While it’s allowed, it’s unsupported. To be perfectly blunt, the game wasn’t intended to be played as a multi-boxer. So while it does kind of suck to some extent for those who seem to only find enjoyment by playing this way, I can’t dredge up much sympathy for folks who do it, nor do I understand the whole culture behind it. Lucky for me and everyone else, I don’t have to. They could have made multi-boxing a bannable offense altogether, but they haven’t quite come to that point yet. Maybe they will one day, maybe they won’t. Either way, whatever boundaries, rules and regulations they lay down, people need to stop griping about them and either accept them and adapt, or just stop multi-boxing. It’s not a required playstyle, and a large part of the playerbase will (and have) play this game without ever having dipped toes into it. Best to be thankful it’s still allowable at all.
Not necessarily. They can do it to just kill mobs non-stop for the drops, be they trash or sellable items and the gold to be made from it. Some do it for the profs, the skinning, herbs, mining. There are so many facets to the botters, you really can’t shoehorn them into this is explicitly why.
That’s the risk of engaging in an unsupported playstyle. Unsupported means that if measures to mitigate botting have an adverse effect on multiboxing, Blizzard is okay with that.
Like too use an 18 button mouse.
Do write software and have been looking at my APCMidi Mini controller and thinking it would be some fun too play wow with in some fashion but after reading this thread not so sold on the idea of coding something now. GG
No one to blame but the idiots who keep buying illegal services, therefore keeping botters in business and putting Blizzard in the position to need to crackdown on these sorts of things to try and make it easier to zoom in on folks running illegal software and hardware.
What is clear is that multiboxing itself is still permitted, although unsupported. Players can have different game clients open on one device, but if something goes wrong with their game or computer, or they inadvertently do something in the process that violates rules, then that is entirely their problem and they will get no help from Blizzard because that is not how the game was designed to be played.
Streamlining is taking steps to make a process faster or more efficient. Using a standard mouse and keyboard to multibox is allowed because they are the base input devices for computers. Using a mouse and keyboard is not going out of one’s way to make unsupported gameplay more efficient.
It’s not a matter of refusing to tell people how they can engage in unsupported playstyles. It’s the fact that hardware and software used to aid in such playstyles is constantly being produced and upgraded, as well as having multiple functions, that makes it absurd to try and specify each and every single item or program that can or cannot be used. That’s why you get generalized standards for how to engage in such playstyles, but not specifics on what you can use. However, the whole point is that multiboxing is unsupported, so nobody is going to hand you a list of permitted/unpermitted actions regarding the playstyle. If you choose to engage in it, that’s your risk and your problem. It’s been that way forever.
You nailed it right on the head. Software like that or any kind of emulator will receive an input from X and output it to Y using conversions and sometimes injected key commands into a window directly.
You’re negating the fact of the phrase “command mirror” mirroring constitutes replication but not in the same capacity as the original… a copy. A direct input wouldn’t constitute as a mirrored command due to how applications receive inputs along with something isn’t playing the game for you. You’re making your character move, you pressed a button which made one action for that one character. Software akin to what was mentioned with the controller would (in theory) inject inputs into the clients (just like a cheating program or the broadcast software), KVM switches have a direct command mirrored with emulation across multiple computers, which can be picked up via hardware scanning and what is connected to that device (multiple computers detected using the same device or the CPU chip within the KVM switches is detected etc.). Other games have rules like this pertaining to software and hardware and have had them for a while.
There are plenty of people that use a footpad for single play as well due to physical limitations or disabilities and do not emulate a command because it’s a direct signal to your machine from the device, not an emulated input. What got him is the software used for the mapping to the controller outputs because the input being inputted was then altered and changed to the desired outputs, thus using command mirroring to streamline multiboxing because he pressed x on the controller and got W or pressed Y and got a combo of buttons sent via emulation to a window. Shadowlands has controller support but not classic.
Because if you just went off of “streamlines multiboxing” and not the first bit of “mirroring commands” then just having 2 wows open on the same machine would constitute as streamlining… but it’s not.
Your entire response is the perfect example of reading too much into it, and it’s what causes confusion around these issues. The statement stands for itself. No amount of strawman examples, or whataboutisms is going to change the current policy.
Multiboxing is allowed, but any software or hardware solutions to make it easier is not allowed. Arguing the semantics of how each third-party program defines an “input”, and how it handles it does not change anything.
Don’t use hardware or software to help you multibox easier.
So I can’t use a keyboard or a mouse got it (I kid I kid I know that isn’t a thing although I have seriously seen that argued same with duel monitor). Their software update in NOV gave their stance on what mirroring was, you push 1 button and multiple commands get sent out to multiple wow windows or potentially 1 window (I’ll explain further). It expanded into hardware. You push 1 button and 10 things happen in your wow because a program or hardware mirrored it and sent it to the wow (this is why having a button key mapped to send /FOLLOW to a wow is also bannable). They expanded it to KVM synchronous switches (emulated input) and potential keyboard macros like previously discussed. Contacting a GM asking if I could play 3 to 4 accounts all manually by switching windows and manually inputting all commands and being met with a response of, “that is ok” doesn’t constitute what they mean? They don’t want you mirroring your inputs and they want you to play it by hand. This player was playing it by what he thought was in the rules, but ultimately the software would have been the massive kicker that caused him to receive action… regardless of the foot peddle.
And yes understanding how a third party program defines an input is VERY vital. In the poster’s case, it was perceived that it was ok but it actually wasn’t because the software used for keymapping was in the same line as broadcasting software. What if someone uses something on their desktop for different applications that interacts with wow without their knowledge? What got this guy banned is the software he was using to keymap with. He could have been on a solo account and would have gotten flagged with it most likely.
And what creates confusion is people focusing on one section without reading the whole TOS first and understanding it’s like a flow chart. Multibox allowed -> unless software hardware mirrors commands -> multiple wow windows -> at same time, automate, streamline in anyway. If the “unless software or hardware mirrors commands” is removed, then it the rest of the flow chart is broken. Manual play is still ok.
So let me ask you this… is a direct command from a mouse and keyboard a mirrored command if on one machine to one wow window? No UNLESS something mirrors it for the user (software) which in this case would be using software (can’t command mirror on a single computer on a computer EXCEPT via keyboard macros which is set through a program) to streamline the gaming process BECAUSE the hardware and software copies or mirrors commands FOR the user… similar to cheating programs in other games. In this case, the software was a massive no go no matter the situation because of how it operates and interacts with the World of Warcraft application running.
And I may be reading too much into it, but at least having a good understanding of why OP got banned may help him figure out his issue. Everyone focusing on foot peddles and “streamlining” obv missing the fact he’s using software to emulate keypresses which boxing or not would have gotten him canned at some point.
May wish to re-read the OP, as the post wasn’t about his account, but his friend. More to the point, Blizzard doesn’t allow this kind of talk on the forums, namely on CS, as it does nothing to help because Blizzard isn’t going to give details on whatever triggered it.
(I kid I kid I know that isn’t a thing although I have seriously seen that argued same with duel monitor). Their software update in NOV gave their stance on what mirroring was, you push 1 button and multiple commands get sent out to multiple wow windows or potentially 1 window (I’ll explain further). It expanded into hardware. You push 1 button and 10 things happen in your wow because a program or hardware mirrored it and sent it to the wow (this is why having a button key mapped to send /FOLLOW to a wow is also bannable). They expanded it to KVM synchronous switches (emulated input) and potential keyboard macros like previously discussed. Contacting a GM asking if I could play 3 to 4 accounts all manually by switching windows and manually inputting all commands and being met with a response of, “that is ok” doesn’t constitute what they mean? They don’t want you mirroring your inputs and they want you to play it by hand. This player was playing it by what he thought was in the rules, but ultimately the software would have been the massive kicker that caused him to receive action… regardless of the foot peddle.