Players of Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft have been multiboxing for years, but in a recent policy update, the company deemed aspects of it an actionable offense for the future. Blizzard believes this to be the best move for the game going forward, but what will this mean for the thousands of players who've been using this strategy to improve their virtual odds?

Numerous MMORPGs are ripe for multiboxing, and most of them don't discourage it. Along with World of Warcraft, games like City of Heroes, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online and the Everquest games, to name a few, have all allowed multiboxing to this point, but Blizzard has finally addressed the issue.

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Multiboxing, for those unfamiliar with the term, is the act of a single-player signing into multiple accounts to play the game as several different characters at once, either on a single machine or multiple computers. Because most MMORPGs only allow one account to be logged in at a time, a player would require five separate accounts to do this effectively. While this may sound simple enough, it's actually quite an involved process that requires specialized software tools designed by coders unaffiliated with Blizzard, and it isn't exactly cheap.

Essentially, a player creates separate accounts and connects the alternates to their main account as in-game friends. The software mirrors keystrokes as a single-player posse travels through the world, completing quests and battling enemies. It sounds easy enough, but it's a lot of work, so why would one want to do this in the first place?

Players multibox to gather resources, rare items and equipment for their main character. This cuts down on farming time, an essential part of every MMORPG. It also allows players to complete tasks and quests more quickly, and grants a competitive boon in PVE and PVP situations. They can earn more gold, which is a good strategy for those looking to tip the scales, and level up characters more quickly to keep the momentum going.

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World of Warcraft

One major disadvantage until this point has been financial upkeep on multiple accounts, meaning players had to pay the subscription price for each new account they created. On top of that, the software options for multiboxing aren't always free. The ones that tend to have time limitations to their daily usage or often require coding knowledge to integrate the software into the system. For hardcore gamers, that isn't usually a problem, but for simple players who want to get ahead, it could be just enough discouragement not even to bother.

Multiboxing seems harmless enough, but gaming the system in such a way has been a point of contention for WoW fans for years. Many players consider it just another "pay to win" strategy, which often leaves a bad taste in the mouths of those who don't have the capital to pour into an online game they play to unwind at the end of the day. Players who farm rare materials through multiboxing have been known to inflate the WoW economy, which is great for those players economically, but bad for the overall game.

Until recently, Blizzard ignored the multiboxers. It didn't go against their terms of service, and the fact that they were making money from those multiple subscriptions didn't really seem to bother them much. However, their recent announcement seems to indicate that the use of automation software has shown an overall negative impact on the game environment. So will they be giving up on the revenue generated from multi-subscription players? It doesn't seem likely.

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The November 2020 policy update warns users to reconsider using automation software to game the system, as doing so will bring about consequences. They will begin issuing warnings to players they discover using this type of software. Those who continue to do so after receiving warnings will face account suspension or permanent account closure. They say nothing, however, about players who multibox without automation software.

Some players argue Blizzard's policy changes will not fix the issue so many have been complaining about for years, while others disagree that multiboxing without automation software is pointless. Some players multibox to simply pass the time, logging into one account to wait in a dungeon queue while doing world quests on another account, but doing this would not be considered an offense of their new terms of service update.

Perhaps this is Blizzard's attempt to stabilize the economy a little and placate angry but loyal players who want to enjoy the game in a fairer capacity. Still, only time will tell how well their solution works within the system.

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