Should multiboxing be allowed?

[Fawkess]

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

[SirBeef]

While I don't do it and those guys can be very frustrating to go against in PvP or play with if they don't want to be helpful, I see no problem as long as they follow the rules.

[Aerisot]

Honestly, I don't mind multiboxing, if it is limited, but the 40-50 account ones are a little insane, and should not be allowed.

[Coraline Bat]

The current issue with multiboxing is the changes to material farming. It wasnt an issue when resources like herbs were limited to one harvest per node, but since the change that increased it to 10 players per node now you have an issue.

[Garymorilix]

It is allowed, Blizzard has no question about it.

Multiboxing in itself is nothing extra.

[Mysterymask]

Personally i think its fine...as long as it isnt automated and they have the money to throw at it...who cares..

Yes its annoying to get one shotted by syncronised moonfires, have an army take an herb, etc but...plenty of ways around it these days

[BicycleMafioso]

People do weird things to have fun. It certainly looks fun and I can respect the amount of work that goes into getting it to work properly (and also why I’m an ass and Sap the perceived leader).

I am not personally interested in pursuing multiboxing, but I certainly think WoW would be less rich without the option to do it.

If nodes are a problem, they should fix the way nodes work instead. 10 harvests or 90 seconds, whichever takes longer?

MMOs are - or should be - about investing more time (and if that is spread across accounts, fine in my book!) to get ahead. These types of things should be for fringe players, but encouraged.

I don’t normally run with war mode on anymore, even though I prefer PvP over PvE. If you or I would get killed by a multiboxer in world PvP, I don’t see the problem with that. World PvP is all about creating an unfair match up or tilting the advantage in your favour.

So I think yes, it should be allowed, but I don’t want to do it myself. Just because something isn’t for me, doesn’t mean I should want to remove it from the game.

[DarkShawoman]

Allowed? Yes because if they weren't allowed blizzard would stop them, not us the players. Blizzard sees it as sub numbers, whether the person controlling the 5-50 characters pays with gold or somehow real money (lol right?). I normally see a multiboxer of 5-6 mostly always druids herbing in Naz, and as long as its not a bot then I do not care. I play with warmode off so I have no worries of running into a horde (i play ally) group and getting obliterated.

Side note: do I wish i did it? Hell no, mostly because the system you probably need to operate it is not worth it at all. 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.

[Seranthor]

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

Whether it 'should' be is pretty irrelevant, regardless of if we like it or not Blizzard allows it.

[Saltysquidoon]

I have never in all the years I've played WoW ever read or heard anyone (from high-end mythic raiders to trade chat) talking about multiboxing as a problem.

It's super weird that specifically, MMO-C seems to have a bee in its bonnet about this, it's just such a non-issue I can't even see why anyone would care ever.

[RobertMugabe]

If I had to pick something I'd say, NO, it shouldn't exist.

However tbh idc so much either and won't "fight" for blizzard to get rid of multiboxing.

[Cyranis]

I would much rather there be multi-boxers than the potion price double. It's a lot harder to pull off than it appears to be, and the profits from doing so, really aren't all that great. The whole thing is blown way out of proportion considering how many resources it takes to set it all up. Speaking from experience, having done 5 druids just for fun to check it out. It wasn't really worth the effort. And I paid cash for all the sub fee's and boosts.

[exochaft]

Honestly, I don't mind multiboxing, if it is limited, but the 40-50 account ones are a little insane, and should not be allowed.

That's pretty much my view of it. I'd say most multiboxers probably stick to the 2-5 account range, and that usually does not cause community issues. However, more than that becomes disruptive to the game after a certain point, and that's partly comes down to the systems at play and how they're designed.

I'm sure everyone who has War Mode on has run into the multiboxers. Even low account numbers can be a little disruptive, because you can simulate coordination that requires 5 people. When you start getting into the people running around with 10-20 accounts or more at the same time, that level of coordination, even if it's not perfect, is way too powerful to counter. You'll see this often with DK's or Moonkins or other classes that can put nasty dots on you or have large burst damage components: there's just no recourse against so many characters under the uniform control of one person.

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.

So yeah, the concept of multiboxing isn't a bad thing, but taken too far with the systems in WoW it can negatively impact the game. I'd be all for a hard limit on controlling 5 accounts at the same time, as it wouldn't affect the majority of multiboxers at all.

[lollerlaban]

It should be allowed, if they make nodes despawn if there's another player within 40 yards when it's harvested.

[Cyranis]

I'm sure everyone who has War Mode on has run into the multiboxers. Even low account numbers can be a little disruptive, because you can simulate coordination that requires 5 people. When you start getting into the people running around with 10-20 accounts or more at the same time, that level of coordination, even if it's not perfect, is way too powerful to counter. You'll see this often with DK's or Moonkins or other classes that can put nasty dots on you or have large burst damage components: there's just no recourse against so many characters under the uniform control of one person.

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.

So yeah, the concept of multiboxing isn't a bad thing, but taken too far with the systems in WoW it can negatively impact the game. I'd be all for a hard limit on controlling 5 accounts at the same time, as it wouldn't affect the majority of multiboxers at all.

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

[Drusin]

People do weird things to have fun. It certainly looks fun and I can respect the amount of work that goes into getting it to work properly (and also why I’m an ass and Sap the perceived leader).

I see a lot of non multiboxers saying this, what do you think this accomplishes? I don't know what it's like for people using other software but if you use ISBoxer you can just CTRL+ALT+ 2-(however many windows you have open) to cycle through your alts.

If nodes are a problem, they should fix the way nodes work instead. 10 harvests or 90 seconds, whichever takes longer?

Why not just make it 1 gather per bnet account :O You can have 8 accounts attached to you bnet account so any boxer you see with 8 or less characters is probably on one bnet account but that's not a rule just a likely situation.

Side note: do I wish i did it? Hell no, mostly because the system you probably need to operate it is not worth it at all. 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.

You don't need much computer to multibox, your current computer probably can do it.

I have never in all the years I've played WoW ever read or heard anyone (from high-end mythic raiders to trade chat) talking about multiboxing as a problem.

It's super weird that specifically, MMO-C seems to have a bee in its bonnet about this, it's just such a non-issue I can't even see why anyone would care ever.

Go on the official forums and search for multibox lol

It's a lot harder to pull off than it appears to be

I don't know if I'd say it's "a lot harder" but it is more work/annoyance than you'd think. I've only been boxing since the start of this month and it isn't what I thought it was. I'd imagine most people have the wrong idea about what goes into it lol.

[Finear]

Allowed? Yes because if they weren't allowed blizzard would stop them, not us the players. Blizzard sees it as sub numbers, whether the person controlling the 5-50 characters pays with gold or somehow real money (lol right?). I normally see a multiboxer of 5-6 mostly always druids herbing in Naz, and as long as its not a bot then I do not care. I play with warmode off so I have no worries of running into a horde (i play ally) group and getting obliterated.

Side note: do I wish i did it? Hell no, mostly because the system you probably need to operate it is not worth it at all. 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.

if they pay with gold then it actually makes blizz more money, token is more expensive than sub

also you don't need 5k pc to run 5 clients at once lol, even a basic 1k laptop can do it nowadays

[munkeyinorbit]

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

What you could do is just search for multiboxing and look there.

/thread

[PtrN]

The replies that are stating "Yes it should be allowed because blizzard allows it" are missing the question. The question isn't does Blizzard allow it, but in your opinion should they?

My opinion is that the entire controversy around multi-boxing is it allows players to monopolize areas of the market (harvest-able resources) via outside of the game resources (money+hardware controlling multiple accounts). Those against multiboxing think this is unfair, and I agree with them. Personally I would just change the mechanics of harvesting so that it cannot be automated within the ToS, basically stop multi-boxing harvesting unless they "alt tab" to each toon.

I've got no problem with people multiboxing, but if I can't compete with someone due to their investment in accounts/hardware then there is an issue.

[Cyranis]

but if I can't compete with someone due to their investment in accounts/hardware then there is an issue.

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