Frontline Macro Leadership

[LilyRaine]

Hello there,

I'm Junko Ennoshima of Cactuar in the Aether Data Center. I have been a Frontline PvP player since its first iteration in A Realm Reborn, and it is the only content I do nowadays. I have played with and against the OP on numerous occasions.

Currently, we are experiencing a large surge of new players and tome farmers in PvP and it may be surprising to them how much macros can play a part in the game mode.

In PvP, a split second decision can make the difference between getting pinched and wiped or escaping to live another day. A well timed flank could also be a factor in a decisive victory if everyone's quick enough to react. Typing orders out would simply take too much time, and people are quite fond of tunneling the enemy, regardless of what happens around them. This is why the use of macros is essential. The use of sound effects alongside them is integral to getting peoples' attention and telling them "Hey, something is happening right now!", and more often than not people will stop at their tracks and take a look at what is being said.

Most field commanders in PvP use macros, and I do not think that they should be punished for trying to organize and help people win a game. I myself use macros with sounds and use them where needed- so much so that it fills the chat log of a typical game. Do I get complaints? Rarely, but when I do it's usually by people that are actively trying to sabotage a game by giving false information or spamming chat with actual useless and annoying macros. Have I been reported? No, but this post does bring about some concern. Our PvP community is small as it is, and if our most active players are being reported and banned for guiding and teaching lesser experienced players how to play the game, it hurts the growth of the community and its competitiveness.

I believe there needs to be clearer guidelines on what is considered to be macro spam, given the context of the content we play.

I think that reports also need to be thoroughly investigated for their authenticity. The blacklist also exists for a reason, and I do not see a point of reporting someone you do not want to hear macros from when you can just block their chat messages through this in game function. Reports should be used responsibly and for extreme cases of intentional abuse, which this is not.