Traffic

[Lyonheart]

I visit this forum every day, sometimes multiple times a day, as I'm sure many of us do. The last few weeks i will log in and not see any "new threads" or replys for hours. Sometimes only 4-5 in several hours. Did this /follow thing have that big of an impact? Or were the hard core PvPrs the most vocal/active? Or are we just running out of stuff to talk about? Just somthing thats been on my mind.

[Ñightsham]

It's certainly placed a damper on things around here (/follow) IMHO. I was never a hard core PvP Mboxer, but did like the battlegrounds and grinding for PvP gear. I still box when I can, but it does seem things have slowed down over here. Still a great place to see what ppl are doing.

[Norrin]

The /follow wow thing didn't really affect me at all. I never really liked pvp of any kind, especially bg's.
I had stopped boxing wow about a month before that hit. Started Lotro again and that was sucking all my time. Just started boxing that again. Very frustrating that one is.
Might go back to SWTOR since the new expansion looks kind of cool.

Anyway I too noticed noticed the drop in posts. Figured maybe it was because of tax time here in the USA.

[Starbuck_Jones]

Summer and warm weather is starting to be more frequent. Schools are wrapping up with finals and general testing. Gaming always slows down during this time of the year.

[luxlunae]

I've heard this is also the worst time of year for twitch streamers. I'm actually back boxing after two months away, personally (lotro instead of wow) but I didn't really go away from the forums.

[valkry]

Waiting for the next big MMO really, playing League of Legends in the meantime

[MiRai]

Now that I've got a moment, I wanted to add my two cents to this thread. With that being said, it took me forever to dig up some of this stuff and write this bad boy out, and because of that it's now way past my bed time and I'm tired as hell -- I hope it all makes some sense.

Over the past few years that I've been around, there have been plenty of times where forum activity has dropped off or become stagnant, and to me that's normal, because there isn't always something exciting happening at every given moment of every given day.

However, I'd like to look at the history of multiboxing in World of Warcraft (through my own eyes). I'm going to use this game as an example for obvious reasons that it is the most widely played MMORPG of all time (solo or multiboxed) and this site's traffic heavily revolves around it (this is a personal opinion and not some statistical website data).

Vanilla - Very few individuals multiboxed because of one or more of the following:

The style of gameplay was still fairly unknown at the time
Multiboxing software was mostly in-house homebrew stuff
Multiboxing hardware was more popular than software, but was very expensive
The fact that computers weren't as powerful at the time and multiboxing an entire party of five characters most likely required multiple machines (something that most people didn't have)


I believe this was the era when Xzin (http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/xzin/) began multiboxing.

The Burning Crusade - Multiboxing becomes more popular for various reasons. One of the main reasons was probably because multiboxers like Ellay (founder of this site) became well-known by dominating 5v5 arena (http://youtu.be/rmgMsDGyCVE), and others like Suvega and Vyndree (http://www.youtube.com/user/hyshnari/videos?query=boxing) (most of you probably don't even know who those people are!) were 2 x 5-boxing Karazhan. CMs (blue posters) on Blizzard's site were publicly responding to multiboxing in a large amount of hater threads saying that it was legal and giving people the green light to keep doing what they were doing. This site was also created during that era and there was finally a centralized hub where people could share ideas and information.

Besides Karazhan, I'm not sure if there were any other raids that were being multiboxed.

Wrath of the Lich King - The popularity of multiboxing continues to rise as software becomes more versatile and hardware becomes more powerful making it easier for individuals to break into this playstyle. In addition, Wrath of the Lich King (in my opinion) was a giant step down in difficulty compared to everything before it. Instances (non-raid) were mind-blowingly easy because everything was an AoE-fest and the need for CC could be ignored completely. Not only that, but the knowledge of comma-based timing macros was now widespread and most people were able to just create a single macro or two which was extremely efficient (too efficient by Blizzard's standards) that did practically all the work for them.

In this expansion, people were more successful than ever before (and the most successful to date) when it came to multiboxing raids. Also, Dual-boxing forum member Nejcha was possibly the first multiboxer to be part of a 10-man raid which downed non-heroic Lich King (http://youtu.be/pICy7fmZNsg).

Cataclysm - Multiboxing takes a big hit shortly after the release of this expansion because it was a giant kick in the nuts (or the female genitalia for you female multiboxers -- I heard it still hurts if you get kicked down there) for the people who abused the lazy mechanics that WotLK had to offer. Comma-based macros were removed from the game and CC was once again necessary in many 5-man instances -- The overall difficulty of Cataclysm (from a multiboxing standpoint) was leaps and bounds ahead of what we had become familiar with in WotLK. Not to mention, leveling via questing was terribly painful because you were railroaded along quest lines with little freedom to avoid collection quests and other similar quests that multiboxers love to hate.

A handful of multiboxers attempted to raid in this expansion, and while there was limited progression, there was nothing major like in WotLK.

Mists of Pandaria - Multiboxing is back on the rise after people realize that 5-man instance mechanics are much more forgiving than the previous expansion, that is, until follow got removed from battlegrounds which caused a chunk of the multiboxing playerbase to swear off the game entirely. However, questing is easier than before thanks to Blizzard finally implementing the sharing of quest drops from mobs among party members and PvE leveling in MoP overall feels better than it did in Cataclysm. While some see the end game 'gating' and 'endless dailies' as a hurdle, others are loving it because they finally have a ton of things to do. And here we are today...

Looking over that brief history recap of multiboxing in WoW, it pretty much follows WoW's subscription history where it peaked in Wrath, took a big hit in Cataclysm, and is back on the rise in Mists of Pandaria.

These days though, most multiboxers are comfortable where they are and they do whatever it is that they do -- They keep to themselves because, by design, that's why most people are multiboxing in the first place; but the people that helped put multiboxing in the spotlight have moved on in one way or another (for the most part) because six or seven years is a long time to stick with a video game if you've got other things going on in life. The problem is, very few people have attempted to step up and fill their shoes by putting out relevant content either in written or video form. Most new multiboxers are just looking for a quick answer, and after they get it, they turn around and leave.

I'm sure there are a plethora of veteran multiboxers who clear instances (both normal and heroic) every single day, but rarely does anyone ever share it anymore. Why that is? I'm not sure. Last month in the ISBoxer IRC channel, beeq said that he wasn't sure that he was going to make any 5x Mage videos this expansion because he didn't think people would want to see the same thing again (Mages blowing things up in PvE). I told him he was crazy and that he should do it again for MoP because, while some people may have seen them last expansion, the new multiboxers have no idea and it's just entertaining to watch.

Anyway, I'm in the ISBoxer IRC channel practically 24x7 and people come in there everyday either for help or just to chat it up (although some days can be much quieter than others); and I'll tell you firsthand, multiboxing is far from dead and there's quite a demand for more videos (especially for ISBoxer because it handles more than just WoW). Personally, I do my best to put out videos (albeit a little slow), but I'm only a one man crew and if I had more time to make these things happen I would definitely make more (hopefully this will change within the next few months ;)).

I guess what I'm saying is that someone or something inspired you (you, the person reading this post) to begin multiboxing, and while the community is quietly chugging along behind the scenes these days, a little motivational content is always nice whether it's just to show off or be helpful to the new guys.

TL;DR - Overall, there's not really anything new and exciting going on in the multiboxing portion of the MMO world, but it's obvious that there are still many multiboxers because they all come out of the woodwork when there's either a shift to another MMO (e.g. when RIFT or SW:TOR were released), when a large content patch is about to be released (e.g. an expansion), or something drastically changes in the world of multiboxing (e.g. follow being removed from random battlegrounds in World of Warcraft). However, when people get comfortable in their multiboxing ways they usually stay there either because it's 'good enough' and there's no real reason to improve or they're just not inspired to change and become better at it. There seems to be little motivation from the community these days to write any guides or make videos possibly because of the extra time and effort it takes to either write out the guide or learn how to capture and edit footage so that it doesn't look like a 2nd grader created it; and because of that, there's less happening on the site, but from what I see, the same people visit it on almost a daily basis even if they're not posting anything.

[Lyonheart]

Thank you MiRai for your well thought out post! I did not mean for this post to suggest that boxing is dead or dying. I was just curious to why the posts have been fewer than anytime in my memory. Your post does clear that up a bit 8). I've been coming here and posting since early BC ). This is the second site i come to each day ( and many times during the day after , first being MMO-Champion). SO when it slows down, it hits me in the heart strings lol. I know multiboxing is NEVER going to die.. even if every MMO outlaws it. Multiboxing will always grow, because when people learn of it, and how easy it is, and try it, they are addicted for life. I know for me, its very hard for me to solo any MMO now, i try now and then, but i feel at a disadvantage when i do, i miss the "power of two" or more.

I am as happy as anyone that this site exists! For me, it will always be the premiere multiboxing website. Its fantastic to have a place to come to talk about the thing you enjoy most, multiboxing! I felt very alone for years multiboxing. There was not even a name for it, that I knew about. When i started ( early EQ ), I was the only one i knew that did it for a very long time. I"m sure there were others, i just did not run into any until EQ was a year or so old. But now I know there were many players out there, just like me, that learned the advantages of playing more than one account at the same time, even though it took two PCs at first ( or more ). Playing EQ as a warrior SUCKED until i added a cleric, i was hooked for life after that. I have boxed every MMO since. And this site brought us like minded nutjobs together! I'm sure i will be coming here when I'm old and grey!

And RUNTU! Make them videos man!! I been dieing to see them!

[Ualaa]

At the moment, my interest in boxing is a little lower than at other points in the past.

I know enough, that it will either be Rift or Everquest/Everquest II when I return.

At the moment, I'm relearning Dungeons & Dragons, 3.5.
I'm learning the intricacies of a program called DM Genie, made for D20 based gaming.
I'm running a group of players (being their Dungeon Master) through War of the Burning Sky, which is an in-depth campaign.

With the better weather, another group of friends have started outdoor sports, when the weather permits.
So I'm also doing that one or two nights a week.

Other distractions have me.
I'm checking this site, maybe once a day... in the past, I'd check it at least 3-4 times a day.
Currently, I might reply to 1-2 threads; in the past, to a lot more than that.

I doubt I've quit boxing, although I have quit boxing Blizzard games.
And am currently taking a break from boxing, as other activities have my interest.

[shadowlord63]

Just taking a break from playing. I'm currently burnt out 5 and 6 boxing for 13 years straight, so I have stepped away from the games for a while and go outside for a breath of fresh air. Will return over the summer at some time i'm sure when the itch returns.

[pinotnoir]

I didn't buy the wow xpac when it came out. Just recently I activated my accounts and started working back up leveling my characters. About 2 months after I subscribed they kicked me in the nuts with removing follow. I canceled my accounts and decided to try out Eve Online. It only took me 10 years to give it a try. The game is decent. It's more of a job for me now with setting up miners. This week I went up to 5 accounts on Eve. Compared to Wow it's like night and day boxing it. For now Eve gets all my attention. I use to multibox Swtor and canceled my subs just before I returned to Wow. The game was fun for a year but then got stale. It's not a great game to multibox with. You are better off solo play in Ops and Flashpoints.

[Meeo]

That is a funny thought Lyon, i was almost thinking the same thing. I usually log in every morning at work to read all the new posts, and i have not seen many of late. These forums do tend to ebb and flow with expansions/new games/patches in my opinion/observations. MiRai pretty much nailed it though.

I've been multiboxing EVE as of late since leaving Rift/WoW, and most recently have started up EQ2 (on Guk), which is an interesting game to learn all over again. Im primarily waiting for the next decent mmo to solo or multibox. Sights set on Archeage/EQNext.

[candlebox]

I am still chuggin along on kil'jaden. well i was untill i just had to update isboxer and now i have no idea what all this new stuff is.

[Alge]

I think another contributor to the apparent drop-off in traffic here is that people who don't multibox WoW either see these forums as very WoW-centric or don't even know these forums exist. Some of the types of discussions that occur here for WoW (group composition, strategy, etc) occur on the isboxer forums for games like D3, Eve, Path of Exile, whereas a year or two ago such threads were much rarer there, with the isboxer forums being used mostly for support issues.

[Asterix]

Xzin ... Suvega... Vyndree... nice to hear those "old" names once again... what happened to Wilbur? has he ever started boxing? :D
afair he was k/b when starting his war against Sam?

[MiRai]

Xzin ... Suvega... Vyndree... nice to hear those "old" names once again...
Vyndree almost came back here in mid-late 2010, but I guess there wasn't much reason to stick around because she wasn't multiboxing.


what happened to Wilbur? have he ever started boxing? :D
afair he was k/b when starting his war against Sam?
I only knew Wilbur from the few lines he ever said in IRC before he disappeared years ago, but he's still a member here - http://www.dual-boxing.com/members/79-Wilbur

Here's a screenshot I had lying around of IRC with Wilbur in it (don't mind the horrid colors/font):
http://i.imgur.com/43akt05.jpg

Most of those people aren't there anymore. :(

EDIT: The misspelled title of this thread is driving me insane and I'm going to change it.

[Asterix]

<3

I've had been around in IRC those days, joking with wilbur ... had been a great time.

@thread-title: *lol* - thanks for that - annoyed me, too :D

[dancook]

for me BGs were the only real dynamic thing which kept me interested when I was bored of dungeons etc..