Because nothing says a recreation of vanilla levels of community and player interaction like one person controlling four mages and one shotting players and farming entire zones by themselves.
What do they call it when you are able to gain additional advantage by paying money? Oh right, pay to win.
but i swear there is a keyboard and mouse for every extra character and he/she switches to each keyboard mouse for every action taken in game. just as the tos allows one action for one button.
Yes, multiboxing was part of Vanilla and predates WoW by a lot.
The rule of thumb is one-in game action per keypress per game client.
The old way was to use 4 PCs with hardware devices set to send the keystrokes and mouse movement to each of those PCs.
Next we can do that with a wireless device sending the keystrokes to each PC.
Modern is to run 4 instances of WoW on one PC and use software to send the input commands to each game client.
It is not supported, but it is not against the rules as long as they are actually hitting the key on the keyboard themselves. The keystroke replication happens outside game so is no regulated.
Yes, it may feel unfair.
It has been debated for years, and is not likely going to become against the rules.
Wait until you meet a 40 boxer!
So we’re renaming cheating “modern” now?
Because what you’re describing is automation which is indeed against the rules.
If you use software to simulate keystrokes, it’s no longer an actual person making those keystrokes, is it.
Blizz tolerates it not because it’s not CLEARLY cheating, but bc it means more subscriptions, more money.
Pay to win.
No.
You seem to misunderstand. It is not automation.
If I press 1 on a keyboard and it sends that 1 to 4 computers, that is still one keypress per game instance.
Automation scripts allow more than one action per game client per keypress. Such as pressing 1 and having your whole skill rotation go off.
It is not SIMULATING the keystroke. It literally sends the actual human initiated keystroke to each game client. A keyboard with 4 wires coming off it - one going to each PC is the same thing.
I assume you know this though.
I get it, nobody likes to face a group, whether is is 5 friends playing together or 5 characters on 5 game clients.
This has been argued since well before WoW came out. The answer is unlikely to change.
Stating how it works, and that it is not supported (they won’t help set it up), is simply giving facts. It factually is allowed and it is not automation.
People don’t have to like those facts. People don’t have to think it is fair to go up against a group.
This is a dead horse though that has been beaten into the ground.
Wow arent you snarky and defensive of multiboxing
You can go up the roof and cry all you want.
If you control with 1 keystroke more than 1 toon using software, it’s cheating.
I am not the one here complaining about policies.
Your opinion does not seem like enough to convince Blizzard to change their mind. They have allowed it in their games since forever, and that has not changed. It is unlikely to change any time soon, if ever.
Reference thread today in CS. No, it is not economic exploitation for a person to farm using MB.
It’s pretty simple, people are going to cheat in every game. some cheating is going to be allowed and some isn’t. Because some cheating isn’t as serious a problem or takes more effort to fix than it causes problems.
The problem isn’t the game, if you fix one thing or change something else, there are 10 other players finding new ways to cheat. If you let the cheaters have a few small nibbles, they stop exploring for their advantage.
We probably want these multi boxers doing what they are. If they are removed, these money spending boxers will just find another way to spend money to give them an advantage. And it might be a lot worse than a small portion of people boxing
As long as there’s no automation it’s not cheating…So I’ll enjoy my multiboxxing…
The main problem I guess I have with multiboxers, not that they have an advantage or they are cheating.
They just simply don’t believe they are cheating or doing anything wrong in terms of the game. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean it’s right or not cheating.
Plenty of people have gotten away with committing crimes or murders or what not. Plenty of people were not charge for their wrong doings, because of technicalities of words chosen to describe a rule or law.
Just like in real life, you pay more or have more money. The rules and laws don’t apply to you.
hands Timesup a tissue
Please, I need it.
Go on, tell us where the multiboxer touched you. Then get over it.
Multibotting is illegal and should be banned.
There is no advantage gained, only disadvantages.
Take 4 mages played by 4 people vs 4 mages played by 1 person. The 4 people will win every time.
There is a guy who multiboxes 20 mages on Twitch and he often gets destroyed by 2-3 mages who Blizzard him to death.
Multiboxing = only disadvantages because there is no substitute for human intelligence.
Friend I have spent about 45 hours in Silithus this week and I have watched a 5 boxing Horde Mage on our side DESTROY a 10 man group BY HIMSELF. Because he can one shot the enemies single target with Fire Blast or mass aoe them with Sapper Charges, Blast Wave, and AE.
You seem to be missing something here. Let me spell it out for you:
5 Individual players > 5 multibox players in “most” situations.
5 multibox players > 1 individual player.
Since the multibox player is still one player, they are ALWAYS going to be more powerful and have a significant advantage over the players who do not pay for multiple accounts, granting them an unfair advantage over other players. If I am trying to have 5 different players I have to find four other players to play wtih. The multiboxer just has to spend extra money. See the difference?
Additionally most of you are missing the issue here. Blizzard has already made countless changes to the game based on the “spirit” of the game (whatever vague and ever changing thing that actually happens to be)
But for the entire period of time leading up to Classic all I heard was everyone whining how Classic would bring back community, you would have to work together for things, and use other players for stuff. I could care less what was “allowed” in vanilla. This clearly violates the spirit of everything Classic stands for. And is detrimental to the spirit of the game. But you’ll 100% never see the devs take a stance on it because money. Classic wasn’t about delivering a great game it was about fleecing the untapped private server market for quick and easy cash. Why do you think major bug fixes take 6 months to fix, but hotfixes to obscure items are done quickly. It’s because they refuse to put real resources behind Classic.
Wait, there is a law against multiboxing?
Cheating means breaking the rules of a game.
Blizzard makes the game rules for WoW.
Blizard says multiboxing isn’t against the rules.
Multiboxing isn’t cheating.
Feel free to not like it, petition Blizzard to make it against the rules, etc. But until they make a rule prohibiting multiboxing, it isn’t cheating 
There’s nothing wrong with multiboxing. I do it myself. I’m against multibotting. That’s not ok.
You don’t have to like it, but Multiboxing was VERY much a part of Vanilla - and is not against the rules. So were bugs, systems that were really a pain, having to spend forever trying to find pugs, no flying, etc. With the good comes the warts. Vanilla was not all roses and hand holding around a fire. They are not going to change it to make it fit an ideal you might have.
If you want to beat a group of five characters go up against them with 5 characters. That is the age old power of groups.
Yeah… any time someone online (especially in gaming) brings up suing or calling something illegal, it is usually wrong. I am sure there has to be a meme about that somewhere.
It is certainly frustrating to be alone farming and come across a group of five - no matter how that group is formed. Does not make it illegal though.