Assorted whine threads

[Los]

Because you rarely see the EU versions, time to make a thread right!?

This is nice, about mizzi, mizzu and mizze
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread....42555098&sid=1

(the al akir rogue is talking about emphemera btw, also on the forum and on al'akir)

[Tonuss]

"i got 1 shotted by each of them and died..."

Does that mean he died four times?

[Eteocles]

I lol'd...post more excerpts for us poor bastards stuck behind work firewalls please

[Diamndzngunz]

"i got 1 shotted by each of them and died..."

Does that mean he died four times?

Correction, he died 3 times. There was only 3 of them.

[Eteocles]

If you wanna get REALLY "technical" Diam...he said he got oneshotted by each of them(3), AND died(4th).

[Tonuss]

Yeah, that was my mistake, he was killed by three, not four.

Although he could admit that he also died from embarrassment, and that would be the fourth.

[binkiebink]

i dont get why people complain . . . its the same as 3 shaman friends running around on vent/in the same room . . . so you get one shotted . . . get some effing stam

[Tonuss]

I think it's a bad idea to get into what is essentially a "war of opinions."

There is one complaint from "anti-boxers" that I think has some validity-- that multiboxing makes focus firing way easier and far more efficient than even a pretty well coordinated group can manage. I think what most complainers ignore is the obvious downside to multi-boxing, which is the lack of independent mobility. I cringe anytime I hear someone saying "well they just stood there focus firing us all, what can we do about that?" WTF? So a group of people with limited mobility are targeting you ONE AT A TIME for attack and you DON'T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH IT??? Sorry, but it is not a multi-boxer's fault that the people they are killing happen to suck.

In any event, I think that the most obvious and valid response to complaints about it is simple-- it is okay because Blizzard has said so. In fact, they've made it clear, over and over, that it is not a TOS violation and is not something that they consider an exploit. Period. The fact that John Doe in Nebraska thinks that it "cheapens the game" or that it is cheating or exploiting is worth two things... jack and squat. The game is owned and operated by Blizzard, and they make the rules. And the rules currently say that it's okay to multibox.

However, nothing stops Blizzard from deciding at some point that multiboxing IS against the rules and taking action against it. Some people say that because of IP sharing, there's nothing Blizzard can do, but that isn't true. They can and do scan for software, and could easily locate programs like keyclone. They also can and do observe players who have been reported, and it would not be difficult to figure out that a person is multiboxing. If they observe four characters following a fifth, and notice that they manage to cast spells in perfect sequence and timing, over and over, then you've got a multiboxer on your hands. So I think that if they wanted to stop multiboxing, they could. And if we complained about it, it probably wouldn't change their minds.

So for now I just read the whine threads for entertainment, and hope that things never get to the point where Blizzard decides that multiboxing has to go. I doubt we're anywhere near that point, and I think it would take a whole lot of problems to get anywhere near that point, so I don't worry. And I've been pretty happy with the response on my server. Few people bother me at all, and most who ask me what I'm doing reply with "lol NICE" when I explain it. One or two people have used the yell channel to say stuff like "lol losers" but they haven't bothered to speak with me directly or even single me out in their comments, so I can ignore them and forget them pretty quickly. And I have most of the general channels off anyway, so I miss any other cowardly comments.

[Boylston]

Multiboxing in PvP certainly has some advantages and some disadvantages. There is no doubt that a group of players in Ventrilo and using assist functionality could focus-fire something nearly as good as a multiboxer, but the multi-boxer probably has a slight latency-related technical advantage there. However, other non-multiboxed teams have many, many other advantages over a multiboxed team. If you've ever played against a good 3v3 or 5v5 team and been CC-locked out while the rest of your team dies, you know this to be true. ("As soon as I got sheeped and trinketed out, a rogue stunned me and then their druid cycloned me before that broke", etc etc)

In the grand scheme of things, even if multi-boxing did present a slightly unfair advantage, it's a reasonably small advantage enjoyed by a very small percentage of the WoW subscriber base. I honestly believe that the rate of account cancellation induced by frustration with multiboxers is incredibly low, probably at least an order of magnitude smaller than the very small number of us who multibox.

I just don't think we'll see a change in policy in the short term-- Blizzard has more subscriptions to lose by alienating multiboxers than customers they might gain/retain by enacting anti-multibox policy (and enforcing it). In the minds of the MBAs controlling financial decisions, we have some important distinguishing characteristics as a customer demographic.

"Bob, you mean there are people out there who have not just one or two accounts, but FIVE?!?" *drooling MBA* (We'll ignore for the moment that we probably consume more GM time than the average subscriber, even if averaged across multiple accounts).

They are hitting us at our reservation price, or at least closer to it, in marketing terms. Yes, I am willing to spend > $60 a month to play their game. Not all customers are, just like not everyone is willing to pay First Class ticket prices with the airlines.

As long as multiboxing doesn't seriously muck up the gameplay for most normal users, I don't expect any changes. Right now, everything seems balanced enough in PvE, PvP, and Arena that we're pretty far from that limit.

[Tehtsuo]

I think it's a bad idea to get into what is essentially a "war of opinions."

There is one complaint from "anti-boxers" that I think has some validity-- that multiboxing makes focus firing way easier and far more efficient than even a pretty well coordinated group can manage. I think what most complainers ignore is the obvious downside to multi-boxing, which is the lack of independent mobility. I cringe anytime I hear someone saying "well they just stood there focus firing us all, what can we do about that?" WTF? So a group of people with limited mobility are targeting you ONE AT A TIME for attack and you DON'T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH IT??? Sorry, but it is not a multi-boxer's fault that the people they are killing happen to suck.

In any event, I think that the most obvious and valid response to complaints about it is simple-- it is okay because Blizzard has said so. In fact, they've made it clear, over and over, that it is not a TOS violation and is not something that they consider an exploit. Period. The fact that John Doe in Nebraska thinks that it "cheapens the game" or that it is cheating or exploiting is worth two things... jack and squat. The game is owned and operated by Blizzard, and they make the rules. And the rules currently say that it's okay to multibox.

However, nothing stops Blizzard from deciding at some point that multiboxing IS against the rules and taking action against it. Some people say that because of IP sharing, there's nothing Blizzard can do, but that isn't true. They can and do scan for software, and could easily locate programs like keyclone. They also can and do observe players who have been reported, and it would not be difficult to figure out that a person is multiboxing. If they observe four characters following a fifth, and notice that they manage to cast spells in perfect sequence and timing, over and over, then you've got a multiboxer on your hands. So I think that if they wanted to stop multiboxing, they could. And if we complained about it, it probably wouldn't change their minds.

So for now I just read the whine threads for entertainment, and hope that things never get to the point where Blizzard decides that multiboxing has to go. I doubt we're anywhere near that point, and I think it would take a whole lot of problems to get anywhere near that point, so I don't worry. And I've been pretty happy with the response on my server. Few people bother me at all, and most who ask me what I'm doing reply with "lol NICE" when I explain it. One or two people have used the yell channel to say stuff like "lol losers" but they haven't bothered to speak with me directly or even single me out in their comments, so I can ignore them and forget them pretty quickly. And I have most of the general channels off anyway, so I miss any other cowardly comments.

I found this post well informed and well put-together. "War of Opinions" is a very concise description of most of the forum posts concerning multiboxers on the blizzard forums. It always makes me smile when I read their arguments that it's not "in the spirit of the game." It's when I see these arguments that the slogan from the recent WoW commercials pops into my mind. "What's your game?" indeed!