Got the trial, tried dual boxing! But do I need 2 copies?

Hey, I'm definately interested in dual boxing now. I'm on the trial on 1 account, which I will be upgrading to paid status soon. And of course my main account has many characters, burning crusade already enabled, etc..

I didn't download the trial, I just signed up for an account and copied the folder. Do I have to buy the game again, assuming I pay for 2 accounts online? Please tell me how you juggle these, especially people with more then 2 accounts.

Do you literally have 3 boxed copies of WoW and Burning Crusade? I have no problem paying for 2 accounts, I was just wondering if we have to pay for multiple clients.

I believe I'd have to buy burning crusade again sometime in the future, but I'm fuzzy on whether another WoW game is needed. It was easier for me to just copy the WoW folder to another ( ...\World of Warcraft 2\* ), since my original is all patched up and updated etc..

My trial account is not burning crusade activated yet, I don't really have any problems with this. I doubt I'd upgrade it to TBC until I get toons on that account up to that level, I'm rolling dwarves, gnomes, undeads and orcs, not draeni or blood elves. In addition I don't want jewelcrafting really, so I really don't need the xpac on my second account until I get characters to that near 58 range.

yes you will have to buy for trial original wow and then buy wow: burning crusade once you reach outland

You can buy account keys online. You don't NEED to buy two retail box sets of WoW, you just need the account key.

I was looking into this myself and it seems that you are going to have to buy a key for the basic game. The only have a trial software download but no key buying. I dunno about BC, it seems they do, but since I went to the store and bought all those disks anyway, I just bought BC also (the DL price is the same, so screw them - they can waste the trees and the plastic). I've heard dark rumors about online stores and ebay, but I'm not the adventurous sort. A couple of things: you don't actually need the other disks, as you point out - even for multiple computers, the client is freely sharable. Also, don't forget to sign yourself up under the "recruit a friend" and get a free month for multiboxing. I hope this helps.

[Just noticed that my post came late.. too bad, you can read it again :lol: ]

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Also, don't forget to sign yourself up under the "recruit a friend" and get a free month for multiboxing. I hope this helps.

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Good point, and hilarious photo! I love that movie =D



So yes, I will buy an account key online for original WoW to upgrade my trial. I fully plan on sucking up my 9 free remaining days though :twisted:

But just to be clear, I don't have to buy another retail copy, correct? And technically its OK that I just copied my WoW folder to another, and run the game from there? I really don't feel like downloading and patching again, thats actually my main issue.

So -> upgrade account (when I'm ready), buy an account key online, but keep using my copied folder with 2 accounts? Legit?

You don't need to copy your WoW folder.

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Originally Posted by Wilbur

You don't need to copy your WoW folder.

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As Wilbur stated...

All you need to do is get another WoW Account Key (you have to have a key for each of the accounts that you want to use)

You can use the same folder for both instances of WoW, just double click on it (as you would for the first time), then ALT-TAB (if you're in full screen) to navigate back to your operating system. Double click on WoW again to start up another instance. You will have a total of 2 instances running. You do not need to have multiple WoW folders/copies installed.

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Originally Posted by Rin

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Originally Posted by Wilbur

You don't need to copy your WoW folder.

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As Wilbur stated...

All you need to do is get another WoW Account Key (you have to have a key for each of the accounts that you want to use)

You can use the same folder for both instances of WoW, just double click on it (as you would for the first time), then ALT-TAB (if you're in full screen) to navigate back to your operating system. Double click on WoW again to start up another instance. You will have a total of 2 instances running. You do not need to have multiple WoW folders/copies installed.

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Well from http://www.wowwiki.com/Multiboxing

it says

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Getting Started

How do I even get started multiboxing?
Simple. If you try running two copies of WoW, the game will crash. This trips a lot of people up. It does so because you can't store all of the games information in files that would change from copy to copy (settings, macros, etc). So the simple solution is to copy your ENTIRE WoW directory (all 7.5 gigs or so). Rename it something that makes sense, like World of Warcraft Box 2 and then copy the shortcut to the desktop. Launch it just like you would the other copy. Leave the WoW.exe file alone. You now have two copies of WoW running on a single machine.

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It definately seems true on my machine. Before I started dual boxing, once in a while I would accidently open a 2nd instance of WoW -- big graphics freeze up, and stopping WoW wouldn't even fix it, I had to reboot. Its been working perfectly with the 2 folders.

Well I already copied them anyway, and made my shortcuts, so I'll just keep them for now ;)

Maybe 1 day I'll try launching from the same folder.

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Originally Posted by cerruption

It definately seems true on my machine. Before I started dual boxing, once in a while I would accidently open a 2nd instance of WoW -- big graphics freeze up, and stopping WoW wouldn't even fix it, I had to reboot. Its been working perfectly with the 2 folders.

Well I already copied them anyway, and made my shortcuts, so I'll just keep them for now ;)

Maybe 1 day I'll try launching from the same folder.

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I've ran 3-5 instances from the same install on two completely different hardware configurations no problems at all.

This tends to happen to some people, other people, it doesn't.

I have a theory that this is happening to people who run WoW over multiple cores and don't set them to a specific affinity.

Interesting, yeah it definately seemed to trip me up in the past.

What would happen is, I'd have a logged out instance of WoW open, along with a few other windows. You'd think I'd notice that, but I guess sometimes I didn't :oops:

So I'd go to play WoW, by starting another instance, oblivious the first one was open. All would be fine, I'd play for a while, until I'd alt-tab (which I do often, to read up on quests on wowhead for example).

Then it happens, the ultra ugly graphics crash, its hideous looking. I was worried I wouldn't be able to dual box, but with the 2 copies its been perfect. I was even hesitant to alt-tab too much, thinking "the next one" would just crash my system eventually. But so far, so good =)

Anyways if it helps, I have an nvidia 7600gt, 2gb of ram and a single core 64 bit CPU (athlon 3500+ I believe). Not the newest system, but its fairly fast for what I do.

Sounds like your running full screen, give windowed mode a shot. I've ran 3 instances on a dual core and I'm now running 5 on a quad core. Only problem I ever run into occasionally is the dreaded /follow disconnect, but not one crash or strange graphical artifacts.

If you want to save a trip to the store http://www.shatteredcrystal.com/

Used them many times. Insta CD-Code via e-mail and your up and running.

As I said, there are several merchants about for this, Its generally advisable to shop about, see who's doing the best deal for what, etc.

When I was "dual-boxing" I ran WoW out of the same directory on the PC. When starting the second copy I would often get a message saying it could not find a socket. I would just retry starting it and eventually it would go after a few tries. Once I found out about making a second directory, this problem was eliminated.

I think basically YMMV when you run from one directory. If its working for you, just keep trucking.

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Originally Posted by Wilbur

This tends to happen to some people, other people, it doesn't.

I have a theory that this is happening to people who run WoW over multiple cores and don't set them to a specific affinity.

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not for me... running dual core... no affinity set. I swapped back to a single copy of wow after the performance discussions on this site and it has been flying.