account sharing - a way around it maybe?

[DemonWithin]

I was fortuneate enough to have a 1 on 1 chat with keyclone last night ^_^ however he alerted me to the fact that if the accounts are NOT in my name, as if a friend of mine owned them, that there was a possibility that i'd get banned. My friend has given me his account, he no longer plays, i own all his characters and know the password to the account so im wondering IF i changed the contact details to the same as my original account, would that classify me as owning it instead of him owning it? the details would match my main's details but whether thats how they actually would tell if i were account sharing or not is unknown to me.

please reply with what you think! :D

Thanks,
DawnOfRex

[Knytestorme]

Short answer: No

Long answer: I expect to see Vyndree come in here and explain (yet again) the Blizzard and dual-boxing view on accounts and if they can tranfer ownership and then a very quick lock to the thread.

[DemonWithin]

ok thanks, i also just realised u cant actually change the name of the ORIGINAL owner so its still set to mike whatever instead of jeff etc unfortunately, i thought this would be a changeable option :(

all is pretty clear now

[Simulacra]

ok thanks, i also just realised u cant actually change the name of the ORIGINAL owner so its still set to mike whatever instead of jeff etc unfortunately, i thought this would be a changeable option :(



I don't condone this sort of thing, but that could work, maybe......probably a lot easier just to get some new accounts lol

Is that the sound of Vyndree ????? Oops!!!! I didn't say anything OK? Wasn't me...

[JezPeRR]

I Tried to call blizz about changing the ownership of an acc. and the answer was a big "NO NO"
so u just have to buy another acc and write it in your own name :rolleyes:

[DemonWithin]

whew im glad u said that cos ive just spent another couple hundred dollars on battle chests :P

[Tdog]

You could just adopt your friend as your son and them tell blizzard that you are his guardian and see if the let you sneek by with that one :P

[Simulacra]

You could just adopt your friend as your son and them tell blizzard that you are his guardian and see if the let you sneek by with that one :P:)
you could say that you've only just discovered that you have a multiple personality disorder and you are in fact Mike Whatever AND Jeff Etc.

[lans83]

ok, honestly, i didn't do my homework completely on this....what you're saying is that if we want to multibox, we have to physically go out and buy our own boxes and register them all in our own names? so i can't multibox with my account, my cousin's that she's giving up and her boyfriend's that already gave me his account like 5 months ago, along with my brother's and his wife's account? i can see how this would normally look like someone running a paid lvling service, but there's no way i can run these 5 accounts without the risk of beeing banned? i've got several lvl 60-70s spread out across multiple servers on these accounts i can't afford to transfer to new accounts

[Otlecs]

if we want to multibox, we have to physically go out and buy our own boxes and register them all in our own names?
Correct.


no way i can run these 5 accounts without the risk of beeing banned?
Correct.

There are many tales recounted even on these forums where people have been banned, and had their friends' / partners' accounts banned for not having the accounts all in the same name.

As a multiboxer you will get reported at some point, because people are ignorant. Apart from wanting to talk to each of your characters individually to make sure you have control over them, the GM will also check the account details for each character.

If they do not match, all of your accounts will be banned.

You may get away with it for an hour. You may get away with it for a year. You may even get away with it for ever, but the risk is always going to be there.


i can't afford to transfer to new accounts

That's ok. Since the accounts aren't yours, you couldn't use the paid character transfer service anyway :)

[Simulacra]

ok, honestly, i didn't do my homework completely on this....what you're saying is that if we want to multibox, we have to physically go out and buy our own boxes and register them all in our own names? so i can't multibox with my account, my cousin's that she's giving up and her boyfriend's that already gave me his account like 5 months ago, along with my brother's and his wife's account? i can see how this would normally look like someone running a paid lvling service, but there's no way i can run these 5 accounts without the risk of beeing banned? i've got several lvl 60-70s spread out across multiple servers on these accounts i can't afford to transfer to new accountsyep - no way. You have to level the toons yourself on your own bought for accounts in exactly the same name. But levelling them and working out they interact is what it's all about

[lans83]

That's ok. Since the accounts aren't yours, you couldn't use the paid character transfer service anyway :)

they won't allow you to use this service to transfer a toon from 1 account to another if the contact information is not the same? i thought they'd just send confirmation emails to verify that both parties consent to the transfer.

[Otlecs]

they won't allow you to use this service to transfer a toon from 1 account to another if the contact information is not the same? i

Correct.

The automated process checks the last name (which cannot be edited through the account management system), and there's a random process for a full check.

[lans83]

Account Restrictions:

- Transfers between accounts can be done only if you are the subscriber on both accounts. (We do not support the transfer of characters between friends, guild mates, or family members.)

just seen that on the paid character transfer restrictions site....that really sucks cause this means i wan't be able to keep my 70s on my alt acount unless i continue to pay for the monthly bill for that account...since i can't use it for multiboxing, it'll be a little pointless to keep it running....i also did another check on the 'change contact info' page and the only thing they won't let you change is the full name of the account...email, billing info, phone numbers, address, this you can change, but the full name? wtf is up with that? and when people get reported, the full name is the first thing that blizzard checks, right? atleast in the case for multiboxers....if i were to use the 'recruit-a-friend' link with my new accounts i go out and buy, would my primary account get the benefit from the free months once i make the first payments on each account?

[Otlecs]

but the full name? wtf is up with that?
Because if they allowed all that information to be changed, it would make their policy completely unenforceable.


when people get reported, the full name is the first thing that blizzard checks, right?
Correct.


if i were to use the 'recruit-a-friend' link with my new accounts i go out and buy, would my primary account get the benefit from the free months once i make the first payments on each account?
Yes :)

I've never done that myself, so I defer to others for more details, but there are lots of people here who have done exactly that, and I'm sure you'll find lots of search hits.

This one for example (http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=45634)

[tzibo]

if i were to use the 'recruit-a-friend' link with my new accounts i go out and buy, would my primary account get the benefit from the free months once i make the first payments on each account?
That is correct. It's what I've done (though I spread the love on my two initial accounts). The free month activates as you say once you make a payment for months after the one that comes with the box (and the 10 day free trial :) )

[Tonuss]

ok thanks, i also just realised u cant actually change the name of the ORIGINAL owner so its still set to mike whatever instead of jeff etc unfortunately, i thought this would be a changeable option :(

all is pretty clear nowYep, the account name and the name of the account owner are set in stone. Blizzard does this to protect themselves from having to arbitrate disputes where people both claim ownership and it's hard to see where to draw a line. The implications of getting involved in that sort of dispute are very big for a corporation (hello, frivolous lawsuits!). So they draw a line in the sand and say "this is our policy and we won't budge an inch on it."

[Syro]

All five accounts must be in your name, and you can either purchase the game in a brick 'n mortar store, or buy it online.

Recruit-a-friend works great since you can recruit yourself and get a free month.

Multi-boxing gets a lot of shit from people, and it's guaranteed you're going to be reported a few times. So it's not worth the risk of getting banned when you're not using an account in your name.

[Drizzit]

i own all his characters

The only thing that you own is the CD key (and the monthly bill :P ), Blizzard owns the characters.

[Vyndree]

Short answer: No

Long answer: I expect to see Vyndree come in here and explain (yet again) the Blizzard and dual-boxing view on accounts and if they can tranfer ownership and then a very quick lock to the thread.

Curse me and my tardiness!!!


There is no legal way to get around the fact that you are account sharing. You admitted that you are account sharing. You can't change the fact that you are account sharing. You are account sharing.
There is no way to twist the truth such that you are not account sharing. You must get your own accounts, register them in your own name, and agree to the terms/EULA in order to not be account sharing.

Furthermore, discussing ways to break the rules is against our own community guidelines ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Board&boardID=31').

I'm sorry it's not the answer you wanted to hear, but you're going to have to start playing by the rules or don't play at all.


For reference:
http://dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=24229#post24229
http://dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=78169#post78169
http://dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=75284#post75284
http://dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=74121#post74121
http://dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=82456#post82456
http://dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=65734#post65734
http://dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=80803#post80803

Do I feel like a broken record? Maybe. But it's for a good cause.

[Vyndree]

i also did another check on the 'change contact info' page and the only thing they won't let you change is the full name of the account...email, billing info, phone numbers, address, this you can change, but the full name? wtf is up with that?

Would YOU want some hacker stealing your login name/password and promptly changing the account ownership (i.e. name) over to them?

The rules are there for the CUSTOMER'S protection. Preventing name changes without legal proof of name change prevents others from not only stealing access to your account, but stealing ownership.

[ChrisbSyd]

Hey, if blizzard look at my IP they will see lots of accounts playing.

The accounts will be under 3 names.

There will be my accounts, all being multiboxed.
There will be my fiancee's account, she will be playing that herself
There will be my fiancee's sisters account, she will be playing that herself too.

Will blizzard ban us all if they see 7 different accounts all logged on from the same IP address?
I could only guess my only defense would be that my fiancee and her sis's characters would not be anywhere near my toons?
Would it be safer for me to roll all my multiboxed chars on a different realm to everyone?

Thanks,
Chris

[Silaspop]

You will not get banned from having multiple characters play off of the same IP address. It's actually pretty common with family members who play WoW, but have different accounts. However, there are extreme exceptions, such as when a foreign gold farming/account selling 'companies' patch through a dedicated proxy server and play several accounts a day... this raises a red-flag. (And also why paying for powerleveling and gold earning is such a bad idea.)


I was in a similar situation as you at one time, I used a funny celebrity name as my "real name" when I created my main. I never liked using me real information on games and newsletters and stuff. Well, I had a couple lvl 60-70's on my original account - and then I found out about multiboxing, and Really wanted to have a go at it. So, in time, I bought another copy of WoW from Amazon.com, non-tbc at first, and used my main which was a lvl 70 Warrior to boost my new account with my Real name and information from another computer. It was complicated for a while, but once I got my new character (I suggest Paladin btw) to lvl 47 - finishing up in ZF, I actually DELETED my old account with the celebrity name, bought TBC and leveled my new little toon to 70- and used it to care-bear my multiboxing accounts through instances and quests.

I know what you MIGHT be thinking "Oh, I'll do this, and just SELL my old account to someone and make a little cash" - I HIGHLY OPPOSE of this. Not only is it breaking Blizzards rules, but you will have account association from your old main, to all of your new little multiboxing accounts. So, say you sold your account to some online account buying website, 99% of the time, it will be used to farm and sell and transact WoW currency and be caught and banned. Obviously, if your old account is associated with your multiboxing accounts, there is a good chance they will be banned too and your WoW accounts and your IP will be flagged as accounts that have been created with the intent to sell, and since your multiboxing, this is even worse. Family members who also play may also lose their accounts.

[Vyndree]

You will not get banned from having multiple characters play off of the same IP address.

Correct, you get banned for having multiple players making the SAME keypresses at EXACTLY the same time (i.e. clearly multiboxing) from DIFFERENT account names. Logging in from the same IP has nothing to do with anything.

If 3 people are playing from the same IP -- legitimately -- there is no problem. The trouble arises when you start playing their accounts or they start playing yours or any other combination.

[Knytestorme]

You will not get banned from having multiple characters play off of the same IP address.

Correct, you get banned for having multiple players making the SAME keypresses at EXACTLY the same time (i.e. clearly multiboxing) from DIFFERENT account names. Logging in from the same IP has nothing to do with anything.

If 3 people are playing from the same IP -- legitimately -- there is no problem. The trouble arises when you start playing their accounts or they start playing yours or any other combination.
This is actually an interesting one to me in a certain context.

For me when I am 5-boxing on one pc I am seeing lag between each of the accounts (Quartz shows each with a different delay during casting) so if my accounts were being watched they'd show each character not quite casting at the same time.

Let's now go to a situation where we have a few people all in the same house, grouped together and questing using the method we suggest to the haters (have one member as assist/focus and then all press attack key on 3..2..1 count), could this not appear to Blizz as the same as someone multiboxing but with not all accounts in the same name? How would one go about proving it was not a case of account sharing in this situation?

[Otlecs]

Even with a co-ordinated countdown approach, the timing with multiple people involved would be *wildly* different as compared to hardware or software boxing.

The difference might seem small to us, but the GMs would have access to server logs with high resolution timestamps and the difference - and indeed the variation in differences - will be huge when measured there.

If you were challenged though?

I've often wondered about this, especially since both my wife and I multi-boxed, and all I can imagine is that they would ask us our secret question (if they're even allowed to do that) or somesuch.

I *suspect* that if the names are similar, and the contact details pretty much match then it'd be a no-brainer for them. If they weren't the same (a friend visiting perhaps?)... I don't really know.

[Gadzooks]

You will not get banned from having multiple characters play off of the same IP address.

Correct, you get banned for having multiple players making the SAME keypresses at EXACTLY the same time (i.e. clearly multiboxing) from DIFFERENT account names. Logging in from the same IP has nothing to do with anything.

If 3 people are playing from the same IP -- legitimately -- there is no problem. The trouble arises when you start playing their accounts or they start playing yours or any other combination.
This is actually an interesting one to me in a certain context.

For me when I am 5-boxing on one pc I am seeing lag between each of the accounts (Quartz shows each with a different delay during casting) so if my accounts were being watched they'd show each character not quite casting at the same time.

Let's now go to a situation where we have a few people all in the same house, grouped together and questing using the method we suggest to the haters (have one member as assist/focus and then all press attack key on 3..2..1 count), could this not appear to Blizz as the same as someone multiboxing but with not all accounts in the same name? How would one go about proving it was not a case of account sharing in this situation?Blizzard can see more than they'll admit about what you're doing while logged in, by any number of methods - Warden, polling the client, logs, etc. Unless you know EVERY parameter of what they see and look for, your accounts are at risk of being flagged. Trust me, the guys who write programs like Glider would sell their children to get that info, of exactly what Blizzard sees - and Glider users get caught constantly - i've read in botter forums (I go to places like that to see what they're up to, mostly scams, so I can avoid them).

As an intellectual discussion, it's interesting, but beyond that, it's a bad idea, and we as a community get enough abuse, without them coming here, seeing we're talking about using accounts against the rules, and posting all over General what cheats we are.

As a final note, it's nice to know if you submit a report on another player, that you have nothing to fear. I had an asswipe in Hellfire pull some trick on me, where my mage all of a sudden was attacking his pet, even though I did NOT flag for PvP or target him or his pet. I do not PvP on either toons at all, ever. I'm not quite sure how it works, as I don't play a hunter, but he started out riding around my toons in circles. I moved off, he followed. I moved off, and a buzzard attacked me, and I started hitting keys to kill it. Next thing i know, my mage is dead, and he's sitting there emoting at me.

REPORTED

On both toons. :) I got two GMs at the same time, it was kind of funny. Awesome GMs, as usual, too. I rarely report players, but this guy needed to be reported.

Anyway, if I had an account not in my name, I would have been banned right there - you REALLY need the ability to interact with GMs if you MB, because of the abuse and harrassment you will get, and if you do forget and submit a ticket, and they see you're killing the same mobs from the same cpu and IP and your combat logs are identical, and they see two different names? BAN.

It's just a bad idea. Tempting? Yes. But in the long run, not worth the risk.

[Knytestorme]

Just to be clear, I am not condoning and ever trying to discuss ways to circumvent the account sharing rules.

What I am saying is that it is possible for people that are being quite legal in their actions (eg family grouping together, room/dorm-mates all leveling as a group) while using methods that we advocate people use in the multi-boxing discussions and whether or not that will be differentable by Blizzard or if it will look like someone multiboxing with shared accounts.

It doesn't affect me yet, but it is a situation that could affect someone in this thread based on their description and it could affect me in the future since I have started dating someone that also plays WoW and I will likely drop 1 character from my team to group with her.

The question comes down to if Blizzards tools will be accurate enough in timestamps to know straight away if someone is legit grouping or illegally sharing and how to deal with the situation if they can't.....do we not group with anyone in our house if we usualy multibox?

I guess one way a GM could test would be to just have people do two different things at the same time on the characters they claim they aren't boxing....such as tell one character to go forward and cast/say something while the other character does a circle backwards saying something different at the same time. I'd say no multiboxer could pull that off, no matter the set-up they use.

[Gadzooks]

Just to be clear, I am not condoning and ever trying to discuss ways to circumvent the account sharing rules.

What I am saying is that it is possible for people that are being quite legal in their actions (eg family grouping together, room/dorm-mates all leveling as a group) while using methods that we advocate people use in the multi-boxing discussions and whether or not that will be differentable by Blizzard or if it will look like someone multiboxing with shared accounts.

It doesn't affect me yet, but it is a situation that could affect someone in this thread based on their description and it could affect me in the future since I have started dating someone that also plays WoW and I will likely drop 1 character from my team to group with her.

The question comes down to if Blizzards tools will be accurate enough in timestamps to know straight away if someone is legit grouping or illegally sharing and how to deal with the situation if they can't.....do we not group with anyone in our house if we usualy multibox?

I guess one way a GM could test would be to just have people do two different things at the same time on the characters they claim they aren't boxing....such as tell one character to go forward and cast/say something while the other character does a circle backwards saying something different at the same time. I'd say no multiboxer could pull that off, no matter the set-up they use.Oh, I know you're not condoning it, it was a remark directed at everyone.

As for your concerns - I would say that if grouping with other players as MBers and being seen as using accounts illegally, it would be happening, as a lot of people here talk about doing that all the time - I believe our host here runs a 4 shaman team with another player. :)

It's hard to say what they see, and what they can decipher, but Belfaire made a comment once that it was laughably easy to see if someone was multiboxing.

I would say you have nothing to worry about with your GF, and have fun leveling with her! :)

[Vyndree]

For me when I am 5-boxing on one pc I am seeing lag between each of the accounts (Quartz shows each with a different delay during casting) so if my accounts were being watched they'd show each character not quite casting at the same time.


I wasn't saying it was an automatic process, or that some warden-like machine can check for exact keypresses -- as a multiboxer, you are recognizable as a multiboxer because all of your characters make actions at identical times. All of your characters are grouped all of the time. All of your characters should also be owned by the same person.

But take this blue post as an example as to WHY they would investigate you for "account sharing" when someone reports you for "multiboxing":

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Im sorry but that isn't accurate, if Blizz would investigate instead of assuming they could find a rule break in there.

That is a paid service, the person running those characters was paid to collect HPs for the owners of those Characters. I bet if Blizz investigated they would find all characters to have different payment info, different emails, different info all togother, so if one person is boxing those Characters, its account sharing... and that is against the rules.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll have to disagree with you there, Letum. Could someone use this technique to level up multiple characters for others? Probably.

If they were investigated would we just go "oh they are multiboxing, they are Ok."? Absolutely not. We investigate each botting/powerleveling report we receive fully and believe it or not we actually do look at the simple stuff like account information. Not to mention we look at a great deal of other information in our investigations.

There are a good many legitimate users who actually do own multiple accounts. Why? No idea, I have two myself and barely look at the other account but to each their own. Just because they are using a multiboxing technique does not mean they are powerleveling/sharing or engaging in any other nefarious deed.

If you believe someone is violating our Terms of Use, report it and it will be investigated.
-GM Vrakthris http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3168405460&sid=1&pageNo=1#17
Emphasis mine


This is the most likely course of things:
You are reported for multiboxing.
A very simple check for a GM to do is to check the account names involved.
You are discovered account sharing and are promptly banned.

[Knytestorme]

For me when I am 5-boxing on one pc I am seeing lag between each of the accounts (Quartz shows each with a different delay during casting) so if my accounts were being watched they'd show each character not quite casting at the same time.

I wasn't saying it was an automatic process, or that some warden-like machine can check for exact keypresses -- as a multiboxer, you are recognizable as a multiboxer because all of your characters make actions at identical times. All of your characters are grouped all of the time. All of your characters should also be owned by the same person.

Heya Vynd :)....I realize what you were saying, I didn't word my thoughts correctly. When I said "my accounts being watched" I was actually thinking about it in two ways, either a person looking over my shoulder or Blizz checking the logs and how the timestamps of my actions would appear.

As I said, was just a thought that popped into my head regarding how logs would really show a difference between 5 people all in the same place using multi-boxer techniques for their group vs a person 5 boxing on one pc and the inherent lag that presents in actions between accounts.