Common Interests / Backgrounds / etc? Why do YOU multibox?

[Xzin]

As this site is clear evidence of, there are quite a few of us multiboxers out there. We are still certainly in the minority but there are dozens of us 5 boxing and many, many more dual boxing. (Not sure how many are 10 boxing though :))

Anyway, it occurred to me that perhaps there is a common thread that lead us to multibox. Maybe there isn't but what lead you to multibox? Was it the complexity of the system design, the power gained by using two characters, the feeling that "normal" WoW was too boring, not getting heals, etc? What made you decide to pony up the money and go for broke with 5 characters or even just adding a second one?

For me it was a desire to PvP as best as possible. I wanted to ramp it up to a level that most players would be unable to match. I wanted to be able to make a difference in AV when you normally have 39 other idiots running around one at a time into a mass of Alliance players. I enjoyed the elegance of the setup.... this would not be possible to do with most other MMORPGS for various reasons and I enjoyed making WoW (which is a fairly easy game) into something more challenging. I am sure there are other reasons - what are yours?

[Gallo]

For me, one of the main factors that got me into 5-boxing was the prospect of doing PVE instances on my own. Since the release of BC, my work schedule has been so that I cannot raid... EVER. I have a stupid rotating shift schedule, so I wanted to 5-box in order to do alot of things "solo" when I did have time to play.

I am also intruiged by the complexity of how to accomplish these setups. I'm still fine tuning my macros and button placements, and I'm sure I will be for quite some time.

[Bunny]

I started two boxing back in daoc when everyone and their mother had a buffbot so i had one too (shame on me... i know)
In wow I was actually one boxing for quite some time playing a rogue in a raiding guild. When BC came out it was fun at first doing the 5mans but after a while we started working on kara and thats what it was: "work".
Many things came together that made me stop playing my rogue: Rogues were not wanted very much in raids, we didn't dps as good as we used to, playing a rogue is incredibly boring and our raid leader (a mage) was sure he knew better how to equip and play a rogue than I did.
At first i considered rerolling a warrior because i have always liked the responsibilities warriors have in a raid but there simply were too many tanks in our guild so i stopped playing at all. Aftrer a month of not playing lotro came out so i started dual boxing that but the game somehow didn't "feel" right - I think it is the fact that you push a button and sometimes the char does the assigned action later, sometimes not at all.. i don't know, it is a nice game but just not for me.
After a week or two not playing at all i decided to 5box - i had that thought a couple of months back but was scared of the money i had to invest (I needed 2 complete systems and one monitor). After contemplating for a couple of days i just went to my local dealer, got the hardware and started playing my now lvl 47 group.
Why do i do it?
* Because oneboxing (especially a class like a rogue) is boring
* Because it is something not everybody does - i think it is interesting how people react (yesterday someone posted a ticked because he saw my toons all in the same guild and named almost the same just standing in UC). I have had alliance guys spit on me and other log to a horde alt to tell me how cool they think it is what i do.
* I want to see how far i can get: can i do all the 5 mans in BC? is it possible to do heroics? How about old stuff like ubrs and ZG? Just wanting to find out what is possible.
* And most improtantly: Why does a dog lick his balls? Because he can!

Bunny

[Yarddog]

I started dual-boxing a little over a year ago, a complete newb to the concept. It was fun having two mages running around together. I then decided I needed a priest to heal my little group and got a third account.

Three is as far as I'm prepared to go at the moment. Actually its more like three is as far as my wife will tolerate at the moment, LOL.

Anyway, for a while I was having fun writing LUA code to automate stuff. Yeah, making bots I suppose. Mostly it was code for my following priest and mage to function with one button press. There was a lot of noise at the time about whether this was cool or not, from players and from Blizzard. My philosophy was that if Blizzard provides the ability in LUA to do it, then they should just shut up when people used it to advantage or take it away. Of course in December, they took it away.

There haven't been many times that I've been harassed by other players, probably because the majority of my triple-boxing has been with a Warrior/Mage/Priest and I think its not as obvious as something like 3 mages throwing fireballs at the same time.

Last night I was playing 3 warlocks that I just started and got a lot of stares from other players and was called a cheater by one. I told him I was multi-boxing, which he didn't understand. I gave him the URL of this site. He left. Probably reported me, LOL.

Three-boxing is really just a time filler now between regular sessions with some RL friends.

[Flight]

I've been boxing since just after EQ1 started, 8 years ago. Most classes have never been able to solo in EQ1, so thats what started me off. I got up to 5 boxing, only on 3 PCs though, a couple of years or so after that. Even my best friends didn't really understand what its all about and it was like being a pariah - up there with child kidnappers and Al Queida to be a boxer.

Most hunting in EQ1 is/was static camps, no moving about, so it was no drawback having two copies running on the same PC. I ran Warrior / Cleric / Enchanter / Druid / Ranger on Bristlebane server. Most of my boxing was done off peak times as I was also in a very active raiding guild for years.

I've never boxed in WoW, though I already have multiple lvl 60's across 2 accounts. I stopped playing about 18 months ago. I like a challenge - I was first 60 on Terenas and one of the first in Europe, about a week after the game went live (no spoiler or help sites back then either).

I found this forum from a post by Ellay on FoH forums and you guys have inspired me big time :D I already have 3 PCs side by side, so I've got the bits coming to put together 2 more boxes tomorrow and my 3 new monitors arrived today.


This community is terrific; my first forum searches when I start a new game is always about boxing and usually theres nothing.

[zachwlewis]

I work with Shockbeta, and he told me about it. I've two computers and access to two accounts (mine and girlfriend's), so I decided I'd give it a go. I played them for about five hours total and had a good time.

I'm not that deep into it, but I think it's a fun way to play and experience a game in a new way.

[hapiguy314]

I two boxed on EQ as well back in early 1999. At first I used two computers to 2-box a Cleric and a Monk.

When EQW came out - it was the best thing ever. I could now run 4 instead of just 2 characters. I then switched to playing a warrior, priest, and 2 wizards. When I got more ram modules and a better vid card, I had 6 EQW's running but the other 2 were just buff bots (Enchanter for buffs and Bard for songs).

With WOW - I've always 3 boxed right off the bat. However, I played with 3 separate computers, one main keyboard, and 2 number pad only USB attachments since I only use 0, +, and - keys for autofollow, nuke1, nuke 2. I havent heard of Nostromo Yet.

Now - my multi boxing has reached its heighted potential. I love 5 boxing instances. I'm not sure though on other people's tactics, but I love my Paladin, Priest, 3 Warlocks set up. Most of the time when I'm lazy, I just pull with Captain America Shield, Ret Aura, Blessing of Sanc, and Concecrate away. This allows my 3 warlocks to just Hellfire away (on Auto using Nostromo (I have 4). I rarely lose agro on the 5-7 elites I have on me.

I do not use Synergy or Multibox. I just have my 3 warlocks on 3 different comps and my priest + paladin on my main box. I can't really use Synergy's keyboard broadcast since I have to press a lot of buttons on my paladin/priest box. But maybe I should use Synergy/Multibox for my warlocks though instead of making a tripod out of my left hand fingers to press all 3 nostromos at the same time to chain Hellfire - or execute the macro recording I have to cast the 5 Dots on the boss.

My goal is to be able to do Heroics alone - but my paladin will probably have to be in T4 gear to be able to do this so I doubt it for now. AEing packs in SH is hard enough as it is on my paladin let alone Heroic Mode :)

I also use Hunter, Priest, 3 Locks when I'm farming for NW Cloth or Primals since the hunter instant hit and long range is quite necessary when you are competing with 10 other farmers :)

Cheers to all the fellow multiboxers

[Kyosakana]

For me, it started after my initial gaming computer got fried, and being in school at the time, I decided I really needed a computer to type papers on, do research with, etc. So I ended up buying an el cheapo dell. Problem was it was a real POS, and it wouldn't run FFXI, my game of choice at the time. So, after much poking around and scraping up money, I managed to get some replacement parts for my original computer, and got that up and running again. The El cheapo dell just sort of sat around for a year after that, until one day after I had started playing WoW, I decided to try and install it on the PoS. Surprisingly it worked, and so I figured I would roll a healer on a second account. That way, I could still play my hunter main, but I could get it into groups by attaching the healer at the hip.

Well, it turns out liking orcs so much I decided to roll a shaman instead of an actual priest or druid, again, wasn't the best of ideas. Oh, it was a very nicely equipped shaman from 1-40, with me grabbing all the good instance quests and finishing the stuff that would normally be done in a group, but it didn't really accomplish its purpose.

So then that October my wife got me a laptop for our anniversary. Well, with 3 computers sitting there, I figured I could run instances with my own mni-group if I actually had a tank. So I leveled a Warrior to go with my shaman/hunter combo. It worked a little better this time, and I even managed to clear uldaman with the trio while it was still level appropriate for warrior, and a bit underleveled for the shaman. Eventually though, I got them BRD, and the plan just sorta fell apart, both because my Warrior kinda sucked, and with only 3 people, DPS really wasn't killing things as fast as they needed to die.

So at this point, I started leveling a trio of hunters, and questing and grouping goes really fast at low levels with them. However, I couldn't get past the 2-people-too-short issue I thought I would come across later, so eventually, I broke down and bought 2 more el cheapos from Dell, although this being some years later than the original, they actually run WoW pretty well with the exception of capital cities and really laggy areas.

So, now with 5 computers, I decided leveling 5 hunters would be a good idea. 5 solid DPS, 5 tanking pets, and 5 people who could heal their tanking pets if needed. Well, I get them all to 60, and came across an annoying factor: gearing 5 characters of the same class is a pain in the ass going just by instance drops. So I resorted to PvPing my gear. Now, while really fun, it also gets repetetive and easily blown up by more than 2 mages (although it was really fun to watch some lone mage/lock run up thinking they could be a hero and seeing them get eaten by 5 glowing red tigers).

After getting about half the PvP set, BC comes out. At this point, I decided I'd really like to try a straight PvE group, that didn't have overlapping gear concerns, so I rolled my Paladin, Shaman, Druid, Priest, and Mage group. It has worked amazingly well thus far, and provides me with plenty of options for whenever I feel like controling a single character.

edit: No idea why some random link popped up in there.

[Xzin]

Most classes have never been able to solo in EQ1.

I beg to differ :) Wizard level 50 could kill all but the Ghoul Lord dead side lower Guk. Had quite a few close calls though *hug root* but yeah, a lot of classes in EQ could not solo AT ALL.

[Wilbur]

Which is why us cool people played a bard ;-)

[Xzin]

Selos kiting ftw :(

[darkrain]

Hello multi-boxers, this is my first post. I have never dual boxed before and my WoW accounts have been frozen since July 2005 (I have 2 Collectors Edition - yay for mini diablo and mini zergling).

I found this site about a month ago as I was considering getting a second EQ2 account and running on my notebook. I installed EQ2 on my notebook and while it ran fine, the performance was not acceptable. I thought this might be the case since it has a shared GPU and is running Vista Business but I hoped that that since it was a T7200 processor with 2GB of RAM that it would still run well.

Finding this site has sparked my interest in WoW again and instead of dual boxing, I am considering 5 boxing. I have access to 4 desktops in my home that should run WOW plus my Notebook so I am all set to start 5 boxing. Just need to wait another 2 weeks before I have time to play (3 Law exams left then I have some vacation time). Can't wait!

[Adronson]

I dual-boxed when WOW first came out, but then dropped out after a few months. Now that Burning Crudade is up I'm going back in -- triple boxing this time.

I like it because I always enjoyed role playing a party in the classic CRPG like Wizardry. I enjoy developing a group with interdependant skills. Also my work schedule does not allow me to work with others in raids and groups.

[Flight]

I like it because I always enjoyed role playing a party in the classic CRPG like Wizardry. I enjoy developing a group with interdependant skills.

Never thought about this before, but the Wizardry games were my first and favourite CRPGs and I'm sure the interdependency and synergy thing you are talking about is a big part of my attraction to boxing.

[notole]

I unfortunately am semi anti-social. I seriously do not like LFG, or waiting around for people to meander over to the grouping area. bleh

When I first started playing EQ, it quickly became apparent that you couldn't do anything worth while solo. When I joined a small guild of friends with many RL responsibilities, I ended up starting up a new account and using eqw just to be able camp items and get some AA. My little duo quickly evolved into a paly, shaman, cleric, and enchanter (cuz you have to KEI) group.

And the rest is history. Well EQ is anyways. I taught my wife to multi box a warlock mage duo, which i borrow from time to time. Now I just faction grind, camp bosses, and deam of ways to pvp my non pvp group. :)

[Xzin]

Pfft - I soloed almost all of EQ. You just had to be the right class and know all of the clerics with rez (later, click sticks).

Of course I still raided with groups and my guild but eq was something you COULD solo all the way to 50 (at the time) and later 60. Although, small groups were sometimes better exp - most groups in early eq were simply horrible. Plus, there really were no ports or anything - so getting a group together could take quite some time.

That all said, I think most people just didn't know how to solo in eq. I really never boxed eq but eq brought us one of multiboxing most infamous characters - SamDaMan. I have respect for Sam's ideas but good lord man.... there are some things that just don't need to be on the Internets. Plus, he was awful at PvP and only marginal at PvE - perhaps he got better, who knows.

Oh yeah - Necros could at one point almost literally let their pets solo for them. I admit though - no cleric or warrior was going to make it from 1 - 50 solo. Just no way.

[notole]

I know what you mean. I did actually solo quite a bit of the outdoor world. I started with a shaman and took him to 50ish. What i meant by worth while was doing the dungeons, which by far is the most enjoyable aspect of mmos to me.

Hehe, I remember using sam's guides to camping zones. That brings back some good memories.

[Xzin]

What is that guy up to anyway? He is the only other person that I actually have even heard rumors about that has ventured beyond 7 boxing or so (Jay from Team Wizzy boxed 6 or 7 I think - whatever a full DAOC group is). Last I heard, Sam had something like 12 (2 full groups in EQ as EQ had 6 players per group) characters he boxed.

For those of you who may have missed it (be glad you did), Sam was active around 2003-2005ish on some of the popular EQ message boards of the time. He played on one of the PvP servers that EQ had (even though EQ's PvP was so broken I refused to play on a PvP server). He had a tendency to boast about his "accomplishments". As in challenge people to see who had the highest burst dps (uhh 6 casters vs 1 person?) or how many thousands of people he killed/owned whatever. I am all for being confident in your abilities but Sam took things a bit.... too far in my opinion. What really highlighted Sam's appearance in the early EQ PvP scene was his online photo gallery shots.

You see, he openly admitted to hiring hookers. He then intentionally posted pictures of said hookers to his online photo galleries. He would have them write on whiteboards about how long he could go for, etc. It was.... weird. I mean, personally if that is his thing then thats fine. Just.... keep it to yourself? Plus - the guy looked a bit.... unkempt? His outfits were a bit out there and combined with his computer setup.... things just got weird.

Then there was his physical setup. It looked like he raided Home Depot and hacked it together with chains and wood and bolts. He basically made a bed, and suspended his monitors in front of him. The idea made logical sense but Keep in mind this was the early 2000s - so flat panels were EXPENSIVE. So he used CRTs. That weighed something like 30 lbs each. The whole thing together was just.... amazing. And amazingly weird. Perhaps if he had made it professionally, it would have looked pretty decent - but he just sorta hacked it together from what the pictures showed.

Now, I may not be one to argue seeing as my setup is pretty massive. I mean honestly, I am getting ready to 10 box. But I don't feel the need to epeen war about it. Plus, my setup is professional and very well done. I intend to write about it as soon as I finish the last few parts.

So yeah - Sam was quite the character. Not sure if having him associated with multiboxing is a good thing or not though. I try to bring a level of professionalism to this hobby. To Sam..... I am not entirely sure what it was really nor do I know if he is even still playing EQ or not. If so, I sincerely hope he has figured out a way to control his characters in PvP better. He died a lot in EQ PvP from what I understood - although to his credit he was getting better at PvE from the last that I heard.

[Manaburner]

I started 2-boxing because most of the time I work night shifts (5 days on, 2 days off and 5 days on) and a lot of times no one else I know is playing.

Then I saw Xzin's videos....

And I was floored. I simply had never seen anything like it and just had to try it. I 4-boxed a warlock team and the sight of seeing a target (PVP or PVE) with 8 dots on it ticking down to death in seconds was winning the lottery. It was life-changing.

I still play with friends while they are on, but during the times when I'm alone on the server- I'm multiboxing it and loving it.

[Otlecs]

How did I end up multi-boxing? Hmmmm...

Well, TBC dropped the floor out of my WoW gaming world.

I suddenly found that what had previously been a very active and interesting raiding schedule became completely empty for me, and I didn't know what to do.

I thought about leaving, obviously, but the reality is that there's not much else I'd rather fill my spare time with.

I tried to follow the chain of attunements and rep-grinds that the new world required, but quickly grew bored with it.

I also found that the effect the whole thing had on people I have gamed with for the best part of ten years across a number of games was very unpleasant. There was suddenly a clique that had never existed before, and the inclusive nature of the guild that I had always held so dear was gone.

My standing is such that I could have comfortably been a part of that clique, but that's just not my thing so I found myself withdrawing more and more, filling my online time with a variety of meaningless actvities, including levelling a veritable army of alts to the mid-40's before losing interest again.

And so began my multi-boxing experiment.

I've always played WoW with my wife, and for various reasons we already have four machines here so I started three-boxing a mage team, with her playing a pally-tank and a RL friend of ours playing the Priest.

The friend lives right next door, and brings his Apple notebook round whenever we get the team going and it's breathed new life into the game for me.

I've since changed my setup to consist of two fire mages and a Warlock for the off-tanking of mobs that can't be sheeped, and we're having a ball at the ripe of age of level 28.

Since we can't always get the team together when I want to, and we agreed not to play those particular characters except in the team, I recently bought a fifth machine, fifth account, and started a second team consisting of three locks plus one priest, with my wife filling the fifth slot as a mage.

That's going great too, and I'm struggling to imagine any time I'd want to go back to playing WoW any other way....