Should Low-Level Macroers or hackers Be Banned Instantly?

I’m suggesting a rethink of the current policy on banning macroers and hackers at low levels.

Right now it seems like any form of macroing, even at level 30 or 40, gets you instantly banned. But is that the best move for the server’s long term health?

Not all macroers are trying to ruin the game. Some are just nostalgic players easing back into the grind. I came back for that exact reason. I used to macro a bit as a kid, so I tried it here and got banned at level 35 with no warning. That decision didn’t just lose you me. It lost my friends who were planning to play with me too.

I get that serious abuse like meso selling or economy breaking exploits should be dealt with quickly. But casual low level macroing doesn’t damage the economy and might actually help by keeping the player count alive.

What do you all think? Am I off base here? Should there be a warning system or a level threshold before strict bans kick in?

Would love to hear your thoughts.

 

tl;dr - "i got banned cause i broke the rules so lets all change the rules!".
nobody cares about people who's trying to make nostalgic difficult maplestory on easy mode. you got gms for that.

GL in wii sports!

 

Lmao sometime I love this guy

 

"sometime"

 

I get where you're coming from, but I think it's worth asking: Who is actually being affected by low-level macroing?

Does it harm the server economy? Does it ruin the experience for other players? In most cases unless we're talking about meso farmers, bot networks, or exploiters it really doesn’t seem to have much of an impact.

What does have an impact, though, is banning a player permanently over a low-level offense. That’s not just one player gone it could mean several others leave too. In my case, a few friends and I were planning to play regularly. Now? Probably not.

I’m not trying to change the rules I understand why they exist. I’m just offering another perspective.

but at the end of the day, it highlights a stat that may never have been considered: when you ban a player, you're not just losing them , you’re also losing the network of friends they bring with them. Hackers, macroers, and even regular players almost always come with a circle. That ripple effect matters more than people may think.

EDIT: FIY i'm not ban appealing, i'm not asking to change the rules. just leaving this perspective here

 

That’s a fair question, and I appreciate you asking it genuinely.

When I say it helps the player count, I don’t mean the macro itself is valuable it’s that the person behind it is still part of the community. Hackers, macroers, and even regular players usually have a circle of friends. In my case, I’m extremely busy with work, so I used a macro to get through some early-game grind while juggling other responsibilities.

But I wasn’t planning to stay disconnected. I would’ve reconnected with friends, joined in on actual gameplay, and contributed to the social part of the server that makes private servers feel alive. The macro was just a temporary tool not a replacement for real play.

So when someone like that gets banned early on, it’s not just one account gone. It risks losing that player’s entire friend group who might have stayed engaged too. That’s the connection I’m trying to highlight. And in my case its about 5-6 players who will be lost as a result of me not playing on here anymore.

If your best friend got banned, you might quit too. Then your friends stop seeing you online and they quit. That ripple effect adds up. Admins could even check the logs see how many banned players had friends who stopped playing after. The data might prove me wrong, or prove the point


EDIT: I also think there’s a difference between casual and reckless hacking. If you're constantly being reported because you keep macroing in front of regular players, that shows zero regard for the server’s health. That kind of behavior absolutely deserves a ban

 

Let's start with the point where you say that playing the robot game and playing normally have the same value.

So, you're happy with your life and you come back and, oh, look, I generated 400m, and my friend who plays normally only gets 80m because he stops, is afk, and chats with friends.

Is that really fair to you?

So, what do you mean by "I'm just offering another perspective"
You can't offer anything, you're banned.
We wish you the best in your life, and hope you find a server where you can offer "your perspectives".

 

i technically already offered the perspective and its a valid point. i wasn't picking up any mesos or items , it was just a macro that went from left to right killing stuff. i didn't impact the meso economy at all. but i did impact the player base. and im just here wondering how many more like this have left causing the ripple effect.

 

why should any policy be designed to encourage hackers/botters to bring their circle of friends, who are also hackers/botters, to the server?

 

the same reason the biggest game on the planet Fortnite adds bots to its lobby, player base is REALLY important , macro or not. bot or not.

 

the only impact you had on the player base is that we had +1 dirty player that got nuked by staff.

no-flame or hate, but nobody cares about a hacking friend group, and nobody will care if they all get banned, be it 3 people or 50 people - we are not here to break the rules, even if its just "for fun" or "for killing stuff".

let me just step into a bank's safe but not to steal any money, just to look around! promise! #trust

 

Let’s be real , none of us are exactly innocent here. We’re all playing on a private server based on Nexon’s copyrighted game, which isn't officially sanctioned. So maybe it’s worth stepping down from the moral high ground a bit.

It seems like the original analogy got missed, so here’s a different one, think Fortnite. A full game needs 100 players, but only 10 join the lobby. Those 10 will leave because the match can’t start. To prevent that, Fortnite fills empty spots with bots. Those bots aren't "real players," but they help keep the game alive and running.

In this context, a low-level macroer is still contributing to the active playerbase. Call them filler if you want, but they keep the server feeling populated. If you remove all those “fillers,” what happens to the players who stay and realize the place feels empty?

It’s not about excusing the behavior, it's about understanding the broader impact.

 

Also, if it's allowed to macro/hack through the early levels, doesn't that devalue all the work of those who grinded them legitimately? Why would anyone grind them at that point? Why not just start all new characters at 4th job if they're going to bot it all anyways?

 

idkkk we currently have 2k players, i dont feel like the server is empty after you got banned.

"think fortnite" yeah i'm out of this discussion.

gl elsewhere o/

 

Thank you for your genuine response , it's one of the few respectful replies I've seen so far. I can see now where my perspective falls short. The core issue is that there's really no reliable way to distinguish between different types of macroers, especially when some can seriously impact the server’s economy.

 

understandable ! thanks

 

If you're satisfied with 2k players, that's fine but dismissing a conversation about community impact with "yeah I'm out" and a wave emoji isn't really adding anything. The Fortnite analogy wasn’t about the game itself, it was about population dynamics and retention, which clearly went over your head.

I wasn't trying to make it about me. I was raising a broader point about how player bans, especially without nuance can have ripple effects. If that doesn’t interest you, no problem. But brushing it off doesn’t make the issue any less real.

 

What issue?
I don't see any issue.
Get all them hackers and botters dafuq out of my game, problem solved?..