Can we take action against Bard Macro Player yet?

[Superskull85]

I mean, purely scripted music is dull and strict. It is no different than someone downloading songs and playing them on repeat in a curated playlist at an event.

If you want to differentiate yourself, as a musician, in performance then add your own twists to it. Hold certain parts a tiny bit longer or staccato some notes when it makes sense. Or even better than that, take the song you want to perform and rewrite it in your style, practise it, and play it as a performance. Add a jazz or metal flare to your favourite Final Fantasy music.

What is the difference between a pianist and a player piano? The pianist can literally reshape the music they play. Use your musician talents to your advantage and don't be threatened by a "player Bard."

There is also a very slippery slope in outright banning "player Bard" scripts. If a musician has a disability they may rely on that kind of technology to get their vision of the music they like to hear and play around with to be heard. Unless you want to tell someone with a disability that they can't be musicians I would stray far far away from suggesting the idea to ban "player Bard" software. (Not to mention all the points made above about not being threatened by it in the first place.)

[Rhiney]

This is truly a mindset of a sad soul.
A little background about myself: I to play manually (USB piano), though i cannot read music, i learn by ear. I do take great pride in being able to play manually. I to spend alot of hours in my little home, learning the songs and practicing. I to have had my fair share of "bots", though most of them are great! Only a couple of bad eggs that ive had to deal with, but otherwise, i see no threat in them. Not once do i get jealous or pissed when they fire up a MIDI file that I have heard many times from other bards. No, thats very foolish. If its a good song, I will sit and listen, even formulate a new version of the song in my head to try out later. I grab inspiration from them.
I get where your coming from with how infuriating it is that they can play Meglovania in tempo and perfectly with a press of the button. I am friends with alot of musicians in this game, some are very well known! Fun fact? They edit, or write their own MIDI's and use the program to play it at the press of a button, and its absolutely beautiful! They too sit for hours to create that! When I see them play, its not for money, or headpats, its because they love music and they want to spread the music to others, because music invokes many feelings to people, it speaks on a universal level.
Bots shouldnt bother you. Just let them play. It would be a very boring Eorzea if only musically gifted people could only bard. There would be no Octets, no duets, and no fun and ridiculous insanely fast songs to go nuts over in Limsa. Work on yourself, make a brand for yourself. Specialize your style in a way that stands out. Have fun with it. Recognition, respect, and connections start happening after that.
It should not matter to you if someone is actually playing or using a bot. Music is music. Some people will know if you are playing manually, some people wont. But at the end of the day, they took a few minutes out of their day to listen to you because they like the music. Show up and support other musicians at events, wether they bot or not. Add your own spin or flair to your songs to "stand out" if your worried about a bot playing it better than you. Venue owners and others will see your worth and possibly hire you, and let their patrons know that they will have a hand playing bard at their venue, ect.
Its harmless fun because some people in the game may not have any musical talent, maybe they want their avatar to be a wandering minstrel? Heck, I have a friend that uses the bot because he has no right hand. Not once has he bragged about "oh look at me. look what i can play, give me money and praise!".
Now I have had a couple bards in the past stand right next to me while im playing and decide to play over me with a MIDI file version of the song im playing. The only recognition they got was a slap to the face by listeners. Some can be a bit obnoxious and all you have to do is just walk away, problem solved.

[Conundrum]

/me shoots thread in the head

(That's how you kill zombies, right?)

[Raven2014]

There are people, such as myself, who actually practice playing these songs, and we get immediately overshadowed by people who just press play on a program. There is no competition ...

Eh that's your problem right there ... why is it a competition to you?

It sounds like you're taking a fun side activity with no payoff other than self-gratification too seriously.

Pretty much. Funny enough jsut a few days ago a few of us were talking about, and I made a comment "I don't get why people play these things in the game". The replies was "it's just for the attention". I was like "is that so?", guess this confirms it is so.

It might be a fun side activity, but it's 99% of what I do, and like I said, I practice very very hard to play the songs that I can for someone to overshadow me with a press of a button. Rendering that "fun side activity", not-fun because of an unfair third party software doing it a thousand times better than I ever could.

If I have to guess, the reason is because you have the wrong mindset. You're doing it to show off, to have other acknowledge you, to recognize the effort. Basically, you're doing for others, not yourself, that's why it's also easy for other to make it not fun for you. I'm sorry to break it in for you, but people will always come with different skillset and resource at their deposal. Something that takes you a lot to do, others can do it with a snap of their finger, that's just a fact of life.

Now I can understand if it's something involves your life-hood, like a co-worker doing twice as good as you do while spending half the effort ... that can be discouraging. But taking that mindset into hobby and "fun-activity" is a good way to destroy fun. I play music - instruments in real life. Not particular good, sometime it can takes months for me to play a piece decently. And I know if I go to youtube, there will be others who would spend far less time to practice while sounding 100x as good. While the joke is usually "wow watching you play make me want to throw my keyboard out of the window", I never feel like that. When I play, I play for myself. To me, the song is a mountain to climb, and I want to climb it because it's fun for me. I know my mountain would look like an ant-hill to someone else ... but why does that even matter?


Unless you're trying hard not for your own personal satisfaction, but to merely seeking acknowledgment from others? Like I said that may be understandable if it's a professional related thing, but applying that to a hobby is hardly healthy.

[VelKallor]

As you can see, we are the 1% of the server. Even if we try hard like trying to learn “twilight over Thanalan”, “Eternal wind” and some other FF songs, we will always be shadowed by the illegal stuff “because it doesn't damage others”.

We had a small band of lalafell bards on Zurvan a day or so ago, no one CARED if they were playing themselves or using a macro.

Literally. We didnt CARE. What did we care about? That the small band had travelled to our server to welcome us as a celebration.

No one was "damaged", no one was even REMOTELY interested in how they played. What we DID care about was the repertoire, and the growing crowds were testament to the music, and the moment.

Sorry you werent there to enjoy it with us.

[Tlamila]

People are bringing music and joy to this game. And you hate it?
Do you want to be the only bard? Do you want there to be a bard license where you prove you can actually play music before being allowed to offer entertainment?

You say yourself that you can tell the difference between an automatic performer and someone really playing, and that the former has many problems sound-wise, and yet you say they perform better than you. I'd honestly ask myself question in that case.

Maybe performing in game is not for you, if you only do it for recognition and not just because you love music.

[ToastyKeen]

There are people, such as myself, who actually practice playing these songs, and we get immediately overshadowed by people who just press play on a program. There is no competition, we lose because it's impossible for us to play songs at a normal place without either conforming to third party software ourselves, or hooking up an actual midi keyboard (which I would be more okay with!).

This kind of talk makes it sound like you got snubbed for High School Prom Queen.

Lose what? The Bard Song Olympics?

Like settle down Becky Chandler it's not a popularity contest, people are just playing songs for their own enjoyment, your participation in that isn't necessary in the slightest. Beyond that I don't think any of the Macro players live under the assumption that they have in musical talent in the slightest, at least not in regards to playing with a macro. (They might actually be talented and lazy for instance.) Asking to have that stripped away like that not only does a disservice to the community as a whole but also just sort of paints you as kinda petty about not getting people to listen to you when you play manually.

[Nav_Fae]

This thread has me feeling motivated to get the bot and stream it on Twitch! Now that I know it's safe, I have seen other Bards make it to partner on Twitch and would like to do the same! This seems like an incredibly easy and stress free way to get donations! I'm a bit excited now to start making this into a career! Thanks everyone for the vote of confidence!

[comradeMoose]

This is what we're complaining about now? Have mercy.

[EternalNub]

yeah its so sad ^^ i rather listen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KolfEhV-KiA that :P