World of Warcraft :Multiboxing Herbalism and Mining. Is this ok?

Community General Discussion
25

Be glad there isn’t pvp multiboxing anymore (aside from world pvp).
Still have nightmares of my realms(Doomhammer) multiboxer in wintergrasp.
10 druids all used starfall on our siege engine train. We never managed to get close to the walls.

26

Jealousy :smiley: Pretty sure false reporting is against the rules. Wasting everyone’s time.

27

I don’t think it’s jealousy, more like inconvenience.

28

Is it cheating? Yes
Is it botting? Yes
Is it against the rules set by Blizzard? No
Will Blizzard do anything about it? No

3 Likes
29

Go pvp and bring hordes to kill him

30

Here let me correct that for you.

Is it botting? No.

There is a very simple test in this regard for if it is botting or not and it goes like this; will those characters do anything at all if no real life person presses a button? In the case of multiboxers there is a programme that allows them to replicate keystrokes on separate accounts but if that key isn’t pressed then no action can be taken. Bots are fully automated allowing you to set them up and the walk away from your keyboard for the rest of the day whilst they continue working.

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31

It is OK cause it brings Bobby more money per player

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32

See I really don’t get this attitude, 'boxing has been in the game since the beginning and has also been complained about since the beginning yet Blizz have always stuck to their guns that they don’t consider 'boxing to be cheating. This was a thing long before Vivendi sold out to Activision.

33

It is not botting. Regardless of how you may feel about multiboxing it is not botting.

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34

Well, I believe it depends on how you look at it and on how they use it. Once they use a program (not sure if they still do it like this, but at least some used to) which enables them to interact with all 5 instances of WoW simultaneously, you walk on a very thin line.

You can easily argue that a piece of software controls your game then, and you control that piece of software. A piece of software that controls a game for you can easily be seen as a bot.

Either way, I don’t care so much about them. Saw a druid one yesterday farming herbs using 5 accounts. I wouldn’t be arsed doing so, but hey…it’s a clever way to make money I guess. Can easily get that 160k to pay for the monthly fee aswel in that way.

1 Like
35

from my point of view it is sort of botting. From what ive seen from other mmorpg’s anything that creates a ‘1 input = 1 output’ is fine, if its 1 input = 2 output then its looked into (maybe this has distorted my view on what botting is idk)

This is creating 1 input = 5 outputs (or however many accounts there are) by using software to basically tie multiple instances of the game together. if I press W then the instance I’m on will move forward, this is the no automated instance. Then the software kicks in and replicates it over the remaining accounts this is the automated bit. Your input is only moving one character. The software is doing the rest across x number of accounts.

But hey. Its there. Blizzard make the rules and say its ok so you just have to suck it up.

36

Botting is when there to be no user input.

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37

TIL my OS is a bot…

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38

Most players are indifferent I’d say
I personally dont care, I think its clever (ab)use of game mechanics but if Blizzard thinks this is undesirable then they shouldnt have made it possible in the first place
We also have to be careful not to destroy even more ways to play the game because most of what we have is not appealing compared to past times

2 Likes
39

It’s horrible if you’re trying to gather materials. I’m not a fan myself.

40

Fair enough but how often do you run into a multiboxer? I’ve seen 2 in the past 3 expansions including instanced content

41

Most days :grin:

42

There’s only user input on one account only. The other x amount of accounts are being controlled by a program.

Lets be honest. Its a grey area which few use and views change on.

From my perspective duplicating an input on one account to other accounts via an external programme means those other accounts are essentially being botted. They have zero user input because the only action that is user driven is the ONE account that person is piloting (for me user input is 1 input = 1 output, I press W i move forward which is not the case for multiboxing as its 1 input = more than one output) The other accounts are being driven solely by a bot/programme.

To be fair I don’t have an issue with multiboxing, I don’t care about it. But I like the discussion this kind of topic generates =D

1 Like
43

I am well aware of how it works.

But it requires a user to be in control. That is why it is permitted. They don’t support multi-boxing but it’s not against the rules either.

There is a vast difference between someone leaving Wow running overnight while their bot gathers various materials than someone who is running around a zone in full control his posse of alts with keystrokes and mouse.

44

They created a bot to automate keystrokes on multiple accounts. A bot isn’t just ‘automate everything’ it can be taking one input on one account and duplicating it over several. those several accounts/alts are being botted because they are not directly being controlled by the user (as the user is only controlling one account). the input on those accounts are from a programme.

3 Likes