One WoW player controls 36 characters simultaneously

by Shawn Schuster Oct 13th 2008 at 12:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Culture, Raiding, Grouping

If your family or friends ever tell you that dual-boxing is insane and you need to get a life, show them this story. A World of Warcraft player aptly-named Prepared owns 36 accounts that he can actually run simultaneously through his 11-computer set-up shown here. We'll overlook the logistics involved in actually accessing 11 computers at once for just a moment to focus on the cost of such ...dedication. "It costs me exactly $5711 in subscription costs per year with 36 accounts on the 6 month pay schedule. Not bad considering I'm looking at it like it's a hobby and there are more expensive hobbies out there than World of Warcraft," Prepared says. This doesn't even include expansion costs, as he figures Wrath of the Lich King will set him back about another $1500.

So how does he do it? Is it all for show, or can he actually be a one-man raid? According to him, they are all fully-functional with the help of certain add-ons and macros. While this isn't the first time someone has done something like this, with some players reporting as high as 50 accounts, controlling everything simultaneously is where Prepared's rig set-up really shines. Just wait until you hear about his nine level 80s on WotLK's Murmur PvP server.

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Tags: 36-accounts, dual-boxing, joystiq, multi-boxing, prepared, world-of-warcraft, wow

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

kingjames said on 12:23PM 10-13-2008

This guy could foster a child in Ethiopia or possibly adopt a kid for the amount of money he is dumping on Blizzard. It may just be me but at some point the reason you play an MMO is to have fun with friends, I guess this guy has multiple personalities so he has a toon for each one lol. I pray he meets a girl someday though.

Coldbrand said on 1:12PM 10-13-2008

Hey you started off with a point, then slipped off into stupidity.

I'm pretty sure a guy who can afford 5 grand a year on hobbies has enough cash to earn the attention of at least certain types of females.

my2cents said on 2:53PM 10-13-2008

Either that or he's blowing all his money on WoW and still lives in his parents' basement. "Hey baby, can wanna come over and see me break records in obbsessive gaming?"

david said on 3:21PM 10-13-2008

People like this make me sick... I knew some people were addicted to WoW, but this has gone to far... I can't believe people love this game THAT much to pay for 36 accounts... Does the guy not have a life or whats the deal?

People like this are pathetic human-beings...

Guido666 said on 3:35PM 10-14-2008

Who cares? I have friends with race cars that blow that kind of money on engines once a year, others with crazy gaming rigs that will spend $1000's, a friend with a horse (talk about money, it eats like $30 of food a day), and my grandma probably spends that much on antique nick-nacks. Everybody has their vice, this guy's is WoW.

You have to give him credit for doing, ALONE, what normally takes 36 skilled people independently. If you can do anything that takes 36 people [that already know what they are doing] normally, please tell us about it, and they'll write you an article too. Oh, you can't? QQ more then please.

Celestro said on 5:27PM 10-13-2008

It's interesting how quickly people are to jump on the bandwagon to make fun of the player mentioned in the article.

I wonder if he'd receive the same type of feedback if he spent $6000 a year on Blu-Ray movies, candy, or illegal drugs.

Drucifer said on 5:29PM 10-13-2008

Good for him.

If he can be his own raid group more power to him.

Let the Ethiopians feed thier own.

I think that if more people could afford to hot box multiple accounts they would.

So hang up the snobbery.

Ripper McGee said on 5:54PM 10-13-2008

Reposted from my reply on mmorpg.com:

The subscription may be just $5711/year, plus ~$1,500 for WotLK, but he's incurring quite a bit more in hardware expenses and electricity, more if he's cooling his play area like a server room (and he should be with all that hardware). I'd be surprised if he wasn't playing on a business account on his ISP in order to handle the bandwidth limits imposed by many consumer accounts. Hell, with that much hardware, I'd be playing in a server room with a raised floor, cabling, cooling, UPS', etc...

~Ripper

piro606 said on 12:47AM 10-14-2008

This guy plays on my girlfriends server (Aegwynn). She has a screen shot of him standing in Shat with all of his toons in a circle. Each toon was doing an emote every second to the point where everyone near him was lagging out of the game. Seems kind of douchey if you ask me.

Wjowski said on 11:28PM 10-13-2008

I'm less disgusted with his hobby and more disgusted with the various delusional 'Holier Than Thou' commenters. Nothing stinks quite like delusional self-righteousness.

ScytheNoire said on 8:24AM 10-14-2008

That is insanity.

Now if he did that in a game like WAR, he could actually accomplish something cool like taking a Keep all on his own. Not sure what he can accomplish in WoW.

But insane, definitely.

Sarem said on 3:01PM 10-14-2008

Heres to paying 5k to be bad at a game, to lose every match.

I see lots of people doing this and im never sure why they always use shamans.

I doubt its fun since you lose every batttleground and you cant run 5 or 10 mans with just shamans.

Im very surprised people like this dont get shut down sooner since the obvious motivation is to grind them all some mediocre pvp gear and then start selling the accounts.

People like this are losers with too much free time, they are afraid to try things in the real world so they put in A LOT of effort to a social game, And I guarantee my 1 shaman is better than any/all of his, and im 100% positive that my 5 man arena team would murder his.

P A T H E T I C A N D R E P O R T E D!

Sarem said on 3:06PM 10-14-2008

Hardly Snobery and playing muliple accounts at the same time isnt that much fun. And If anyone ran their own raid group id call them an antisocial no lifer. 5k a year is not an astronomical amount of money, its pretty much breakfast and lunch for a whole year.

LOL his basement must be so hot!

The fact of the matter is that this is his accomplishment. not being good, not progress, financial dedication. I would almost guarnatee hes violating terms of service.

your allowd mulitple accounts but you are Not allowd automations via 3rd party software, and im sure that that is happening here.

I plan on making a forum post about this guy, and reporting him, be prepared for the price of poorly geared lvl 70 spacegoat shamans to drop very steeply.

Guido666 said on 3:40PM 10-14-2008

Why do you all have to bash the guy? What are your hobbies that don't waste as much time as his, and are so much more accepted? Since when did being a social butterfly become a requirement to lead a happy life? He probably thinks we're foolish for wasting 100's of hours a year watching football in our living room. We're not being social, or accomplishing anything either, but we're having fun. So is he.

Sarem said on 6:20PM 10-14-2008

He is not having fun, he is working, he sells those chars, watching football is free and social btw.

Stop defending ppl that break ToS and deserve to be banned!

Sarem said on 7:52AM 10-15-2008

"Guido666 said...

Who cares? I have friends with race cars that blow that kind of money on engines once a year, others with crazy gaming rigs that will spend $1000's, a friend with a horse (talk about money, it eats like $30 of food a day), and my grandma probably spends that much on antique nick-nacks. Everybody has their vice, this guy's is WoW.

You have to give him credit for doing, ALONE, what normally takes 36 skilled people independently. If you can do anything that takes 36 people [that already know what they are doing] normally, please tell us about it, and they'll write you an article too. Oh, you can't? QQ more then please."

he doesnt do what 36 ppl do.. Whatever that means, He doesnt raid with them, look at him, they are all shamans and they are all horrible, he just Que's up and grinds honor and sells them.

Lemons said on 6:08PM 10-15-2008

Wow this dude could totally run an av all by himself, and I though 5 shamans was bad, this is insanity!!!

revrent said on 10:27AM 10-17-2008

Hey Hey

It is not the money for subs or hardware that amaze me , but the fact that this is what he considers fun. Hell to each there own.

You know there was a time when you had to work with people in MMO's.

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