World of Warcraft tightens its rules and bans multiboxing even more strongly. Bans threaten everyone who has circumvented previous rules.
Exactly six months ago, World of Warcraft spoke out against multiboxing and prohibited many ways to play multiple characters simultaneously. Now the guidelines have been adjusted again and are even stricter. Multiboxing is now hardly possible – it is not lucrative anymore in any way.
What is multiboxing? Multiboxing refers to the simultaneous playing of multiple accounts in World of Warcraft (and many other games). Often, processes are synchronized so that multiple characters execute the same action in parallel.
This can be, for example, gathering herbs or attacking enemies. This dramatically increases a player’s loot yield, as they can collect loot for multiple accounts simultaneously and can also kill enemies faster than a single player ever could.
What has changed now? Blizzard has clarified and expanded its rules regarding multiboxing. Previously, it was only prohibited to use software that forwards keyboard inputs to multiple clients simultaneously. From now on, in addition to software, any hardware that facilitates such possibilities is also forbidden. This includes mouse splitters or even homemade constructions – since multiboxers are quite creative.
What penalties are there? The penalties for multiboxing can be quite severe. While first-time offenders may get away with a temporary ban, it can also lead to a permanent closure of one or all accounts. Anyone still practicing multiboxing in one of the “usual” ways should quickly abandon this practice or live with the worry of permanently losing their beloved characters.
What is still allowed then? “Manual” multiboxing will still be allowed. This means players can pay for multiple WoW accounts and have the game open multiple times at once. As long as players switch between the individual windows and enter each command individually, this remains permitted. Players often use this to guide their twinks through dungeons on secondary accounts or to have a bank twink online monitoring the auction house while playing other content on the main account.
Whether Blizzard really cracks down as announced remains to be seen. However, the first change to multiboxing has already had significant consequences and driven away many multiboxers. Now, many loopholes in the old rule have been patched, and lucrative multiboxing is likely to belong to history once and for all.
What do you think of these adjustments? Exactly what WoW needed or still not extensive enough?
