I need a thicker skin

[wizofid]

I am really enjoying mlti-boxing except for one thing. I dread going where people are. I really don't like the attention, even positive attention. But logging in each character seperately to do necessary city work is extremely slow and so I usually take the group. I would say that I get a 5 to 1 ratio of positive comments to negative, but in general negative comments are so over the top they seem so much *stronger* than nice comments. For example, I logged in this morning to do some quests at Honor Hold and some guy started on this long diatribe telling me what I loser I was and how I needed an army to play because I sucked, on and on. I was tempted to argue with him and tell him that I had 70's that had seen all the end-game content and that my guild was one of the more respected on the server, but 1) I don't think he would care and 2) I don't want any negative things coming back to my main's guild.

I finally had to ignore him on all the toons. But it really bugged me and frankly ruined my morning.. which I am sure would make him very happy to hear. I hate the fact that Normal Person + Annonymity + Attention = dickwad, since I know in real life if you saw someone with 5 mercedes in their yard you would not rush over to them and tell them they are a loser and that they must have a small endowment to need that much bling. Or if your wife had on 5 peices of diamond jewlery I doubt anyone would tell her to her face that she is an elitest showoff lording it over everyone else. Or if you had 5 guard dogs would the guy next door sneer that you arn't much of a man because you need 5 dogs to protect you... I think not.

I think in general over the last 4 years I have been blissfully unaware of what jerks people can be because I have been unnoticible. Outside of my guild I keep to myself and never make waves or get into /trade arguments or /bg pissing matches, so I basically have been free of directed hostility to me. Now with multi-boxing I can't escape it.

[Kaynin]

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

WUSS, SOFTY, WIMP!

WHAT IS IT GONNA TAKE TO MAKE A MAN OUT OF YOU, HMM!?

DROP DOWN AND GIVE ME 20!

This for a few weeks and you'll have skin as hard as rock. *nod* :thumbsup:

[shaeman]

I've often noticed that people take more notice of criticism than they do of compliments. Why is that?

They only have the power to make you feel bad if you let it.

My approach is to put them on /ignore and to pretend that character doesn't exist anymore.

No reaction bugs them more than trading insults or giving them more opportunities to use irrational, illogical arguments against you.

[gorram]

When I get random multibox attention of any type, I tend to respond with only emotes and emoticons. I don't have a good reason for it, but it takes enough attention as a mini-game in itself that I don't get really irritated by griefers. Multibox mime team, ACTIVATE!

[Yamanaka]

I am guessing that as a dual boxer you wont get that much attention?

Sucks to hear though. I also am a tad different online because of the anonymity then in real life. But acting like a total jackass I would never do. There is still another person on the other side.

That aside, I always respect the people with 3+ chars.

[Rin]

Don't ever let someone's opinion change what you enjoy doing. Unexplained hatred is usually fueled by jealousy. People will always try to break you. It'll get better.

[Style1one]

If they feel the need to keep with it, just steal there quest mobs ; ) one shooting them before they can get them and be like yeah I guess I need a team of 5, but looks like you need a team of 6 to get your mobs. ; )

[TheBigBB]

The only thing I ever respond to as far as negativity is when someone thinks I am botting. I make sure to let anyone know that it's not botting. My initital reaction to the Zins was that he was some kind of hacker until he explained it to me, so if someone else makes that mistake out of ignorance I feel the need to let them know. Don't confuse bullies with people making an honest mistake.

[mmcookies]

Would Barkskin do the trick?

[Gurblash]

Would Barkskin do the trick?

I see what you did there!!! I got a good lol.

[pengwynman]

I generally don't have TOO much trouble with negative comments from people... most are just curious.
what i hate is people trying to use my guys to their advantage... the other day i was in the barrens on my 5 druids, and there was a hunter following me around. i didn't really notice him for awhile, as it is fairly common to have someone follow me around for a little while watching me kill stuff. Anyways, i was killing those AQ elite guys or whatever.. good XP and drops, etc. but after a minute i noticed the hunter was standing off to the side popping off an instant shot right before my wrath finished casting, so he'd tag it and i'd have aggro... so i'd kill it and he would get xp. i targetted the next mob and started casting, then cancelled the cast about 1/2 sec before it finished-- sure enough the hunter tagged it again, but this time he kept aggro. and these elites were about 5 levels higher than him, so they made short work of him.
come on, dude. i'm smart enough to set up and coordinate 5 characters with one computer, i'm not gonna let you steal my xp...

[valkry]

Switch to your combat log when going into towns and cities and you won't see what people say about you.

[not5150]

It takes two people to get upset. You're getting upset because you let yourself get upset.

But maybe I'm an anomaly. I went through the police academy :)

Five people screaming three inches from your face, at the same time, will help you develop very thick skin.

[Tasty]

Take solace in the fact that people are actually upset at you for playing a game differently to them.

Seriously, the insults are my fav part of boxing lol :P

also when it comes to emotes I find /soothe works particularly well.

[Tasty]

It takes two people to get upset. You're getting upset because you let yourself get upset.

But maybe I'm an anomaly. I went through the police academy :)

Five people screaming three inches from your face, at the same time, will help you develop very thick skin.

QLD?

[valkry]

Make it a game to see how much you can get haters to nerd rage. As for me, I pretend I'm Chineese and with our guild tag they just assume the worst. :evil:

[Stealthy]

It takes two people to get upset. You're getting upset because you let yourself get upset.

But maybe I'm an anomaly. I went through the police academy :)

Five people screaming three inches from your face, at the same time, will help you develop very thick skin.

QLD?

Well definitely not Vic - they teach police to shoot first, and ask questions later. ;)

[Tasty]

lol :P

[Sam DeathWalker]

Just say;

"Begone Insect, I have much slaying to do."

[Hetzer]

Just say;

"Begone Insect, I have much slaying to do."

My usual response is "watch me leave you standing here looking like a fool" and then I walk away

[eqjoe]

Play female toons and say "Byte me nerd boy"...

[valkry]

"See the nerd raaaaaaggeeeee!"

[Tdog]

1. When they start msging you you're initial reaction is to get pissed and try to make them see the error of their ways.

2. Eventually you'll see that they don't care to see the errors of their ways and you will either make fun of them back, try to make them feel like idiots, or make completely off the wall comments.

3. After awhile you'll just say something to the effect of "w/e loser" and just put them on ignore.

4. Finally you will eventually get to the point where you don't even bother to put them on ignore. You will just simply read around the text and keep going on with your life like they don't even exist.

When you get to this point you will truly, simply, not even care wtf they have to say cause you're not going to bother wasting one sec of you're life being bothered by blind, ignorant, childish rantings. Their opinions of you will mean less than nothing and you won't even think twice about their QQ's.

[valkry]

I'm surrently at phase 2 lol, I admit I did go through phase 1. Tbh, i don't want to leave Phase 2 :P

[Tasty]

I skipped straight to phase five

[Fef]

You made the right diagnostic.

I personally solved the problem of negative comments. I simply ignore them totally, but without doing an actual /ignore. They either stop fairly promptly or get pissed and start acting inappropriately. As soon as something that can be considered an offence is used, I report them, and inform them that I did so. I usually never hear from them any more. They sometimes go whining on the realm forum though, but who cares ...

Positive comments are just nice, I usually reply with a /smile, /bow or /salute emote.

Now the real problem are curious people, people who don't know about MBing and want to understand. Sometimes I spend half an hour chatting with someone who is genuinely interested, just because he asked politely and he behaves nicely (like in no l33t speak). I should learn to use my "check www.dual-boxing.com" macro more systematically. ;)

[not5150]

I find it funny that lots of people follow me for several minutes without saying anything. I'm guessing they're taking screenshots or telling their buddies.

[Haruko]

Even though I get a kick out of the comments, my server seems pretty harsh about the boxers. They tend to judge the classes you roll with. x 4 priest was a bad move, but making 1 x paladin 3 x druid seemed to get accepted. I never let go of my overall goal of having 4 of each class.

[EvilSqueegee]

At the moment I'm phase 2 ish. I tend to only respond to the "waste all your money" and "botting" comments, though. Most people start shutting up real quick when they realise they're claiming they can't afford a 12-hour shift at minimum wage east-coast US once a month. This may or may not be because they don't want to admit to not having a job or letting their folks pay for their accounts, but hey, it tends to make people bugger off.

Then again, I'm a jerk, so yea. :P

The only other sort of thing I tend to respond to are actually well-written genuine curious comments about the boxing. People asking how it works, or what have you. And there's a difference between "HOW U CLONE UR DUDES" and "That's really interesting, how do you make that work?" Generally the comments that strain the eyes and make the brain bleed get told it's a new shaman talent or that it's voodoo.

[5fingersofdoom]

Multiboxing WoW is like a Rorschach test for morons.
It amuses me what players type,it says far more about their current state of mind than it does you.
If you love multiboxing just keep going,[if the head GD for wow says its ok,(and he does)],don't let it bother you. :)

[Lyonheart]

At first I was a bit shocked at just how angry and hateful people can be. I have been multi boxing for years and never got any negative comments.. ever! But when i started doing it "this" way, 5 at once all linked together, OMG!

But now I just laugh. The meaner or nastier the comments are, the louder I LOL! I even repeat what people say to me on vent to my guild mates ( all multi boxers btw ) We all laugh at it. It truly is funny. Think of that way and you will feel better about it.

I will say that the ignorant comments made in BG chat in AV still get under my skin at times though. Only ones where fools claim " OMG, multi boxers here again, count this as a loss! " or " Report that group of shaman afk, They are not helping" When, in fact, we are the REASON we win AV most the time by capping towers.

[Marious]

JOIN THE MILITARY.

This will get you quite a thick skin. Now some services will build thicker than others, like the Air Force is wimpy, then the Navy some would say the other way around, then you have the Army and I would put Marines with probably thicker skin than most.

But don't let it get to you, its just human nature to hate.

[Ellay]

From my first 3 pvp videos when I played Mages, I ended up taking a 1-2 month break after each release because of all the negative comments (mixed in with positive) it just eats you up after a while. I've got stoneskin now with my Shamans and let them slide by.

[TheBigBB]

Even though I get a kick out of the comments, my server seems pretty harsh about the boxers. They tend to judge the classes you roll with. x 4 priest was a bad move, but making 1 x paladin 3 x druid seemed to get accepted. I never let go of my overall goal of having 4 of each class.With my totally mixed up teams with different races and names and sexes for every character, most people who don't know anything about boxing don't seem to realize that I am doing something weird. Sometimes they think that the tank is played by someone else, too.

[Hor]

I've had a lot of mixed responses, some really bad. Last night this enhance shaman was getting attacked by an allie So I blasted the mage to 10% and he Ice Blocked. The Elemental Killed the Shaman before I could heal him, but he was full mana so I guess he was silenced ... or ... anyhow, I chase the mage a little bit just to make sure he's actually leaving then turn around to the shaman, I start to rez but realize there's a paladin there already mid cast. So I wave at em and follow the mage who is by this point LONG gone. As soon as I crest a hill the Shaman calls me a "fag hacker." lol. I told him, thanks for that. I'll be sure to note his name for the next time I see allies attacking him, then ran off to turn in my Runes and DE the epix. A lot of the negativity seems to come from two places, one asian gold farmers/botters and general ignorance/envy. (ok so that's kinda four places, but go with me on this). Gold farmers and/or botters have been a pretty big issue with players, because blizz keeps saying they've closed X accounts for botting. And because of those annoying whispers we receive on occasion, but once upon a time every 5 minutes. As a result, I think a lot of "legit" players are just wary. And I don't begrudge them that wariness. But again, this comes to our part about ignorance and envy. Some people wish they could get paid to farm gold, or wish they could bot, or had the cajones to ... and THEN when they realize we're boxing ... all these weird retarted feelings go haywire. Unfortunately, it also seems the younger the person is the more likely they are to simply spout off and show their ignorance rather than taking a step back and thinking about the situation. Luckilly though, my experience while varied has been largely positive. Reading the recent "My guild flamed me" thread I feel even luckier to have a guild of supportive friends who not only think it's interesting, there's actually several who've been asking me questions and started taking their first tentative steps into boxing themselves. So, keep the faith. There ARE reasonable human beings in the world, sometimes you just have to look harder to find them.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I sorta have a goofy approach to people. I tend to (as is my nature) find humor in just about everything. So when i get a dismissive remark, I usually counter it by being even sillier than the original argument. Which either gets me a "NO U" reply (which I immediately /ignore) or the other person shares a laugh about it with me and just maybe becomes less hostile towards boxers. :)

Way I see it, me being a jerk right back to 'em won't change anyone's opinion, but some light humor just might and, even if it doesn't, I leave with a smile. ;)

[Pikey]

I've got stoneskin now with my Shamans clever choice of words :|

[valkry]

I've had a lot of mixed responses, some really bad. Last night this enhance shaman was getting attacked by an allie So I blasted the mage to 10% and he Ice Blocked. The Elemental Killed the Shaman before I could heal him, but he was full mana so I guess he was silenced ... or ... anyhow, I chase the mage a little bit just to make sure he's actually leaving then turn around to the shaman, I start to rez but realize there's a paladin there already mid cast. So I wave at em and follow the mage who is by this point LONG gone. As soon as I crest a hill the Shaman calls me a "fag hacker." lol. I told him, thanks for that. I'll be sure to note his name for the next time I see allies attacking him, then ran off to turn in my Runes and DE the epix. A lot of the negativity seems to come from two places, one asian gold farmers/botters and general ignorance/envy. (ok so that's kinda four places, but go with me on this). Gold farmers and/or botters have been a pretty big issue with players, because blizz keeps saying they've closed X accounts for botting. And because of those annoying whispers we receive on occasion, but once upon a time every 5 minutes. As a result, I think a lot of "legit" players are just wary. And I don't begrudge them that wariness. But again, this comes to our part about ignorance and envy. Some people wish they could get paid to farm gold, or wish they could bot, or had the cajones to ... and THEN when they realize we're boxing ... all these weird retarted feelings go haywire. Unfortunately, it also seems the younger the person is the more likely they are to simply spout off and show their ignorance rather than taking a step back and thinking about the situation. Luckilly though, my experience while varied has been largely positive. Reading the recent "My guild flamed me" thread I feel even luckier to have a guild of supportive friends who not only think it's interesting, there's actually several who've been asking me questions and started taking their first tentative steps into boxing themselves. So, keep the faith. There ARE reasonable human beings in the world, sometimes you just have to look harder to find them.
Hey hey hey, <Gold Farmers Pty Ltd> do nothing illegal :P Don't mix up gold farmers and gold sellers.

[Psybercop]

Wizo don't let them get to you! Unless they pay your bills, cook your food, or put out for you they don’t get a vote on what makes you happy. I had a guy chase me to sm the other morning after I got off work. He came sputtering up on his broom and said get a life loser, I said but you chased me down, he decided to ride away after that. You are going to get the followers, the complainers, the cheers, and the helpers along the way even from other faction (Which is pretty cool btw) but at the end of the day when you lay down to sleep, none of them matter and a long as you made another day a happy one for yourself then mission accomplished.

[Khatovar]

I still hate to go where there's people. It's too time consuming to deal with and some people are simply nasty. Luckily I think I've been around enough boxing on so many different setups that I think my server is pretty broken in.

My general response to people who insist on being jerks is something along the lines of "Sorry, all these accounts are mine, in my name and under my control. Multi-boxing is not against the ToS, however, harassment/vulgarity is." and moving the party train along. That usually does it. I've only actually had to report someone once since they decided to spam local chat with all sorts of garbage about myself and my husband being gold farmers, hackers, every name in the book AND wanted to spend half an hour following us around at the same time, stealing our summoned quest mobs. For sure it pissed me off something fierce...it's not like it's easy to complete a lot of quests on a multi-boxed team, especially if they require you to get random-drop items to do. But I left it to the GMs to be the Grand High Executioners, and boy were they on the ball about it!

Just don't let them get you riled. You won't win an arguement with someone who thinks it's ok for him to break the rules {by swearing at you or whatever} but not for you to follow them {you are using all approved programs and macros on your own accounts, right? ;) }

One thing I've found easier to do in towns is leave them all in the middle and run them around one or two at a time for turnins. Mostly because I always manage to get at least 1 stuck somewhere anyway, and in places like Shatt I still get way too much lag to get through without having a fit. Side effect is far fewer comments about cheating, hacking or being something I could never be, seeing as I'm a straight woman with no plans on getting a sex change operation. :p

[Lidgy]

I get a lot of good responses on my server =D

It is in the BGs that most of the negative people run around. When someone is particularly rude I just whisper them:

"Sounds like you need a hug /hug"

And so far, I have not had a single response.... hmmm

Everyone assumes that I am a guy and I have fun playing with that one too. I usually get questions after that or nothing at all.

[wizofid]

Thanks guys for all your feedback. Since I posted this I have actually had a few positive comments and /cheers from random people. I have also been able to help people in Hellfire with the hard group quests as fire support. When I see someone say "need help with XXX" I say I can help, but am in a full group so tell me where they need me. When I show up with my team they are very glad. I even helped a Horde do the "plant the seed and defeat the big stone giant quest" in hellfire yesterday.