Questions for CCP regarding January 2015 rules

[Lax]

So it's obvious that everyone wants some clarification about what is or is not allowed. For the most part it's clear -- don't broadcast to multiple game instances at the same time for gameplay purposes, but it's okay to control one window at a time.

Here's some examples of things that seem clear:

• Login: okay to broadcast, does not affect others
• Window management: okay to broadcast, does not affect others
• Client settings: okay to broadcast, does not affect others
• Undocking: not okay to broadcast, you must do this for one window at a time
• Targeting: not okay to broadcast, you must do this for one window at a time
• Toggling a module: not okay to broadcast, you must do this for one window at a time
• Interacting with one game window via Video FX: okay, this is only one window at a time
• Lining up 10 Video FX next to each other to interact with 10 different clients one at a time by mousing across and clicking/pressing buttons in each one: okay, this is only one window at a time
• Interacting with one game window via a Hotkey or Click Bar/Menu button press: okay, this is only one window at a time
• Assigning buttons f1, f2, f3, f4, f5 etc (I'm just going to keep using F-keys as examples, regardless of whether these specific buttons are ideal) to go to one specific window (even if it is not the window you are playing at the time): okay, this is only one window at a time

Here's examples of things that are not clear:

• Setting up a programmable keyboard to press F1 then F2 then F3 then F4 then F5 to automatically send inputs to all of the windows in the above example ("assigning buttons f1, f2 . . ."). My assumption would be that this is not allowed, however folks pointed out GM Lelouch's post that says this particular example is fine because it is not "An exceedingly complex G15 macro which would effectively automate gameplay, such as mining, without a need for the player to be present at his keyboard"
• "Round-robin" assigning F1 to go to one specific window each time you press it. This allows a multiboxer to press F1 one time per game window, because it is only going to one window at a time. They can press F1 10 times quickly, for F1 to go to 10 different windows quickly.
• Assigning F1 to send F1 (or a mouse click, etc) to the current window, and also activate the next window, moving it into the same place as the previous window (as one might do with Alt+Tab). This is still only one window at a time, but as with the previous example allows a multiboxer to press F1 one time per game window. Same effect, with different things happening on the user's screen.
• ... both of these seem to adhere to the "one window at a time" concept, requiring an input for each individual client, can be mis-counted (whoops I hit the button too few or too many times), can be interrupted before all of them occur (whoops I only got through 3 of them before someone else changed the battle circumstances), and so on.. and are therefore both disadvantaged in several ways versus a multiple client broadcast.

It would also help to understand the review process when a player reports a multiboxer. Some players will be hostile to multiboxers and assume that everyone, using any sort of broadcasting/multiplexing or not, is really breaking the rules (You too,"Nosy"). So what can we expect from these reports against a truly Y2K15-compliant multiboxer? Ideally, CCP could determine the truth, but it would seem to me there's diminishing capabilities as the number of multiboxed accounts decreases. I mean, with 100 accounts it should be fairly obvious that it takes many seconds longer for all of them to accomplish something, but with 3 or 4 the difference may be pretty miniscule.

Multiboxers don't want to run afoul of the rules. We hear that multiboxing is okay, but even though CCP says that and many players say that, we also plainly see "RIP multiboxing" and people shedding tears of joy that multiboxing is somehow dead altogether. I think it is great that rules are being clarified/changed and in a way that the players of the game should be happy with, but at the same time we have to find a way to reconcile the actual rules ("we would like to clarify that multiboxing is allowed") and actual behaviors, with the perceived rules ("hurr durr isoboxing [sic] is banned") and perceived behaviors. After all, this is purely magic and largely irrelevant to people who just don't give a shit, no different from those who have argued that multiboxing (someone playing the game) is identical to botting (software playing the game for you).

• What should multiboxers consider best practices to not get reported and/or banned? ("follow the rules" yes yes, but again, perceived rules and perceived behaviors)
• With regards to false reports, how concerned should multiboxers be exactly about distrust and hostility from CCP?
• Will CCP be discouraging false reports? (even a reminder that multiboxing is allowed as long as they're not broadcasting, for example)
• And of course we're all curious what CCP can share as to how/why this change came about, which may also shed some light on "best practices" and behaviors to avoid

The changes should result in wider acceptance for multiboxers because everyone should become confident that the other players are not broadcasting/multiplexing, but only if multiboxers are able to fully understand and adapt to the rules (or stop) before they are in force.