ExploringWorld of Warcraft’s massive continents and discovering its myriad treasures can be a daunting task for one player, hence the emphasis on adventuring with other people to scale the team’s efforts to match the scope of their tasks. But suppose that instead of leveling, gearing, and coordinating a team to tackleWorld of Warcraft’smost lucrative dungeons and raids, a far greater fortune in mass-harvesting herbs to sell within the in-game auction house could be achieved by programming several characters to all mirror the actions of the single player character.
Equal parts possible, niche, and annoying, multi-boxing is the practice of having multiple separateWorld of Warcraftclients running at the same time, yet all are controlled from the inputs of one mouse and keyboard transmitted via input broadcasting software. Multi-boxing is most commonly utilized for gold generation at a multiplied rate, in that the favorite resource to gather, herbs, are essential in the crafting of potions that are necessary for beating the game’s most difficultend-game content, thus generating near constant sales over the auction house.
RELATED:World of Warcraft: 16th Anniversary Event Guide
Players exploring zones inBattle for Azeroth, the most recent expansion, will surely encounter the occasional train of druids moving in absolutely perfect sync, making hard, efficient angles as they travel from gathering node to gathering node reaping herbs and the occasional mineral deposit. In other parts ofWorld of Warcraft, teams of druids can be automated to cast devastating area of effect spells, then loot the high concentration of mobs in that area. Both of these examples are the product of multi-boxing, which is often associated with botting and automated play, which have always been bannable offenses.
Until very recently, Blizzard has effectively turned a blind eye to the practice, with cynical players citing that the need for a multi-boxer to purchase multiple accounts and subscriptions was reason enough to allow the practice to continue. Fortunately, with the ability todetect users of input-broadcasting software, Blizzard is now capable of issuing warnings and bans as necessary, targeting the key tool necessary for multi-boxing.
Despite the damage toWorld of Warcraft’s economy that years of multi-boxing has wrought, there exist much less malicious examples of controlling multiple characters in-game, such as the occasional one-player raid team, PvP queue, or multi-character roleplay gimmick done more out of challenge than to gain an edge over other players. Perhaps an attempt to clean house of accounts used solely for third-party dealings outside ofWorld of Warcraftbefore therelease of Shadowlandson the 23rd, this new policy is a step in the right direction in improving the community’s health, as well as the herb market.
