Is it the game or the boxing?

[Frosty]

I'm not anti-WoW, I'm sure I'll play it again some day.

WoW was getting too hard to be productive with my available playtime.
I haven't been in EQ2 long enough to know how long it will last, but so far it works great for me.

There is almost always a spot I can run over too quickly and AFK for the kids (this may change as I gain levels..).
And, I can play for 30 minutes to 2 hours and feel like I did something or advanced in some way.

But, I'm also enjoying learning how to box the game and how to set up all the macros.

EQ1 was my first mmorpg, and it still has the best memories, and I was in a great guild with great people (Povar Taru Alliance :thumbsup: ). I liked that world, and I like the EQ2 world so far.
Lots of neat things to see, and I keep finding new things even after running my alt-armies through the same zones over and over...and over.. etc. :P

[Trushot]

I've never been a huge fan of WoW; in fact, I initially started playing it at launch because my brother bought me a copy. (I had purchased myself a copy of EQ2 right before this, and even though I liked the game, I had no one to play it with, and didn't want to have to start forming new relationships.) At the time, I was still playing SWG, which I ended up playing alongside WoW since I didn't want to quit. When SWG was obliterated by SOE (April of '05), I quickly made the transition to playing only WoW since my SWG guild and practically every other friend I had was now playing it (WoW).

What does this have to do with multi-boxing? Simple: I ended up multi-boxing in WoW not because I loved the game as so many other people seem to, but because practically everyone I knew was playing it.

One day in '06 I accidentally booted up a second client, and I was shocked to see that it actually ran. After alt-tabbing between the windows, I learned that it could be advantageous if I learned to maximize my proficiency with this new technique that I had acquired. So I bought a second copy of the game and rolled two new characters together -- a mage and a paladin. When someone in-game said, "Oh, you're two-boxing!" I responded with, "So that's what it's called?" I didn't use any intricate macros; I didn't use any key-repeating software -- I did it the hard way. I enjoyed the challenge, however, and so, at least for a little while, WoW was actually fun to play.

Once I was decent enough to actually bring my second character along in instances, I started to wonder if I could dual-box in any other games. I remembered how enjoyable my experience was when trying EQ2 at launch, so I decided that if I could play two characters in EQ2, maybe I wouldn't have to worry about bringing a friend along. I rolled a berserker and a templar so that I would be the cornerstone of any group and wouldn't have to spend a lot of time begging people to run dungeons with me. It would have worked out if not for the fact that my computer sucked and I was getting an average of 4 FPS. In the end, I accepted that it would be impossible to multi-box EQ2 until I replaced my computer.

By the time I actually did upgrade to a new computer, I felt that I had invested far too much into WoW both time-wise and socially. I didn't want to leave behind all of the characters I had acculmulated over the years. This continued until November of last year when I finally managed to convince my best friend to dual-box while I triple-boxed. At first it was a bit difficult to figure out how to set up all of the software and macros that were necessary. (Two-boxing and three-boxing, I discovered, were drastically different from each other.) Everything worked out flawlessly -- he actually enjoyed it and we managed to complete more content than either of us ever thought we could manage.

I don't need place emphasis on the fact that WoW's paltry system requirements make it incredibly easy to run five instances of WoW on the same computer -- and I only needed three, so I was in good shape. But I recenlty upgraded my computer hardware again, and since WoW is going in a direction that I'm unhappy with, I took this opportunity to finally leave so that I could play a game I truly enjoy rather than playing something just because my friends do, and I have no regrets about leaving. Yeah, there were some hard feelings, but I convinced my best friend to again come with me so that we can multi-box together.

This time, I don't think I'll ever go back to WoW unless some major changes are implemented (the game feels like it did pre-TBC now, which renders five-boxing to be nearly useless as far as I'm concerned, and the acquisition of PvP gear through raiding, which is nothing new, I know, but it only serves to exacerbate my ever-increasing negativity towards the game), which could be never, and I'm really apathetic in any case, so it doesn't matter.

In conclusion, I'm not a huge fan of WoW, and now that I've acquired the ability move beyond just dual-boxing (I know that I could five/six-box now if I had to), I intend to play some of the other games that appeal to me as well. I just didn't have the processing power to do it before.

EDIT:

So, to directly address your question in a concise manner, it's not WoW itself; rather, it's the enjoyment factor/the ability to multi-box a game that determines whether or not I'll play it. Meaning, I consider myself to be a gamer and not a WoW-player.

Great Post ... id like to invite you over to landroval server on LOTRO try out a free trail account .. send me a tell Krispan is my main... pretty refreshing game i like it anyway ... i played solo for 20 months or so with some short breaks then added a another char a hunter ... i now like the game so much i went ahead and bought 4 more lifetime memberships to box 6 toons - my own group lifetime memberships means now monthly fees ever for as long as the game is live so ... i got the $199 rate with a referral

anywhoo I have invested $1200 in subscriptions and $300 ish on 6 copies one a CE .... plus added another 3 laptops to hardware box with .... heh as frugal as I am any game that can coax $ out of me is a good one heh

[thinus]

For anyone contemplating a LOTRO trial, don't do the Hobbit quests. I managed to logout and delete my Hobbit before I slit my wrists but it was close.

[Rin]

Interesting thread...

I box anything and everything that I can get my hands on. If I couldn't box wow, I'd probably quit. IMHO, the single player mode of any game runs its course rather quickly - you get to the max level, get gear, and then you're done. I invited a friend to try out WoW as a solo player, and within 60 days he was level 80 on his hunter, had two professions maxxed, Fishing and cooking maxxed, full t7 and was bored. Sure, the same thing may happen for a boxer (although it will take us longer to acquire full tier sets for each of our characters), but as our characters gain new items or spells, we can really see them grow as a unit. Boxing opens up a bunch of new opportunites (dungeons by yourself, great world-pvp, etc.), and allows you to help the general WoW population out - especially if you're on a pvp server (no one in world pvp really wants to mess with 5 guys that can focus fire). Prior to WoW, I boxed EverQuest manually (no software, with six computers, keyboards, etc.), I also 3-boxed GuildWars for a bit (although it got tricky trying to press keys on 3 characters at once, because the ingame combat was much faster than EverQuest). I like the challenges that boxing brings and the rewards that come to those who meet the challenges.

[Trushot]

For anyone contemplating a LOTRO trial, don't do the Hobbit quests. I managed to logout and delete my Hobbit before I slit my wrists but it was close.

heh i cant stand the hobbit starting area either ... but some amers really like it ... heh i cant even stand playing a hobbit whether i level in the shire early in game or not ... but shire leveling takes a certain persona that I just do not have heh

after level 14-15 all races get to bree and do same content though .... I play man chars becuase i like the man insta heal later in the game ...

MAN starter area - is all about fighting

Elf/Dwarf starting areas - a lot of fighting

Hobbit starting area ... a lot about pie and joy and happiness and drinking blah blah blah heh but the quests seriously are well written and fun just not much action for first 10-12 levels ... which really doesnt last long in scheme of things anyway

[algol]

Pretty much like to stick to multiboxing anything I touch now, if I want to do a single player I go to my consoles :P

Nearly the only thing keeping me from multiboxing FFXI on a stack of PS2s is that I'm not sure how to distribute the signal. I think some of the 3rdP wireless controllers might do it a la the mouse trick...

Oh, and I have to find the OLD version PS2s. Well...used ones? :-/

[Starbuck_Jones]

So far I am really pleased with lich king. I will say that I am approaching it slightly different than vanilla wow or the BC expansion. First and formost I told myself that the content is finite. There are only so many quests, and so many dungeons to do before you run out of content. With that in mind ive decided to do every quest that I can. So far im half way through level 76 and clearing out the Dragonblight. I am very pleased with the lore. To me, they went all out with the story on this expansion.

Yes there are still the annoying collection quests, but this time they dont seem so bad. For example in BC they have you go play in piles of poop for beans (nagrand) that gives you a bunch of water breathing berries as a reward. There was no point to that quest period. Not even a standard old lady who has the sword of instant death but wont give it up till you find her cat.

A collection quest I did today in Dragonblight I needed 12 miner cards off of some undead miners that got ate by the scourge. It was a PITA and took over an hour killing mobs to get all 60 cards, but when I handed them in, the quest text was good. The commander guy talked about how their names would be put down and families notified and that unlocked a new set of quests. In short, there was a story and it advanced the story along. There was a reason for the quest, not just a quest for a quests sake. I really am enjoying the linear quest progression vs the quest hubs of old wow and bc where you just show up and theres 10 quests to get and you finish them as fast as you can and dont care. So far there really has not been any quests that dont have a good reason for them.

Anyway, Im likeing it much better than I have in the past. I think not raceing to 80 so I limit myself to the top 10% of the content and blow of the rest because its "low level" is working out nice. Like raceing to 60 and finding a reason to go to Blackfathom Deep. Im sure ill hit 80 sometime in Grizley Hills and I will still have Zul'D, Shol Basin, Crystalsong, Stormpeaks, and icecrown to see. Sure a lot of it will be low level content, but hey, I still need 25k for epiks!

[Redbeard]

I played Wow for a few years before I got into boxing. As some people have stated here, it was so I could see more content within my gametime (5 mans by myself).

To be fair I hadnt even seen everything in WOTLK when I deactivated my account, but i could see the writing on the wall. Nothing coming out with the 3.1 looked too exciting to me and they seemed to be nerfing the team I was trying to put together so I decided to hang it up. WoW is a great game and im sure ill pick it up again next expansion but im done for now.

So im a gamer first, and have only recently gotten into boxing. I can say though that boxing has made my MMO experiences 10x more fun. I really enjoy the team building / intellectual side of things, and am having a good time trying to figure out what im going to do in eve (for the record ive played eve on and off for the last 3 years, my character has 45m SP, but ive never boxed it).

[heffner]

I have been playing MMO's for many years. I think I have tried most of them at least for a while. I played EQ with people who boxed, but I never actually tried it until several months ago. I enjoy boxing, and will probably always have at least two characters in any MMO I play. It just removes a possible limiting factor in my progression or gives me a small edge. It's not that I want to race my way through a game, but I don't want to be prevented from progressing simply because I couldn't get someone to help me out.

I have not left WoW. I still enjoy playing it and still have yet to complete all the heroic dungeons. I am getting to the point where I might have to join a guild because I miss the social interaction.

I recently have been trying Vanguard since my brother is playing it regularly. They have a 14-day trial available, so I fired up 5 toons and went at it. I am thinking it might be hard to run that many toons. The macro system is not as evolved as WoW and their isn't the user base to create all those beautiful addons like Jamba or Multiboxer. Not to mention that fights are supposedly very reactive so you have to be ready to hit a spell or melee move. I also saw a 6-boxer on the trial island (Saybur are you on this board?? hehe).

WoW is truly an amazing game. Regardless, people will still get bored. I mean, people get bored of sex. Go figure.

Anyway, I think I will always be waiting for the next one.

[Redbeard]

Now ive seen it all on this board lol.

Telling a bunch of gamers that people get tired of sex is like telling poor people that people get tired of money.

=P

I agree though, its a good game, and the best of the fantasy genre out right now.

WoW is truly an amazing game. Regardless, people will still get bored. I mean, people get bored of sex. Go figure.