Can we take action against Bard Macro Player yet?

[Leyllara]

People pretend they are playing because it is technically a third party bot playing for them, which is bannable for going against ToS. But since it literally does nothing, everyone just turns a blind eye and enjoy the music or straight up ignore it completely.

[TheMightyMollusk]

It's only bannable if they get caught. Short of SE checking your PC (which is shady, if not outright illegal in some countries), that'll only happen if they outright say they're using a bot. If someone's that oblivious, they deserve the ban.

[Solaires]

I think it's harmless and unnecessary to attack. It doesn't effect the game in the least asides allowing people to have songs they like played by their bard. Even decent for roleplay if you think of it. It doesn't sell gold or make the game easier or harder and in fact it doesn't really do anything to the game. Maybe you don't like what someone plays but then that's on you and they could play the same song possible without the support. Reality is though a lot of people won't know how to properly play an instrument on the game so instead of nails scratching on chalkboard it doesn't bother me they have the bard music player in limsa instead of a poorly played violin.

[Amon-ster]

While I think it's a good thing, I do find it interesting how it's against the rules to play copyrighted songs using the Bard music system, and it's also against the rules to bot and multibox, but when it comes to something like this it's totally fine.
I agree that bard macros and whatnot are whatever, but I also think that bots and addons are also whatever.

[Nav_Fae]

I think it's harmless and unnecessary to attack. It doesn't effect the game in the least asides allowing people to have songs they like played by their bard. Even decent for roleplay if you think of it. It doesn't sell gold or make the game easier or harder and in fact it doesn't really do anything to the game. Maybe you don't like what someone plays but then that's on you and they could play the same song possible without the support. Reality is though a lot of people won't know how to properly play an instrument on the game so instead of nails scratching on chalkboard it doesn't bother me they have the bard music player in limsa instead of a poorly played violin.

It doesn't sell gold but people are paid to play music at venues. In addition, there are several Twitch communities that have reached full partner status by using these bots - something literally anyone could do if they worked at it. So thinking that people cannot make money off of it is a misconception.
That said, the bard is a hot script. The exact same cheat used by people at housing place cards to get a house. You can't ban one without banning the other since the macro process is identically the same, it's somewhat of a problem. Therefore by allowing the Bard player, you are indirectly saying that it's okay to use auto hotkeys in every application. Housing bots, crafting bots, ect. And that's how it hurts the game. Everyone is just so caught up on the "fun" of the player to think outside of the box on how it harms the game. It's not so much the player that hurts it, it's how the player it self works. It's basically proof that SE isn't doing enough to stop the actual forms of cheating with bots.

[DistractionCat]

Interesting takes everyone. What if (this is a hypothetical, don't ban me) the bard wrote the player software, and composed the musical arrangements? That's certainly a skill element as valid as musical aptitude, and you just don't know until you ask someone, and they're not exactly allowed to tell you.

I'd wholeheartedly support the addition of chording to the builtin keyboard. That'd make my life way easier as an occasional working bard

[hagare]

boy. This is like the whole painting and photo debate all over again

[JerryJealously]

Playing songs is one of my favorite things to do in FFXIV, I practice for hours every single day, and now I have to turn off performance completely because it just isn't fun anymore trying to play music for people, but getting immediately decimated by someone who can press play, make a sandwich and come back without putting any effort into learning any song what so ever.

tbh this just sound to me like you are pointing fingers to someones direction because you just dont want to do so much anymore. you dont want to put effort into this because you are doing it for the wrong reasons and therefore quit completely. be honest with yourself and ask how often you did this and ask yourself if you overreact. because you do. its a game with millions of players. if you want an audience that appreciates what you do, start streaming. but you probably complain about that, too because there are tons of content creators. but also a REAL competition.

[HisShadowX]

If I could I want a feature to filter out and block everyone in the world of FFXIV who is a Bard and Sage. It would be nice to have parties without them.

[Kaworu]

If you don't like them playing, just mute them... it's not that hard. People should learn to mind their own business instead of trying to get someone else harmed for such simple stuff...