The top ranked player in Pixels, the community-oriented crafting and farming game, was accused of using macros to manage their rather large collection of land plots. Apparently concerns about this player had been building for some time, but it all came to a head on September 29th, 2024, when notplusone, a user on Twitter, publicly called out the player (who uses the in-game name of Grainbro), accusing them of cheating – specifically, of using macros to continuously farm and craft, something expressly forbidden by the Pixels team.
Not long after that, a video was posted on Youtube showing what seems to be very suspicious activity from Grainbro, and other folks began chiming in with other reports and claims.
As this expose was underway on Twitter, something very interesting started to happen. Grainbro began systematically clearing everything from their land. And I mean everything! Reportedly, all of Grainbro’s lands have been cleared of items and put up for rent.
This player owned over 100 Pixels land NFTs, with all of them completely stuffed full of resource harvesting and crafting stations. Given that the floor price of Pixels land plot NFTs are approaching 1 ETH, that is quite a pretty penny that Grainbro had invested into Pixels! So it makes you wonder to see them suddenly abandon the game. It couldn’t be a coincidence could it?
So What Happened With the Grainbro Incident?
We seem to be at the end result. Grainbro is no longer actively playing, though they have also not cashed out on their land NFTs or stash of PIXELS tokens.
A number of players have expressed dissatisfaction with how the Pixels team has handled this issue. Several players claimed to have previously reported this player, with no follow-up from the Pixels team. Supposedly, the team did talk with the player behind Grainbro at some point, but found no convincing proof of bad activity.
A few players are accusing the team of favoritism. After all, this is the biggest landowner and top player in the game. Banning them could potentially have a major effect on the overall player ecosystem. Meanwhile, other players have been banned for macroing in-game.
And the timing of Grainbro dismantling everything seems very suspicious. But perhaps they were just tired of the drama. Or was their some back alley deal to get them to stop playing? Or maybe Grainbro is a Pixels employee or a relative or close acquaintance of an employee?
We may never know for sure unless the parties involved make some sort of official statement.
Grainbro has become somewhat of a meme on the Pixels Discord. Everytime macros and scripts are brought up, someone will mention Grainbro.
But even with the rumors and grumblings of dissatisfaction, the Pixels community seems as big as ever. And perhaps their upcoming reputation system feature will give players something else to focus on.
Bots, Scripts, and Macros in Gaming
Bots are an ongoing problem in gaming, particularly in any game that players can extract real world value from. Gold farmers have been a ubiquitous part of MMOs since they were first launched, even without any official market for reselling game items for real world money.
Splinterlands has implemented several rounds of anti-bot measures over the past year and even web2 FPS games general come with anti-botting tech. But fighting against of bot / script / macro behavior seems like an unending, no-win war at times. Some developers don’t try. But then you have to be wary of your game turning into a “dead internet” – a place where the bots are just playing against each other.
Though interestingly, some game creators are embracing AI agents, gamifying their development and letting players get involved with training their own AI combatant, specifically to fight against other bots!
What is Pixels?
Pixels is a web3, multiplayer, crafting and farming, social game. It is free to play and runs on the Ronin blockchain. Players skill up as they play, opening up additional paths to grow and craft more complex crops and items. Additionally, each player receives a free land plot with a house they can decorate.
Pixels supports playing as unique, in-game avatars utilizing NFTs from numerous PFP projects, including Mocaverse, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Moonbirds, Play Ember, Tribally, and dozens of others!
Boasting over 1.7 million users per month, Pixels continues to grow in popularity. And with new features and updates released on a regular basis, Pixels is in a great position to maintain and even expand their playerbase!
