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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWoW Insider Show's look at multiboxing now available
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 9th 2008 at 7:00PM
Last Saturday on the weekly podcast, we used the whole show to take a look at multiboxing. We had multiboxer Xzin on, along with Adam Holisky from WoW Insider, Duncor of WoW Radio, and myself, and we chatted all about this strange and interesting way to play MMO games like World of Warcraft.- We took a look first at the history of multiboxing, including how Xzin originally got interested in it.
- We examined how exactly it is done, including not only the equipment you need to make it work, but how much multiboxers pay in account fees.
- We talked with Xzin about the limits of PvE multiboxing, including class combinations and how far you can get running a raid group by yourself
- And in the second half of the show, we get into some of the controversy about multiboxing, including whether it's fair for multiboxers to take their characters into PvP, and whether Blizzard will ever change or reconsider their decision that multiboxing is legal
- And finally we talked about the future of multiboxing -- will any MMO game every actually embrace playing multiple accounts at a time as a gameplay mechanic?
If you have input on how the show went or anything else you'd like us to cover on the WoW Insider Show (especially any other guests you might like us to have on), leave a comment below or email us at theshow@wow.com. Next week we'll be back to normal on the show (we're planning to finally have a nice hardcore PvP chat), so stay tuned this weekend for more about our weekly podcast.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, How-tos, WoW Insider Business, Virtual selves, WoW Insider Show, Hardware
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Draumha Apr 10th 2008 9:06AM
For a short time last year, when I gave up WoW to study for exams, I played an MMO beta called Sword of the New World instead (you'll note my fantastic willpower when it comes to avoiding distraction). It was based entirely on the premise of controlling 1-3 characters at once, in a fairly reliable and intuitive manner. You have a main control and the two follower toons (which you can swap between rather easily) operate on simple AI.
It was okay, the game wasn't quite as immersive as WoW, and the characters were very inflexible in personalization. I don't remember much else, I played for two or three weeks.
I can't bring their main page up today.
Brandon Apr 10th 2008 9:27AM
The podcast was pretty solid, lots of good commentary from Xzin on the multi-boxing concept.
As far as Mike's above statement that "...not only did we talk objectively about a lot of what multiboxing is...", I frankly have to disagree. Schramm's viewpoint and commentary on the show (which is obviously perfectly within his rights to have) was at best deeply skeptical and at worst obnoxious and demeaning (his commentary sadly skewed towards the "worst" end of the spectrum most of the show). There was no hint of objectivity to Mike's side of the discussion, which i guess should have been expected given his previous diatribes against the practice on WoW Insider.
[Caveat for the flamers/trolls: Mike Schramm is not evil/the devil/a dictator, etc. I'm simply comparing the likelihood of objective discussion by the personal examples i'm using in the next paragraph]
The chance of Schramm having a truly objective conversation about multi-boxing is about on par with the odds of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad having an objective debate about the Israel & the Holocaust.
Now, i understand that people having two differing viewpoints is what creates discussion in the first place, but I wish that the editorial staff at WoW Insider would give coverage of multi-boxing to someone else (who is a little more middle of the road on the issue) going forward. I mean, it gets a little tiring to be constantly reading about how it's "not in the spirit of the game" or "unbalanced, QQ". Maybe it is, maybe it isn't; frankly, I don't really even see it as a good or bad issue, since only an tiny tiny slice of the population multi-boxes currently. If entire realms were being controlled and dominated by multi-boxers, maybe it merits discussion as a good/bad topic, but at the moment, it just seems like an innovative way to play the game, which I am in support of always. It's your $15, please play the game however you wish beyond obvious cheating (gold buying, hacks, etc).
frank Apr 10th 2008 5:05PM
Mike Schramm is crap. Well, normally I like Schramm, but he was quite dumb in this show.
Kris Apr 10th 2008 10:11AM
Multiboxing is not much difference than 5 users communicating with VoP programs using /assist or /focus macros with few exceptions.
The multiboxer has X amount of lvls to practice and the single account holder more than likely hasn't practiced with the 4 others very long much less at all.
The multiboxer still has a vey linear line of thinking making it difficult to adapt to certain situations. It's just the opposite with 5 seperate users capable of reacting more differently to the "whole picture."
The single account holder is only limited by the speed at which he/she can communicate with others (ie. spoken word) and even that can be reduced by learning the mannerisms of their team.
I admit it sucks getting Pyro-blasted by 4 mages wearing Power Word: Shield (those were the days) or Chain Lightning by 5 Elem. Shamans. Each player is responsible for making their game play fun and more enjoyable for them. If that means spending an $75 per month, more power to ya.
bean.delphiki Apr 10th 2008 11:42AM
That's a lot of money to put into a game to be a total jerk.
Honestly Xzin says right in the show, "I could basically 1-shot their flag carrier, no matter what class they are..." Which is fundamentally NOT in line with Blizzards Game design.
Either way, I think that if Xzin and other Multi-boxers wants to play on an RP Server and stay the HELL out of BG's and PvP then it's fine. But honestly, this isn't Warcraft III where you are supposed to run around with an Army of Heroes against every other players 1 single Hero.
It's PvP, not PvPPPPP.
Brandon Apr 10th 2008 5:04PM
and what exactly stops 5 coordinated players who are:
1) talking/communicating to each other over vent
2) who are running in the same group as part of a premade
from doing the exact same thing to the opposing flag carrier?
the "5v1 in PvP" argument is so incredibly fallacious when used against multi-boxers since 5 coordinated players could team up on the flag carrier in the exact same manner.
i don't understand why people continue to use it b/c it DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE.
bean.delphiki Apr 10th 2008 5:40PM
No, in fact Coordinating 5 people to simultaneously cast Frost Shock on a running Flag-carrier is infinitely more difficult to arrange than simply programming a keyboard to do it for you before-hand.
It's like playing in a Band... if you are 1 person going through overdubbing several tracks you end up with a powerful end product, even though it took a lot of time on 1 persons part to achieve. However, when you have 5 people all playing their own individual part, it takes a LOT more work on each persons part to be able to sync up with the rest of them and achieve the same powerful product, and play it Live.
Letting a person who is essentially Overdubbing compete in an arena where everyone else is playing it Live is not fair. I don't care how much money that one person is paying to do it, it's not fair and it shouldn't be allowed in the game.
I even have 2 accounts, so that I can play both sides of my Server, but I've never done anything remotely resembling using my 2 accounts to have twice the firepower at the touch of one button. That would be unfair, unsportsmanlike, and I honestly don't see how Blizzard doesn't ban Multi-boxing like this when they have historically banned people for things like using keyboards that had programmed Macro sequences in them. I fail to see how this is dis-similar.
Pzychotix Apr 10th 2008 8:01PM
"It's like playing in a Band... if you are 1 person going through overdubbing several tracks you end up with a powerful end product, even though it took a lot of time on 1 persons part to achieve. However, when you have 5 people all playing their own individual part, it takes a LOT more work on each persons part to be able to sync up with the rest of them and achieve the same powerful product, and play it Live."
Your analogy falls flat, and hard.
Do multiboxers get to go back and overdub their actions? No, they don't. They do it ALL AT ONCE. That's why, although impressive, a one man band playing 5 instruments at once is vastly inferior to a 5 man band playing 5 instruments at once.
schm0 Apr 10th 2008 9:57PM
Here's why multiboxing is cheating: Whether it's one person playing two characters at a time, or one person playing five, it's still ONE person that reaps the rewards from emptying their wallets out to gain an unfair advantage in a game.
And bean.delphiki, please do not encourage any multiboxing on our RP realms. I have enough trouble /emoting to one character at a time. :)
Pzychotix Apr 10th 2008 10:08PM
How about this:
Take that $15 a month, $50 for a WoW box + BC, and $2000 computer, and buy yourself some people to follow you around in BGs. I'm sure you'd find some people who'd be willing to do your bidding for gold.
VOILA. YOU'VE GOT A TEAM THAT DOES EVEN BETTER!
Eh? Apr 11th 2008 12:06PM
"Here's why multiboxing is cheating: Whether it's one person playing two characters at a time, or one person playing five, it's still ONE person that reaps the rewards from emptying their wallets out to gain an unfair advantage in a game."
Wow, even this argument falls flat on it's face. The counter argument to this has already been stated but I'll mention it here since people don't seem to want to educate themselves regarding opposing viewpoints:
Multiboxing is very challenging and has some very specific drawbacks. Multiboxing is very challenging and has some very specific drawbacks.Multiboxing is very challenging and has some very specific drawbacks.Multiboxing is very challenging and has some very specific drawbacks.Multiboxing is very challenging and has some very specific drawbacks.
Now did my copy/past just screw up and put that statement 5 times? Nope, that was intentional. If you multibox, I hope you LOVE repetition, because you will need to do EVERYTHING 5 times (if you run 5 accounts).
5 X training costs
5 X quest length for collect quests (not x killed quests)
5 X number of kills for the same amount of XP (not quite, but close)
5 X every type of mount
5 X every piece of armor you want (you need to keep the toons similar in HP and power for survivability sake)
No one likes to get wtfpwned by a group of players, be they 5 individuals or 1 person controling 5. In the most basic sense, there IS NO DIFFERENCE. Until the multiboxer's toons all split off and start doing different, independant actions, it's just 4 toons mimicing the 5th or 1 toon maintaining health of the other 4 (who are mimicing each other instead).
The "spirit" of this game is whatever Blizzard says it is. Period. If people do not jive with it, they can either put up with it, adapt and learn how to counter it, or go elsewhere. Enough people vote with their wallets and Blizzard will listen, you need to decide for yourself how you want to play the game within the fairly specific guidelines Blizzard has set.
schm0 Apr 15th 2008 8:18AM
I understand that multiboxing takes talent, and I also understand that it has very specific drawbacks. I thought that was covered in the article/show.
The problem I have with it is it takes away the Multi-player aspect of the game. Instead of one person with one character interacting in WoW, it's two, five or ten... and all controlled by the same person.
You could theoretically run an instance all by yourself with five seperate classes, then reap the rewards of all the blues that dropped by giving them to their respective classes. No /rolling for loot, no discussion on which mob to pull, no asking for a heal. Just you and the instance, which is not how the game was intended.
On the flip side of the coin, yes: I UNDERSTAND THAT MULTIBOXING IS NOT EASY. There are certainly some disadvantages to such a strategy. But I think they are outweighed by the fact that all the rewards are only reaped by one player, and one player alone, for no other reason than they are able to spend more money than the average joe.
The learning curve of multiboxing is not one that will forever remain a disadvantage. Humans are very ingenious, and it only takes time, practice and some skill to reach the top 10 in 5 on 5 arenas, as mentioned by a user above. Is it fair that another team comprised of real players from around the world, having to coordinate their schedules to meet up and communicate with each other in order to win an arena tournament, ends up pwned by some dude multiboxing?
Blizzard's policy may be geared more towards making money off of such people who chose to multibox, rather than the advantages or disadvantages this technique allows. And the only reason they have not yet made a policy regarding such a thing is because this doesn't affect all users, and it's not widespread. Read: If Blizzard wanted to make a game where you control five characters at once, they WOULD HAVE MADE A GAME WHERE YOU CONTROL FIVE PLAYERS AT ONCE.
And I hope you catch that last line without me having to repeat myself. :)
Look, I just want to make my point. I really don't want to argue. I think it's impressive that someone has the time and money to do something like this and be good at it. I just think it's healthy to look at the aspects of this and consider elements of balance in all areas of the game, including multiboxing.
Dos Apr 11th 2008 2:42AM
I don't even understand why this is such a big deal. As the podcast pointed out, people have been multi-boxing since the days of UO. This is the first time I've ever seen such major complaints about it though. Heck, I've regularly logged on my brother's character alongside my own when he's not online to run one of my lower level alts through a dungeon, or team him up with my resto shaman to do dailies (because I find resto shaman dps makes "kill X" dailies terribly slow going) So I guess I would be considered a multi-boxer too. It's a convenient solution to a lot of problems which doesn't break anything in the EULA, so tell me why shouldn't I?
A lot of the comments seem to be directed to the more "extreme" form of multi-boxing. The only distinction though between that kind of multiboxing and my "milder" form of it is player decision and judgement. If I wanted to go do a 2v2 arena by myself, I certainly could. I don't think it's fair that I shouldn't be allowed to do this if I chose to do so.
Is there really a problem there? MAYBE...but if anything, I feel this is a fault of the BG and Arena design - not one of multi-boxing. Food for thought.
happydragon Apr 11th 2008 5:53AM
there is a game where you can control more than 1( i think up to 3) character, its called "Grenada Espada"
Bob of the North Apr 11th 2008 12:05PM
Finally got a chance to listen to the show last night. I was especially looking forward to it after reading some of the comments during the day.
My favorite show so far. Fascinating topic, even if I'm unlikely to ever try it.
Mike Schramm's performance was very weak, this week. His comments, and questions tended to fragment and distract the topic. Adam Holisky was brilliant, he kept the topic moving along, and in lines that kept non-multi boxers as interested as multi boxers. Given Schramm's oft repeated bias, perhaps he should have sat back and let Holisky lead on this episode.
My favorite bit, was the discussion about the multi-boxer who competes in 5V5, and is in the top 10. He's not in the top 10 because he multi-boxes, he's in the top 10 because he's great. You need more than a setup and gear to win, you need talent.
My least favorite bit, was being told how I'm supposed to play the game. I'm glad Mr Schramm has found a way he likes, but I have my own preferences, thank you very much.
Great show, thoughtful topic, and Turpster's special flavour of chaos was missed.