Multiboxing madness
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 6th 2007 at 10:44AM
Still, if multiboxing is your thing, then these pictures, sent to us by the great Xzin himself (whom we interviewed a little while ago), are right up your alley. Not only are there some c-c-c-crazy monitor setups (I especially like the guy who tilted his EQ monitors around himself, like a little MMORPG womb), but you also get some neat screenshots, like the all-Shammy run of SL that Xzin did above-- bonus points on the tanking Earth Elementals, but I'll bet cash that zero Shaman gear dropped.
Bobbo also sent us this Dual-Boxing.com forum thread, which gets just insane-- this guy runs 23 characters, and his girlfriend runs 23 sitting next to him for a total of 47 characters together (his picture actually shows 57 different WoW boxes, so that's at least $1000 right there, even without all the hardware). I can't imagine the amount of money and time going into something like that, but Blizzard nods vague approval to the whole thing, so more power to them, I guess. It seems like a completely different game than the one we know and love, but twinking is the same type of thing (a game of resources), and lots of us do that and have no problem with it. So multibox away, you crazy character-controlling overlords.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Evil M Jul 6th 2007 11:30AM
I have always found the concept of multi-boxing fascinating. My wife works alternating weeks night shift and I work 9-5, so I've been using her account in addition to my own to dual box when she's not home.Currently I'm simply running two WoW clients simulateously on my machine. Currently I have enough RAM for this to work without too many performance issues.
I found the best way to get started and begin to play with it was to use the one (higher level) character to help run through instances. I've been experimenting with different assist macros, and different key bindings to play with it. ie. I have an assist macro so my warrior will assist, charge, MS on the Hunter pet target as well as having the hunter always assisting the pet. It definitely makes the 1-60 grind interesting again.
Again, what I'm doing is fairly rudimentary, but even in the limited capacity I've been using it I've found it to be extremely rewarding fun. It's definitly worth trying if your system can handle it.
Brandon Jul 6th 2007 11:31AM
"this guy runs 23 characters, and his girlfriend runs 23 sitting next to him for a total of 47 characters together"
Am I the only one that is lost in this math?
Who's controlling the 47th character, the dog?
:)
Paw Jul 6th 2007 11:32AM
Why?
Evil M Jul 6th 2007 11:38AM
I think an easy answer is it's a new challenge. WoW is not a difficult game although it is very fun and if you're running your 3-4th, even just your 2nd character to 70 it adds a new dimension to the game.
Paw Jul 6th 2007 11:49AM
@4
Yes, Evil M, but 5 is a challenge. Maybe ten if you're entirely too fixated. 23 is ridiculous. 23 is merely a challenge to your ability to make enough money to pay your account fees, pay for the electricity to run the many pieces of computer equipment you purchased, buy food, take the dog to the vet for its shots, pay for gas for the car that presumably takes you to the job that pays for everything, etc, etc, etc. And it's a challenge to your ability to write really good macros. But I can't imagine that 23 is truly playable. You become a button masher with not much resembling tactics. Every encounter requires you to mash a series of macros. Even on a programmable keyboard there are a limited number of options for being able to send signal to multiple boxes.
If the guy's claims are true, I take my hat off to his computer/networking skills. But I still ask....why...?
robodex Jul 6th 2007 12:23PM
I used to know two people who both dualboxed. One played two hunters, and one two locks. They raided with the characters and everything--and I thought it was stupid. Why play two characters mediocrely when you can play one well?
RogueJedi86 Jul 6th 2007 12:38PM
@#2/Brandon
I read the thread the other day. Apparently the 46 don't have harddrives, only CPUs, to save the power demands on the electric bill. The one remainder serves as the server hub of sorts. So it's like a home-brew server, but with a lot of characters, all somehow controlled through only 2 or 3 monitors.
Evil M Jul 6th 2007 12:39PM
I would be hesitant and reluctant to allow anyone dual boxing into one of our raids. I can see if you're playing two of the same class, and they're ranged...maybe...this only because you're not required to change position as much as a melee dpser. But I know there's no way in hell you could effectively manage a melee dpser and a ranged, or two melee dpsers. The amount you have to change position, avoid AoE, cleave, etc would make you a huge liability in a raid because of your slower reaction time. Not to mention keeping track of two aggro curves simultaneously.
Speaking for myself, I play my warrior alt 10x better solo than when I dual box. Your reactions essentially have a 2-3 second global cooldown because you have to switch between characters. That is waay too long to be of maximum use in a raid.
idburns Jul 6th 2007 1:06PM
Yea...multiboxing is great. Especially when you are in an AB and 5 mages are being controlled by the same person and they can easily focus-fire each target down within seconds.
Erica Olson Jul 6th 2007 2:13PM
I don't see how you're really playing the game when you multi-box and use macros and all that. It's not you controlling the toons, it's a bunch of bots running around. No ability to adjust to rapidly changing events or pulls that go horridly wrong as the toons are on auto-pilot with no thought behind them.
My BIL dual boxes. He made a healer just to follow his other toon around and spam heals. Not quite sure how well that works as whenever I try to put myself on "follow" my husband's toon I stop "following" after a few minutes or when he climbs a hill or somesuch. He did say it was much easier to multi-box on EQ2 than on WoW.
But, whatever, if they want to spend all that money on all those accounts and make their macros, more power to them. I'll be content concentrating on my one toon at a time.
Xzin Jul 6th 2007 3:26PM
"It's a bunch of bots running around. No ability to adjust to rapidly changing events or pulls that go horridly wrong as the toons are on auto-pilot with no thought behind them."
I beg to differ :)
Czernobog Jul 11th 2007 6:58AM
If there is a macro to make a dwarf warrior behave like my hunters pet, pls post it, ty :)
baloor Jul 6th 2007 8:36PM
I have raided pre TBC with a guild that allowed a multi boxer. It was such a joy to be in a group with an over healing druid and a paladin buff bot.
If you want to play with several automated characters, I say save your cash and play Guild Wars. AI controlled as well, so saves the whole setup time too.
7Cube Jul 16th 2007 1:24PM
Like many, I have a full time job. Therefore I am not able to spend all day leveling up my chars. Many of our guild members are young kids, which they can play all day, and in turn are able to level at a much faster pace.
I stumbled across LimeAide.net while I goggled "Multiboxing". For only $12.00 I gave it a try, WOW I am now able to have my guild members level me up, by using the following command, AND they can control my char with their own keyboard. The best part I don't have to give ANYONE my username or password for wow.
How many of you use LimeAide?