A word of caution

[Cranius]

I've been enjoying 5-boxing now for a few weeks. I'm enjoying it so much that I'm compelled to issue a word of warning to all everyone who cares about dual-boxing and wants to see it survive.

In short, if you piss off the rest of the WoW community enough, they'll eventually ban this activity.

I've seen this happen with "macroing" (basically botting) in Asheron's Call. It was legal for a few years, but then the public outcry of how "unfair" it was caught Turbine's attention, and they changed the CoC (Code of Conduct) to ban this activity. There were petitions. There was gnashing of teeth and rending of clothing. None of it mattered. Macroing was a bannable offense thereafter.

I had a conversation with the program manager for Asheron's Call a few years later, and he told me that the reason they made the change was that they kept getting "banged up" in reviews of the game for this unfair activity. Basically it was customer perception of unfairness that forced their hand.

I fear that we face the same issues today. Not everyone can afford more than one computer. Not everyone can afford more than one account. Even those who can, many of them would prefer not to play this way. To these people, dual-boxing can seem unfair. This is especially true when 3 guys camp 1 poor bastard with 15 characters. On the one hand, this sounds like comedy gold to me. On the other hand, it wouldn't surprise me if this is exactly the sort of issue that may ultimately catch Blizzard's attention and cause them to change their policy with respect to dual boxing.

Here's my advice: Lay low.

Specific suggestions:

- No corpse camping or anything that might be considered "griefing"
- No bragging in public (aside from forums like this one) about your conquests where 1 person can "solo" group content
- No showing off

That doesn't mean you have to hide. Just be discrete. Every person who perceives you as playing with an unfair advantage is another opportunity for Blizzard to empathize with them and change their policy.

[Bollwerk]

Good advice.

[Jaws5]

I agree that we should not be bullies. But I see 5 boxing in the same light as Twiks. Many pvpers have to lvl out of the 19, 29, 39 BGs to get away from the twiks (Mostly rogues). I think that 5 boxing is the next lvl of twik. Blizz has said that twik are fine and they ruin the BGs at 19 29 or sure. Most players get such a bad taste from this and do not go back to the BGs.

On pvp servers some lvl 70s gank farm the he 20-30 questing areas. Blizz allows this as part of the game on the pvp server. 5 boxers I think are more accepted on pvp servers. WOW I guess you never get ganked!!!.

Most 5 boxers are more mature than most of the other users. We are secure, and do not let our emotions drive us to irrational acts.

Most of the reports and complaints come from BG's . For that reason I try to only go to AV or 15 man BGs.

I do not attack first, I only defend and counter attack. But that is my code.

anyways my 2 cents

[Majestic_Clown]

I don't know if your aware of this but dual-boxing has been praised for the achievements, a popular German gaming magazine did a 2 or 3 page spread about xzin and his antics

[Nimyx]

I completely understand this one and will tackle it later but for now...

Not everyone can afford more than one computer. Not everyone can afford more than one account.

I "work" for my money and therefore don't have alot of "time" like the people who constantly corpse camp me... so why shouldn't they be banned since obviously "Not everyone can afford time".

Fact is they won't be, so I pay more and get more bang for my buck. They don't like it let them get a job then we'll be on even terms and then we'll see who gets to play camp the corpse with the other.

We pay alot of money but yeah until MMO society becomes educated on what and why multiboxing exists splattering Multiboxed PWNage all across the net prob ain the best way to win hearts.

Though it sure gets them beating faster and relieves alot of stress! :lol:

[Xzin]

I can't say I disagree tooooo much here. If 10M vs a few thousand, the 10M will win. If we cause a huge polarity and outcry then something might be done.

But on the other hand, we do increase Bliz's subs.... but then again so do gold farmers. But it's not apples to apples. Ban us and we never come back. They do.

Also, we don't bot or macro or hack.... we follow Blizzes rules. We just do things a bit differently.

All things equal though, not making a HUGE deal out of things is probably best for the community but I disagree that AC is an apples to apples here.

A good many people SUPPORT boxing. Can't argue that a ton of people really supported AC macroing (other than the ones doing it).

[Remote]

Most of the people I talk to in game think it's really cool. /shrug

[Texic]

Ya most people actually seem to like it. I do remember a GM saying that people at Blizzard multi-boxed so I see where some internal conflict could occur. I also find it hard to believe that Blizzard would at any point have a valid reason to ban anyone over it. If all of the sudden they say I can't logon to more than one of my 9 accounts all of them will be canceled. Sure out of 8 million 9 isn't that many but I am sure I wouldn't be the only one.

[Xzin]

Remove /follow.

[Boom]

I think this post is incredibly valid.

No need to argue if we're doing something wrong. We all know we're not.

The point is, Blizzard can make it wrong in a second. Of course they like our extra accounts, but lets be honest, there's no way our extra accounts are even noticable to a game supporting 9 million plus players. That's just silly.

And it's true there are Blizzard employees that multibox, but that won't stop them either.

We're playing the game a way that "wasn't intended". This becomes obvious when you look at how OP a group of 5 shaman can be when you have "perfect" focus fire and totem use.

You have to look at how it makes the other players feel, when they are pounded on by 15 toons. It sucks. Badly. Doesn't matter what he did to you with his one toon, because he was playing the game "as intended".

We know we're not cheating. But if enough folks complain, and I mean "alot" of players, Blizzard can change it. And they will never feel the loss of our accounts. You're insane if you think our community is that big.

So I believe that reminding this community to avoid "dickish" activity, is a worthy use of these forums.

We will always piss folks off in PvP, but there's no reason to go showboating with grief tactics. I show off in Org all the time now, and I have a dang fanclub already. The Horde love it, because they don't feel the pain when I attack. So by all means, show off to your own faction, and gain new multibox supporters...

And feel free to destroy the other faction in pvp, but try to avoid being dicks about it.

Thanks to the OP.

Boom