Is Multiboxing cheating?

[Halyon]

The multiboxing itself is not an issue, what they potentially do while multiboxing is the problem. Like if it's scripting, or botting, all the accounts, or griefs someone, but that bit is probably more incidental than intentional...

[beast6228]

Depends, at one time when WoW gold was in huge demand, it was common to see multiboxers with 10 or more characters. running around in packs farming gold, of course many of them were bot controlled too. Now if you see multiboxers running around, which is kinda rare these days, it's more than likely just someone who really loves playing WoW and doesn't mind spending a lot on subscriptions. I don't mind multiboxers, unless they are botting, then it's a bad thing.

[Eazy]

No, just as it wasn't cheating getting 5 rogues in wotlk times when you could all spam FoK which acted as interrupt in the 5v5 teams.

[Ahovv]

Not against the rules, but it should be. Only reason MMOs allow this behavior which is clearly outside the spirit of the game is because each account gives them extra $$$.

[SirCowdog]

The problem with applying restrictions to those scripts and macros, is that people with actual disabilities often use similar tools to help them play the game normally. So they'd have to specifically target those using them to multibox and nobody else, that's a lot of work for very little benefit.

Exactly! Yes! That's why it's so hard to nail down. The tools help overcome physical limitations. In the case of someone with a disability it lets them play. Someone without a disability it lets them play....more.

And to state the obvious, Blizzard isn't likely to punish someone who's paying multiple subscriptions.

Hmm...I don't know that it's an accurate statement. They drop thousands of accounts at a time in banwaves for botters. And those a people paying for multiple subs.

[Nnyco]

I saw a multiboxer only once, in a BG, and someone stated that we lost it just because we had 4 less players.. And I personally agree with him. In situations like BG, having a multiboxer is a huge penalty to the rest of the team.
But luckily enough, I never playied with one again after that day, so it's ok. As long as it keep a rare situation

the multiboxer with five focuses atleast the same target, unlike most people in a battleground who just run around like headless chickens attackin the closest target

Not against the rules, but it should be. Only reason MMOs allow this behavior which is clearly outside the spirit of the game is because each account gives them extra $$$.

yeah thats why we just had a massive banwave, because blizz wants the $$$

[SirCowdog]

There's one person, pressing keys. That's allowed. 1 button press means 1 action done in each copy of WoW. Unlike botting which is 0 button presses, lots of actions.

1 keypress often means 5 actions. Just because it's 5 different accounts doesn't change that it's 1 person and 1 keystroke.

But like I said, it's a grey area. I don't think Blizzard is too concerned about it, however, because ultimately it IS a person playing and not a bot.

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the multiboxer with five focuses atleast the same target, unlike most people in a battleground who just run around like headless chickens attackin the closest target

But how well does a multiboxer cover multiple objectives like many BGs have? They're good at burning down single locations at a time, but bad at responding to threats over a large area.

[RoKPaNda]

It's only cheating when you're butthurt about it.

In all seriousness no it's not cheating.

[Kreeshak]

If you are an octopus, it isn't.

[Ahovv]

the multiboxer with five focuses atleast the same target, unlike most people in a battleground who just run around like headless chickens attackin the closest target



yeah thats why we just had a massive banwave, because blizz wants the $$$

False Equivalence. I'm not claiming they'll allow literally anything, but this is close enough to a gray area that they'd rather keep the money.

And it's not just Blizzard. Virtually every MMO allows multiboxing to some extent, when they should not.

[owbu]

Bad multiboxers lose to every player. Good multboxers lose to average players with some knowledge on how multiboxers operate.
So I wouldnt call it cheating, because it doesnt give you an advantage over your other players. All you can do is defeat players, that are bad at the game - something the same number of normal players can do, too.

You could consider it grieving, I guess, because you are basicly screwing your teams chance to win on purpose - but if thats grieving then so is "lol, objectives? Just want to kill som n00bs!!1" and at that point we would have to ban half the population.
So...no, as long as MB is considered a suboptimal way of playing the game, I think its a good idea to just leave it alone. Its rare enough anyways.

[schwarzkopf]

Of course it is... but it is acceptable cheating, so who cares

[ItachiZaku]

How do you ever lose against multiboxer in bg? They are always in 1 place, so easy to outmanevour them or AoE them to death.

Most multi-boxers I've seen the last two expansions have included at least one healer. Here's how multi-boxer wins AB.

1 horde hits farm.
1 horde hits BS
1 horde hits mine (loses)
2 follow 5 boxer to LM cuz OMG boxer

Boxer easily kills group of 12 alliance that always zerg LM cuz no matter what that boxer is doing, it is focused and you will die

Boxer heads for stables, farm/bs cap, alliance rezzers come down and get smashed at stables, some escape to mines or outside BS, alliance start deserting 5 cap inc.

Even easier in something like WSG or TP. If you have hella burst and can spot the lead toon, get him down and you can slow it down. The only BG where I've seen a big boxer and it not be an easy win was AV, but we were there to farm kills, not "win" and they had 8 DKs and 2 heals. Was pretty epic to watch.

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the multiboxer with five focuses atleast the same target, unlike most people in a battleground who just run around like headless chickens attackin the closest target

That has always been my experience, he is chain lightning a group and legit killing the group in 2, or is single targetting and GL taking 12 LBs to the face with 5 FS's on... maybe I just haven't experienced a bad multi-boxer.

[Spl4sh3r]

You do understand how multiboxing is done, right? Multiple accounts having all the same actions mirrored by single keystroke or macro. Which, if I'm not mistaken, is a grey area of the botting rules.

If it was one dude with like 5 keyboards or something I'd say it's absolutely fine. But since it's so heavily reliant on scripts and mirrored macros I'm not so sure.

Ultimately though, it does still take a lot of coordinating for anything more complex than straight up DPS. So I think it's mostly fine. But the user would also need to be VERY careful about how much automation they actually used; which is why it's such a grey area.

Blizzard stance is that each action has to be the result of manually pressing of a key. Just because a single keypress is resulting in ONE action from each account doesn't make it any different. You still had to press one button so that each of your characters does something.

[Teri]

If they press 1 key once on 1 keyboard to do attack X 2+ times in sync I think that is cheating.

Now obviously this is a shady area, that falls outside the "1 action per global cooldown" as it's different accounts, but I still think using something to clone a keypress is cheating.

I don't care if they pay 10 subs or 100 subs, 1 human should only be allowed to control 1 character, or have to press the button for each character seperately.

[Soulwind]

Hmm...I don't know that it's an accurate statement. They drop thousands of accounts at a time in banwaves for botters. And those a people paying for multiple subs.

Yes, but those are actually cheating and disrupting the game, they're often connected to goldsellers. They're people gaming the game for their own profit.

Multiboxers are a minor annoyance compared to those. They're people playing the game, in a way other players may find slightly unfair or unfun, but they're passionate enough to pay for it.

Since Blizzard does sometimes enforce specific ways to play the game (clever use of game mechanics vs exploits), banning multiboxers wouldn't be too out of character.

But they are a source of income, and not too big of a problem. I don't think anyone has ever left because "there are too many multiboxers", there are not, and encountering one is kind of like being visited by a GM, a fairly rare, somewhat memorable experience.

Botters, while also a source of income, are a much bigger problem and one that can easily drive away as many subscriptions or more than they provide if not controlled. And again, there's the gold market.

[Zamfix]

No. Remember, if you die to a multi boxer, you didn't lose a 1v1 fight, you lost a 5v1 fight, or 10v1, or more. Did you really expect to win?

[huth]

1 keypress often means 5 actions. Just because it's 5 different accounts doesn't change that it's 1 person and 1 keystroke.

But like I said, it's a grey area. I don't think Blizzard is too concerned about it, however, because ultimately it IS a person playing and not a bot.

It's not a grey area, it's explicitly allowed. As long as every keystroke only causes a single action per account, and every action requires a keystroke, it's fine.

Botting is a completely different thing than sending keystrokes to multiple copies of WoW.

[VyersReaver]

Blizzard might say whatever they want, but they will never really ban multiboxers, since it generates revenue on a larger scale.
You play and pay for 1 full game, 1 expansion and your monthly sub. Multiboxer pays X times of that, since each account has to be set up separately, so let's say he plays with 10 chars, then he pays 10 times what you pay.

You may whine, but his whining is 10 times more loud.

[Deleted]

Yes, because categorical imperative. If everyone did it, the game would suck.