats

1. There is a cottage industry built around hacking in MMOs, and darkfall is particularly worse off because of it given the nature of the game.

2. If you report someone hacking and they can find evidence in the logs, they will be permabanned, but this is very unreliable and they catch only a fraction of the observed cheaters. I've seen clans dedicated to hacking, exploiting, and macroing terrorize entire regions without repercussions from the GMs, no matter how many times they are reported. A single small hacking clan can cause dozens of people to quit, clans to fall apart, because nobody wants to waste their time and effort fighting against someone who blatantly cheats. I personally will probably be quitting because of this. I don't have any trouble getting owned by legitimate players, but I've got better things to do than subject myself further to those abusing the game. I didn't play this game as a contest to see who can out-exploit/hack/macro the other.

3.  Many hacks are completely undetectable and they will probably never be banned for it. I hope the scum selling these hacks online will have their testicles eaten by an animal and then die in a fire.

 

Good post Trench.
 

The points you have raised are the main reason the vast majority of us here categorized as "haters" despise Tasos and Aventurine.

The majority of us actually like the ideas behind DarkFall.  We've stated that over and over again.  We have very few issues with the game itself (well, not many that a good development team couldn't fix anyway).

We do not like how Tasos and Aventurine have managed it though.  For some, they are able to over-look the issues they have with Aventurine and still enjoy playing DarkFall.  For many of us... as long as Tasos is on the Dev. Team... that's a show stopper.

For clarity's sake... Our main issue with DarkFall is: Aventurine. 

Until something drastic changes with the management, we will continue to criticize them.  If it weren't for Tasos and the mis-management of Aventurine... DarkFall would be a much better MMO, and probably have quite a few more subs.  

Originally posted by xzyax

Originally posted by Trenchgun

Cheats, exploits, and macroing are a part of every game, but I believe in no other game are they more destructive. And even though I like everything else about the game, these may very well drive me away from it quite soon.

 

Macro:

1. Those who macroed their skills on NA1 from the start are now coming out to completely destroy normal players. This imbalance can, with time, be corrected, but the question is do you want to spend the next few months getting destroyed while you attempt to use all of your playtime to grind up and catch them. This game will be virtually inaccessible to new players in a few months time because of the grind.

2. The game itself is so grind heavy, and the grind itself so boring, that a macro capable keyboard is a required accessory. You won't just need it to be comeptitive, but you'll need it if you don't want to spend 12 hours a day manually button clicking to get anywhere.

3. Adventurine is completely unable to stop macroing, although sometimes they do permaban people for it in which case it's probably the newbie macroers who got caught while the more experienced ones go on with it. They are also unwilling to adjust the grind to make macroing irrelevent or less of an issue.

 

Exploits:

1. The number one method of fueling your economy in this game is through exploited high level mobs. The real power in this game flows from those who know of the spots, know how to exploit them, and who have a clan willing to fight for control of them. If you don't exploit mobs, you will be crushed by other clans who have superior risk free gear and higher skills because theyhave the gold to afford grinding out their skills as much as possible.

2. Adventurine is even more powerless to stop exploiters than macroers, and the negative impact of exploiters is far worse in the long run.

 

Hacks/Cheats

1. There is a cottage industry built around hacking in MMOs, and darkfall is particularly worse off because of it given the nature of the game.

2. If you report someone hacking and they can find evidence in the logs, they will be permabanned, but this is very unreliable and they catch only a fraction of the observed cheaters. I've seen clans dedicated to hacking, exploiting, and macroing terrorize entire regions without repercussions from the GMs, no matter how many times they are reported. A single small hacking clan can cause dozens of people to quit, clans to fall apart, because nobody wants to waste their time and effort fighting against someone who blatantly cheats. I personally will probably be quitting because of this. I don't have any trouble getting owned by legitimate players, but I've got better things to do than subject myself further to those abusing the game. I didn't play this game as a contest to see who can out-exploit/hack/macro the other.

3.  Many hacks are completely undetectable and they will probably never be banned for it. I hope the scum selling these hacks online will have their testicles eaten by an animal and then die in a fire.

 

Good post Trench.
 

 

The points you have raised are the main reason the vast majority of us here categorized as "haters" despise Tasos and Aventurine.

 

The majority of us actually like the ideas behind DarkFall.  We've stated that over and over again.  We have very few issues with the game itself (well, not many that a good development team couldn't fix anyway).

We do not like how Tasos and Aventurine have managed it though.  For some, they are able to over-look the issues they have with Aventurine and still enjoy playing DarkFall.  For many of us... as long as Tasos is on the Dev. Team... that's a show stopper.

For clarity's sake... Our main issue with DarkFall is: Aventurine. 

 

Until something drastic changes with the management, we will continue to criticize them.  If it weren't for Tasos and the mis-management of Aventurine... DarkFall would be a much better MMO, and probably have quite a few more subs.  

I have to be honest; The only things  I have seen are people AFK macroing. And to me, that is the equivilent of some one that has been playing the game longer than I, and there for at a higher skill. It is no different than if I joined the game a year from now. Maybe all this stuff you guys talk about is happening on the EU server because I haven't witnessed any on the NA. Not that I am saying it isn't happening. I've been playing online games of all types for a long time. There are ALWAY hackers and exploiters that ruin the game. Why would you think this game would be any different and magically void of any kind of lame behaviour?

Counter-Strike, Battlefield, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty 4, Everquest, Free to play Asian MMO's and you and I know the list goes on.

Wow. this is an abrupt 180°.

Did you have an epiphany, or are you just coming from a different angle?

Unfortunately, for all involved, Aventurine failed to realize that today's "PvPers" mentality towards gaiming is a moonshot from what it was 8-10 years ago.

If it can be abused, it will be. By any means.

All the items you listed are a symptom of the "race to the top" syndrome, and no amount of reducing the grind by whatever means, will slow it down, much less stop it.

It's pretty apparent that Aventurine wasn't paying attention the precedence set forth by any of the other MMO's that failed to "get it right".

They had no problem throwing out the buzz-line about "playing the games we play", so how did they come up with this monstrosity?

There are planty of people in the industry that could have given a ton of insight, but I am guessing that ego prevented that from happening.

Raph Koster and Starr Long come to mind, especially for the type of MMO that Aventurine were attempting.

Oh well, back to the DFO forums, even though all that is over there are complaints about disconnects, "The Grind™", or macroing.

 I had to write to say what a good thread, from Trench's well written OP to Sidebuster's mature response from a current player. Now if only we could get the developers to see threads like these. I am not just talking about AV devs but all devs can learn from threads like this one.

Respit brings up some great points especially the huge change in online audiences/participators.

Great post OP.

This is exactly the problem and the reason they didnt get my money.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

There has to be a way for them to put some gameguard or something on to stop the macroers and hackers isnt there???

That is the ONLY way to save the game

Maybe Trench was taking lessons from the fanbot elite for a while, but then he realized it was pointless and he opened his eyes to see the bad things of the game. I'm surprised. Well, I have to agree - these are the most serious issues right now.

And I don't see AV fixing them anytime soon. Fixing them so that they're at an acceptable level, because as sidebuster correctly pointed out, these kinds of things happen in every MMO. It's up to the game company to limit the severity, however. By doing things like not having easily hackable code, etc... and firmly putting their foot down on things like macroing and exploiting.

Originally posted by Trenchgun

Cheats, exploits, and macroing are a part of every game, but I believe in no other game are they more destructive. And even though I like everything else about the game, these may very well drive me away from it quite soon.

 

Macro:

1. Those who macroed their skills on NA1 from the start are now coming out to completely destroy normal players. This imbalance can, with time, be corrected, but the question is do you want to spend the next few months getting destroyed while you attempt to use all of your playtime to grind up and catch them. This game will be virtually inaccessible to new players in a few months time because of the grind.

2. The game itself is so grind heavy, and the grind itself so boring, that a macro capable keyboard is a required accessory. You won't just need it to be comeptitive, but you'll need it if you don't want to spend 12 hours a day manually button clicking to get anywhere.

3. Adventurine is completely unable to stop macroing, although sometimes they do permaban people for it in which case it's probably the newbie macroers who got caught while the more experienced ones go on with it. They are also unwilling to adjust the grind to make macroing irrelevent or less of an issue.

 

Exploits:

1. The number one method of fueling your economy in this game is through exploited high level mobs. The real power in this game flows from those who know of the spots, know how to exploit them, and who have a clan willing to fight for control of them. If you don't exploit mobs, you will be crushed by other clans who have superior risk free gear and higher skills because theyhave the gold to afford grinding out their skills as much as possible.

2. Adventurine is even more powerless to stop exploiters than macroers, and the negative impact of exploiters is far worse in the long run.

 

Hacks/Cheats

1. There is a cottage industry built around hacking in MMOs, and darkfall is particularly worse off because of it given the nature of the game.

2. If you report someone hacking and they can find evidence in the logs, they will be permabanned, but this is very unreliable and they catch only a fraction of the observed cheaters. I've seen clans dedicated to hacking, exploiting, and macroing terrorize entire regions without repercussions from the GMs, no matter how many times they are reported. A single small hacking clan can cause dozens of people to quit, clans to fall apart, because nobody wants to waste their time and effort fighting against someone who blatantly cheats. I personally will probably be quitting because of this. I don't have any trouble getting owned by legitimate players, but I've got better things to do than subject myself further to those abusing the game. I didn't play this game as a contest to see who can out-exploit/hack/macro the other.

3.  Many hacks are completely undetectable and they will probably never be banned for it. I hope the scum selling these hacks online will have their testicles eaten by an animal and then die in a fire.

 

And all this comes down to 1 thing. The Players.

Darkfall has probably the WORST playersbase it has been my displeasure to be a part of. Hackers, Cheaters, Exploiters, Foul Mouthed little Retards.

Darkfall is the Mos Eisley of MMOs. a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Originally posted by Respit

Wow. this is an abrupt 180°.

Did you have an epiphany, or are you just coming from a different angle?

This does not conflict with the praise I gave the actual game.

However, I underestimated the severity of the cheating problem intially. I've also waited patiently to see adventurine deal with the problem, giving them the benefit of the doubt, but I cannot continue to subject myself to this while they fail to get results in convicting obvious cheaters.

While it's true that a very small proportion of the playerbase seems to blatantly use hacks/exploits, those that do can wreck a terrible amount of damage upon legitimate clans and players. If it takes them a month to finally ban them all, it's too late, the damage has already been done. But few of them actually seem to get banned.

Macros alone would not be such a deal breaker if it weren't fueled by exploited goods. In fact, I don't blame people for wanting to macro to just get to the real game. It's not like macros allow you to do something that someone else can't match, if given enough time. Exploits and hacks on the other hand are seriously undermining the game's integrity. And overreliance on macros and bloodwalls is just a symptom of the flaw in design which is built on a heavy grind involving lots of wrist breaking repetition.

Originally posted by Trenchgun

Cheats, exploits, and macroing are a part of every game, but I believe in no other game are they more destructive. And even though I like everything else about the game, these may very well drive me away from it quite soon.

 

Macro:

1. Those who macroed their skills on NA1 from the start are now coming out to completely destroy normal players. This imbalance can, with time, be corrected, but the question is do you want to spend the next few months getting destroyed while you attempt to use all of your playtime to grind up and catch them. This game will be virtually inaccessible to new players in a few months time because of the grind.

2. The game itself is so grind heavy, and the grind itself so boring, that a macro capable keyboard is a required accessory. You won't just need it to be comeptitive, but you'll need it if you don't want to spend 12 hours a day manually button clicking to get anywhere.

3. Adventurine is completely unable to stop macroing, although sometimes they do permaban people for it in which case it's probably the newbie macroers who got caught while the more experienced ones go on with it. They are also unwilling to adjust the grind to make macroing irrelevent or less of an issue.

 

I know where you're coming from.   It sucks to get wiped out by players that are clearly far ahead of the curve than you in character development that only unattended macroing can reasonably be attributed to.   It's happened to me too.     I'm a bit more on the traditional old school side of the fence that prefers to play games how they were designed, so I don't afk macro, and even though a blood wall is not "exactly" cheating, I seldom if ever use it.

While on EU all the issues you are bringing up are particularly bad, I am not nearly as effected by them on NA.   Perhaps you just haven't found good leveling areas that are exploit free, but awesome for skill ups; don't know, but I have.    It's been three weeks since NA went live and my skills are advanced and I can  certainly compete.

 

Exploits:

1. The number one method of fueling your economy in this game is through exploited high level mobs. The real power in this game flows from those who know of the spots, know how to exploit them, and who have a clan willing to fight for control of them. If you don't exploit mobs, you will be crushed by other clans who have superior risk free gear and higher skills because theyhave the gold to afford grinding out their skills as much as possible.

2. Adventurine is even more powerless to stop exploiters than macroers, and the negative impact of exploiters is far worse in the long run.

 

Honestly, I wasn't aware this was still an issue, and surprised to hear it is.   I used to post coordinates of the areas that had this exploit on the official forums so the community and devs. would know about it.   So if you know of particular spots that are exploitable, I suggest you do the same.    At the least, you will bring about a war and more heat in  that area making it difficult for those exploiting.     Please post the coords of exploitable areas and send in a ticket to AV. 

 

Hacks/Cheats

1. There is a cottage industry built around hacking in MMOs, and darkfall is particularly worse off because of it given the nature of the game.

2. If you report someone hacking and they can find evidence in the logs, they will be permabanned, but this is very unreliable and they catch only a fraction of the observed cheaters. I've seen clans dedicated to hacking, exploiting, and macroing terrorize entire regions without repercussions from the GMs, no matter how many times they are reported. A single small hacking clan can cause dozens of people to quit, clans to fall apart, because nobody wants to waste their time and effort fighting against someone who blatantly cheats. I personally will probably be quitting because of this. I don't have any trouble getting owned by legitimate players, but I've got better things to do than subject myself further to those abusing the game. I didn't play this game as a contest to see who can out-exploit/hack/macro the other.

3.  Many hacks are completely undetectable and they will probably never be banned for it. I hope the scum selling these hacks online will have their testicles eaten by an animal and then die in a fire.

 

This is the number one concern of mine in DFO, because of the nature of the game, being an open Free for all full loot game.      I don't know it's a fact that any hacks are undetectable, but agree a few are much harder to spot than others.      The one my antenna is always watching for is "Aimbot", which provides a player with the guarantee of not missing.    In a game where you can't auto target, this advantage is huge. 

Aimbot is one I can typically tell if it's being used.   If you are jumping, strafing, etc. and not one arrow or ranged magic shot (DD, not AOE) fails to miss you, it's a pretty good tip off.     Depending, I'll make a note of player name and see if the same experience is found with this player by friends, guild mates, or myself again.    If so, I'll /gm_report  the issue.     Now different people report various levels of success with "gm_report"; but I do know my level of success and it's hugely successful.     The great majority of those I report must be cooberated because I never see them again.

Radar hack allowing players to see through trees, walls, and such is also tough to detect I'd think, and while this sucks, it doesn't give the opponent that much of an edge in fighting me once they engage, just the tools to find me, which personally is fine with me =)

Teleporting is easily detected by AV.

Speed Hacking, even at very low increases is easily detected by AV, contrary to what the hackers say on their web sites.

 

From my perspective, EU was a thousand times worse than NA, and got a lot better there before NA came up.  I play a lot, and the number of cheaters I run in to is far and few between.   It is not the norm, contrary to what some believe, and I believe that is because those who love the game, do not want to be banned and don't take that risk because frankly, it's simply not necessary.

In DFO when you are banned, unlike most games, it is at the account name level, not the subscription level.   That means the name and address on the credit card used is banned.

Cheating has always bothered me a great deal in all games.   I'm so extreme on this that I am one of the only people I know that hasn't ever sold one of my characters on Ebay.    Perhaps partly because I don't need the money, but mainly because I never felt it was right to purchase virtual property with RL money and still don't.    I've never understood cheating either, but for "me", if it's an even numbers fight in DFO, those cheating are still not guaranteed a win, not in my experience; not on NA.

I do understand genuinely how you feel.   Cheating sucks; but unlike so many other companies and games, I know for certain that AV cares more about banning the cheaters than the money those cheaters are paying each month.    The results of my own reports and the reduction in the number of players cheating I run in to is proof of this, at least for "me".

Good luck man. -CC

I'm sorry but you're a damn fool if you thought this game wouldn't have macroing.

Did people not macro in UO?

I knew what this game would be like well ahead of time. UO was a grind and these guys were modeling their game after UO.

Imo AV needs to make an automated function in the game so everyone could macro Crafting/Gathering skills while offline.

Would be easier to do that getting rid of the hacks and macros and banning a person here and there.

Originally posted by PyrateLV

Originally posted by Trenchgun

Cheats, exploits, and macroing are a part of every game, but I believe in no other game are they more destructive. And even though I like everything else about the game, these may very well drive me away from it quite soon.

 

Macro:

1. Those who macroed their skills on NA1 from the start are now coming out to completely destroy normal players. This imbalance can, with time, be corrected, but the question is do you want to spend the next few months getting destroyed while you attempt to use all of your playtime to grind up and catch them. This game will be virtually inaccessible to new players in a few months time because of the grind.

2. The game itself is so grind heavy, and the grind itself so boring, that a macro capable keyboard is a required accessory. You won't just need it to be comeptitive, but you'll need it if you don't want to spend 12 hours a day manually button clicking to get anywhere.

3. Adventurine is completely unable to stop macroing, although sometimes they do permaban people for it in which case it's probably the newbie macroers who got caught while the more experienced ones go on with it. They are also unwilling to adjust the grind to make macroing irrelevent or less of an issue.

 

Exploits:

1. The number one method of fueling your economy in this game is through exploited high level mobs. The real power in this game flows from those who know of the spots, know how to exploit them, and who have a clan willing to fight for control of them. If you don't exploit mobs, you will be crushed by other clans who have superior risk free gear and higher skills because theyhave the gold to afford grinding out their skills as much as possible.

2. Adventurine is even more powerless to stop exploiters than macroers, and the negative impact of exploiters is far worse in the long run.

 

Hacks/Cheats

1. There is a cottage industry built around hacking in MMOs, and darkfall is particularly worse off because of it given the nature of the game.

2. If you report someone hacking and they can find evidence in the logs, they will be permabanned, but this is very unreliable and they catch only a fraction of the observed cheaters. I've seen clans dedicated to hacking, exploiting, and macroing terrorize entire regions without repercussions from the GMs, no matter how many times they are reported. A single small hacking clan can cause dozens of people to quit, clans to fall apart, because nobody wants to waste their time and effort fighting against someone who blatantly cheats. I personally will probably be quitting because of this. I don't have any trouble getting owned by legitimate players, but I've got better things to do than subject myself further to those abusing the game. I didn't play this game as a contest to see who can out-exploit/hack/macro the other.

3.  Many hacks are completely undetectable and they will probably never be banned for it. I hope the scum selling these hacks online will have their testicles eaten by an animal and then die in a fire.

 

 

And all this comes down to 1 thing. The Players.

Darkfall has probably the WORST playersbase it has been my displeasure to be a part of. Hackers, Cheaters, Exploiters, Foul Mouthed little Retards.

Darkfall is the Mos Eisley of MMOs. a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

 

 

That's not true. DAoC was rife with cheats and macros too. It just wasn't as blatant and people didn't care as much because there wasn't as much at stake. Hacks become a bigger issue in a game where everything is at stake and months of work can be erased in player driven conflict.

As I said, blatant hackers represent a very tiny fraction of the overall playerbase, but anyone unfortunate to be based near them will feel the full brunt to their cheating and dissolve as a result.

The vast majority of the people I encounter in darkfall are legitimate and outstanding people. Even amongst enemies there is a lot of mutual respect for stand up clans who otherwise kill each other at every opportunity.

And as I said, I don't blame people who just macro. It's a failing of the grind system and not the community because no normal human being can be expected to undertake this necessary grind without some level of automation.

And exploiting is not a problem unique to DF or something inherent in it's community. It's also a natural response in any MMO for players to want to save time by exploiting for gold and gear. 95% of gamers in general of any game will do it if they know how and can be assured that no one will find out and that their account is not at risk.. Part of what makes it so damaging though in darkfall though is: 1. Adventurine failed to make proper AI and pathing so exploit spots are common and spread all over the map. 2. They are unable or unwilling to devote the resources to actively finding people doing this, instead of relying on the rare passive /gm_report to catch them in the act. 3. They don't appear to take any significant action against those who exploit, probably because exploits are so common to find that they would have to ban half the server.

The cheating/hackers/bots was the number two reason that I left the game.

I seriously considered playing DF, but the macroing, hacking and what not were deal breakers.

I know every game has them. But developers have to design the game so they can quickly identify and stomp out these things as soon as they crop up.

If they can't do it, then they've lost control of their game and there's no reason for me to play it.

The more competitive the environment the more attempts at hacks, exploits and macroing you'll see. PvP games and servers bring out that competitive streak more than PvE and FFA full-loot type games even more so. There's nothing new about it. All the PvP games or servers I've ever played on have always been the same more or less in proportion to how FFA it is and how harsh the death penalty.

What always does surprise me is how game companies don't seem to learn. PvP games, especially harsh PvP games, need to be designed either around preventing this kind of stuff or making it the norm i.e Eve's skill training being built around making what is effectively AFK macroing legitimate so everyone is on a level playing field.