Why do you guys do this?

[Otlecs]

This came up before, and quite a few of the "old timers" here took the time to write lengthy reponses, but I couldn't find the old thread with a quick trawl.

There are just so many reasons to do this, but for me, personally, right now, it comes down to CHOICE.

If I want to go to an instance, I can. Alone. No hours of LFG spam. No petty arguments over loot. No morons causing wipes (except me, obviously ).

If I then want to go afk to tend to something out there in real life, there's no issue.

On the other hand, if I want to raid, or want to do an instance in the traditional way, my status as a multiboxer in no way removes that possibility.

In fact, it enhances it. Especially since one of my active teams is a traditionally balanced team (tankadin, priest, hunter, 2xmages) rather than a group of squishies. Can't find a tank or healer? No problem. I'll bring both!

I often use parts of my team to walk friends / guildies through instances. I've done the pally epic quest from end-to-end for 4 people. Tonight, I'll be running somebody's alt through Mauradon central.

So, yes, for me it's because multiboxing empowers me with choice.

I think my original response lamented the lack of real challenge in WoW, and that's still true, but having the choice as to what I want to do is the real reason I continue to do it.

One of the most common misconceptions amongst non-boxers is that boxing in some way imposes more of a burden than not boxing (you know, the old "you have no life" throw-away), and that's simply untrue.

Boxers can do pretty much what they want, when they want to do it. We get to enjoy the content on our own terms, and I tend to do everything in my life on my own terms.

[zanthor]

I started dual boxing out of necessity, our guild was short priests and my main was a rogue. I found it very easy to mouse over, throw a heal, stab and move while the heal cast, repeat as necessary. I learned that using autofollow on your guildmates was relatively reliable once they knew what was up...

I got a 3rd account and switched my main to a warrior, when TBC came out I 3boxed the warrior/priest/rogue to 62 before giving up on the idea, leveled the warrior to 70, then my girlfriend took my priest to 70... you'll laugh at the reason I gave up on the threeboxing... it was too easy to get a 5 man. As a guild leader and a raid leader I've found that to get any group I simply need to "/guild Looking for XX more" and they tend to crawl out of the woodwork... ahhh, power.

All that was pure point and click, I had often pondered about key injection and sending keystrokes to more than one application... I did a very minor amount of looking but never put serious effort into it.

So I kicked around and one day found Dual-Boxing.com... wow, the tools, it was very much handing a chemistry set to the kid who's been figuring out chemistry in the kitchen with what he had available... tools! I had three accounts of my own, my girl had an account, and before long I purchased a 5th (My highest 5 box is still only level 9, so that shows you how long that 5ths been around =)).

Anyhow, I do it because it gives me an instant group to play when I dont feel like playing my raid character on something high end with no chance of progress... I don't know how many of you have literally gotten EVERY item you possibly can except whats available in 25 man content, but it's a sad feeling to log on at 8am because your awake and realize that until 10am at the very least you can't even do a heroic, because you did them yesterday... lots of boring.

I figure with my 3box I'll see some fun in arena's, I dont know if I'll rate 1000, 2000 or somewhere in between, but I don't see how 2 pom/pyro combo's CANT be fun in pvp... I figure with my girlfriends priest and any number of others in my guild I can form a steady 5v5, and with a guaranteed focus fire of 2 mages, 2 healers and whatever I bring in 5th we should be pretty solid there as well...

Anyhow, I did it for the fun .

[Kyudo]

Several reasons:

1) I can't raid at regular times, but still want the opportunity to instance and do heroics.

2) After 2.5 yrs (4 70s and 3 60s) of vanilla wow, was getting pretty mundane for me, and this was a new and exciting avenue to go down.

3) The challenge of controlling 2 or more characters has added a new sense of enjoyment and technical challenge to the game for me.

4) Sick of so many years of crappy PuGs.

5) Will enjoy the kudos of having all characters to level 70

6) The technical side interests me, and it has done wonders for my understanding of macros and other gameplay elements.

7) I have a decent, well paid job, so there are no real money restrictions on me being able to multibox.

8) A recent upgrade to a new PC opened up the avenue to me, so I wanted to try it (I did NOT however, upgrade for the sole purpose of multiboxing, I only came across this site post upgrade).

[Diamndzngunz]

Lets see... Im mainly tired of always working and missing raids. So why not multi box?

New enjoyment out of the game

[amalgam]

After getting a couple of 70s, you get tired of doing it again. This is more fun, honestly. The tedium is offset by the incredible pace you can set.

[Remote]

I like to purposely make things more difficult; it's just part of my personality. On the flip side, it makes everything more rewarding.

I can't tell you how happy I was when I cleared Deadmines the first time by myself. It's just such a cool thing to accomplish.

[Bravo]

Not having to LFG is by far the best thing I've gotten out of this experince so far. Constantly posting LF Tank and Healer for X instance could be the biggest waste of time I've went through in my life.

[Bulls]

that look on peoples faces when you kill them. you know the look of "what the, whoa!". that always makes me smile. especially with 2 or more guys behind your main following your orders.

[Nimyx]

I got bored of browsing *cough cough* STUFF with my other hand and eye so I gave them a toon to play. That got boring so I got a third toon.
Now my Thumbs are active too!


My toes however are beginning to QQ.


Honestly though my first experience was in EQ and I tried it because I was tired of spending 6 hours LFG only to find one 30 minutes before I had to log.

Ever since then it has always been 2-3 accounts per game.

WoW however completely cemented my enjoyment of it when I read someplace on a message board "2 characters being two boxed will never be as efficient as 2 characters being played by two separate people given that those separate people have any competency."

Compared to most of the people here I am a complete tard as far as efficiency goes. I play with three completely separate systems and absolutely no macros other than the normal hotkeys wow gives us with the default game. (unless you count my /dance /wave /giggle /snicker type emote macros). Yes I actually "type" in the ./follow command every time.

This means alot of swapping hands to different keyboards and watching different screens but the fact is I find it challenging and enjoy it immensely.

I found that over the last year and a half not only am I just as proficient in certain area's as 2 players in alot of things, instead I am even more efficient. PVP... yeah not so much, but grinding down those "group" quests with two characters and soloing BC instances with 3 all while using separate machines... I gotta say it provides such a sense of accomplishment.

Yes sometimes you lose and sometimes you wipe really hard but to me thats the beauty of it is attempting it reanalyzing it and finding out the key or correct combo to effectively "box solo" whatever is before me.

So if I am sometimes more efficient than two players I know most of the people here, running the way they do, simply put the smack down on that whole aforementioned statement.

Its about really being "able" to enjoy the game without being "dependant" on those you wouldn't normally group with if you had a choice.

[Zseth]

I can't make friends in game because I'm an asshole.

So I play with myself.

Seriously...

I'm an asshole.

Right fellow zerglings?