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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWoW Insider Show: Special multiboxing edition this weekend with guest Xzin
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 4th 2008 at 10:29AM
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Multiboxing -- we've mentioned it quite a few times here on WoW Insider, and it's always been a controversial subject. While the game is quite clearly not designed around players playing multiple characters at once, Blizzard has stated that they have no problem with it -- as long as people are paying for each account they use, and not using third-party programs to control their characters, Blizzard is fine with it.But I, Mike Schramm, personally have always been quite against the idea of multiboxing. Lots of folks have used macros and programming to control multiple characters all the way up to level 70 and beyond, and some have even taken teams of characters into PvP areas to win battlegrounds and gain honor, or even win the arena seasons, and all the rewards that come with that victory. In my opinion, that's a horrible mockery of the way the game was designed -- this is a social game that is meant to be played with other players, and to pit one person with five computers against a real-life team of five people just isn't fair or interesting. Sure, you might be able to control the movements of five characters with skilled programming and control, but the other team has to coordinate five human minds all together, a much harder and more interesting act, in my personal opinion. I am firmly against multiboxing -- it's not the way this game is meant to be played at all, and while Blizzard may be content to make more money off of someone paying for many accounts, I'm not content to be stuck in a game with them.
Which is why, this Saturday on the WoW Insider Show over on WoW Radio (at 3:30pm EST), our guest will be Xzin, one of the most notorious (and popular) multiboxers the game has ever seen.
Yes, this Saturday, Xzin and I will go head-to-head on the podcast to talk about multiboxing, its legality (or lack thereof), and how and why it's used in the World of Warcraft. You couldn't find two people on further sides of this issue, so we'll be sure to have some interesting debate on the subject. Turpster will also be along as always (to act as moderator, if we need him), and WoW Insider's Adam Holisky will be on board as well. Adam tells me that he has actually multiboxed two characters at a time, so he'll have another voice in the argument also.
Whether you're for or against multiboxing (or whether this is the first you've heard of it), definitely be sure to tune in on Saturday at 3:30pm EST over at WoW Radio. We'll also be in the IRC channel, #wowradio at mmo.irc.com, and you can email the show at theshow@wow.com if you have any questions you'd like to ask myself, Xzin, or any of us on the show about mulitboxing or anything else.
It's sure to be a spirited and interesting debate about one of the most controversial subjects in MMO gaming. Definitely tune in and check the show out this weekend.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Podcasting, WoW Insider Business, WoW Insider Show
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Verit Apr 4th 2008 7:53PM
For me I kinda stepped out of raiding because it was getting a tad too hardcore. I think the guilds and blizzard are the ones to blame for this really. Poorely tuned encounters, and poorely organized guilds does not make a fun game.
Grumpy Misanthrope Apr 5th 2008 11:52AM
It's because Mike thinks everyone should have to kiss his ass to play. He's a tank and he thinks everyone should bow down to him for the right to enter an instance.
Michael Apr 4th 2008 11:10AM
Put Elizabeth W on the show, she's from Magtheridon (home of the zins). The Zins are easy in PvP; back when patch 1.5 came out, it was a bit of a shock at first, but it's easy to take out Xzin (the priest), and then the mages have no healer/leader.
PeeWee Apr 4th 2008 11:30AM
Yup, it's piss-easy. That's why he got them all to rank 13 in the old PVP-system. By being easy to kill.
GG
Pzychotix Apr 4th 2008 11:35AM
I assume you've never had a rank 13 yourself.
Rank 13 has very little to do with actual skill. Rank 13 has everything to do with having zero life, a 24 hour honor grinding rotation, and constant premades.
Truckin Apr 4th 2008 11:16AM
Mike I certainly hope you come prepared, Xzin and community have heard all the arguments for years now, what makes your opinion any better/different the the rehashing of the multitude before you? Xzin will bring his "A" game I certainly hope you do as well and not show with the typical whine.
"...and to pit one person with five computers against a real-life team of five people just isn't fair"
I (as a multiboxer) have yet to walk away from a even matched fight with a win. Hell, I consider myself lucky to walk away form a 3 on 5. Xzin might have been able to do that in the Arenas on PTR back in the day (referring to arena vids), but I doubt there are but a handful of multiboxers that could lay claim to that. Any five people with any sense of the situation can easily out match a single person 5-boxing with a little CC and some good old fashioned coordination/communication.
That is really what it is about in the end, communication. Multiboxers don't have to deal with it and everyone else is hindered by not using it.
The fact that none of Xzin's 10-boxing team have passed 60 (5 @60,& 5 @45)makes me wonder why we are even going the PvP route. Perhaps he has another team that I am not aware of?
As for it being about Blizz and it's money, I seriously doubt the 1000's of player reports/complaints across the multitude of servers multiboxers play across is worth the extra account subscriptions. At best I'd say there -might- be 50 individuals out there 5-boxing, the rest are 2-4 with a majority in the 2's.
Anyways, I look forward to the cast though I imagine the state of the game will continue on until those of us who enjoy the extra challenge find something else to play. (WAR)
Phohammar Apr 4th 2008 11:23AM
hey Mike Schramm, go try multiboxing against more than a single opponent and then try to complain that it's unfair in the boxer's favor.
Pzychotix Apr 4th 2008 11:37AM
I really wish that Schramm didn't have to troll his readers in order to get posts done.
Mike Apr 4th 2008 11:54AM
In all the time I've been playing this game (since release day), I have only personally seen one multi-boxer.
Out of all the countless BG's I've been through, that becomes such a small percentage it becomes statistical noise at best.
What are the odds that you'll be in a BG/Arena with one of these guys? In something like AV, you might not even see one if he's there.
If you don't like them on principle, that's fine. But you make it sound like these guys are everywhere and you've been destroyed by them on so many occasions.
I think that's blowing things way out of proportion.
If these guys are as overpowered as you claim, I'd say that going up against a pre-made BG would be much harder to deal with than one guy controlling a few characters at once...
Roguerhunter Apr 4th 2008 11:56AM
OKAY nice topic Woot... Well I dont Multibox but honestly if someone does and he brings his arena team against my RL Team mates and its all him Multiboxing "THEN Bring It ON"! I listen to your show at work and I feel you but how does it make you feel when you take on 2 or 3 players on and come out winning.. Pretty good right??? Well if you can outsmart a PC on Yahoo chess or somkething like that.. Thats pretty impressive... Plus as long at Multiboxing is not hurting me in RL they can do what ever they want. Its not like we can do it or were told not too..
Also note if your using an add on especially Boss Mods then thats a form of Multiboxing.. What about those players who dont know how to download them... Not quite fair right. Its all about not getting pissed someone is a step ahead of us.. But I say BRING it ON!
THX
Boom Apr 4th 2008 12:06PM
I'm a multiboxer myself (The Twenty Totems) and at first glance I was excited about this post. I was also planning on listening to your podcast for the first time.
But then I read your writeup here.
The points you've made here may feel powerful to you, but you're points aren't valid. If you ever choose to educate yourself on the subject, you'll be able to look back at this post (possibly still hating multiboxers) and realize how misguided your comments are.
Multiboxing is a very interesting subject. There ABSOLUTELY ARE reasons to question it, and debate it. But you've made it obvious to me, and many others that you are NOT the person to be debating this issue. I'm sorry Xzin is wasting his time talking to you. He's a good guy, and deserves a good debate.
Please... let someone else from the WoWInsider staff debate multiboxing with him.
Thanks.
Boom
Jennifer Apr 4th 2008 1:38PM
I support Boom's argument. Xzin is essentially setting himself up to go into the dragon's lair.
Then again, blogging is by nature opinion-based. Though the name "WoW Insider" infers some sort of news-like report of current events and the state of the game, the fact is you've made this post very clear that this will be a battle of opinions.
Heck, the reason why I started the post that Belfaire so exhaustively answered was purely because of opinionated QQ'ers like this post. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=5288579356&sid=1&pageNo=1
Battles of opinion are fine, but like Boom said, we've already been over every single one exhaustively. I see little to no content coming out of this particular post other than a "prove that I'm wrong" sort of standpoint. You're essentially being stubborn for the pure purpose of being stubborn and causing an argument for the sake of publicity.
Like I said, that's fine. This is, technically, a blog -- and blogs tend to be the self-centered QQ's and opinions of their writers. That's fine. If you want this to be a bloglike conversation then it's your "interview" and you can run it how you like.
I will be in the IRC making sure that your biased opinion doesn't come off as fact.
-Vyndree of Vboxing.net
Milktub Apr 4th 2008 12:11PM
Multi-boxing is a different skill than team playing. Saying that it is tantamount to cheating is like saying that using Vent for a 5v5 match is tantamount to cheating, since using just the basic WoW package, you're not able to express a need for an action in less than 2 seconds.
It's like the levels of coordination:
The PuG -- you and four people you've never played with. You don't know how others will react to your movements, so you're doing your thing and watching for how they'll react.
The Core group -- you know how the others will play and react, so you can plan further ahead.
The Core with voice chat -- you can plan ahead, as well as make snap adjustments
Then, all alone, there's the Multi-boxer -- all characters are controlled by one mind, but with the limitations of a control interface designed for one character to be controlled by that one mind.
Shelby Apr 4th 2008 12:21PM
There's more to multiboxing than exploiting it for wining in arena. There's also different types of multiboxing.
I "multibox" sometimes, but I only actually use one box with dual monitors and dual video cards, i have one toon on follow most of the time but i can easily switch back and forth if a mob takes out the primary toon, i switch over to the other one, simple as moving my mouse to the other screen. I typically run compatible toons, like one melee and one healer or something to that effect.
The only reason I multibox is because I've run the same quests from 1-70 over and over, and the fewer times I have to do them, the better, so if I can lvl 2 toons at once, I'm definately down with that.
Plox Apr 4th 2008 12:26PM
I agree with Gurblash, this feels a lot like one giant QQ. While it's certainly your right to say whatever you want, Mike, I feel like you're attacking a significant portion of your readers with this post - who "[you're] not content to be stuck in a game with[.]"
Pretty much boils down to you being rude.
Synergistic Apr 4th 2008 12:30PM
Multiboxing is little more than a serious case of altitis by people that have more money than sense.
TIberiusxix Apr 4th 2008 12:43PM
I honestly don't see what good will come of this broadcast. No one's attitudes will change (Xzin isn't going to just say "Oh, you're right I'll just get rid of my hardware.")
I'm going to summarize the broadcast for us all.
Mike: "I hate multiboxing, I think it's cheating and all of the players that do it are cheaters that cheapen the game."
Xzin: "Ok. I like multiboxing because it adds a new dynamic to the game for me."
Past that it will be Mike attacking Xzin and his opinion while Xzin attempts to justify his position to someone that is dead set on hating the opposing side of his opinion.
I personally don't have an issue with it. I have a multibox account set up that I have my priest on. I don't PVP with my toons though so I guess I avoid the massive amount of QQ that seems to happen when PVP happens.
Mike Schramm Apr 4th 2008 12:52PM
Well, what most of the podcast will be is simply talking about the how and why of multiboxing. We're not going to come out swinging -- I want to legitimately know how most multiboxers do it, and why they do it. So much of the podcast will actually be a critical interview with Xzin, figuring out why all this happens.
Sure, I'm going to share my opinion (don't I always?), but neither of us want to show up to this thing and just have a shouting match -- that's lame. I expect to learn a lot about multiboxing, and hear what Xzin thinks of my opinion above from the man himself.
Pzychotix Apr 4th 2008 3:41PM
Holy crap. Then don't write your article stating as such and trolling all your readers. Do you not get it at all?
Ender Apr 4th 2008 12:51PM
I enjoy WoW insider very much but i can't stand all the QQing and pompous remarks from Mike in his articles. I think this one broke the camels back for me. I probably wont read his articles anymore. Anyways, I don't see any reason a person shouldn't be allowed to multi box. It takes a lot of time, effort, and money to set up a working system and if thats how you get your jollies then go for it. I've only multi boxed once in Everquest because my friend gave me his account when he quit playing. It was a completely different experience.