Revisit of Terms of Service, Section 6, Topic 1
Considering the recent events regarding the ban of a community member, and the discussion being brought up in the official discord on channel #main. I felt the need to make this suggestion. Let's start by taking a look at this specific point:
https://www.originsro.org/tos#s6t1-modifications
Currently, I agree with almost everything stated in this section, bots have always been, and will always be destructive, they push away real players due to overpopulating maps, generate hyper inflation due to massive amounts of loot being generated and sold to NPCs, and they oligopolize the economy by the sheer number of items they introduce, all without the player being even near their computer.
I agree with most of the policies regarding GRF edit, a heavily modified GRF does provide significant advantages in WoE, and marginal ones in PVM. The only thing I would change is, move "Modified item sprites" from "Disallowed" to "Tolarated", with examples of what is and isn't allowed, like for items that have the same, or very similar, sprites, it should be allowed to be modified, examples: Slotted and non-slotted version of a Muffler, or Fine Grit and Star Crumb.
Now, what I really have an issue with, is the strict ban on macros, I understand, macros, when programmed properly, can be indistinguishable from a bot, they can be set in such a manner, that a person can stand up, and leave their computer running with the macro doing all the work, these cases should be treated and punished like a bot, with a permanent ban, however, there are tasks in Ragnarok, that require long and dull processes that can even cause bodily harm to the player, the most common one being potion brewing, but even simple things like, Double Strafe spam, buffing a full 12man party (or more), Grimthoot spam, Taekwon Kid kick comboes, etc, for longs periods of time can be incredibly tiring and strenuous on the player, specially if they don't own a gaming keyboard and mouse, which help relief stress on the finger by having springs on the keys to reduce the amount of stress and work each press requires.
That is why I want that specific part of the ToS to be revisited, and worded in such a way, that it allows for the use of macros, either in specific instances, or allowed in general, with the very strict restriction, if at any point someone is found using a macro, they have to be able to reply instantly and perform any actions a bot test would require, this is to ensure a player is NOT automating gameplay without being near their computer. A proper policy about macros allows player to not hurt themselves while playing this game, and at the same time, protects everyone from somebody abusing the system and automating gameplay through a loophole, a "minimum delay between inputs" rule could also be put in place if deemed neccessary.
In the end, if a player is still sitting in front of the computer, and looking at their character, and playing their character, is it really bad they only have press one key instead 2, 3 or 4, if in the end, the amount of time and resources they are sinking is the same?
I've seen people get hurt in gaming, it is incredibly common, I know of someone whose RSI might resurface because of this, repetitive actions that can cause self harm are NOT fun and do not bring any more or less skill to the table.
Edit: typos