The Daily Grind: Multi-boxing mayhem

by William Dobson Sep 16th 2009 at 8:00AM

The act of playing multiple characters across multiple accounts at once (known as multi-boxing) has remained a popular pastime over the years for a certain breed of MMO player. There are communities devoted to getting the most out of multi-boxing, and reading through their forums you'll quickly learn that the number of characters being played can vary from two at once (dual-boxing), all the way up to multiple groups. Sometimes it's done on one computer, but the more hardcore multi-boxers tailor a hardware setup for the purpose, involving multiple computers and perfectly arranged monitors.

The reasons for getting into multi-boxing differ from person to person. Some like the challenge of controlling extra characters, while others may enjoy being self-reliant when it comes to tackling content that would normally require more than one player. Others just like the process of refining the art itself, working on making the perfect group combination with the perfect hardware setup and control scheme.

This morning, we'd like to ask where you fit in the multi-boxing scene. If you haven't ever tried it, is it something that interests you or do you think you'll never get into it? For those that do (or used to) multi-box, how many characters do you tend to run? Is it for one of the reasons above or something else? Make sure to share any particularly crazy multi-boxing stories you have!

Tags: dual-boxing, hardware, multi-boxing, tdg, the-daily-grind

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

LiQiuD said on 8:36AM 9-16-2009

I currently 5 box WoW. I decided to do it, because I was bored with all the games out there, and wanted to do something that was interesting to me. I wrote about how I got to this point here: http://www.kkthxbai.net/blog/?p=47 I'm still working on changing the site layout and such. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I enjoy 5 boxing, it's a unique challenge to MMO content you may have already seen multiple times.

John said on 8:28AM 9-16-2009

I have zero interest in doing this...and I think its really only for those with A.D.D.... this would explain why in so many MMO's you have these characters that just stand around for 10 or 15 minutes in the middle of nothing...are people so needy of constant stimulation they have to run several characters at one time??

Nasq said on 8:35AM 9-16-2009

I think the only people that multi-box are people that want an unfair advantage over others. Out-of-game wealth should have nothing to do with how you play in-game.

Tom said on 8:58AM 9-16-2009

I cannot imagine paying for the additional accounts, let alone the complications of playing this way. I can, however, appreciate why players would want to do this.

Personally, I would love it if WoW/Blizzard (and similar games) would sell "NPC Accountwide Unlocks", allowing players to purchase, say, a tank NPC, a healer NPC, and a few DPS NPCs (like the heroes in Guild Wars) that could only be used in the dungeons/instances. Finding parties for Mauradon and similar instances is sheer torture nowadays and is one of the reasons (probably the main one) that I discontinued my WOW sub a couple of months ago.

If I could "Hero/NPC" my way through some of these great dungeons, I would really enjoy that. But multi-boxing? No, not worth it to me.

OMAC said on 10:21AM 9-16-2009

EverQuest has this very thing. They let you buy Mercenaries that require barely any input from you. They can be used anywhere in the game world as far as I know, and you are limited to one tank or healer.

derella said on 8:58AM 9-16-2009

I think I got to level 30-35 in WoW by two boxing once. I found it frustrating and annoying, so I stopped :/

AVENGINGRAPH said on 9:05AM 9-16-2009

I haven't really tried it much. That which i got to try was freaking awesome, doing 2 screens with 4 instances of WoW running (2 on each screen). Can't afford it though, it's pretty awesome, I would do it if I had the money

Wisdomandlore said on 9:15AM 9-16-2009

I remember reading about the guy who multi-boxed entire raids in WoW. Aside from being incredibly expensive and sad, I'm sure it took an incredible amount of intelligence and skill. I generally don't care about multi-boxers except in PvP. I know in LOTRO's Player versus Monster Player segment, multi-boxing is considered exploiting/cheating and will get you banned (multi-boxing per se isn't wrong...if you can actually play two characters at once...only the software that lets you slave characters to each other is banned).

However, it seems like the ultimate anti-social statement to join a massively multiplayer game and then create additional people to play with yourself.

Jason said on 9:57AM 9-16-2009

Multi boxing isn't cheating in the Moors. Fight clubbing is cheating. I don't have the skill needed to control more than one character at a time but I could see the benefits of having a pocket healer around all the time.

mediumsizedrob said on 10:10AM 9-16-2009

I've tried it a couple times but could never get into it. I thought it would be fun, but it ended up being more frustrating than anything. To those who think it just makes the game easy, or gives an unfair advantage--you couldn't be more wrong. The amount of planning, timing, coordination and skill it takes to do more than makes up for the fact that you can one shot people with multiple fireballs at once. If just one of your toons gets sidetracked or CC'd it screws everything up. Most people just never think to do this and give up when they see 4 mages running together.

As far as out of game wealth giving people an advantage, that's the case in all games as well as for those who don't multi-box. If someone can afford a better computer they're going to get better frame rates which is an advantage. Those who can afford expensive gaming controllers, keyboards or mice have an advantage. As as I stated before multi-boxing is not necessarily an advantage anyways.

Wisdomandlore said on 10:54AM 9-16-2009

@Jason

Multi-boxing is certainly cheating in the Moors the way most people do it. Turbine bans the use of third-party programs to cheat. Most multi-boxers use such programs to slave their characters together (thus making it possible to efficiently multi-box). This is why the most common multi-box set up in the moors is Hunter/Hunter. Turbine has and does ban people for this.

If you actually are playing two characters at once without the aid of third-party programs or keyboard macros (which again, is against Turbine's EULA), then good for you.

Jason said on 11:58AM 9-16-2009

That depends on your definition of keyboard macro's. Using a G15 macro isn't against the rules according to Turbine. Also I was merely pointing out it isn't against the rules to multi box in LOTRO. If someone uses autoIT or some other program then they are cheating but not everyone does that. There are people that multi box without breaking any rules so multi boxing is not against the EULA.

Hoho said on 10:12AM 9-16-2009

I've multiboxed 5 trial accounts and did all 5-mans in the level range, it was awesome :)

Nowadays I usually "only" 2-3 box. It's nice to be able to take an alt through some heroics to get those few last emblems to get an upgrade. Sure, with a group of 5 people it would be much faster but if that alt is a DPS char then the time spent finding a group is probably too long. Also I can keep all the greens to DE :)

OMAC said on 10:26AM 9-16-2009

I used to dual-box in EQ. My main was a Shadoknight and I had a little Druid that I would use to heal and port. For those of you downplaying the practice, you shlould know that not all people are trying to farm gold or form gank groups, and we aren't all rich. I multiboxed on the same computer for a while and eventually built another box out of spares I had left over from upgrades.

Multiboxing helped out very much with groups and such. Not having to wait for a healer to log on was great. In our guild main characters had priority, so if we were on a raid and loot dropped, the alts would only get leftover loot. We would also kick the alts if somoene elses main could fill the role. For example, if a someone logged on with their cleric and wanted in to our full group, I had no problem booting my alt druid to make room for the cleric.

I play WAR right now and have no plans for Multiboxing currently, although I may try it some day.

kwramm said on 10:27AM 9-16-2009

used to be a viable way of advancement in skill based UO. Log on to a 2nd account and fight/heal yourself. easy fighting skill and healing skill gains.
Or you could kill and resurrect yourself endlessly. Or steal from yourself and more crazy things that do not make much sense in any other MMO nor the real world. ahh nostalgia...

Although I haven't found much need in any other MMO recently to have multiple accounts. Usually it's just easier to find other people for doing stuff.

d.hutch said on 10:31AM 9-16-2009

I dual-boxed on WoW for a month or so while I had the xp bonus on the two linked accounts. It was pretty easy to get a couple characters to L60 with the extra xp, but for me, the logistics of dual-boxing tended to suck the fun out of the game. Like too much grinding, dual-boxing made the game feel too much like work, and a lot less like play... of course your milage may vary. ; )

Malachi said on 10:40AM 9-16-2009

Being an EvE player, I tend to multi-box quite often (anything from 2 to 5); most of times, the caracters are each doing their own thing (whether it's building stuff, killing stuff or just traveling), but I've used up to 3 in a single fleet on occasion.

Oneiromancer said on 10:40AM 9-16-2009

I have never multiboxed, but my friend that introduced me to EQ used to. I'm pretty sure that my current computer could run two instances of WoW, and I have two old computers sitting around that can both easily run WoW, so I probably could if I really wanted to...but I don't really have the interest. I'd rather spend the extra subscription fee on a second MMO (currently LOTRO, probably back to EQ2 in a few months) than all in one.

I have nothing against multi-boxers, though.

Zach Adams said on 11:37AM 9-16-2009

I don't really have any interest in multiboxing, which is good because it'd be physically impossible for me (I'm legally blind and couldn't possibly maintain control of two screens or two windows). I used to have a friend in CoH, though, who had mastered it to the point that she could run on just about any two characters at once in a group with other people while roleplaying, and still do a better job as a Tanker or Defender than a large percentage of oneboxers.

Jason said on 11:56AM 9-16-2009

Back in the days of EQ, my wife and I played a monk and a rogue, with me tanking and avoiding, her backstabbing and evading, and an item that summoned bandages (or just backpacks full of them) we could run off and play in so many places. But it didn't last forever, and so we leveled up a cleric on her account, then bought a third account and moved the cleric to it. With an old laptop between us as we played, I would run the cleric on hot keys, buffing and healing, allowing us to get back to duo play in our downtime away from the guild or in off hours.

In later games, the classes we picked were often done expressly so that we could duo effectively more easily and we've not needed a third account healer since.

Having played that way, however, I can see the appeal of multi-boxing, not having to rely on others, not having to actually communicate your intentions to others and coordinate. But since I'm a fairly social gamer, I'd rather group with others if I can.

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments

Add your comments

Your comments:

Remember me

E-Mail me when someone replies to this comment

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.