Posts with tag multi-boxing

#Patchday fact number 1: /follow no longer works in Battlegrounds. #WoW

- Blizzard CS EU (@BlizzardCSEU_EN) March 6, 2013

The reasoning behind this is, of course, not completely understood. It is possible that this is the latest strategy in Blizzard's unending battle against bots, which might occasionally, though definitely not always, use following as a way to help avoid being afk booted.

However, it is more likely a decisive step to making it far more difficult for multiboxers to dominate in battlegrounds. While not against the terms of service, multiboxing in random battlegrounds is a big problem for many players, when five DKs or five elemental shaman are running around causing havoc, it's hard to enjoy yourself. We've all been there, and it is definitely annoying, although they can sometimes be taken out with a group effort.

Based on the latter reasoning, it's probably a good thing for the overall enjoyment of casual PvPers, who vastly outnumber the people who want to five-box their way through battlegrounds. Anything that makes random battlegrounds more enjoyable is just fine by me, but should Blizzard have given multiboxers more warning? Or is this more part of the anti-bot measures, in your opinion?

Updated: Hit the break for Blizzard Senior Community Manager Bashiok's input.

Update: Despite evidence that Blizzard was okay with this app, on the Customer Service forums, Malkorix tells users he "strongly advises shying away from this program." Use it at your own risk, folks.

Update II: The folks behind MouseCloner have informed us that while the app did originally use "prerecorded x/y coordinates" (which is what Malkorix found a problem with), they have specifically recoded the app to use only mouse position, in order to stay away from questions about scripting. To our (and their) best knowledge, the app is safe to use, but as always, you use third-party programs with your client at your own risk. You can find more information and ask more questions on the Mousecloner forums.

Original Post: Now here's a subject with my name written all over it. Those of you who followed my exploits over on the official forums will likely remember my responses to multiboxing questions with a nice, clear stance on what Blizzard does and doesn't support with regard to multiboxing tools. It was good for the multiboxing community -- and bad for anti-multiboxing trolls -- to have readily-available blue responses to those kinds of important questions. Even Tom Chilton (a.k.a Kalgan) has come out in support of the practice.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, multiboxing is the act of playing more than one WoW account/client at the same time. There have historically been a number of programs used by multiboxers that help with client-switching or keybinding to make controlling two or more accounts easy.

15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.

Last week, 15 Minutes of Fame visited with multiboxer Nixi of team Absolute Power-H of Archimonde to bring WoW Insider readers his 10-boxing strategy for Karazhan. This week, we'll step back for a look at Nixi's hardware setup, his top five tips for new multiboxers and a broader look at why he's a 'boxer.

Catch up with 10-boxing Karazhan Part 1, then join us after the break for an inside look at Nixi's 10-boxing team.

15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.

This week's 15 Minutes of Fame is about a multiboxing team – but it's not that team that just ganked you in your last Battleground. Absolute Power-H of Archimonde and its team leader/main tank, Nixi, have made their mark not in Battlegrounds but in Karazhan.

Ever curious about a unique perspective of the World of Warcraft, we visited with Nixi & Co. to find out what it's like to "solo" Karazhan. This week in Part 1 of our interview, we go straight for the throat with Nixi's Kara strats. Next week, Part 2 of 15 Minutes of Fame: 10-boxing Karazhan brings you a look at Nixi's hardware setup and his top five tips for new multiboxers.

The new Recruit-A-Friend program has taken the World of Warcraft community by storm, perhaps more so in the dual- and multi-boxing circles. I'll admit that while I advocate enjoying the leveling process and experiencing the lore through quests and in-game events, once you've hit 70 a couple of times, the magic tends to wane. With the coming of Wrath of the Lich King, we've had some time to re-evaluate our WoW experience. For many of us, finishing up some alts has become a way to prepare for the expansion. I've had a number of alts since I started playing, but have only managed to ding two paladins and a rogue. Each time I play in a battleground I see a member of another class do something crazy cool and ponder rolling whatever class it is.

With the RAF program in full effect, I decided that dual-boxing with the 300% XP and Summon Friend ability would be the most efficient way to get my alts Wrath-ready. This How-To is specifically for players using Macs, but in essence many of the principles remain true for PC users.

Welcome to a special preview edition of Addon Spotlight. I've been playing around with dual-boxing and wanted to shared this addon with you all, as it adds some great features for anyone running two toons. Rather than succumb to expansion apathy, I've been attempting to level my alts via the ridiculous XP bonus given to players who have recruited a friend. Besides, who doesn't want a new Zhevra mount for their Belf-about-town? Regardless, some savvy developers have come up with some mods to help the aspiring dual-boxer.

This is the only in-game addon I use when I'm burning through the levels via the Recruit-a-Friend program. The developer has combined a lot of great little tools into the package. Once I started using TwoBoxToolkit I noticed a significant increase in efficiency when dual-boxing.

Belfaire already explained previously that Blizzard's okay with the idea of multi-boxing, whether it's for PvE use or even to compete in the Arena. In the same Eurogamer interview that discusses the new phasing technology, Tom Chilton reinforces that Blizzard is "content to endorse multi-boxing to some reasonable degree."

Eurogamer was focused on the possible abuses of Blizzard's Recruit-a-Friend program, and the speed with which players can create and level new accounts. Chilton says that if someone wants to drop the bucks on a new account -- not only the retail fees, but also the subscription cost -- then Blizzard's okay with that.

J. Allen Brack immediately brings the discussion back to a point I've previously made -- the idea is really to help players get ready for the new expansion. You can bring in a friend or family, and get them to a level where they can play with other friends very quickly. They want new players to be able to "roll a Death Knight and be ready to go."

Now, Chilton did say the endorsement only goes to a "reasonable degree." I suspect if we see vast abuse of multi-boxing in multiple areas of play, the endorsement might quickly be repealed or re-focused. But, for now at least, Chilton has confirmed Belfaire's statement -- Blizzard's okay with multi-boxing.

Time for another tour of the WoW blog kingdom...

Why now? | Alts Ahoy
All of a sudden Nasirah enjoys playing a shaman where it was boring before. In this post, she muses on why her mind has changed.

How to annoy NPC's - Keep Clicking on them! | Pugnacious Priest
Amusing detective work shows what happens when you annoy an NPC, including quotes on what they'll do to you if you don't stop. To bad you can't back-talk them too.

Sir, I Respectfully Disagree | ChickGM
A well-put and humorous rebuttal to two of WoW Insider's posts about what traits make a good guild officer and which ones to avoid.

I spoke too soon | Misery
This is actually a pair of posts in which Misery first points out that raid utility vs. damage is a flawed argument and subsequently analyzes a blue post about the same issue. Interesting theorycrafting for raid leaders.

Multi-Boxing Macros 102 | Three Druid Noob
Razorbax offers a primer on healing macros for the beginning multiboxer.

Goblins. Innocent Pranksters, or Evil Madmen bent on world domination? | The PvP Nub
Finally! The answer to the question, "Just what is it with those goblin doods?"

Time for a little WoW blog roundup, cowpokes! Whoopie-ti-yi-yo!

Making gold with second account | Full Time WoW Addict
With Blizzard's new refer-a-friend incentive, you might be thinking about opening a second account to get those XP benefits. Even better, Examino at Full Time WoW Addict shows you how to earn your raiding gold with some light multiboxing. No Wrath spoilers!

Spellpower and You: Gearing in WotLK | Banana Shoulders
Siha at Banana Shoulders (best blog name ever!) compares theories to practice in Wrath's current Paladin spellpower changes.

Achievements and why they suck | Yet Another Warlock Nerf
Some people think the achievements system coming in Wrath is awesome sauce. Horns at Yet Another Warlock Nerf vigorously disagrees.

Three more blog dogies after the break...

The Colosseum takes us inside the world of the Gladiator (Brutal, Vengeful, Merciless and otherwise), to interview some of the top Arena fighters in the battlegroups. Our goal is to bring a better understanding of the strategy, makeup, and work that goes into duelling it out for fame, fortune, and Netherdrakes.

You may have heard of him. Jeff "Aelli" Ware of the Reckoning battlegroup has been rocking battlegrounds and the Arena, scoring a Gladiator rank in Season 3 during the last week of play. And as Amanda told us at the beginning of the season, Aelli planned to do even better in Season 4. And now, he's succeeded at doing just that -- Lookin for Sponsor, Aelli's team, has hit the #1 spot on the Reckoning 5v5 ladder. What's the big deal?

Not only has Lookin for Sponsor achieved something pretty cool -- they've done it with only two people. Aelli pilots the team's four Shaman all by his lonesome. He's what's known as a "quad-boxer" or "multi-boxer," and controls four of the team's five characters. We were fortunate enough that Aelli was willing to do an interview with your intrepid WoW Insider team, and share some thoughts on both his unique playstyle, and the Arena as a whole. The interview is after the cut.

Multiboxing, the process of one person playing multiple characters on multiple accounts at one time, usually by the use of multiple computers (thus the term) and macros that can be activated on all accounts by the push of a single button, has most recently seen coverage here on WoW with our 2-man Karazhan report. The act of multiboxing is one that has been the subject of some debates, mostly centered around whether or not it violates the EULA. Those in favor of multiboxing can breathe easier today, as Blizzard poster Belfaire has stated in no uncertain terms that Blizzard has no problem with the practice in a post on the customer service forums.

In short, he says that the advantages of multiboxing are no different than the advantages offered by normal grouping. Since multiboxers can be damaged, feared and CC'd as easily as separate people playing separate accounts, and since they can't do anything the same amount of characters couldn't do when played by different people, there is no reason to consider it an unfair advantage in PvP or PvE. He also answers quite a few specific questions posed by thread starter and multiboxer Velath that clarify why Blizzard accepts Multiboxing and does not consider it an exploit or an unfair advantage.

My favorite class of the day is the Hunter, mainly because I get to control both my main character and my pet at the same time. I love the dynamic of how these two entities fit together and do damage together so nicely. I have also played a warlock up to 30, but so far the dynamic of doing multiple things at once with demon master doesn't seem as interactive to me, though I suspect it may get better later on.

I love the multitasking involved with controlling two game entities with cooperative abilities at the same time, but some people hate it. One friend of mine wishes that hunters didn't have pets at all -- it feels too much to him.

One thing that I can't see myself getting into though, is multiboxing: running multiple WoW accounts on different computers and linking them up so you can control them at the same time. The prohibitive cost is the main reason I'm not interested, but also I like the sense behind the hunter class that the hunter and the pet were designed to work together as a single entity. I feel like multiboxing would only leave me doing less than would be possible if we actually had one real person playing each character.

What's your opinion on doing multiple things at once? Do you love such complexity, or do you prefer a simpler playstyle? Which class do you think has the most things going on at the same time?

In the wake of some of the crazy multiboxing stories going around recently, on the forums there's some interesting discussion on whether multiboxing should even be legal. On one hand, someone playing five characters at once (not to mention ten or twenty!) clearly has a power advantage against you. (Plus they never have to spend tedious hours in LFG trying to find people to join them for an instance run -- a huge boon in and of itself!) But on the other hand, that power comes at a cost. To play five characters (for example), you need five active accounts ($75/mo, plus the $95 initial cost for 5 game-boxes and the $175 initial cost for 5 expansion packs), plus five computers capable of running World of Warcraft, and a friendly internet connection or ISP that doesn't simply explode from the traffic you'd be causing with all of that. And, of course, the cost scales upwards with the more characters you try to play. But making multiboxing work is a matter of doing more than throwing money at the problem -- there's the entire issue of being able to control multiple characters at once, which in my mind, is really a matter of skill. But what do you fine folks think -- is there anything wrong with multiboxing?