I recently had a chance to use the Logitech G15 keyboard, which ranks as one of the company's top gaming products. Apart from the little LCD screen, which has a variety of uses, the feature that truly caught my attention was the eighteen fully programmable macro buttons. When used in conjunction with the "M" keys, which work like shift buttons, a user can program up to 54 individual macros for any given game. Each macro can be programmed with an unlimited number of keystrokes, and timing delays can be inserted to match game rules or simulate actual human usage. Those who write long macros run the risk of getting stuck, since the sequence can't be interrupted once started, but there can be no denying the power of a well-written macro function. It certainly helps people overcome much of the monotony of gaming, especially in massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, where players usually use a specific pattern of moves and abilities with each confrontation. Real-time strategy (RTS) gamers often use macros to help speed up base building, since players usually put up the exact same order of structures 99% of the time at the start of the game. But when hitting a key and watching my avatar literally play itself, I wondered, "When does having a useful tool end and the cheating begins?"
Cheaters will always play some part in competitive gaming. Some blatantly cheat, like using aim bots or other user-made programs that change how a game works. Luckily, Punkbuster helps to counter many of these cheats. Back when I used to play Diablo, I would often hear horror stories ranging from players who used ubiquitous hacked items, to those who hacked their way to becoming invincible mages who had infinite mana and assaulted players in town, a place where powers couldn't be used. They rushed in, killed unsuspecting players with a deluge of fire waves, stole the dropped loot and left.
However, some cheating issues enter a grey area of acceptable behavior. I think "glitching," a term for exploiting a game's bugs, falls into one of those categories despite the fact that both professional gamers and designers have regarded the use of this tactic as blatant cheating. An example from Halo 2 is where getting a target lock using a rocket launcher and then switching to an energy sword allows players to teleport distances and kill a target in one hit—a major advantage. Designers can't possibly find every single glitch in a game, but they need to stay on top of things to make sure they get fixed as issues arise.
Most of the time, glitching and other forms of cheating can be easily spotted. Macros, on the other hand, may be indistinguishable from actual skill. Oftentimes, MMO games encourage players to re-map their key functions so players may access their powers and skills more easily. Games like Lineage II have a built-in macro builder, allowing the player to chain together a sequence of moves in one button press. The mindless monotony of crafting becomes much more tolerable with macro keys. Back when playing the original Counter-Strike, some programs were a MUST download, particularly the one that automatically purchased and equipped weapons and armor at the touch of a button. In that way, players spent less time rendered vulnerable when performing redundant behavior, and instead jumped straight into the action.
In using Logitech's macro programmer, I can set a single button press to automatically crouch, move forward and slash with a knife, potentially earning me a medal for cutting players down in Battlefield 2142 (Note: No actual players were harmed in this experiment. Only bots were used). Of the people I've spoken to about this maneuver, almost all regarded it as a form of cheating. So, at what point does something cease to be a streamlining tool and becomes a mechanism for cheating? Unlike blatant cheating, or even glitching, even the best macros don't guarantee a win. Playing still requires a degree of skill, even though things have become much easier than trying to stretch fingers across five simultaneous keys. At the same time, it also illustrates the mechanical nature of some of these games. In the long run, a single rule change or a player who figures out how to beat a macro's sequence of moves could render the tool useless. So, in once sense, it could be cheating because it allows weaker players to easily contend with stronger ones. However, it also forces players to come up with new strategies. So doesn't that improve game play? Furthermore, shouldn't competitive gamers equip themselves with the best tools to cut down on redundant behavior and give them an extra game play advantage?
Maybe it only becomes cheating when players can push a button, then get up to walk away as a program plays the game for them.