FAQ: Multiboxing - What the Fudge Is It?

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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.

From the first line of the page: "Multiboxing is a term used mostly in MMORPGs to refer to playing as multiple separate characters simultaneously."

Furthermore, the keystrokes are sent to several clients in the same way they are sent to a single client. Person pushes key, clients do whatever key is meant to do. There is no "enhancement" or automation involved, and as such it is not classsed as botting.

Multiboxing and botting are two different things.

I can run PoE twice on my machine without using any 3rd party software, so I guess it is fine to multibox by the GMs. With some games it is ok, with other games it isn't. Comes down to policy. GGG obviously allows for multiboxing and I'm fine with that.

I love multiboxing, but you cannot do it in this game due to armour movement speed decrease... at least thats what happened when i tried

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Drob3y wrote:

I love multiboxing, but you cannot do it in this game due to armour movement speed decrease... at least thats what happened when i tried

Some people are doing it, hence why the discussion rages on.

When it said playing simultaneously, I believe it simply means having two character active, but in no way does it control both character at the same time.

And if you look at the sentence behind it, it says separate machine, indicating using two computer. I don't know if there's any program out there that takes keystroke of one computer and send it to another computer to perform it, but not very likely. Most likely it simply means two computer running while only one person is playing. (Having keyboard and mouse side by side, for easier access).

Then if you look further down, it also states "Multiboxing may be as simple as running two instances of the game on one computer (each logged in to a separate account) and switching between them." That's using the Windows 95/XP/2000/vista/7 user account feature. By having two accounts open, and two games installed on the computer, you can open two games on the same computer.

Sending keystrokes to other client greatly enhance multiboxing, but that is by no mean mandatory for multibox.



And finally, how is playing 1 character and having a bot program controlling 5 other character following exactly what you did any different from playing 1 character and having the keystrokes sent to other clients by using a third party program?

Even if you don't consider it as a bot, how is having 6x your damage and 6x loot not an exploit? Even with monster hp scaling in mind, you're gaining loots at 6x the rate other people are, how is that fair?

If multiboxing is what you described as it is, then it's a bot, or nonetheless an exploit, an bannable offense.


Edit: Here's how multibox works (at least how it used to be):
Using d2 as example.

Your stash is overflowing, and you want to move some items onto your mule. But here's a problem, you don't have any friend online, and you don't trust the pug (masking it as some boss killing game can still let them find your items), and even if you make it private, the game instance itself might disappear unless you're willing to wait for a 5 minutes before switching.

This is when multibox comes in, you log in to your mule (using a different account or a program) on the same computer, go into that private game, and switch back to the client that has your main character logged in, dropped the item on ground, switch back to the client that has your mule logged in, picked up everything. Now you just finished transferring your items.


That is the most common use of multibox (at least in d2). It's not really much of a bannable offense, though blizzard did ban quite a bunch of people that uses D2loader (which contains some other hacks, map opener I believe).

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wxyjac wrote:

If multiboxing is what you described as it is, then it's a bot, or nonetheless an exploit, an bannable offense.

At this point, I've tried to be polite and reasonable but you're insisting on fundamentally missing the facts and/or otherwise obfuscating reality to justify your ignorance :)

Botting isn't multiboxing. Vice versa. You can attempt to contort and manipulate reality to make one the other, or vice versa, but only a small minority of people are actually going to go for that.

The FAQ at the start of this thread is clear, as is the wikipedia page and the countless other resources on the Internet. If you have anything else to say, I'd be very much obliged if you'd say it elsewhere ^^

I'm not obscuring anything.


Botting = computer doing something a player should be doing, no?

How is it computer registering your keystrokes and sending it to different clients to do the same action not "computer doing something a player should be doing"?

Doesn't matter if it's completely scripted and sophisticated enough that you can sleep and have computer do all the work, or you do part of the work and lead the computers to follow what you are doing, they are both called botting.

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wxyjac wrote:

I'm not obscuring anything.

Yes, you are.

You're also attempting to descend the thread into semantics. I will not engage you in such a frivolous discussion.

Okay, provide me other ways of defining a word without going into semantics.

You claimed two things in your OP.

(1) Multibox means sending keystrokes to other clients that are also open and running.

(2) Multiboxing =/= botting as it requires you to be at your keyboard.

And I refute them, first the Multibox is simply opening two clients or more at once, does not requires keystrokes being send to other clients.

Second if multiboxing is indeed what you describe, then multiboxing = botting as it automates 5 character's action while you only need to control one.

Whether it's you inputting command for the computer program to follow your command for the rest of the night while you're sleeping, or it's you playing through the game while the computer program follow what you did on 5 different characters, I believe they are both "automated action by computer".

How is you multiboxing 5 other characters while controlling 1 character different from having a 5 computer bot programs following exactly what you do?

I was always impressed by the mental and semantic gymnastics that "multiboxers" use to paint themselves as different the boters and totally not cheating at all. And the rage a lot of them exhibit when they are called that or, even worse, cheaters.

Do you use an external program to clone your actions to multiple clients? Yes, yes you do.

Does it let you do something that players who do not use external software to both clone clients and copy actions? Yes. Yes it does.

I wont even go into the "it totally does not give an advantage" point, in PoE the advantage is indeed minuscule, but most MMOs out there defiantly are easier if you have 5 clones following you.

It is cute that the multibox defense force has arrived in PoE, but I am fairly certain they are not fooling anyone.