Yes, people use them. Now more than ever. Before the new combat system and the nerf of animal spawning rates and lp people just were hunting 24/7 to grind lp, now they macro.
They are usually kept a secret. Also you shouldn't thrive to get one, since macroing is an abuse of bad game mechanics. I didn't succumb to the temptation although in my town some of the best macros for this game are used. I think it is kinda lame and boring as well. When I open my H&H client I wanna play and not let my computer run for some stupid number going up ^^
Don't get me wrong, I love lp and I usually abuse every ingame mechanic I can to get ahead of others, but macros...hard to explain, I just don't wanna use them.
When i used to play Shadowbane, you had all kinds of macros and stuff, but those were easy, make a char that could do tons of AOE dmg, and then amke another and use the AOE char to blast away, and the other to collect loot.
on this game, i dunno how.
Also, how does one raise perception(to see the WWW) if not by carrots. I've always wondered that, considering when a new world starts, i Assume that nobody get preffered treatment(kinda like a vetran grabbag and stuff) but then again i dunno.
bleh i dont thrive to get any macros. If I knew how to make a good macro I probably would, its quite unfair that alot of people use macros for LP though ;/