The Escapist article on Muliboxing

[Kang]

I think you'll see a few familiar names in there :)

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_191/5813-Multiboxing-to-Level-80-Nirvana

[Bigfish]

I read that a couple of days ago. Reads like a paid advertisement for Keyclone.

More or less yeah. Keyclone singlehandedly destroying the Chinese in the days of MMO yore.

[keyclone]

:pinch:

i just told him the story of when i created it and its first use. (it's a bit off... i never attacked a 'miner'... it was a dorf dagger chucker w/ a pocket healer attacking my guildie that was PL'ing newbies).

talking on the phone might have had more impact

[Redbeard]

Lol id only have issue with an advertisement for keyclone if his software sucked. Which it doesnt.

Game on folks.

[Saberus]

Saberus here,

Grats on the story Rob, and thanks for the help getting my first three mages setup.. :D

[David]

I could relate myself to quite a few things in that. Esspecially the part about boxers not beeing hardcore.

The people who I meet on my travels usually are pretty negative. Usually they call me very hardcore and ask if I`m really rich.

Seeing most RL professions people have in that article it does feel like that most boxers did some sort of higher education. Guess it`s needed to some degree :-)

[Bigfish]

The nature of the unknown is that people fear and ridicule it. The idea that boxers are pasty-faced geeks living in Mom's basement arises largely from the position of said pasty faced geeks who fuel their gaming by cost cutting, ie, living in Mom's basement eating Ramen while the make petty cash at their part time job. As far as I can tell, most of us are actual proffesionals who do this as a hobby, and the costs are relatively minimal in relation to our income.

[Hor]

Massively gave us a little coverage too
http://www.massively.com/2009/03/05/the-escapist-takes-a-look-at-multiboxing/

[kadaan]

Perhaps that is why dual-boxing.com and other multiboxing communities are so vibrant. It is there that they are able to share stories, commiserate and even engage in occasional disagreements or flame wars.

I see he interviewed Fur! :D



Kidding! Good article, I enjoyed it. It's one of the most fair and accurate portrayals I've read, unlike anything that M*** S****** guy writes.

[Portal]

I read that a couple of days ago. Reads like a paid advertisement for Keyclone.That's not the impression I had when I finished the article. There was a great deal of writing about hardware boxing as well. All in, I'd say it provided a fairly balanced view, with a slight positive slant toward the multi-boxer. In fact, the tenor and content of the article is almost exactly the same as reading the forums here. You get a few different perspectives on the practical application of multi-boxing, a few stories and the inveitable reference to Rob who always seems to be available to help in a short period of time (not what we expect from either developers or mmo addicts these days). I say this as someone who has been coming here for perhaps less than a year who both hardware boxes and uses keyclone.

I think the article will serve the curious reader well - especially those with an open mind. The anti-boxers will of course believe what they want to; but that's not news to anyone here.

[Portal]

"Paul uses a sort of jury-rigged keyclone: one wireless keyboard sending commands to 10 USB receivers plugged into 10 computers. "


Seriously... wtf is this crap? Even if its a mistake, its a very-biased POV that the author is presenting to the readers.I concede that the quoted statement does read as biased; you're right. But I think it stems more from a lack of understanding on the writers part than his intent to sell keyclone licenses. My reason being that keyclone and the other software solutions here are used for what the designers had explicity intended, whereas linking one keyboard up to 10 recivers could be considered a creative use of technology for which it was not originally designed. On it's own, the statement does suggest that keyclone came before the wireless technolgical solution, which we know not to be the case, but I think the article over-all makes that somewhat clear.

Had he included a video like Ellay's ( here ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=19955') ) that would have balanced things nicely.

[Bigfish]

I see he interviewed Fur! :D

Naa, nobody ever wants to talk to me. :)

To support my "keyclone paid advertisement" comment, I present this:


Paul uses a sort of jury-rigged keyclone: one wireless keyboard sending commands to 10 USB receivers plugged into 10 computers.

Seriously... wtf is this crap? Even if its a mistake, its a very-biased POV that the author is presenting to the readers.

Yeah, I'm kind of annoyed my set up got called a "jury-rigged keyclone". I set that thing up before I even knew what Keyclone was. Granted, I took the idea from Xzin, but still really annoying.

[Khatovar]

The article itself didn't come off as offensive or poorly slanted, but I have a hard time swallowing it whole as "good press" for multiboxing when it's crammed in as a feature story in "The Fanatic Issue - When subcultures get a little too intense." ('http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_191'). Being painted with the same brush as the guy who's losing his marriage to WoW and mock articles about how to write the perfect, nay! consummate fanfiction puts a bad light on it out of the gate.

I guess it's just more of the same stigma that haunted us when being into computers or games in general was enough to get you labled as a no-life dork. Now that MMOs are socially acceptable among "the cool kids", people have to find something else that fills the roll of what the "pathetic, pasty-faced basement dwelling, no-life loser" does. :wacko:

But all the more respect to Mr. Tito for not taking the cheap way out and turning the article into the kind of Jerry Springer story-telling that the issue's theme seemed to set the tone for. No heart-wrenching stories of debt, divorce and suicide. The article itself does a good job conveying that most of us are professional, adult and mentally stable. 8| :whistling: :P

[Hor]

You're right Khat, I shudder to think of the day Tyra Banks hears about boxing.

[Frosty]

Bah! How come they don't ever want to interview me?

The only 2 reasons I multi-box:

1. I have 2 kids and not much time to play. When I log in, I want a group fast and to get things done. With 2 kids, I'm CONSTANTLY AFK..It wouldn't be fair to group with other people wanting to play.
2. It's fun...you know..like other people's hobbies...

[Redbeard]

Frosty I got this email from Blizzard about #2 in your post, just passing it along (id be careful if i were you).

"Dear Mr ********,

It has recently come to to our attention that you are having fun in our game. Need I remind you that any violation of the TOS is grounds for and immediate an irrevocable ban on your account? Please refer to section 12.64b in which it states "Players shall not engage in any activities resulting in personal enjoyment while logged into our servers." Please cease and desist with your illicit activities or we will be forced to take further action. Consider this your final warning.

Have a wonderful day and thank you for playing World of Warcraft,

*********, Blizzard Customer Service"
Bah! How come they don't ever want to interview me?

The only 2 reasons I multi-box:

1. I have 2 kids and not much time to play. When I log in, I want a group fast and to get things done. With 2 kids, I'm CONSTANTLY AFK..It wouldn't be fair to group with other people wanting to play.
2. It's fun...you know..like other people's hobbies...

[Taliesin]

One of the comments that a poster made linked to the article...


QFT! I still think multiboxing is cheating, and I stick to that. It's not only cheating, it's the very lonely and socially underdeveloped people's escapism. Really now, playing an MMO game alone! How desperate and socially damaged can someone be to do that? Just logging in to a Massively Multiplayer Online game aaaaand...play with yourself.(no pun intended)

MMOs are there to play with other people, not to buy 45 accounts and play alone. I always felt sorry for multiboxers and mega-boxers (30 windows anyone?). These people need help, not encouragement! Really, no offense intended, but still... it's wrong...

I had to resist the urge to create an account to explain how he just used a game to explain how everyone who has spent thousands of dollars and hours in their garage alone working on their hotrod are "socially underdeveloped". Anyone spending hours working out a gym everyday by themselves is "desperate and socially damaged".

And don't challenge yourself by doing anything alone when it is generally expected to take more than one person to do, because: "it's wrong". :pinch:

[Bigfish]

QFT! I still think multiboxing is cheating, and I stick to that. It's not only cheating, it's the very lonely and socially underdeveloped people's escapism. Really now, playing an MMO game alone! How desperate and socially damaged can someone be to do that? Just logging in to a Massively Multiplayer Online game aaaaand...play with yourself.(no pun intended)

MMOs are there to play with other people, not to buy 45 accounts and play alone. I always felt sorry for multiboxers and mega-boxers (30 windows anyone?). These people need help, not encouragement! Really, no offense intended, but still... it's wrong...

What's that? I can't quite hear you over the sound of raining epics in Naxx! You'll have to speak up!

[keyclone]

QFT! I still think multiboxing is cheating, and I stick to that. It's not only cheating, it's the very lonely and socially underdeveloped people's escapism. Really now, playing an MMO game alone! How desperate and socially damaged can someone be to do that? Just logging in to a Massively Multiplayer Online game aaaaand...play with yourself.(no pun intended)i think the biggest win since i started multi-boxing... was not having to deal with these people, ever

last solo pug i was in was doing stockades w/ my dwarf warrior (like 2 years ago). i roll greed on everything. they got pissed that i was winning all the rolls, so they bumped me from the group while at the bottom of the stairs near the cells. my response? run all the way down gathering aggro and back passed them... and out. they wiped. (yea... there is a reason i normally role horde)

:D

[Frosty]

Frosty I got this email from Blizzard about #2 in your post, just passing it along (id be careful if i were you).

"Dear Mr ********,

It has recently come to to our attention that you are having fun in our game. Need I remind you that any violation of the TOS is grounds for and immediate an irrevocable ban on your account? Please refer to section 12.64b in which it states "Players shall not engage in any activities resulting in personal enjoyment while logged into our servers." Please cease and desist with your illicit activities or we will be forced to take further action. Consider this your final warning.

Have a wonderful day and thank you for playing World of Warcraft,

*********, Blizzard Customer Service"
I'm safe! I canceled my WoW accounts and I'm playing EQ2 now.
There's no one there to see me having fun, so I'm ok. :P





QFT! I still think multiboxing is cheating....
Ugh.. I will submit a new abrivation for replies to things such as this. "TSDR" - Too Stupid Didn't Read.

But, I agree with the rest of you, multi-boxing is a great way to avoid people like this.

[Starbuck_Jones]

I find it funny how worked up people who don't multi-box get. I wonder if these people have stomach ulcers when they play monopoly with people who don't put the money on Free Parking like the rules say.

As far as pvp servers go, they are not pvp servers, they are grief servers and the biggest griefer wins and thats me with my 5 man group owning your single box inferiority.

You cant teach someone tolerance. Ours comes from our ability to understand and accept that these people wont. If we single boxed and did better, they would find something else to point out and complain thats an unfair advantage. Like gnomes being hard to target because they are smaller than a tauren. But boy are they fun to poke with sticks!