Policy Update for Input Broadcasting Software

Community General Discussion
2076

Seems odd though that token prices would be so low. If everyone started buying up gold-tokens for game time the demand for them would drive the gold price up.
Remember that a token sub is $20 a month to Blizz instead of $15. To the extent that Blizzard is allowed to manipulate the cost determination (I say “allowed to” because I think the real-money aspect may actually mean there are regulations on it, but I don’t claim to know) you’d actually see them increasing gold price on tokens in order to incentivize players to spend real money on tokens (because if my $20 gets me a 250k token, I’m more likely to buy it than if it’d only get me 125k)

The caveat perhaps being that a recurring sub has added value over a one time transaction, even if the one-time nets a 33% premium, simply because people forget to unsub right away, are more inclined to return if their sub happens to be active anyway, etc etc

2077

Factually incorrect. You are then multiboxing.

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2078

I just know several MBers that were able to fully fund all 5 accounts using tokens they purchased off the AH using the gold they farmed from MBing dungeons.

What that initially would do is cause the gold price on Tokens to go up. But that would then incentivize players (like me), who have cash on hand, to buy tokens and sell them on the AH to fund things like gear upgrades (especially if they left for an expansion or two).

So, eventually, you’d reach equilibrium, where the tokens being bought is about even with the tokens being put up for sale.

CCP, the makers of EVE Online, did exactly what Blizzard just did. They changed the rules to ban broadcast software, but still allow Multiboxing. And, again, most MBers were funding their EVE game time with the ISK (gold) and using it to buy PLEX (game time token).

I suspect, without evidence, that MBing eventually hit a diminish returns. Where the money lost from those accounts able to fully fund themselves with ingame currency out-stripped the money earned from Token sales [for cash].

In both cases, neither company was concerned over the money lost due to canceled subs (either complete or just the alt accounts).

And in all cases, companies don’t care about you or I. So this change has zero to do with wanting to make the game better. Money Earning was negatively impacted; thus they changed policies.

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2079

I think tokens only exist if they are purchased for real money (possibly with a buffer quantity so that players are neither waiting weeks to sell a token nor waiting weeks for one to buy) so I think if a multiboxer is completely gold-funded Blizzard is still making $20 per account. That has been my understanding at least.

Which is just to say I think the monetary impact lies in either perception of SL covenants as they relate to multiboxing, or just general community opinion (however misinformed I personally think it is) and the projected effect of banning it.

I think we’re in agreement though; this was a decision based on a graph with just a few bars:

“How much money make if ban multibox”
“How much money make if ban broadcast”
“How much money make if no change”

2080

Come on Blizz just ban multiboxing

3 Likes
2081

I have found times where no tokens were available for sale. I do not think blizzard fronts any at all. Tokens are first in first out and have their sold price fixed in at the time of listing to my understanding and the price paid is constantly in fluctuation based on how many have been listed vs sold. Ultimately - the level of refunds and canceled subs they’re dealing with right now has got to be massive. I have heard of over 200 refunds for shadowlands so far and I am most certainly only hearing of a small portion of them. One person who spoke with a GM for a refund said that the GM told them they were processing refunds all day. That’s 8 grand in up front loss and 3 grand per month (1 month sub) or 2.6 grand per month (6 month sub) for just the small portion I was hearing of.

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2082

In fact - part of the reason why you can’t buy a six month game code and get the bonus promotional item is because of the aftermath of when they added the first one. It was a royal pain to get a token right after that and the price shot up like 100k per token in like a 12 hour period iirc.

2083

The power of budgeting!

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2084

This is a long time coming and much appreciated. Got so tired of seeing up to 10 druids flying around herbing in Nazjatar.

Glad this “fix” doesn’t affect people who want to park a hunter near a rare spawn so they can tame it but play another toon at the same time. Or the people who drag a low level alt behind their main in low level dungeons/raids for cheap gear/xp/xmogs.

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2085

Now Blizzard just needs to ban systems like Raider IO that completely ruin the game.

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2086

you haven’t convinced me that you don’t care…oh wait it’s from my old server. yep totally not upset.

2087

doesnt that just use blizzards own systems?

2088

I just finished setting up my 4x5 box teams using windowed mode on everything and bound 2 follow commands that I just have to click on each window. They will just now follow a leader that will be doing all the work while 4 mindless potatoes share in the kills for worldbosses and emissary boxes once again without any keystroke mirroring business. Huzzah! I should have done this in the first place. I would have saved a lot of money not subscribing to ISBoxer. :smiley:

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2089

Oh yeah so much salt in this thread, this will last me through winter :+1:

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2090

Blizzard didn’t ban this at all. You’ll still see multiple druids flying around herbing, they just have to stop at each node for 3 seconds to click all the accounts individually instead of one second.

ISBoxer was always a waste of money IMO. The free software is to me at least, just as easy to use, but you do need to know how to and write your own macros.

2092

What is a multibotter? Is that like someone with a multipass?

2093

That sounds really insignificant compared to what people generally hate multiboxers for doing. Completing 5 world quests at once doesn’t really compare to 20 druids lagging a zone while farming raw gold and mounts at an insane rate.

2094

Intent is to stop third party programs from interacting with the WoW client. Clearly says software without any mention or implications to include hardware.

Multiboxing is still 100% allowed. It’s asinine to think they would allow the play style, but completely block all methods to do it successfully. If that was the case the practice of multiboxing would be banned outright.

Let them, just like getting reported for botting en masse, it wont do anything. As long as you are not getting flagged by warden for using third party software, you good. Blizzard doesn’t ban people without proof of wrongdoing. Mass reports for cheating still require a warden flag or an investigation into your account. No flags, no bans.

There is nothing inherently wrong about multiboxing. The people who abuse it are the problem. Like anything else in the game, if people abuse it to gain advantage or disrupt other players then the player should be punished. An entire community should not be demonized and punished because a couple of them are jerks. Blizzard needs to take action on the problem people, not everyone.

A guild can be just as disruptive as a multibox team, a 2x4 group made in LFG can be just as disruptive. This is nothing new, the only change is that one player benefits and that upsets people. It’s a simple game of jealousy and envy.

Fun fact, I personally have kicked my own account from my group to allow someone else to farm with me, Because they whispered me and asked.

I’ve left zones when I felt I was disrupting someone leveling or someone asked me to because they needed what I was killing, I even offered to help them complete it faster. I’ve assisted people in farming things, I recently stood in a WQ zone and offered to help people finish the WQ faster. I help some people, some people /spit on me and others yelled at me about reporting me for cheating.

Not sure why you think I need be punished.

4 Likes
2095

I think any kind of key duplication will face the same consequences. You’ll still be able to run multiple windows with multiple game instances though.

2096

BLUF: They did what they did but they are taking a financial hit and the anti-boxers should be very grateful. You made great points and I’d like to add.

I’ve got a gmail inbox of several hundred “Your order…” emails, the notice you get when you apply a WoW Token to your game time, or apply balance to your BNET account. I stopped changing pages at 300, gmail did earlier and its just labeled as “1-50 of many” (yes they are all from this year). So even at 300 tokens per $20 (again i stopped counting at 300), which someone else paid that is $6000. If I pay for 8 subs out of pocket for a year each that is $1440. But here is the kicker, I also sell a lot of stuff on the AH which wouldn’t be possible without multi-boxing in it’s now late form. I sold thousands of items from mounts, uber rare plans, uber rare armor, you name it. And no small amount of those sold on the AH for 100-300k. So that means people were also selling tokens to buy them. Even more money Bliz is losing on this. Though my initial request was denied for refunds and game time transfer, thank you to Bliz for doing the right thing on this. I am fortunate to have received refunds for 7 SL copies and the transference of game time for all my accounts to my main. And while I do think this will impact the in-game economy and company profits I don’t think it will be earth shattering (check out the Q3 financials).

And as a side note, what I’ve always seen as a bigger problem. You’re still going to have the large Oceanic Server farming groups hyperspawning like I saw them out there again today. And they’ve also been transferring to NA servers. As a multi-boxer, when I wanted to farm some of the usual spots they are always out an about. While 8xtoon boxing I constantly got messages in Spanish, Portuguese, or broken English asking to join the farms. I’d play for 30+ hours with periodic breaks, crash for 12 hours, come back and the same groups were always on.

I’d read a farmer’s twitter feed months ago that I accessed via a linked discord account when he/she passed their info and there was open discussions of the game/Bitcoin transfers on the feed. My guess is they are involved in RMT due to political and economic situations in those countries specifically Venezuela in the case of that farmer, but there were tons posting as well.

For perspective on Multi-boxers: There are people looking for an easy path in life, same is true for the game. There always will be. But also like life, there are many who work hard to get where they are at. Work hard to gear their toons and do difficult content myself included (Raiding, M+, World PVP). And to be really good at it multi-boxing, takes time, patience, failures, successes and impetus. I prefer to play alone and don’t like relying on others to do things.

I also love to farm, to me its the most enjoyable thing in the game as it is almost like gambling and I lose no money. I can’t tell you how many times I leaped for joy in my living room when I’d get a rare plan or mount, only to remember that I do farm with WM On and I needed to stop the celebration and focus, and I’m burning fuel (buffs are running down).

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