Jul 31

In this installment of Foray into Multiboxing, I will discuss the following topics:

• What is multiboxing?
• Why multibox?
• What immediate challenges will I face, and how do I overcome them?

Some people (like myself only a few days ago) may know what multiboxing is, but not know much about it; others may never have heard of it before. WoWWiki defines multiboxing as

“a term to denote one user playing multiple accounts simultaneously.”

The definition is pretty straightforward, the implementation not so much. Before we get into that, let’s talk about reasons people want to multibox.

Multiboxing can basically be classified into two very wide schools of thought: PvE and PvP. (One may argue that basic single character play in WoW is also defined as such, but with multiboxing the line is usually more distinct.) Some people want to play multiple characters simultaneously to bring the pain in the battlegrounds or arena, and by coordinating (in Xzin’s case) five characters attacks flawlessly, this is a very successful tactic. Others want to multibox to run instances or raids (many times even by themselves), or in my case, level two classes that I find difficult or boring to level separately (with the added benefit of dinging 70 on two characters at once).

Multiboxing is also fun. Overcoming both the challenge of controlling two or more characters at a time and the challenge of rigging a set-up that allows you to do so can be a rewarding experience. Multiboxing could potentially be as simple as having two computers next to each other and playing WoW on both of them, with traditional set-ups on each PC. But it tends to be more complicated than that. Let’s talk about some of the things you should think about before deciding to multibox.

First, there’s the obvious issue of needing multiple accounts–one for each character you want to play at the same time. This can potentially be costly, depending on how many characters you want to play. Since I’m only playing two, and my wife has an account that she doesn’t use (because she didn’t really get into WoW), I have that part covered.

Next, you should decide what sort of set-up you’re going to use. You have a few choices. One, you can run multiple instances of WoW on the same computer. This has the advantage of being cheaper, in that you do not need to purchase additional hardware to play WoW on; however, it comes with the downside of being more taxing on your computer, and unless you have a pretty beefy machine, you may not be able to do it at all. I have a pretty decent computer, and originally I was going to play two instances on it, but then I remembered I have a laptop (from work, I admit) that has WoW on it, and I can (barely) sqeeze it onto my desk, thus allowing me to play WoW in full-screen mode on my main PC (instead of trying to sqeeze in two copies of WoW at a smaller size), and also gives both instances of WoW full access to the machine’s resources. So, my decision was made: play the main on my nice home PC and the secondary character on the laptop.

Another obstacle to overcome is the fact that you have to be able to control multiple characters at the same time. Although it would technically be possible to just move my hands from my keyboard to my laptop and back to play two characters, it’s not very elegant, and in the case of playing even more characters at once, not even practical. Luckily, there are tons of resources out there, including hardware, software, and addons to help you get the most out of your multibox gameplay. We will take a look at this in a future post.

Finally, you should really decide what characters you are going to multibox. If you want to five-box a PvP team, five shaman (or shamens–for you BA) are very popular. If you want to run a five-box PvE team, a tank, healer, and three DPS is usually the way to go (paladin tanks are nice, since their aggro is retroactive and they are low maintenance, leaving you to concentrate on your healers or DPS). In my case, I just want to level a paladin and a priest, so my class makeup is already decided.

In future posts, we’ll talk about the hardware and software you need and how to get started; all my experience comes from my relatively simple two-box setup, so that’s what you’re going to get. If you really want more information on playing three or more characters at once, I recommend you check out the resources available out there on the net.

Related posts:

1. Foray into Multiboxing: Part 2
2. Foray into Multiboxing: Dual-Boxing with Recruit-A-Friend
3. Foray into Multiboxing: Introduction
4. Foray into Multiboxing: RAF Experiment Done
5. Decisions