Multiboxing politics.

[TheXevs]

Howdy again.

Been multiboxing (5 alliance SPs) for about a week now and have been getting some pretty insane reactions on my server (apparently not many people are doing it) - they range from "that's the coolest thing I've ever seen" to "reported for cheating". Horde from BGs have rolled toons on my server to spam me with "welcome to your ban, hacker." - I've even had a horde roll a toon to say how much fun it was playing vs my toons. In general, most alliance have a positive reaction to the toons but there are those that stand around proclaiming my lack of a real life or that I have too much time on my hands (as if it takes more time to play 5 toons at once than one). Anyway, do you guys have a standard response to criticism or do you typically just ignore it?

As an aside, I guess one of the more frustrating things I've run into are the alliance pugs just following my toons around in BGs (especially AB) instead of actually trying to win.

-Xeva

[Toned]

That's pretty much how it goes... Your BG group will follow you around spamming you with OMFGs WTF's and FUCK YOU HACKER! While you steam roll people.

[kllrwlf]

Just put them on /ignore and forget about it. :thumbup:

[elo]

Yeah, you'll find lots of posts on here about similar stuff. We all deal with it, and it's been very loudly argued with Blizz but they still love it.

Best thing you can do is laugh at their ignorance. On the time thing they're just making a math error. They did a Time X 5 rather than the appropriate Time / 5, easy mistake to make. Generally the best answer to this is (if they're level 50+) "So what's your /played time?", then tell them what yours is divided by 5. :) I've had people log off after that conversation :) (Personally I'm level 63 with less than 2 days time in each).

BG's... only join with friends until you get really good at it, pugs are very intolerant.

And once you're 60+ you can just hide in instances all the time like I do. Now that I'm doing Coilfang I often stop off outside SSC to put on a show for my guildies who are raiding, and pickup some water, wish em the best then dive in.

[Tasty]

BG's... only join with friends until you get really good at it, pugs are very intolerant.Yeah unfortunately they are. On a plus side I joined a EOTS the other day and my team was telling me how awesome I am and how much ass I kick :D Needless to say it made up for all the previous pugs

[firest4rter]

Howdy, I have been reading these forums for a while gathering all the knowlege I needed to launch into boxing. So I guess I should say longer time reader (troller) first time poster :P

This week I started 1 x Pally and 4 Shammies (I dont do anything in halves) and have totally enjoyed setting it all up and now have them all at lvl 10. I play on alliance Aman Thul PvE because thats where my main is and friends are, the only other boxer I have seen on my realm is my friend who dual boxes to shammies so I know its haerdly known about. Like Xeva, I am adjusting to the attention I get as I move around, I had one guy last night tell me its an unfair advantage and I should be banned. I guess you get used to this after a while and as elo pointed out, once you get 50+ I expect it will die off a bit because you will be more well known.

One thing I have found necassary is to work on my show off macros to impress all the on lookers. eg. Move into formation around my pally, drop totems, dance, laugh etc. I have found when I take the time to do this most people respond with "cool" as I guess they realise its not just a bot and a real person is behind it all.

I can imagine BG's will be a whole other challenge, although it will be easy enough to avoid too much attention AV :)

I plan to spend alot of time in instances as I level so hopefully I wont have to deal with this all the time.

-Fire

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Yep, you get a wide range of responses from people.

On a related note, I have several different multibox groups which have received widely variable responses:

4x Night Elf Hunters = 99% negative
4x Midget mages = 99% positive
1x dorf priest + 3x human locks = 50%
4x Undead priests = 75% positive
5x Undead (priest+locks) = 60% negative, but this was after warlocks became "OMG OP! NERF!"
1x BE pally + 4x UD mage = 50%

It is interesting to note that the trends appear to be much more influenced by the current consensus on how OP or not OP a particular class combination is, with blatant exception of night elf hunters in particular and hunters in general. I don't have any shammy or druid or other groups so can't comment on those, though I have a sneaking suspicion that they'd both be at 50% or leaning positive for druids and the opposite for shammies.

[raylion]

Once the word starts to spread on your server or battle group (well, BG might be harder to crack) then you'll get less whispers from your own faction, the other faction tend to be constantly bemused though...some will /cheer some will use /spit (hate that emote). But anyway, you'll become immune to it soon enough and it actually becomes funny after a while.

I always make a point of explaining to people that ask what I'm doing and tend to ignore the 'WTF' brigade unless they can be bothered to string a sentence together ;)

I also mentioned what I was doing on the realm forums so people understood I wasn't a bot. Mixed reaction but mostly positive and did help reduce the whispers.

[Droopz]

Yeah I'm been getting both types of comments since I started to. Mostly positive though, and even the negative comments arn't of an aggresive nature. More like "I think Blizz will ban this soon." or "Why are you wasting $xx/month on a game..." etc.

I do agree tho that spending some time setting up the "show-off" macros channels alot of the "ZOMG HAX!" into "ZOMG AWESOME!" I have the normal dance/wave/rasp/spit as well asa couple of /s comments and a special one "/s We are not bots! We are mulit-boxing!"

So when someone in Org /yells "OMG BOTZ BAN4U!!" they get told by 5 mages at once ;)

[opt]

Howdy again.

Been multiboxing (5 alliance SPs) for about a week now and have been getting some pretty insane reactions on my server (apparently not many people are doing it) - they range from "that's the coolest thing I've ever seen" to "reported for cheating". Horde from BGs have rolled toons on my server to spam me with "welcome to your ban, hacker." - I've even had a horde roll a toon to say how much fun it was playing vs my toons. In general, most alliance have a positive reaction to the toons but there are those that stand around proclaiming my lack of a real life or that I have too much time on my hands (as if it takes more time to play 5 toons at once than one). Anyway, do you guys have a standard response to criticism or do you typically just ignore it?

As an aside, I guess one of the more frustrating things I've run into are the alliance pugs just following my toons around in BGs (especially AB) instead of actually trying to win.

-XevaI have this set as a macro set on my main char
/invite optimistics
/invite optional
/invite optic
/invite optamise
/dnd <big long im not a bot or hacker, links to my blog and dualboxing.com for more info on what im doing>
So whenever someone whispers me , they get a big massive spam DND message back in there faces. Be nice to them and tell them what your doing is legal and doesnt break the agreement because u press the keys which trigger ingame commands and then most of the time there sick of seeing your dnd message and shutup.

[Nitro]

I try to be cool with everyone, just ignore the insults and throw a heal to people in the field when you pass. For the most part I have more fans than jerkoffs.

[Xaedra]

I kinda wish I would get that... would actually enjoy that every now and then, right now not many people notice me. I just recently started dual-boxing. I really wish I could afford x5, or at least x3, but right now I only have my duo :( Every now and then I'll get someone ask about it, but for the most part people don't really notice. My locks are only in their 30s, though. Maybe it will change after I get a little higher.

[moog]

I've only been multiboxing for a few days now but am loving it.
My Warlock team is ploughing through Westfall at the moment and I've experienced anything from nice long chats about how it's done to the usual profanity and even to people training mobs onto my group in an attempt to wipe me.

I've spent a few hours working on some macros to get my group into formation and dance for the audience, which does tend to improve their reaction, and we all carry a supply of snowballs to launch at the detractors :)

[raylion]

I've only been multiboxing for a few days now but am loving it.
My Warlock team is ploughing through Westfall at the moment and I've experienced anything from nice long chats about how it's done to the usual profanity and even to people training mobs onto my group in an attempt to wipe me.

I've spent a few hours working on some macros to get my group into formation and dance for the audience, which does tend to improve their reaction, and we all carry a supply of snowballs to launch at the detractors :)You shouldn't have mentioned the snowballs...I've got to get me some now!!! Snowball Zerg FTW! :D

[Mudd]

Just be friendly with everyone and educate them on multi-boxing. I found that a lot of people were simply curious but were unable to type anything more coherent than "WTF j0O HACK NOOB REPOERTED". Your faction will warm up to you over time, and so will the opposite faction (possibly due to fear :-D). You will most likely end up with your own little fanclub that will defend you to death in trade/general chat if someone is trash talking you or answer the more common questions asked about you and multi-boxing. It gets much easier at 70. Unfortunately, you may have to deal with it all over again when you start battlegrounds.

As some previous posters mentioned show off macros make people happy. Here one of mine that gets the best reactions.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/3746/wowscrnshot112007221234if1.jpg

[theory]

You do indeed get a lot of attention while running around with x toons with identical looks or a themed name scheme. Some negative, some positive. However, if someone is curious and initiates a chat with you, it can be good to take the time to explain the basics to him/her.

"Randomrogue" in one of my first AVs ever starts talking about 5 shamans in 1 group in the general chat... bots? hack? bug? I reply 'multiboxing'...
Some utter their general disapproval of the whole thing. Randomrogue whispers me and wants to know what it's all about (not exactly perfectly written, think cs-lingo). We have a little chat while running to SP.

A few days later, I see more comments about my presence in AV, and my jaw drops when I see this Randomrogue appearing in the chat window, defending me and multiboxing. Great stuff I say.

[Tehtsuo]

This kind of exposure and attention is the reason I started on The Underbog. I haven't met or heard of any other multibox teams on my realm, so the idea is completely foreign to the majority of people I run into. I've already made a lot of friends during my entertainment sessions in Orgrimmar, and you really can tell that there's a trend for higher end players to understand and encourage. Usually the ones that try to harass me are either lowbies or undergeared 70s. I've also met a few guilds that recognize what I'm doing from Ellay's videos, and when one sees me in Orgrimmar it's usually a short time before their whole guild shows up and lines up to watch. Those are the best times, with people yelling "Down in front" and such.

[Vyndree]

As some previous posters mentioned show off macros make people happy. Here one of mine that gets the best reactions.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/3746/wowscrnshot112007221234if1.jpg

Heh... That looks familiar. ;) hehe

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/6780/stargz3.jpg

[Xaedra]

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/3746/wowscrnshot112007221234if1.jpgAhh this screenshot makes me cry! Oh how I wish I had 5 warlocks instead of 2... Awesome shot!

[Zenthor]

On my server, the harassment is very bad. If we are outside an instance for at least 5 minutes, I will be harassed. It ranges from the 'bot, gold farmer, hack, etc' to the growing in popularity of following me, trying to steal my kills, kill my quest mobs etc. Here is the thing, it is true that Blizz has accepted dual-boxing, but...they have also accepted any and all harassment of dual-boxers, as long as they do not use a 'dirty word'...they can follow you, say what they want, shout what they want, kill what they want...etc. If you say a 'dirty word' back...Blizz will ban YOU. I was banned for 3 hours for telling someone following us for 30 mintues and doing all the above things to 'bugger off'. Had no idea bugger was a cuss word....Something I heard some Brit on TV say once...first thing that came in my head. I tried talking to a GM...and omg, will never do that again. I am convinced there was no human on the other end of the conversation...just a rule pasting bot. So, just know that there are those out there that will bait you. Blizz allows them to do things that will drive you crazy (and imho is far worse offence then 'bugger', but will defend them and ban you. (to be fair, blizz gave me warning first...another guy was doing all of the above including shouting in general chat various things about my team being gold farmers and I called him a 'moron'. Got written warning next day. Next 'bugger' will be 24 hours, then 7 days, then lifetime ban).

[Eteocles]

Bugger is basically loosely translated british for "Fucker" or "Fuck" lol, e.g; "Bugger off"; same with "sod", "sod off, wanking sodder", etc :p

Also, what IS your server so we know to avoid it? lol

[Xaedra]

Tried to recreate Mudd's screenshot... with two warlocks...

And well, I fail.

It just doesn't look as cool. Hmph.

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/5985/tmpphpbnabobzg7.jpg

[thinus]

Bugger is basically loosely translated british for "Fucker" or "Fuck" lol, e.g; "Bugger off"; same with "sod", "sod off, wanking sodder", etc :p

"Bugger" originally meant to sodomize.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bugger

All the slang phrases with "bugger" in it is more in line with what Eteocles said.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bugger+off

[kllrwlf]

It's always better to /ignore then say something back... unless it's something like "jealous of something?" or "My toys are better then yours" or something like that... and then immediately /ignore so that they can't even respond to it. 8)

[Zenthor]

Jadenar...avoid it like the plague. When Blizz offered free transfers off high population Arthas, I took it...and regretted it every moment. Have 3 teams...so, transfering not option...quitting (game) or that server is. I am more dissapointed in Blizzard then the idiots on the server. When you are 1 in 10,000,000....guess you should not expect anything. Still, to allow ingame 'stalking' but to ban you for words against stalker...well, again, its the 1 in 10 million thing. Their EULA gives them the right to do anything they wish.





Bugger is basically loosely translated british for "Fucker" or "Fuck" lol, e.g; "Bugger off"; same with "sod", "sod off, wanking sodder", etc :p

Also, what IS your server so we know to avoid it? lol

[Stealthy]

I try to be cool with everyone, just ignore the insults and throw a heal to people in the field when you pass. For the most part I have more fans than jerkoffs.

Yep this is what I do too...

Cheers,

Stealthy

[Silly Gooooose]

Howdy again.

Been multiboxing (5 alliance SPs) for about a week now and have been getting some pretty insane reactions on my server (apparently not many people are doing it) - they range from "that's the coolest thing I've ever seen" to "reported for cheating". Horde from BGs have rolled toons on my server to spam me with "welcome to your ban, hacker." - I've even had a horde roll a toon to say how much fun it was playing vs my toons. In general, most alliance have a positive reaction to the toons but there are those that stand around proclaiming my lack of a real life or that I have too much time on my hands (as if it takes more time to play 5 toons at once than one). Anyway, do you guys have a standard response to criticism or do you typically just ignore it?

As an aside, I guess one of the more frustrating things I've run into are the alliance pugs just following my toons around in BGs (especially AB) instead of actually trying to win.

-XevaI have this set as a macro set on my main char
/invite optimistics
/invite optional
/invite optic
/invite optamise
/dnd <big long im not a bot or hacker, links to my blog and dualboxing.com for more info on what im doing>
So whenever someone whispers me , they get a big massive spam DND message back in there faces. Be nice to them and tell them what your doing is legal and doesnt break the agreement because u press the keys which trigger ingame commands and then most of the time there sick of seeing your dnd message and shutup.Thats a good idea, hmmm.

Any way to target the person and do like a /ignor? Might just add that as a macro for my char's.

[Moxy]

I must say I was completely surprised by the reactions in game. Most are positive, surprisingly. But if I run into anyone, almost anywhere its about 6/10 that will follow me to try to see what is happening. I had a ?? hunter gank my lvl 30 warrior/3shaman group in STV. Then I rezzed, charged, and started nuking him just for fun. You could tell he was kinda baffled.. and after killing me once more decided to follow me around and pull mobs and watch me kill them while he emoted /cheers. It was pretty funny.

A question to you 5 boxers: do you always run with your full crew? Or will you pick up guildmates etc for fun? I guess I'm debating a 5th, but I'm a pretty social person and don't want to not be able to level with people. Any advice there?

[sparvath]

I am faily new to this Multiboxing concept and my 3x mages are only at 61 on Silvermoon EU.

I can relate to some of these reactions that you guys and gals have encountered but mostly the good ones. I dont really see other multiboxers but most of the reactions I have meet is positive.

Of course I have met the odd one that called me bot, hacker or the super intelligent that just spammed "wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" in whispers. I dont bother with ignores. I anwser those that ask, greet those that call me names and just use report spam if I encounter the rare one (used 3 times) that is beyond reasoning.

[Elektric]

Howdy, I have been reading these forums for a while gathering all the knowlege I needed to launch into boxing. So I guess I should say longer time reader (troller) first time poster :P

This week I started 1 x Pally and 4 Shammies (I dont do anything in halves) and have totally enjoyed setting it all up and now have them all at lvl 10. I play on alliance Aman Thul PvE because thats where my main is and friends are, the only other boxer I have seen on my realm is my friend who dual boxes to shammies so I know its haerdly known about. Like Xeva, I am adjusting to the attention I get as I move around, I had one guy last night tell me its an unfair advantage and I should be banned. I guess you get used to this after a while and as elo pointed out, once you get 50+ I expect it will die off a bit because you will be more well known.

One thing I have found necassary is to work on my show off macros to impress all the on lookers. eg. Move into formation around my pally, drop totems, dance, laugh etc. I have found when I take the time to do this most people respond with "cool" as I guess they realise its not just a bot and a real person is behind it all.

I can imagine BG's will be a whole other challenge, although it will be easy enough to avoid too much attention AV :)

I plan to spend alot of time in instances as I level so hopefully I wont have to deal with this all the time.

-Fire
Glad to see the alliance side is joining the game. I also play on Aman'Thul, about to ding LvL 58 on my 3-box Horde Shaman. I have set up a reply macro to tell people what im doing and were to go to learn more. Priceless.

See you around, Cant wait to take out another Dual-Boxer :D

[Zenthor]

Got this in my email today:

Greetings,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding the World of Warcraft account you are using. We understand your point of view and have thoroughly reviewed this issue. As a result, the account action has been removed from the account and all involved parties have been addressed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Please feel free to contact us with any further questions or concerns you may have. Thank you for your time and patience in this matter and your continued interest in World of Warcraft.

Sincerely,

Chothal
Account Administration
Blizzard Entertainment
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21505 ('http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21505')

So, they backed down. I had sent them a complaint that the ban was not acceptable and explained the level of harassment we went through before me saying the dreaded 'bugger off'. This was the exact opposite of what happen when I tried to talk to a GM live...I will go to my grave thinking it was not a real person...just a rule pasting bot. So, I hope this is not too much top ask, but maybe Blizz not only allows boxing, they might actually stop allowing the harrasment? Nah...too much to ask :)

[Zuxto]

I wonder if there is a mod that auto ignores people based on context ...

So far I've been getting alot of responses on both sides of the spectrum. For a while my shamans weren't getting anywhere just because I was chatting with total strangers rather then leveling.

So far the worst response was from some guy leveling his alt, he decided it would be funny if he brings his level 70 mage and started following me around and tagging every mob I attempt to kill. Even the ones I did manage to tag gave little experience because he killed them in in with one shot. I ended up reporting him for harassment, put him on ignore and logged off for 30 minutes to do something else. Leveling numerous level 70s on a pvp server, I'm used to the times where I want to play but forced to simply log because of gankers and body camping.

[Lynly]

In response to Zenthor's post re: same faction harassment/griefing, that is a reportable AND actionable offense to the parties doing those actions.

Some concrete examples for:

- You're killing elementals. A same-faction character decides to harass you by consistently Banishing the elementals you have tagged
- A high level, same-faction character is following you around, killing quest mobs repeatedly without looting

If you have those things happening to you, they are against the rules. You can report them for harassment and they will be investigated and actions can be taken. A GM will be able to determine rather quickly that these characters are harassing you rather than playing the game they way they want to, no matter how much they protest.

This will also apply to cross-faction characters doing the same thing to you on a PVE server. On a PVP server, this won't work at all with cross-faction characters since the response you'll get is that there is a "PVP solution to your problem."; though it will still apply to same-faction characters.

Does all that make sense?

[Xaedra]

My first "omg reported" moment since I started dualboxing last month:

Restarted my Xaedra/Zaedra combo, made them into hunters instead of mages.

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/8077/xaezaedi6.png

Hopefully he'll actually read up on it and get his facts straight.. but I doubt it.

[Rickson9]

Apply /DND (do not disturb) on all your toons and leave your main free.

[efwee]

Just wait until you start doing EotS/AB/WSG etc and have 4 people follow you all accross the map. Ofcourse including flames because "You made us lose!". Fun times :p.

[butta]

I've been blamed for AB losses when it was 11vs 15 (11 allies) and the other 7 people on our team were following me around, watching. Literally no defense screaming "WE'D WIN IF WE DIDN'T HAVE TARDS LIKE THIS WASTING FOUR SPOTS"

[Lyonheart]

I am not looking forward to getting my non AV marks..but i will just ignore chat all together hehe. I mean i HAVE to do it.. no way i will split the team up and do it one toon at a time.

[yarr]

most people on my server are actaully pretty positive, they think it looks pretty cool 'n stuff.

Although even the people who think it looks fun/awesome all assume i'm either selling gold or selling accounts.