I remember EQ - pretty much the time period post-WoW/EQ2, but before Mercs were introduced.
The population was thin enough that it was very difficult to get a group in content you needed, even if you were in a decent, active guild.
The content and class balance were still that you pretty well needed a group: Tank, Healer, Slower/CC, DPS - to get much of anything worth while done.
It wasn't too hard to get part of that, but surprise surprise, tanks and healers were scarce. You could get by with some creativity and still make some things work (RangerTank, Shaman heals, charm tanks, etc) - but it was difficult.
I had 3 different accounts, and would often two-box in groups, and three-box when I was by myself and couldn't con anyone into coming out to play with me (long augment camps, faction grinds, etc). I know several people who just played their 3 or 4 box groups, and would give away drops to friends/guildies looking for rare drops - just because it was more conveneient and consistent.
Once mercs came around, it changed a lot. Mercs pretty well let a lot of classes solo, or at best, nearly eliminated the need to 2-box if you had at least one other real person in the group.
I did 2 or 3 box on occasion - but I didn't care for it. I would much rather have had real people in the group, and I thought grouping was my favorite part of the game. But the population was low enough, and classes built such that it just wasn't possible. It was either box and get what I needed done slowly, or sit around LFG for ~hours~ literally, and maybe get something done, but probably not.
I don't think you should prevent multi-boxing -- after all, it was a big part of the culture in that donut hole of playability for several years. But I would like to see some sort of mechanic that eliminates the requirement for people to multi-box as well. Mercs were an answer, and other games have auto-group finders, but I don't think either of those are ~the~ answer.
And also the only one that CLEARLY doesn't understand what multiboxing is, since it can't be done well in games like PoE....
Now it can not be done well, but during closed beta, and shortly after open beta the rules for the Item Quantity bonus were quite a bit more lax.
Even if they were never changed....who cares?
So some people have some more items in a game where economy is basically worthless anyway....just like every other MMO. No economy will work because in the end there will always be gold sellers or RMT. There is no way around it, you don't have to partake (and I don't) or like it but it won't change it.
Just because every car has similar features doesn't mean that Ferraris are copies of Model Ts. Progress requires failure and refining.
If someone spends the time, effort, money (non-F2P), and has the skill to handle multiple characters at once in either PVE/PVP, good for them. I can accomplish more with friends or random people with much less individual effort.
A miss cast or selecting the wrong character at a key moment will be a quick end to a multiboxer, even more so in PVP. They have to earn their reward.
DAoC on the other hand had a problem with multiboxing. People did do the traditional mutlbox, but many people went the buff bot route.
Level a healer, buff up main character, park healer in a safe spot, PVP with main. While they paid the extra monthly sub and put in the time to level the 2nd character, at the end game, they had very little risk for having 2 accounts running.
Essentially they were paying for a large advantage with no risk, similar to P2W. I eventually joined in on this and eventually they put in restrictions to limit how effective this combo was, but it didn't go away while I still played.
Even healers with a certain build would have a 2nd healer to buff them up and fill in the gaps, always got a kick out of that.
While both are multiboxing, I consider the DAoC system to be more like botting and shouldn't happen, especially when PVP in involved.
Even if someone is just towing a healer or whatever class around with their main, this still takes effort.
Multiple active characters good, inactive characters bad.
We dont even know if tis a group based game like EQ1 was or a solo quest fest like EQ2......I never had any problem with boxing...in fact I grouped with several and it was nice often having a pocket healer or some other role.
In a subscription game, multiboxing is rare and typically consists of 2 or 3 accounts. When a game is F2P it can quickly get out of hand.
Just take a look at how it has mushroomed in Rift since it went F2P. It's not unusual to see a set of 5 to 10 bots in their own little raid. In solo PVE, it's just a minor annoyance if you happen to be in the same area. But in PVP it's a whole different story.
Good organized PVP is all about focus firing and assisting. Multiboxing is the ultimate in error-free focus firing or focus healing. Yes, they can be beaten fairly easily if you identify and kill the lead. Still, it's an unnecessary form of additional aggravation for a hapless unsuspecting casual group that runs into a boxed set.
Pretty cheesy in F2P games IMHO.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
I played EQ from 1999 to 2004, multiboxing had exactly zero impact on the game for me.
Well, that is 10 years ago, the game has changed since then. Multiboxing is an issue when it becomes so widespread that everyone does it. You become forced to multibox to make a group.
You can vote Yes if you like, I just wanted your thoughts on multiboxing, not if it had an impact on EQ, I played it much longer and I can definately say it has impacted me. Your mileage may vary.
You disagree, that's ok, let's leave it at that.
Its not a multiboxing issue its a declining population issue. As the game population gets lower and lower fewer groups are available and thus you start to get mad at the dude who's boxing cause you cant get a group? Seriously?
As well as a out growing zones problem. GW2 for all the ragging it gets on this site was on to something with downleveling.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
See the game can be free to play apparently i would personaly like to see them stop duel boxing atleast for the free game. cause if everyone can duel box it might just happen and all u see is everyone duel boxing the game to lvl without social interaction.
I played EQ from 1999 to 2004, multiboxing had exactly zero impact on the game for me.
Well, that is 10 years ago, the game has changed since then. Multiboxing is an issue when it becomes so widespread that everyone does it. You become forced to multibox to make a group.
You can vote Yes if you like, I just wanted your thoughts on multiboxing, not if it had an impact on EQ, I played it much longer and I can definately say it has impacted me. Your mileage may vary.
You disagree, that's ok, let's leave it at that.
Its not a multiboxing issue its a declining population issue. As the game population gets lower and lower fewer groups are available and thus you start to get mad at the dude who's boxing cause you cant get a group? Seriously?
I wonder if some of you have actually played EQ during the last couple of years.
If you think it didn't think cause grouping issues, especially for newcomers, you're truly braindead.
That's besides all the issues it caused during betas.
Boxing didn't even arise out of grouping issues, in EQ it was mostly about getting looting rights.
As was previously stated, this is a population issue; not realizing that, yet calling others braindead? Come on...
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
The user and all related content has been deleted.
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
Originally posted by sanshi44 all u see is everyone duel boxing the game to lvl without social interaction.
That's what happened in EQ, new players join the game, see everyone play on their own without interacting, and they leave the game.
The issues with Rift are different, since multiboxing isn't as widespread in Rift yet, it's still more of a PVP balance issue, but eventually it becomes a PVE issue too.
It's hard to prove what multiboxing does I think. It causes a lot of changes but we don't know the results. It's a bit like climate change, we know it is happening, but we don't know how it is impacting Earth very well and we don't know what the future holds.
This type of stuff needs to be stopped its rediculous and is out of control especialy in F2P games, It ruins the game for everyone else who tries to play legitimitly so yes it should be bannable better to loose a few boxing accounts than the legitimate playerbase if u ask me aswell. Btw the video is only a WoW one cause when u type on muiltiboxing pvp u get about 50 pages full of WoW muiltiboxing so not bagging WoW in general.
I wonder if some of you have actually played EQ during the last couple of years.
If you think it didn't think cause grouping issues, especially for newcomers, you're truly braindead.
That's besides all the issues it caused during betas.
Boxing didn't even arise out of grouping issues, in EQ it was mostly about getting looting rights.
As was previously stated, this is a population issue; not realizing that, yet calling others braindead? Come on...
It didn't come about because of populations issues. Tell me when multiboxing started in EQ.
Doesn't matter when it started what mattered (in any game),is where population sees an imbalance of those on top and those coming in. That's when grouping issues come into play. A multi-boxer is far more likely ( especially in a sub based game) to be a player that's been there and done it all (knows all the loopholes, IE knows the benefits of multi-boxing, and knows how to maximize botting for the fastest route through leveling).
New players have a problem finding groups when they're in an imbalanced game community, I'll also add... those who choose to multi-box wouldn't be grouping anyway, so the same problem would exist regardless. Why would social players choose to multi-box in the first place?
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
What do you all think about multiboxing. It became a big problem in Everquest and nowadays everyone has multiple accounts in Everquest and almost everyone plays multiple characters at once.
Should gameplay be focused enough so there's no multiboxing, should they just ban multiboxing or just let it go on.
Please vote on the poll and share your thoughts.
Thank you.
Since you can't actually block it without preventing valid multiple account family users who have more then one person playing from the same IP address the poll and previous posts are all moot.
Originally posted by Stromm Poll needed a "Who cares?" option.
Exactly, doesn't matter about silly little polls like this, multiboxing will always be allowed. Always has been always will be....debate it all you want your wasting your time. I am for it as well.
"The King and the Pawn return to the same box at the end of the game"
This type of stuff needs to be stopped its rediculous and is out of control especialy in F2P games, It ruins the game for everyone else who tries to play legitimitly so yes it should be bannable better to loose a few boxing accounts than the legitimate playerbase if u ask me aswell. Btw the video is only a WoW one cause when u type on muiltiboxing pvp u get about 50 pages full of WoW muiltiboxing so not bagging WoW in general.
Im going to start with a nitpick, they are playing legitimitly, Im sure some (just like single players) exploit. But multiboxing in general IS 100% legal.
The pvp this is mood sorry, if it was so effective.. why not pick a leader and macro /follow and spam another assist macro tied to a spell or skill. Its not hard to do. Infact.. using that approach you STILL get the benifids of multiboxing but they cant cut off the head and disable the group.
Funny thing is... and I admit I didnt bother to watch the entire youtuve you linked... It was a multiboxer ( a group of 5) taking out 1-2 players who kept on drippling in. It wasnt a multiboxing thing. it was a 1-2 vs 5 thing. So Im kinna confused here, did you link that to proof how multiboxing is just another scapegoat?
This type of stuff needs to be stopped its rediculous and is out of control especialy in F2P games, It ruins the game for everyone else who tries to play legitimitly so yes it should be bannable better to loose a few boxing accounts than the legitimate playerbase if u ask me aswell. Btw the video is only a WoW one cause when u type on muiltiboxing pvp u get about 50 pages full of WoW muiltiboxing so not bagging WoW in general.
Im going to start with a nitpick, they are playing legitimitly, Im sure some (just like single players) exploit. But multiboxing in general IS 100% legal.
The pvp this is mood sorry, if it was so effective.. why not pick a leader and macro /follow and spam another assist macro tied to a spell or skill. Its not hard to do. Infact.. using that approach you STILL get the benifids of multiboxing but they cant cut off the head and disable the group.
Funny thing is... and I admit I didnt bother to watch the entire youtuve you linked... It was a multiboxer ( a group of 5) taking out 1-2 players who kept on drippling in. It wasnt a multiboxing thing. it was a 1-2 vs 5 thing. So Im kinna confused here, did you link that to proof how multiboxing is just another scapegoat?
Picking a leader and /assit requires some form of teamwork/organisation however a muiltbox doesnt, i didnt watch the whole video either and only picked it because it was using melee classes to show it works quite well, once u get to one like warloc with dots or shaman chain lightning u can drop groups quickly. Its been a long time since i last played WoW so may of changed slightly but there were shaman muiltiboxes abc kthen and they chainlighting and 2-3 people die instant and then instant cast earth shock and kill another one right afterwards.
This type of stuff needs to be stopped its rediculous and is out of control especialy in F2P games, It ruins the game for everyone else who tries to play legitimitly so yes it should be bannable better to loose a few boxing accounts than the legitimate playerbase if u ask me aswell. Btw the video is only a WoW one cause when u type on muiltiboxing pvp u get about 50 pages full of WoW muiltiboxing so not bagging WoW in general.
Im going to start with a nitpick, they are playing legitimitly, Im sure some (just like single players) exploit. But multiboxing in general IS 100% legal.
The pvp this is mood sorry, if it was so effective.. why not pick a leader and macro /follow and spam another assist macro tied to a spell or skill. Its not hard to do. Infact.. using that approach you STILL get the benifids of multiboxing but they cant cut off the head and disable the group.
Funny thing is... and I admit I didnt bother to watch the entire youtuve you linked... It was a multiboxer ( a group of 5) taking out 1-2 players who kept on drippling in. It wasnt a multiboxing thing. it was a 1-2 vs 5 thing. So Im kinna confused here, did you link that to proof how multiboxing is just another scapegoat?
Picking a leader and /assit requires some form of teamwork/organisation however a muiltbox doesnt, i didnt watch the whole video either and only picked it because it was using melee classes to show it works quite well, once u get to one like warloc with dots or shaman chain lightning u can drop groups quickly. Its been a long time since i last played WoW so may of changed slightly but there were shaman muiltiboxes abc kthen and they chainlighting and 2-3 people die instant and then instant cast earth shock and kill another one right afterwards.
You do realise you are just acknowlaging its just a scapegoat right? A mutliboxer IS coordinating a group, people refusing to work as a team or.. create a /follow and assist based macro "could completely counter that.
a caster multiboxer is just as easy to defeat, spread out, you know they are focusing fire, if a multiboxer is capeble of aoeing another group to death then ... the issue is NOT the multiboxer then the multiboxer is probebly dealing with players who probebly would find PONG on easy too hard.
And yes the youtube you picked was a horid excample. 1 or 2 vs 5 SHOULD get their behinds handed to them. Funny enough your youtube also proofs that the horde losing av isnt due terain.. but due their ussually 0 man defence. Im amused.
I see a lot of hostility towards multiboxing, but no one really makes a fair claim as to how it has impacted them specifically other than broad terms like "ruined economy" or "no grouping" etc. We get a bad rap for this and yet have you ever actually talked to someone who multiboxes in a civil manner instead of unjustified hate?
I am/was a multiboxer in Everquest. I used to play 5 characters. Why not 6? Because I WANTED someone to join me. I didn't think it was fair for me to be able to accomplish amazing things by myself and have no one to share it with. I went out of my way to find people to join my group to help them out. As for the ruined economy? I suppose if farming things to GIVE away for FREE is ruining the economy, then I guess you're right.
I tried very hard to make sure I was not messing with anyone, ever, and if I did anything to impact the community, it was purely generosity based. I think I speak for the majority of multiboxers when I say most of us are not here to ruin your game. We are here to enjoy the game just as much as you and if we can help you in the process most of us will. I thoroughly enjoyed going out of my way helping others. I have been friends for several years with a few people purely because of this.
I'm not saying ALL multiboxers are like me, but I would bet to say the vast majority are.
I see a lot of hostility towards multiboxing, but no one really makes a fair claim as to how it has impacted them specifically other than broad terms like "ruined economy" or "no grouping" etc. We get a bad rap for this and yet have you ever actually talked to someone who multiboxes in a civil manner instead of unjustified hate?
I am/was a multiboxer in Everquest. I used to play 5 characters. Why not 6? Because I WANTED someone to join me. I didn't think it was fair for me to be able to accomplish amazing things by myself and have no one to share it with. I went out of my way to find people to join my group to help them out. As for the ruined economy? I suppose if farming things to GIVE away for FREE is ruining the economy, then I guess you're right.
I tried very hard to make sure I was not messing with anyone, ever, and if I did anything to impact the community, it was purely generosity based. I think I speak for the majority of multiboxers when I say most of us are not here to ruin your game. We are here to enjoy the game just as much as you and if we can help you in the process most of us will. I thoroughly enjoyed going out of my way helping others. I have been friends for several years with a few people purely because of this.
I'm not saying ALL multiboxers are like me, but I would bet to say the vast majority are.
I did the same, but end up merc healer is better ....
I don't see how multiboxing could ever impact grouping. If you can control a group of characters better than a group can control individual characters who cares? The biggest problem I think multiboxing does make is that it hyper inflates game economies.
So I can farm X mob for an hour with a single character and make Y amount of gold. Now If I use 6 characters to farm these mobs well now I can potentially make six times the amount of gold i did from one character. Or If I can farm an instance that is usually party oriented for loot drops by multiboxing I can make a ton more gold. This makes it where a lot of people have to 1. Farm the AH 2. Just slow farm or 3. upgrade their pc and multibox just like everyone else.
I personally can't wait for the day that mmos ban people for multiboxing or multiaccounting as some people do.
I see a lot of hostility towards multiboxing, but no one really makes a fair claim as to how it has impacted them specifically other than broad terms like "ruined economy" or "no grouping" etc. We get a bad rap for this and yet have you ever actually talked to someone who multiboxes in a civil manner instead of unjustified hate?
I am/was a multiboxer in Everquest. I used to play 5 characters. Why not 6? Because I WANTED someone to join me. I didn't think it was fair for me to be able to accomplish amazing things by myself and have no one to share it with. I went out of my way to find people to join my group to help them out. As for the ruined economy? I suppose if farming things to GIVE away for FREE is ruining the economy, then I guess you're right.
I tried very hard to make sure I was not messing with anyone, ever, and if I did anything to impact the community, it was purely generosity based. I think I speak for the majority of multiboxers when I say most of us are not here to ruin your game. We are here to enjoy the game just as much as you and if we can help you in the process most of us will. I thoroughly enjoyed going out of my way helping others. I have been friends for several years with a few people purely because of this.
I'm not saying ALL multiboxers are like me, but I would bet to say the vast majority are.
I did the same, but end up merc healer is better ....
My choice of characters typically made sure that no matter who I picked for my group, they didn't impact it enough to hurt my gaming experience or theirs.
Comments
I remember EQ - pretty much the time period post-WoW/EQ2, but before Mercs were introduced.
The population was thin enough that it was very difficult to get a group in content you needed, even if you were in a decent, active guild.
The content and class balance were still that you pretty well needed a group: Tank, Healer, Slower/CC, DPS - to get much of anything worth while done.
It wasn't too hard to get part of that, but surprise surprise, tanks and healers were scarce. You could get by with some creativity and still make some things work (RangerTank, Shaman heals, charm tanks, etc) - but it was difficult.
I had 3 different accounts, and would often two-box in groups, and three-box when I was by myself and couldn't con anyone into coming out to play with me (long augment camps, faction grinds, etc). I know several people who just played their 3 or 4 box groups, and would give away drops to friends/guildies looking for rare drops - just because it was more conveneient and consistent.
Once mercs came around, it changed a lot. Mercs pretty well let a lot of classes solo, or at best, nearly eliminated the need to 2-box if you had at least one other real person in the group.
I did 2 or 3 box on occasion - but I didn't care for it. I would much rather have had real people in the group, and I thought grouping was my favorite part of the game. But the population was low enough, and classes built such that it just wasn't possible. It was either box and get what I needed done slowly, or sit around LFG for ~hours~ literally, and maybe get something done, but probably not.
I don't think you should prevent multi-boxing -- after all, it was a big part of the culture in that donut hole of playability for several years. But I would like to see some sort of mechanic that eliminates the requirement for people to multi-box as well. Mercs were an answer, and other games have auto-group finders, but I don't think either of those are ~the~ answer.
Now it can not be done well, but during closed beta, and shortly after open beta the rules for the Item Quantity bonus were quite a bit more lax.
Even if they were never changed....who cares?
So some people have some more items in a game where economy is basically worthless anyway....just like every other MMO. No economy will work because in the end there will always be gold sellers or RMT. There is no way around it, you don't have to partake (and I don't) or like it but it won't change it.
Just because every car has similar features doesn't mean that Ferraris are copies of Model Ts. Progress requires failure and refining.
It should come down to risk vs reward.
If someone spends the time, effort, money (non-F2P), and has the skill to handle multiple characters at once in either PVE/PVP, good for them. I can accomplish more with friends or random people with much less individual effort.
A miss cast or selecting the wrong character at a key moment will be a quick end to a multiboxer, even more so in PVP. They have to earn their reward.
DAoC on the other hand had a problem with multiboxing. People did do the traditional mutlbox, but many people went the buff bot route.
Level a healer, buff up main character, park healer in a safe spot, PVP with main. While they paid the extra monthly sub and put in the time to level the 2nd character, at the end game, they had very little risk for having 2 accounts running.
Essentially they were paying for a large advantage with no risk, similar to P2W. I eventually joined in on this and eventually they put in restrictions to limit how effective this combo was, but it didn't go away while I still played.
Even healers with a certain build would have a 2nd healer to buff them up and fill in the gaps, always got a kick out of that.
While both are multiboxing, I consider the DAoC system to be more like botting and shouldn't happen, especially when PVP in involved.
Even if someone is just towing a healer or whatever class around with their main, this still takes effort.
Multiple active characters good, inactive characters bad.
Just take a look at how it has mushroomed in Rift since it went F2P. It's not unusual to see a set of 5 to 10 bots in their own little raid. In solo PVE, it's just a minor annoyance if you happen to be in the same area. But in PVP it's a whole different story.
Good organized PVP is all about focus firing and assisting. Multiboxing is the ultimate in error-free focus firing or focus healing. Yes, they can be beaten fairly easily if you identify and kill the lead. Still, it's an unnecessary form of additional aggravation for a hapless unsuspecting casual group that runs into a boxed set.
Pretty cheesy in F2P games IMHO.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
As well as a out growing zones problem. GW2 for all the ragging it gets on this site was on to something with downleveling.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
As was previously stated, this is a population issue; not realizing that, yet calling others braindead? Come on...
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
It didn't come about because of populations issues. Tell me when multiboxing started in EQ.
That's what happened in EQ, new players join the game, see everyone play on their own without interacting, and they leave the game.
The issues with Rift are different, since multiboxing isn't as widespread in Rift yet, it's still more of a PVP balance issue, but eventually it becomes a PVE issue too.
I voted to not allow it. It's an MMORPG not SPORPG (Single Player Offline RPG) so go out and make friends and play with them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_lDIAPStxg
This type of stuff needs to be stopped its rediculous and is out of control especialy in F2P games, It ruins the game for everyone else who tries to play legitimitly so yes it should be bannable better to loose a few boxing accounts than the legitimate playerbase if u ask me aswell. Btw the video is only a WoW one cause when u type on muiltiboxing pvp u get about 50 pages full of WoW muiltiboxing so not bagging WoW in general.
Doesn't matter when it started what mattered (in any game),is where population sees an imbalance of those on top and those coming in. That's when grouping issues come into play. A multi-boxer is far more likely ( especially in a sub based game) to be a player that's been there and done it all (knows all the loopholes, IE knows the benefits of multi-boxing, and knows how to maximize botting for the fastest route through leveling).
New players have a problem finding groups when they're in an imbalanced game community, I'll also add... those who choose to multi-box wouldn't be grouping anyway, so the same problem would exist regardless. Why would social players choose to multi-box in the first place?
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Since you can't actually block it without preventing valid multiple account family users who have more then one person playing from the same IP address the poll and previous posts are all moot.
Exactly, doesn't matter about silly little polls like this, multiboxing will always be allowed. Always has been always will be....debate it all you want your wasting your time. I am for it as well.
Im going to start with a nitpick, they are playing legitimitly, Im sure some (just like single players) exploit. But multiboxing in general IS 100% legal.
The pvp this is mood sorry, if it was so effective.. why not pick a leader and macro /follow and spam another assist macro tied to a spell or skill. Its not hard to do. Infact.. using that approach you STILL get the benifids of multiboxing but they cant cut off the head and disable the group.
Funny thing is... and I admit I didnt bother to watch the entire youtuve you linked... It was a multiboxer ( a group of 5) taking out 1-2 players who kept on drippling in. It wasnt a multiboxing thing. it was a 1-2 vs 5 thing. So Im kinna confused here, did you link that to proof how multiboxing is just another scapegoat?
Picking a leader and /assit requires some form of teamwork/organisation however a muiltbox doesnt, i didnt watch the whole video either and only picked it because it was using melee classes to show it works quite well, once u get to one like warloc with dots or shaman chain lightning u can drop groups quickly. Its been a long time since i last played WoW so may of changed slightly but there were shaman muiltiboxes abc kthen and they chainlighting and 2-3 people die instant and then instant cast earth shock and kill another one right afterwards.
You do realise you are just acknowlaging its just a scapegoat right? A mutliboxer IS coordinating a group, people refusing to work as a team or.. create a /follow and assist based macro "could completely counter that.
a caster multiboxer is just as easy to defeat, spread out, you know they are focusing fire, if a multiboxer is capeble of aoeing another group to death then ... the issue is NOT the multiboxer then the multiboxer is probebly dealing with players who probebly would find PONG on easy too hard.
And yes the youtube you picked was a horid excample. 1 or 2 vs 5 SHOULD get their behinds handed to them. Funny enough your youtube also proofs that the horde losing av isnt due terain.. but due their ussually 0 man defence. Im amused.
I see a lot of hostility towards multiboxing, but no one really makes a fair claim as to how it has impacted them specifically other than broad terms like "ruined economy" or "no grouping" etc. We get a bad rap for this and yet have you ever actually talked to someone who multiboxes in a civil manner instead of unjustified hate?
I am/was a multiboxer in Everquest. I used to play 5 characters. Why not 6? Because I WANTED someone to join me. I didn't think it was fair for me to be able to accomplish amazing things by myself and have no one to share it with. I went out of my way to find people to join my group to help them out. As for the ruined economy? I suppose if farming things to GIVE away for FREE is ruining the economy, then I guess you're right.
I tried very hard to make sure I was not messing with anyone, ever, and if I did anything to impact the community, it was purely generosity based. I think I speak for the majority of multiboxers when I say most of us are not here to ruin your game. We are here to enjoy the game just as much as you and if we can help you in the process most of us will. I thoroughly enjoyed going out of my way helping others. I have been friends for several years with a few people purely because of this.
I'm not saying ALL multiboxers are like me, but I would bet to say the vast majority are.
I don't see how multiboxing could ever impact grouping. If you can control a group of characters better than a group can control individual characters who cares? The biggest problem I think multiboxing does make is that it hyper inflates game economies.
So I can farm X mob for an hour with a single character and make Y amount of gold. Now If I use 6 characters to farm these mobs well now I can potentially make six times the amount of gold i did from one character. Or If I can farm an instance that is usually party oriented for loot drops by multiboxing I can make a ton more gold. This makes it where a lot of people have to 1. Farm the AH 2. Just slow farm or 3. upgrade their pc and multibox just like everyone else.
I personally can't wait for the day that mmos ban people for multiboxing or multiaccounting as some people do.
My choice of characters typically made sure that no matter who I picked for my group, they didn't impact it enough to hurt my gaming experience or theirs.