Should multiboxing be allowed?

[Thetruth1400]

World pvp isn't intended to be fair or balanced.
They pay for 10 accounts, that's their prerogative on both gathering and pvp.

I disagree seeing as how Blizzard has gone out of their way to acknowledge the PvP imbalances and done everything short of instituting a 1 for 1 inserting into particular shards.

Blizzard wants fair-ish fights because if not, we push even further into shitty territory where one side just stops showing up.


That aside, multiboxing is perfectly within the TOS even though there's no logic between their stance of "1 input, 1 action." being acceptable under certain conditions, but not others. That is, except for the fact that 1 person multiboxing generates more money in their pocket.

It's not 1 input 1 action, it's 1 input and 4, 7, 15, 31, etc. replicated actions using a third party program to do the replication. It's really no different than 1 input, 40+ actions off the same button on one toon, except it's somehow a TOS violation of botting to do so.

It's almost like they don't intend 1 button press to have 40 output results or something.

[xGLxAnubis]

Just think, have a computer that probably costs over 5k USD to have 5 herbing toons at the same time just to make shiny fake money (gold), nope! I'd rather have a fancy computer for a job (graphic design or something) over a video game.

A. You don't need a good computer to multi-box; this isn't 2006.
B. Your computer you're using to Multi-box, for 5k or otherwise, could *also* be used for a fancy computer job. I use my work laptop (I'm a software engineer) to play video games when I have to travel for work, just fine.

[Mysterymask]

Like? Please elaborate.

Sure...

Now for warmode oneshots well...warmode happened in warmode..if it wasnt one multiboxer it was probably an entire raid anyway

For herbing and mining go somewhere else fuck a decent multibox costs $75 a month just for the subscription they cant be THAT common

[Lefrog]

I wouldn't say there's no way they could do it. Multiboxing works by having a synchronized state across WoW clients. You introduce some element of randomness to that and you break the synchronization. Bad example but if you had a box you were forced to click to collect and it appeared at random position of the screen you'd break the state. It's more of a question of what options are available to them and how those options would affect those not multiboxing. You could put up a unique captcha before every harvest and it'd accomplish the same thing, but no one would like that .

Disabling /follow would be the easiest way. There is no reason anyone truly needs this feature (nice to have when you afk, but still not a need) unless you're running multiple account.

OT:
Used to box in TBC out of curiosity and for the 5x shaman BG fun, but it only lasted 2 months before the price of all those accounts made me turn it off. Nowadays I box because they are taking the longboi away and that's a LOT of gold.

The warframe, spider, and longboi gold sinks make it so that normies who don't box or play the AH have to save up quite a while to get them. I honestly wouldn't even do it if there was another way to get the same mount models. If mythic N'Zoth dropped a longboi recolor with no AH NPC, I'd just wait until it was legacy content and farm it on a few alts until I got it.

I want to say that the majority of players who try to game the AH or multibox nowadays are doing it purely because of the gold sinks like BMAH or crazy priced mounts that Blizz has added. Take those away and you're probably just left with the few people who think it's fun to be gold capped, but have no reason to be.

[Kallisto]

Beyond PvP, resource gathering can also be an issue. People like to use the excuse "Well, it keeps the AH prices down, so I like it!" Okay... what about the people that don't want to use the AH and farm the mats themselves? This comes down to the limitations imposed by Blizz when it comes to resource gather, especially when it comes to herbs and ore (probably the most sought after resources to boot). There's a 10 tap limit on these nodes before they despawn, so if you have people flying around with 10 chars farming nodes nonstop, players that wish to farm the mats themselves can be SOL if one or more multiboxers are flying around. I even have screenshots of 8-10 multiboxers flying around trying to steal nodes from each other, and which it's comical on some level, it's kills the gameplay of those who wish to farm the mats for themselves. This isn't even considering bots, which are also a problem... more so when botters are using multiple accounts to multibox.

This. 100% this is why I hate multi boxers. On one of my characters, I used to be able to farm herbs quite frequently. But the multiboxers came about and most days it gets so bad that I would get no more than 10 herbs per hour. Not find 10 herb nodes just 10 herbs because the multiboxxers are everywhere. You can't compete playing fairly.

[Drusin]

Should it? No
Is it? Yes.



I don't see them often but when I do they aren't doing normal PVP. Example the last time I saw a multiboxer it was a massive group of demon hunters camping an elite invasion quest mob in a Legion invasion in Highmountain, just oneshotting all the low levels trying to get the quest done to level up their level 100-110 chars.

This is the kinda shitSOME multiboxers do.

Also I've never experienced boxxers doing that, it's usually 1-3 120s which is all you need

You're conflating 'fair or balanced' with 'in the spirit of the game or intended behavior.'

Since it's allowed it must be intended behavior.

The problem is there is a fine line between botting and multiboxing.

Opinion, there's no one controlling my characters but me. My characters don't do shit unless I tell them to, and sometimes I have to tell them fucking 4 times before they do it lol.

The only reason multiboxing still is allowed (leaving the money aspect out of this) is that most people don't abuse it to a level that causes adverse effects on the gameplay of others. I've know people who have massively multiboxed over the years (20+ chars), and most of them have been banned or reprimanded at some point, usually getting responses from Blizz that align with what I'm talking about: engaging in behavior counter to the spirit of the game and causing adverse effects on their servers that one player is not intended to be able to do.

Sounds like they are griefing and any griefer should be punished, nothing to do with multiboxing.

Like? Please elaborate.

Yeah i dont get why botting is banned and multiboxing is not. Windows accept one input per client, thats how it works natively. Using a 3rd party program to duplicate that input and send it to 9 other clients is technically an automation dont u think?

No, because i'm pressing the button. When I'm not pressing the button then it'll be automation

No. There is no reason at all to allow it.

There's no reason not to allow it

If the terms of service technically allow it, the terms of service are wrong and should be changed.

NOTHING about multiboxing is an intended use of game mechanics.

If it wasn't intended then they wouldn't allow it lol.

Blizzard simply lets it slide because they make a fuck ton off the whales doing it.

When do you become a whale? I box 5 accounts, that's $75 a month am I a whale? I don't think I am, that's basic bitch money.

I wouldn't say there's no way they could do it. Multiboxing works by having a synchronized state across WoW clients. You introduce some element of randomness to that and you break the synchronization. Bad example but if you had a box you were forced to click to collect and it appeared at random position of the screen you'd break the state. It's more of a question of what options are available to them and how those options would affect those not multiboxing. You could put up a unique captcha before every harvest and it'd accomplish the same thing, but no one would like that .

There's no state like you may be thinking. There's me on Char1 and then all the other characters have me on follow. When I target something and cast a spell at it they assist me attacking that target by pressing the same buttons I'm pressing. When it comes to movement and clicking I have two choices, I can try and move them where I want them by moving myself to rotate them since they have me on follow or I can broadcast all keys to all windows which is a fucking clusterfuck and I never do it unless I want to break follow on all my characters at once. Or I could "alt tab" (you don't actually do this key combo) between them and perform the action manually.

There's just one fact you've forgotten. People wouldn't pay for 10 accounts if yhey didn't had those advantages.

Yeah the fuck I would because I hate pvp and you will never in your life get ganked by me.

What's actually worrying is the impact they have on small server economies because you can just gather plants and you have X number of account more plants than any other player. When you add multibox to realm hopers, you end up with servers without nodes or servers where one guy can actually control 80% of the auction house thank to his multiboxing + TSM.

Ok I feel like you're mixing shit up here.

Let's say I have 3 Druids, I do get 3 players worth of mats. But If I have 3 Druids on realms A+B+C and I gather all the herbs on realm A then hop to realm B and gather all the herbs then do the same on Realm C, the effect that I would have on each server is the same as the effect one player would have in that you can't trade mats between realms that aren't connected so I can only post what I gathered on one character on each AH.

except it's somehow a TOS violation of botting to do so.

Because a human is still performing the actions

fuck a decent multibox costs $75 a month just for the subscription they cant be THAT common

What software costs $75 a month lol, the software I pay for is $50 a year. I guess if you combine the cost of the sub fee assuming you are paying month to month and the monthly cost of the yearly sub for the software it is $80 a month but the boxxing software alone isn't 75 lol

[Redzonetode]

They have devoted more resources than you have. Life isn't fair. This is exactly how life works. It will never change.

Except this isn’t life, it’s a video game. It takes a single decision from blizzard to cut off multi boxing. It’s not some natural fact of life lmao

[Cyranis]

Except this isn’t life, it’s a video game. It takes a single decision from blizzard to cut off multi boxing. It’s not some natural fact of life lmao

And yet, they have not only refused for 15 years, but have repeatedly defended it.

[Super Kami Dende]

So pretty simple question that I am interesting to hear peoples thoughts on. Do you think multiboxing should be allowed or not?

Sure. if they want to pay for it.

[Rune B]

I think multiboxing is a pretty clear case of something that is grossly against the terms and conditions and spirit of the game, but which is allowed because simply because Blizz make extra money off of it.

[Azerate]

It's the good old "I can't afford it therefore it shouldn't be allowed" issue. People are just jealous is all, so they are coming up with BS reasonings as to why multiboxing is a bad thing. Someone devotes 5 times the time, resources and money into it, they get 5 times the return. It really is just that simple.

They have devoted more resources than you have. Life isn't fair. This is exactly how life works. It will never change.

I think I agree with you, but I also disagree with the wording used. True, life isn't always fair but multixobing being allowed is actually fair. Proportionally to your effort and commitment you are getting multiple times more benefits. It can't get more fair than that. What isn't fair is when you're putting in multiple times the effort someone else does and you're not allowed to profit more from it. This unfortunately often happens in real life

PS. And btw, I am not a multiboxer cause I couldn't afford it ever. One sub and an occassional shop purchase is the best I can do with my budget

[Mysterymask]

What software costs $75 a month lol, the software I pay for is $50 a year. I guess if you combine the cost of the sub fee assuming you are paying month to month and the monthly cost of the yearly sub for the software it is $80 a month but the boxxing software alone isn't 75 lol

5 wow accounts times 5 subscriptions of $15 a month is $75 a month...or about 585,000 gold a month assuming youre US based

[FossilFree]

Allow multiboxing to continue BUT make using all software that links multiple accounts together, where a single keypress replicates the action across all the linked accounts, a bannable offense.

If they want to manually click the node on each and every account, go for it. It's the automation from linking them together and controlling many accounts with one account that makes it inherently unfair.

[lappee]

Just make gathering nodes like they used to be, only one character per node, and increase the spawn times (and places, so you can't just afk at one and get hyperspawns). If people want to multibox because its fun, let them. If they only want to bot herbs / ores, fuck them.

[Drusin]

5 wow accounts times 5 subscriptions of $15 a month is $75 a month...or about 585,000 gold a month assuming youre US based

Ah I see what you're saying now. I was reading your statement as meaning "For decent multibox software the subscription is $75 a month". There is a subscription you pay for the multibox software I use so I thought there was some other software out there that was $75 a month lol.

- - - Updated - - -

Just make gathering nodes like they used to be, only one character per node, and increase the spawn times (and places, so you can't just afk at one and get hyperspawns). If people want to multibox because its fun, let them. If they only want to bot herbs / ores, fuck them.

Now you're fucking everyone lol, you'll have to elaborate more on this idea of making it more difficult for every player to farm

[Azerate]

Now you're fucking everyone lol, you'll have to elaborate more on this idea of making it more difficult for every player to farm

The guy is ex paragon member. Probably never paid for a consumable from his own pockets in his entire life so these kinds of claims come easy for him

[Adam Jensen]

I don't mind a person having multiple instances of WoW running at the same time.

What bothers me is when said person presses one keystroke and all his stupidass druids perform an action. It should be one action per key stroke, per character.

So sick of seeing flocks of druids, controlled by one person, snatching up all the Zin'anthid in Naz while I'm farming. Or the constant boomkins farming quillrats. It's obnoxious, it hurts the economy by flooding it with mats, it gets in the way of people honestly trying to quest.

It needs to go. It's a cancerous plague and I've never seen it as bad in the past as it is now.

- - - Updated - - -

World pvp isn't intended to be fair or balanced.
They pay for 10 accounts, that's their prerogative on both gathering and pvp.

So you're for Pay to Win then. Okay.

[lappee]

Now you're fucking everyone lol, you'll have to elaborate more on this idea of making it more difficult for every player to farm

It would only affect multiboxers and afk-bot/farmers?

Only 1 character can pick up a node.
Nodes in turn spawn faster than they currently do
Nodes have more spawn locations to discourage being in one spot with a autoclicker.

Basically what it was before the node change, aka before multiboxers were the only ones selling herbs.

[Rune B]

It's the good old "I can't afford it therefore it shouldn't be allowed" issue. People are just jealous is all, so they are coming up with BS reasonings as to why multiboxing is a bad thing. Someone devotes 5 times the time, resources and money into it, they get 5 times the return. It really is just that simple.

Strawman fallacy. There are many legitimate reasons why botting and multiboxing is bad for regular players.

And they don't devote 5 times the time. They are effectively botting the other 4 accounts.

[Drusin]

It would only affect multiboxers and afk-bot/farmers?

Only 1 character can pick up a node.
Nodes in turn spawn faster than they currently do
Nodes have more spawn locations to discourage being in one spot with a autoclicker.

Basically what it was before the node change, aka before multiboxers were the only ones selling herbs.

Maybe I misunderstood, you said you wanted to increase the spawn time of nodes. Wouldn't that make it more difficult to find nodes for everyone?