The simultaneous sending of keystrokes is considered illegal in EQ2...

[Lyonheart]

This bums me out! I consider ( or did ) EQ2 my secondary MMO. I have 6 accounts there and I play it when there are gaps in WoW content. I am already maxed out on triumph badge gear in WoW. I can log on and knock out the frost badge random in less than an hour. It wont be long before i have a few hundred K in gold and items. That is when i find it hard to log in, so I play EQ2 until new content comes out.

SOE benefits from people like me, even though we do not maintain active subscriptions indefinitely. The two to three months a year I play 6 accounts = more than a single account who plays all year.

I do not see how it is an "unfair advantage" over 6 individual players. There is a lot of instanced content that is much more difficult, if not impossible, to BOX that 6 players could do very easy. The ONLY advantage ( and not unfair ) is that a boxer does not have to waste hours waiting for groups, and they PAY for that privilege. That is not any more unfair than taking a car to work over walking. You can afford it so that makes it unfair?

[Noxxy]

Totally and utterly devastated - many many hours creating chars for the pure enjoyment of the game whilst under the misguided impression I was acting within the 'spirit' of the game

Even went to the lengths of introducing myself, the team and my playstyle/equipment to servers and getting GM approvals - now, after all those hours, to have had the rug pulled out from under my feet is just totally...not cool and quite misleading

If SOE is serious about this they really need to re-word their EULA to clearly state what is considered botting, etc. That would only be fair.

As for locking a thread on the main SOE forum which directly relates to this new stance is also strange. Yes, they may be trying to stop a flame fight but the information, and SOEs stance, will be lost to new comers to the forums as the post will quickly sink to the bottom of the pile and never be seen or heard from again. Absolute shame.

So many people are now openly talking about boxing on eq2flames - you can't tell me they are all 'iron man boxing' (bashing seperate keyboards) - seriously, it's a new century - upgraded software and hardware solutions are coming out on a daily basis - multiboxing IS a valid playstyle

This is really a pretty large spike in the wheels in regards to multiboxing on all SOE run mmporgs (EQ2, EQ, Vanguard, etc)

Still shaking my head - many hours gone

Rat army retired

NB: Honestly, guys and gals who play other mmporgs - be really wary of this new stance by SOE - it COULD effect you in whatever game you currently play no matter who created it - the end of modern mboxing for all?

[thinus]

NB: Honestly, guys and gals who play other mmporgs - be really wary of this new stance by SOE - it COULD effect you in whatever game you currently play no matter who created it - the end of modern mboxing for all?

Oh stop over dramatizing. SOE has been a bunch of cocks since EQ came out. I realize that you put a lot of time into boxing and that this is a major blow to you but to assume that other companies would give a shit about SOE's policy on boxing and seeing it as the end of modern boxing is just being hysterical.

[mrmcgee21]

I am worried about how they enforce this like what Lax said above, I personally used very very few globally broadcasted keys as I prefer more control over my toons so this effects me very little in general. But as Lax said above its nearly impossible to pinpoint who is and who isnt globablly broadcasting, fuck I send out 5 or 6 keystrokes within 1 sec everytime I pull a mob into camp, how can you tell that isnt all 1 keystroke exactly? I could see how it appears that way to a underpayed GM looking to crack down with this new rule ..... I guess we will see. Either noone gets banned, or we all get banned honestly ( I imagine it will be the former ) in terms of SoE at least ( I am boxing EQ1 currently ). I have "ironman" boxed a group of 6 before but WOW that was a ton of work compared to how convenient Isboxer has made it, I never want to go back to that shit ( I just alt tab'd extremely fast on one machine, not 6 keyboards ).

[Starbuck_Jones]

Continue to play as you have. When they no longer want your business they will let you know.

[Malekyth]

Oh stop over dramatizing. SOE has been a bunch of cocks since EQ came out. I realize that you put a lot of time into boxing and that this is a major blow to you but to assume that other companies would give a shit about SOE's policy on boxing and seeing it as the end of modern boxing is just being hysterical.

Agreed. It's more a "oh, Sony, you retards" than a call for anyone else to follow their lead. Blizzard in particular has been explicit about its tolerance of multiboxing, and they're not going to change their minds based on what stodgy traditional ol' Sony thinks is right. WoW only exists because a bunch of EQ players decided (correctly) that they could do a lot better.

[mrmcgee21]

Here is my issue with this rule, if they are claiming this change has to come because we have an unfair advantage. Well we all know we STILL have an unfair advantage, thats obvious. So they need more rules to fix that right? Whats next exactly? As long as I am boxing, I have an unfair advantage, I conceed that in any discussion about boxing because its evident. I can do much more than somone with one char, thats why I'm freaking boxing. So if this rule came about in the interest of making everything "fair" then it is insufficient and I can see no reason why more rules won't come to continue this same line of thinking. Of course we now know we cannot take anything SoE says as reliable so who knows what tommorrow holds, this may all be a mute point. All this boils down to, do I really want to invest time in a game that may or may not take away all of my accomplishments at any given moment? I guess this can be true in WoW but I find it much more likely to occur in an SoE game now.

I'll just wait and see if they recant this most recent 180 and become more consistant, if not I find my confidence in SoE and my willingness to invest time and money with them is diminished significantly. Is it enough to make me quit? I cannot say just yet but it's a big step in that direction.

[Milque]

Here is my issue with this rule, if they are claiming this change has to come because we have an unfair advantage. Well we all know we STILL have an unfair advantage, thats obvious. So they need more rules to fix that right? Whats next exactly? As long as I am boxing, I have an unfair advantage, I conceed that in any discussion about boxing because its evident. I can do much more than somone with one char, thats why I'm freaking boxing. So if this rule came about in the interest of making everything "fair" then it is insufficient and I can see no reason why more rules won't come to continue this same line of thinking. Of course we now know we cannot take anything SoE says as reliable so who knows what tommorrow holds, this may all be a mute point. All this boils down to, do I really want to invest time in a game that may or may not take away all of my accomplishments at any given moment? I guess this can be true in WoW but I find it much more likely to occur in an SoE game now.

I'll just wait and see if they recant this most recent 180 and become more consistant, if not I find my confidence in SoE and my willingness to invest time and money with them is diminished significantly. Is it enough to make me quit? I cannot say just yet but it's a big step in that direction.

Don't agree with that logic at all. We're talking about fairness in a business model. If you're paying for x accounts, the question should not be can you do more than a person who is only paying for one account. The question is should you be able to do more than x accounts played by individual players.

I surely can not. The key mappings I employ to keep the thing manageable guarantee I am not optimally casting every spell. I am certainly not pulling off proper HO's. I have to be constantly checking to see if Manny, Moe, Or Jack got stuck on a wall during that last corner. Handling mobs that knockback with a multibox group is.... Well, I laughed after I picked up my corpses.

I'm at a decided disadvantage vs any pickup group of the same number of characters, and even more so against a group of friends that work together. Yet, I pay the same amount as they do.

Now, if I was doing something to disrupt the game for others, I should get banned, but that's not boxing, that's being an asshole. I've seen plenty do that without needing extra accounts.

[Herc130]

So, multiboxing if you control all 6 characters signally and you have to type a command for all 6 characters separately is ok. Multi-boxing with the use of hardware OR software which allows you to control 6 characters with 1 command is not ok and considered in violation of the spirit of the game as it gives the player(s) an advantage over other players.

Sounds more like the misguided, probably biased opinion of that GM. How about I have 6 individual keyboards for 6 computers running one account each. How about I make a fully mechanical device that physically presses whichever key on all 6 keyboards via one control point. Would that be ok?

Really, the spirit of the game? Sounds like the same type of person that will also go on to preach about "the journey and not the distination" to people powerleveling up their 100th character.

Boxing gives me an advantage over a single player because .....I gotz more accounts. Boxing does not give me any advantages over a group of players, in fact, my "group" is far less effective. And I don't think at any point that it gives me an "unfair" advantage. Hey.....those two guys grouped up...that means they have an "unfair" advantage over a solo player? I am playing on a computer that runs the game at all the settings maxxed and great FPS on a huge ass high res screen that makes it easy for me to see everything.......I guess that's an "unfair" advantage since there are probably people out there playing on something tht barely runs the game?

This "GM" sounds like she/he is making company policy off her/his personal opinion. Go over that person's head if you can, cause I don't think the left hand knows what the right hand is doing at SoE and if it did, that GM will probably get a quick slap to STFU and stop losing us $$$.

[Shodokan]

Sounds more like the misguided, probably biased opinion of that GM. How about I have 6 individual keyboards for 6 computers running one account each. How about I make a fully mechanical device that physically presses whichever key on all 6 keyboards via one control point. Would that be ok?

Really, the spirit of the game? Sounds like the same type of person that will also go on to preach about "the journey and not the distination" to people powerleveling up their 100th character.

Boxing gives me an advantage over a single player because .....I gotz more accounts. Boxing does not give me any advantages over a group of players, in fact, my "group" is far less effective. And I don't think at any point that it gives me an "unfair" advantage. Hey.....those two guys grouped up...that means they have an "unfair" advantage over a solo player? I am playing on a computer that runs the game at all the settings maxxed and great FPS on a huge ass high res screen that makes it easy for me to see everything.......I guess that's an "unfair" advantage since there are probably people out there playing on something tht barely runs the game?

This "GM" sounds like she/he is making company policy off her/his personal opinion. Go over that person's head if you can, cause I don't think the left hand knows what the right hand is doing at SoE and if it did, that GM will probably get a quick slap to STFU and stop losing us $$$.

I agree with a lot said in this post. The last thing games need to have is personal feelings of GMs get in the way of business.