The Forgotten Playerbase: Where are my macros?

Re-quoting this because it is 100% accurate.

So the goal all along was a niche market targeting dissatified WoW refugees and KOTOR fans that thought a co-op mode would be fun?

Anyone tell the investors that? 200-300 million for a niche game seems rather generous of them.

I think he was claiming that they are catering to the majority of the playerbase, which is casual, by not including macros since it may confuse the "normies."

During the summit, the devs(I think Damion or Georg) said they would like to add in some mouseover functionality into the basic game's UI and barely consider those macros. I think they said such features were something they were working toward but, had no interest in adding your more standard macros that would be more complex for newer players to set-up.

I find the lack of any real challange in this game more of a reason not to have macros then anything else. The combat in this game is as easy as clubbing baby seals, macros would just give people like me some gasoline and matches to go with it.

Casuals and hardcores alike use macros.

I'd be fine with them in a single-player game, where your actions don't affect mine. However, WoW and Rift provide ample examples of combat macros actually driving game design.

"It doesn't give me an advantage, it just makes me more efficient!"

...because you insist that everyone has the ability to get the same efficiency gain. Well, that might work out in the logic of your head, but it doesn't play out in reality. Macro use has always been concentrated in the upper-tiers of the playerbase and only generally adopted by the masses when imbalances force people them to use them. That alone should set off warning sirens for you.

Why am I such a jerk to deny you something you want?

Because I have no faith that it will be the end of the requests. What you claim is "efficiency" is "efficiency in defeating enemies". And the better you get at it, the more likely you are to exceed the capabilities of the majority and begin demanding changes to the game to fit your abilities ...with little to no consideration of anyone but yourselves. Yes, I know that people already have a range of abilities. What I'm saying is that its the people on the high end of that range that are most likely to seek out ways to further increase their advantage.

So, in the end, you're asking for a feature that will further stratify the playerbase and make it harder for Bioware to balance the game and keep it fun for everyone, not just you. People whining for macros act like they are being denied equal treatment, when in reality, they are simply being forced to play with the same rules, restrictions, and tools as everyone else.

Rift has your macros

What is the difference between [harm] vs [help] macros and [@mouseover] macros? So *********** pointless.

It's not like people are asking for giant castsequence macros or something. But [harm] vs [help], [@mouseover], and [@targettarget] macros just streamline your ability usage. How is that bad? How does that increase the barrier to entry?

To re-iterate, since people seem to have a very wrong conception of what macros actually do: macros do not make the gameplay easier in any way. You are still going to have to use the same abilities to DPS down that target; you are still going to have to heal your teammates in the same manner; and tank in the same manner for that matter. You're just doing it more efficiently. Efficiency does not equate to a reduction in difficulty. That's simply false and a misconception that's flying around these forums.