Blizzard has recently made an official statement on the use of programmable gaming peripherals - and the timing makes me assume that it was inspired by this story, which has been making the rounds on the forums.  But the statement is vaguely worded - in short, hotkeys are okay, but automation that allows a player to conduct repeated actions without paying any attention are not.  However, I can quite well sit and tap my shadowbolt key (and occasionally my /assist tank macro - a completely in-game creation using the default UI) without even watching the screen if I wanted to.  Not that I'd play very well that way, but in a group I could frequently get away with it.  While I understand the need to eliminate botting, I wonder, as an average player, where one draws the line between acceptable and unacceptable levels of macroing.  It sounds like it's still going to be a judgment call on Blizzard's part.

Tags: bots, botting, macros

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Cheats, Blizzard, News items