Policy on Third-Party Programs Coming Soon

#1 - Sept. 26, 2012, 8:53 p.m.

We’re getting many tickets, forum posts, and other inquiries about our policy on third-party programs. Players tell us a lot of reasons they want to use third-party programs: to avoid hand injury, to enhance their gameplay, or because their hands are too small to reach the keys. Players tell us they want to use third-party programs to make the screen clearer, to make their play more efficient (for instance, by combining several hotkey functions into a single key), to force their video card to use anti-aliasing, or to help them target enemies.

I’m going to run some wording by a few people at ArenaNet and will post our policy as clearly and simply as possible when I have received their input.

#18 - Oct. 5, 2012, 3:11 p.m.

It’s not what you’re using, it’s how you use it. Both the mouse and keyboard are fine, but as Rolo said, using them for AFK farming is disallowed.

#27 - Oct. 13, 2012, 11:09 p.m.

sigh

The policy, as stated, is the policy. Please don’t read the policy and say “But why not approve this one?” or “What about that other one — I need to know why not on X, Y, or Z?” As we have said, “we will not approve any third-party program.”

A few more points:

1. Saying “give us more options so we can choose what to use these instead of using third-party programs” isn’t reasonable. Which option first? The one you like, or the one that someone else is requesting? There are a gazillion options in the game, and asking for more isn’t “the only real solution.” Not by a light-year.
2. As stated, we will work with the community to build apps in the future.
3. Our legal department didn’t write that — I did.