FAQ: Multiboxing - What the Fudge Is It?

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wxyjac wrote:

What you said is multibox in combination of other software enhancing the performance.

Traditionally, mutlibox simply means being able to open two or more clients at once.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-boxing

That's the generally accepted "traditional" (and modern" definition of multiboxing (or, for the pedants, multi-boxing).

It feels like an apologetic post, really. You end up having to use a 3rd party software to play the game, which is essentially hacking. Even if it just allows to play the game while several windows are active and even if PoE allows for several clients to run at the same time on the same machine, you still use a software to alter the behavior of all clients in the background. Which is hacking. If PoE doesn't normally allow for more than one client to run at a time, it is hacking. Doesn't matter how long a post you make about it - using 3rd party software to alter client behavior is hacking.

That said, as long as it doesn't concern me personally, i.e. multiboxers keep their parties private so I don't join them, I don't really care about it.

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RobotPanda wrote:

It feels like an apologetic post, really. You end up having to use a 3rd party software to play the game, which is essentially hacking. Even if it just allows to play the game while several windows are active and even if PoE allows for several clients to run at the same time on the same machine, you still use a software to alter the behavior of all clients in the background. Which is hacking. If PoE doesn't normally allow for more than one client to run at a time, it is hacking. Doesn't matter how long a post you make about it - using 3rd party software to alter client behavior is hacking.

/facepalm

A stunning example of someone that has no idea what they're talking about.

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Chypre wrote:

This is still bogus. You do "attempt to offer a conclusion" by saying "Short answer: No." which is just flat out wrong.

I have taken out the short answer, and attempted to remove and perceived bias from the post. I do not multibox btw :) I'm just a reasonable guy attempting to impart some of my reason on others.

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Chypre wrote:

Go solo and see how much loot is dropping then go join a 6 player Fellshrine run or whatever. This is much more than a "slight economic advantage".

I have done both. I predominantly play solo, in fact. Unless you can quantify specifically the advantage a multiboxer has in economic terms, I'm not going to include it. I'm also not going to alter the wording.

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Chypre wrote:

Supposedly GGG said somewhere that they don't care about multiboxing, but I doubt they are going to come give it a blessing and encourage it. They probably could do some things to make it harder, but the amount of people doing this is so small that it doesn't matter. I'm more worried that the game is popular enough we have botting (maybe we already do?).

I would very much like to see the GGG post "espousing" multiboxing, as I was under the impression they had not given a concrete opinion on the matter.

And yes, most online games have botting. Botting is a separate issue however. It's one of those logic problems you got in school: not all oranges are lemons, and not all lemons are apples, so to speak. Multiboxers != botters. Botters can be multiboxers, and vice versa, in the same way solo players can be botters and vice versa. Etc etc, so on and so forth.

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Ikagawa wrote:

/facepalm

A stunning example of someone that has no idea what they're talking about.

I said I don't mind it. I don't mind any hacking as long as it doesn't concern me. Now look, if I was an admin, I would have a rule of one client per machine, but I'm not an admin, I'm a user so what my thoughts are is quite irrelevant. I have to patch PoE, otherwise I would've tested if I can make it boot more than once on my machine. If I can't, multiboxing is hacking, man. Very minor hacking, but hacking nonetheless.

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indeliblestain wrote:

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wxyjac wrote:

What you said is multibox in combination of other software enhancing the performance.

Traditionally, mutlibox simply means being able to open two or more clients at once.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-boxing

That's the generally accepted "traditional" (and modern" definition of multiboxing (or, for the pedants, multi-boxing).

read it more carefully, it only says multibox means being able to open more than one client at once. And I believe it also implies the requirement to "switch char"

What you're saying are the programs listed below that ENHANCE multiboxing (by using computer to send keystrokes and mouseclick instead of doing it manually).

And I believe when the computer can do something a player should be doing, it's called botting; though some might disagree with me.

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RobotPanda wrote:

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Ikagawa wrote:

/facepalm

A stunning example of someone that has no idea what they're talking about.

I said I don't mind it. I don't mind any hacking as long as it doesn't concern me. Now look, if I was an admin, I would have a rule of one client per machine, but I'm not an admin, I'm a user so what my thoughts are is quite irrelevant. I have to patch PoE, otherwise I would've tested if I can make it boot more than once on my machine. If I can't, multiboxing is hacking, man. Very minor hacking, but hacking nonetheless.

Multi-boxing does nothing but relay the host input to other machines or instances of the game. That's it.

So stop saying it's hacking. You obviously don't understand what the word means.

Nice post OP. As a multiboxer for nearly a decade now (though not in PoE, mostly in WoW) I can honestly say that the hostility some people display to this practice is matched only by their ignorance of it.

In the particular case of PoE however, there may be an unintended advantage due to the ability to level only to a low point dead-weight followers whose only purpose is to provide a loot bonus via the party rewards.

The solution I think most easily implemented to remove this advantage would be implementation of the D2 "Players /x" functionality. This would then enable anyone who wants to boost the level of players in a game that the dungeon is compensating for.

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RobotPanda wrote:

You end up having to use a 3rd party software to play the game, which is essentially hacking.

I've added to the initial post to cover this, but - in effect - you are misunderstood.

Multiboxing is the act - as I say - of controlling several characters across several clients. It does not traditionally involve the manipulation of the game's code base or the packets of data the client sends to the server. The separate clients function in the way they are supposed to function; they are not "hacked".

Hacking (like botting) is something else entirely.

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wxyjac wrote:

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indeliblestain wrote:

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wxyjac wrote:

What you said is multibox in combination of other software enhancing the performance.

Traditionally, mutlibox simply means being able to open two or more clients at once.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-boxing

That's the generally accepted "traditional" (and modern" definition of multiboxing (or, for the pedants, multi-boxing).

read it more carefully, it only says multibox means being able to open more than one client at once. And I believe it also implies the requirement to "switch char"

What you're saying are the programs listed below that ENHANCE multiboxing (by using computer to send keystrokes and mouseclick instead of doing it manually).

And I believe when the computer can do something a player should be doing, it's called botting; though some might disagree with me.

I agree on the fact that I would consider it botting since you can not do it in any reasonably similar manner without a program to send the keystrokes and clicks. I do not understand why blizzard doesn't outlaw this kind of play but they don't. I hope GGG does.