- City of Heroes/Villains, Guild Wars/2, Lineage/2, Aion
4/28/09 NCsoft Ticket 090306-000473
CoH/V
We allow Hardware multi-boxing in the sense that a player may use a KVM switch to access multiple hardware that is running the City of Heroes application.
Use of a 3rd party program to automate in-game actions or to script a series of commands to a single button press is a violation of our EULA, and is something that City of Heroes does not support.
We have in-game macros that do permit a single button to trigger certain powers or behavior. For example, a player may create a Macro or keybind that targets a nearby entity and triggers an attack. We do not, however, support any botting behavior.
Specifically you asked "I press 1, my mage casts fireball, my hunter shoots a flame arrow, my tank taunts, my healer casts a buff, as that is the single action on each account located in the "1" hotbar location. 1 press, 1 action." This particular type of conduct is fine.
You also asked "Many games also require that the player be able to maintain control of each individual character at any given time, by responding to game masters/customer service reps from any character." This type of behavior is not supported by City of Heroes macro system, and would only be conceivably possible with a 3rd party program which is prohibited by our EULA.
Section 7 of our EULA is pretty clear about this:
7. OFFICIAL SERVICE
NC Interactive has designed the Game(s) for official play only as offered through the Service by NC Interactive at the Web Site and not through any other means. You further agree not to access, create or provide any other means through which the Game(s) may be played by others, as through server emulators. You agree not to use any hardware or software, including but not limited to third party tools, or any other method of support which may in any way influence or advantage your use of the Service which is not authorized by NC Interactive, including but not limited to the use of "bots" and/or any other method by which the Service may be played automatically without human input.
Our game uses Instances, but there are contested areas of the game that we will action players if we find that they are controlling an area unfairly (i.e. Heavies in Recluse's Victory - PvP zone).
While we do not have a "fair play" clause, intentionally preventing another player from accessing certain portions of our game is a harassment type of conduct that violates Section 6 (d) (ix) of our UA.
(d) Member Conduct. You agree not to use the Service to:
(i) "stalk" or otherwise harass another member.
Section 7 could also be loosely applied here, with the interpretation that preventing other players from accessing certain content by multi-boxing grants an unfair advantage.
The User Agreement prohibits the sharing of accounts except with that of a minor child of the account owner. With this in mind, account sharing rules are there for the safety of the account owner. The account sharing rule is there to reinforce another rule that states the security of an account is the responsibility of the account owner. Basically this means if you share your account you are responsible for the action taken on it. We will not close an account because your cousin logged you in to buff for a raid. If you and your cousin are fighting over the account and the account is in dispute, the account will be closed because security has been compromised.
City of Heroes has a refer-a-friend promotion that grants additional in-game time to the referrer. There are no in-game perks (items or XP bonuses). City of Heroes also discounts the monthly $14.99 plan based upon long-term subscription commitments.
City of Heroes must remain in focus (the main application running) to be accessed. If it is run as a background application, it is not accessible to any key inputs.
Follow ups :
With regard to your first question, the policy for City of Heroes on this point should be considered the same as the Lineage franchise. {"Multiboxing is not automation, you agreed 1:1 actions are fine re mage/hunter/tank/healer example, but say you can only respond to GMs with 3rd party programs? WHAT are you on about?"}
As far as your second City of Heroes specific question, any multiple window prevention in City of Heroes is either unintentional or legacy code and we do not actively attempt block the use of several game clients on a PC.Lineage 1/2
You are allowed to run several clients on several machines, as long as you are in direct control of all characters and no unfair automated advantage is present. Also, we do not test our clients for multibox capabilities and this method is not supported by tech support.
You are allowed to run several game clients on the same machine, as long as the user is in direct control of all characters and no unfair automated advantage is present.
a. The use of software to remap keys is allowed.
b. The use of software automate actions is not.
Botting is a serious issue in the Lineage franchise. We can not disclose our methods of determining between bots and boxes as the developers of the bot programs would use this information to "hide" their bot programs. Let us say, that since bot programs are "smarter" than an in-game macro we give suspected botters an "IQ test." We generally play by the 1:1 rule but in-game macros allow for the chaining of skills.
The Lineage franchise is built around creating conflict for an in-depth PvP world. The GM team does not interfere with any "contested" content. We want content to be contested. The GM team will only take action when a game feature is exploited and used in a manner it was not intended. Example: It is ok to blockade a bridge in most of the game world (PvP zone.) It is not ok to block the entrance to a shop in town as it is a not PvP zone.
Recruit-a-friend offers allowing for gifted trial accounts and full retail serial keys happen several times a year. At this time we do not have a discount for multiple accounts.
There are no specific guards implemented in the L1 or L2 clients to prevent multiboxing.Guild Wars
We do not officially support this. {Hardware Boxing}
Automated gameplay is not allowed and is in violation with the User Agreement. {Software Boxing}
If you were somehow able to use your programmable keyboard to fully automate your gameplay experience, especially to the point where you did not have to attend your computer while your keyboard software "played" the game for you, then that would be considered against our User Agreement and subject to disciplinary action. {How do you define multi-boxing vs botting?}
We do not have a "fair play" clause in the UA that would apply to multi-boxers.
Every game box purchased has a 14-Trilogy Trial. This Trial is 14 days or 10 hours whichever comes first. {RAF?}
You can not open more then one Guild Wars game client without modification. We do not consider running more then one version of Guild Wars to be a violation.
Follow up :
We can not provide more specific answers to your questions regarding Guild Wars other then as you said, if you do find a way to open more then one client that does not violate the User Agreement, it is not a bannable offense. This can be applied to all of your questions. {resubmitted questions - "I'm not asking if you support hardware boxing, I asked if it was allowed. Software boxing is not botting or automation."
Guild Wars 2
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/foru...rst#post245276
This post has been quoted in other forum posts, but it is inaccurate. ArenaNet does not prohibit Multi- or Dual-Boxing as along as the player is active on each account and is not botting or using other third-party programs to “play” the account.https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/foru...rst#post354869
Dual- or Multi-Boxing
- You may use more than one account at the same time.
- You may use more than one computer at the same time.
- You must be actively playing on each account.
- And as stated above, you may not program your keyboard to perform functions on more than one account at a time.
- a. For example, if you press W on your keyboard to move forward, a single character on a single account should move forward. The keystroke or mouse click should not perform functions on more than one account.
6/02/09 NCsoft Ticket 090602-000341
Note, Aion is multiboxable, but you will need to disable GameGuard to do so. I have no information on if they get ticked off about disabling GG.Aion
The rules and the way we will treat multiboxing for Aion will be exactly the same as they are treated for Lineage II. The internal systems will be very much the same. So feel free to use the Lineage II information.
I don't think we have done any test with multiple instances of Aion running on the same machine but I am sure we will hear more as our beta events start.
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