This maybe a bit of a “tin foil hat theory” but my gut tells me there’s more reason to this change then just what it did to the market.
Such as many boxers playing for free by raw gold farming then buying tokens.
While boxers may of benefited blizzard for a while. While the 5 million ah mount was in a normal vendor to sell tokens but now that mount removed and on black market ah. Blizzard doesn’t really need boxers to farm up gold and buy WoW tokens anymore, so they gave them axe by banning the software that keyclones actions and sends them across clients.
Then my other thought is WoW maybe going “free to play” down the road soon and “free to play” games like Elder scrolls online do not allow multiboxing,
Then WoW will move to consoles soon after.
While all that might sound far fetched but so did the thought of blizzard taking a stance on multiboxing so nothing should be ruled out at this point.
Anywho at the end of day I was a very casual multboxer only played ever really 2 to 5 characters at once mostly to level them and have some fun world questing.
I could prob dual box down the road but I plan on holding off on that giving how the reporting system works and I could be falsely reported when I’m actually just running my two pc’s with two gaming keypads. Thankfully I didn’t bother upgrading my accounts to shadowlands except my main account I play.
Also WoW has really lost my interest and after this news I uninstalled WoW and decided its time a for another long break from the game. My game time runs out on the 13th and I do not plan on coming back for shadowlands as I got plenty of games and other things I could be doing.
This was not the only thing that has made me drift from WoW but it was the straw that broke the camels back for me.
They aren’t that bad, I have found plenty of herbs during my beta play time. But there will still be multiboxers out there gathering resources, this is the easiest form of “boxing” and can be done even without software assistance very easily.
I guess you don’t actually bother to do your due diligence before spouting off do you? I said earlier in this thread: FULL DISCLOSURE: I HATE MULTIBOXING. Never saw a need to do it, Never even thought it was a cool tech to have software that could somewhat emulate multiple vm’s inputs. So let me repeat it for you now. I FARGIN HATE MULTIBOXING and I REPORT EVERY SINGLE ONE I FIND.
That said Multiboxing isn’t actually against the ToS even with this change Multiboxing is still a valid playstyle according to the game developers.
Therefore I am not advocating alternate methods for multiboxers to play their game, I am in fact PREDICTING how the multiboxers will get around the ban on the third party software.
Now instead of High end gaming machines running multiple clients in the same address space using software to broadcast inputs to all of those clients it will be Homemade SERVERS (I have a very nice one (actually two because I mirror the servers one in online one offline except for weekly copydowns) in the basement in a 42U Rack SuperMicro CSE-846E16-R1200B 16 Bay Server Chassis X9DRi-LN4f+ 192GB DDR3 RAM 16x3TB Drives on the Server Chassis, Hooked via HBA to a 45 bay SC847E16-RJBOD Expander with all slots filled with 3TB SAS NAS Drives for a total of 183TB of online storage space all wired through two DELL 1gb 48 port switches) taking the place of the broadcasting software. Yes you need a little more capital investment to do it. Consider, it would be mere child’s play (if I so chose) for me to create 10 or 20 or 40 identical VM’s on that server spin them up allocate resources then broadcast the same set of commands via one keyboard to all of those vm’s (without using any software other than the Host OS) at the same time.
Let’s face facts; for those dedicated multiboxers who have input that kind of real world dollars into their systems to be able to run ten or twenty or thirty or 4forty clients and the real world dollars invested in monthly subscription fees (even if they are paid through tokens earned through herbing/mining/leatherworking) they will more than likely have the funds and resources to obtain (if they do not already have it) the hardware needed to run ten or twenty or thirty or forty VM’s with one VM per client. The hardware and setup would be trivial to them. Why? Because that setup I described that I have at my house in my basement? Cost me less than $10,000.00 and it easily would run 40 clients simultaneously.
Again not advocating an alternate method. Predicting what they will do. Whats changed? Nothing. The software ban will not impact the multiboxers other than to provide an annoyance. From a corporate perspective I would think annoyance of paying customers probably is not high on the stockholders wish list.
Hello devs, I was told to make a comment here from your support team.
Is it just ALL of ISboxer banned, or only the input broadcasting/keymapping functionality of it? For example, can I use round robin controls, which make it 1 button press = 1 action on 1 account, and no broadcasting at all.
ISBoxer provides functionality such as window layouts and things like round robins, which doesn’t use broadcasting at all to control the game. It also provides a quick way to switch between windows, and also things like Video FX which isn’t broadcasting as well. Will those features of it be allowed? It’s not broadcasting - it’s still 1 key press that has 1 action per press. IMHO, it ends up being the same as alt tabbing between windows and pressing buttons.
I’m sadly assuming though, that Warden the anti-cheat software will just auto ban for using ISBoxer, but people can use ISBoxer for many other things that don’t involve breaking the policy of input broadcasting.
Is it just ALL of ISboxer banned, or only the input broadcasting/keymapping functionality of it?
Personally, I use multiboxing for Pvping and everyone enjoys it. I’m sad to hear there was a general ban on multiboxing just because of a couple of the bots abusing the economy. I have about 40 accounts, sadly, which I will be unsubscribing/issuing refunds for which works out to at least $150/month USD.
If I do find uses for these accounts or clarification on what I can/cannot do on them, then I will keep them subscribed. Thanks!
It appears the main reason you disallowed broadcoast input was to target the botters. However, there are so many multiboxers who have been effected by this decision. Wouldn’t it be better then to just target their botting software instead? I don’t feel like multiboxers should pay for something they haven’t done because they were always following the rules. I hope you reconsider this decision and specifically target botting instead.
They have been specifically targeting botting, however the software that Mbs have been using is also being used by botters, from what I’m understanding based off the policy change and other posts.
Every time warden detects a bot, the creators of those bots find ways to get around and upgrade to continue doing it.
MB isn’t banned just the software. It may make it a little more difficult for you to MB but you’re still able to do it.
They are most certainly aware of this, money is involved. It isn’t an accidental change that kills off part of their player base, regardless what the initial Blizzard post states. They knew what they were doing. All we need now is more clarity from them, but I think its intentionally vague.
Prove it. I see this on each post, but have yet to see anyone link the actual hardware that can be used specifically to mirror keystrokes across multiple clients. Unless you can, you’re just making up facts to prove your point.
For some reason I cannot link but others in this thread already have. Google this. VIP-844-BC 4 port PS/2 Keyboard Multicaster
The way things used to be done (and can still be done TOS compliant today). The reason the term is called multiboxing. You had multiple computer (box)s.
Ok, I see it now. If you want to do it with modern computers, you may want to use USB-845-KM-BC 5 port USB Keyboard and Mouse Multicaster. So, if you have 4 computers, each running a single account, you can control the 4 accounts using a $360 external device. Wow, if you use 4 $800 laptops with the right specs, the total cost would be $3560 + tax. With that high a barrier to entry, the % of the user base would be much lower than the number of folks using software-based tools now.
So, you’re right and not making things up. However, I still think it is a very small part of the community using these tools.
The point is that now we’re expected to buy or build the hardware to do it within the terms of service - while still being harassed by a hate group and falsely reported in game because Blizzard emboldened them with the wording of their statement. If Blizzard had said something like this - it wouldn’t be nearly as bad “As part of an effort to more effectively deal with botting - Blizzard will be issuing automated sanctions against players using input broadcasting. Because multiboxing software input broadcasts do not look any different than a bot, input broadcasting software is unfortunately included in this prohibition. Multiboxing is not against the terms of service but will now require external hardware. Sorry for the inconvenience, but we believe this change overall will be more positive for the game moving forward as we will be able to deal with bots before they are able obtain anything meaningful within the game.”
But because of how they said it - the hate group army will be out there falsely reporting accounts that are not cheating or in violation of the terms of service until either an automated system kicks in that Blizzard denies exists or will simply be wasting the time of game masters who will have to review these complaints.
Oh and also - you would indeed want to use the PS2 one not the USB one. Unless things have changed, USB is not as reliable.
Yep. Unless they start clamping down, and banning the folks who are falsely reporting people who are boxing in the legit way. But who are we kidding. This is Blizz.
I’m going to dignify this with a response, despite the lack of need for it.
You assume that because I commented to ONE person, who deems it necessary to whine about them quitting and then continuing to comment on a thread when they stated they were going to quit, I’m rude to people who multibox.
I’m not. Never have been. If people want to manually play the game with multiple accounts? Sure. Knock yourself out.
But using a third party program to play 5+ accounts in the manner that I play 1, and then crying about it being NECESSARY to do so, is both ludicrous and incredibly stupid. As someone who linked the image somewhere towards the beginning of this thread (as the Tauren Warrior from Earthfury with the same name), I’ve experienced the ignorant part of people who are NOT as innocent with it as people in this thread wish to believe.
Get corpse-farmed on a PvP server by 5 Elemental Shamans who are all 5 levels higher than you, in Wrath, and then get told by a GM that ‘PvP problems have PvP solutions’. Thankfully, a friend found out what was happening, and brought 12 Rogues from our guild. I logged in, he was there in less than 4 minutes to start camping, found out exactly how much I enjoyed his harassment, and I transferred off to an RP realm shortly thereafter (this was a PvP realm I came from).
Not all Multiboxers may use it for ulterior, harassing measures, but enough of them do, that Blizzard believed it pertinent to come in and make it harder for them to do so. The old addage ‘it’s always ruining your fun until it happens to you’ certainly comes into play here. I’ve met far more bad multiboxers than good, and having the economy ruined by people who do nothing but chain-farm herbs and mining nodes all day isn’t my idea of fun.
If you want to call that ‘my opinion of the play style’ when countless other people in this thread are saying the same, then I have an oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you.
Man, must suck for all those white knights who, for years, insulted and mocked anyone on the forums who dared to suggest that multi-boxing was not good for the game.
Looks like we were right, and you were wrong, all along.
if you want to make it impossible for me to do storyline quests you BET im going to be hating you and your “i dont care about you” approach.
Now im not saying i do “hate you” but your attitude here screams volumes about the type of person you are. You come across as a person who thinks your USD’s entitle you to wreck gameplay for EVERYONE and that everyone can just go get hosed.
For your posting class alone i am excited for this change. A good hard Blizzard beatdown might clue you to reality that being entirely anti human will NOT get you far in human society. Same for everyone who has just been abusing multiboxing to disrupt zone progression for months now.
I don’t want to make the game difficult for anyone, I just want to quest on my two toons without being spit on and harassed in whispers for enjoying something different than them. Frankly - I would 100% support sanctioning multiboxers who use it for PVP or zone disruption. Both are griefing.
Yep. Unless they start clamping down, and banning the folks who are falsely reporting people who are boxing in the legit way. But who are we kidding. This is Blizz.