Autohotkey is one, but there were multiple other options as well. Heck, people were multiboxing in Everquest. Anything that would permit sending a keystroke to multiple windows, including mechanical setups with multiple keyboards were used.
The primary ability to multibox is provided by Blizzard, the capability to have multiple accounts and to run multiple clients simultaenously. Some of the early multiboxers actually used multiple machines, especially for more than dual boxing.
If you google it youâll find that many, if not most, MMORPGs have permitted multiboxing since it was considered a disadvantage against equal numbers of individual players.
But the bottom line is that WoW is one of those games that has always permitted multiboxing, so good luck getting that changed.
Itâs not about beating 5 players with 1 player. Itâs about the impact of a single player having access to multiple characters. It dillutes the community aspect of the game, reduces the player interaction, and creates a negative game experience for the players involved because instead of fighting in an MMO environment, they are just ramming their heads into one player exploiting power.
Doesnât sound like that is âone-in game action per keypress per game clientâ sounds like it is one in-game action that is being replicated by software. The software is controlling those characters and it shouldnât be allowed as the keypress is not controlling those characters. The software is controlling those characters by seeing the actual humanâs input and then copying that input. The software is controlling all additional characters. Not sure how this is even debated as the person is not making a keypress for the action that the other characters are doing. It is all software that is just recording the humanâs input.
Dilutes the community aspect? So does having alts to cover more professions. So does having a group of friends to play with instead of the larger community.
If I have a guild and no longer group with others on the server that are not in my guild, the community aspect is also diluted.
Reduces player interaction? See the above.
Creates a negative game experience? Good lord, you could say that about literally everything. Itâs not by itself a reason for changes.
The bottom line is, while these are true⌠I disagree they are big enough problems to warrant banning the practice. They are minor issues.
Just because something is not good for the game in every aspect, does not mean it should be removed. See boosting, world buffs, premade pvp, really any of the hot button topics on this forum that arenât going to change, but will be whined about endlessly.
Letâs be honest here. Thereâs 100% no reason for multiboxing, or back in the day having two accounts on a PVP server for the purpose of spying and such. The problem was that Blizzard was always far too lazy to buckle down and police that kind of situation, because it would have required manual reviews. If it canât be easily automated with little intervention, then they wonât bother with it. And besides, they make more money on it. But itâs 100% a violation of the spirit of the game, so I will keep calling out the hypocrisy and ridiculousness of what is and is not considered acceptable by these arbitrary measures.
It is more accurate to say âOne keypress = one action per clientâ is not considered, by Blizzard, to violate the ToS, even if there are multiple clients running.
It is the same as the reason for anyone to have an account. They want to play the game and they pay the subscription.
It doesnât need a bigger reason than that.
If it actually gave an advantage over the same number of accounts being played by seperate people, I would agree with you. But it is worse in every situation.
The fact of the matter is, when you are saying to ban multiboxing you are telling these people their playstyle should be removed. Despite offering no advantages over separate people playing the same number of characters.
Iâm fine with you not liking multiboxing, but not with those that claim it violates the ToS or is cheating, since those are defined by Blizzard and they have stated multiple times that multiboxing neither violates the ToS or breaks any rules.
Multiboxing is NOT allowed in The Elder Scrolls Online in any of its forms, whether software- or hardware-based. Any accounts found to be multiboxing will be considered in violation of our Terms of Service and actioned swiftly and decisively, up to the permanent deactivation of the account along with any other associated accounts. To be clear, players are welcome to have multiple accounts. However, using hardware or software to play them all at the same time is not allowed on any ESO service.
Multiboxing is the practice of playing multiple accounts simultaneously, including, but not limited to using either hardware or software to facilitate the coordination between the accounts. This violates the intended nature of the gameplay mechanics weâve created for ESO.
So first off, you have to provide a critique of the points before making a blanket leading statement at the start. otherwise it implies that you didnât bother to access the points made and already had a viewpoint in mind you were going to peddle. Aka being a closed minded individual not worth talking with.
No, having alts for more professions or playing with friends doesnât dillute the communal aspect of wow in the same way. Alts canât complete group content on their own. They canât take over questing areas by themselves. Having friends still requires those players to be in game. There are off hours. But a multiboxer ALWAYS has access to his multiple characters. He is never without that power. He no longer needs other players for any 5 man content. This is what it means to dillute the community aspect of the game.
Youâve done nothing to actually address the arguments and itâs pretty obvious you likely BENEFIT from the multiboxing. (Most people that defend it either use it or have used it in the past.) When you decide you want to have an unbiased discussion about this, you can let me know.
Interesting. I knew some games did not allow it but was not aware of that one. What means do they have to scan your computer for things that donât interact with game software? The big reason most of it still exists is that things outside the game, that only used allowed interactions (keyboard hits), are not banned.
To ban current MB they have to scan your PC for things outside game interactions. Esp in the EU that is an issue.
Far more seem to permit it than prohibit it for MMORPGs. The Wikipeida entry has quite a list. What is hilarious to me is the two that permit hardware multiboxing but not software mutiboxing since, by using VMs, that would be virtually impossilble to detect.
No, I donât. This is a forum, not your debate club. Deal with it.
And? So? They should be banned for this?
The community has no problems getting groups with multiboxers existing. If I add 1 teaspoon of water to a barrel of alchohol, you are correct in saying I diluted it. But anyone reasonable knows the dilution amounts to almost nothing.
And no, I donât benefit from multiboxing. But if it makes it easier to dismiss people with different opinions, you do you I guess.
An appeal to the majority doesnât make something right or wrong though. It has to be based on the merit of the argument and not on what the majority does. Thereâs many reasons why companies choose to or not to police multiboxing. The biggest reason generally comes down to the companies in question being more focused on the cost effectiveness of those measures as opposed to the overall health of the game or the impact of those measures. Iâm sure the people in this thread that literally just get to ignore this issue or benefit from it can just ignore that it happens. But Iâve been seeing the extreme negativity of the situation first hand in Silithus this entire last week on Classic, where two different multiboxers on both factions (a total of 4 multiboxers) are creating an exceptionally negative play experience for many of the players in the zone. Both for enemies and their own faction. You might be able to fight a multiboxer in PVP, itâs a lot harder when they are aoe clearing into zones on their own and you canât do anything to stop them.
It is likely enforced only for egregious abuses since it would be difficult to have any kind of absoulte detection without generating privacy concerns. SWTOR prohibited macros, but I played it for years and used macros extensively (programmable mouse, keyboard, and gamepad) and so did many others I knew and never once saw anyone banned for doing so.
âIâm fine with you not liking multiboxing, but not with those that claim it violates the ToS or is cheating, since those are defined by Blizzard and they have stated multiple times that multiboxing neither violates the ToS or breaks any rules.â
If youâre fine with my dislike, then there shouldnât need to be any followup. Youâve pivoted now to a new argument.
I donât know. I suspect that when vanilla came out blizzard decided it was too difficult and expensive to detect and given available technology at the time and the expense of multiple subscriptions it would be a minimal problem. But with the decrease in the cost of computer hardware and the increase in power as well as the ability to legally sell retail gold for subs itâs changed to become a bigger problem in classic.
I just wish blizzard was honest about the difficulty and expense of detecting it instead of the silly rationalizations they use to justify allowing it.