Thoughts on multiboxing on AO

Anarchy Online General Discussion
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Hello everyone,

Before I begin, sorry if I make English mistakes, it’s not my main language

Context: Just came back on AO few months ago and hit level ~200

When my org mates are not available, it often try to group with random people do some things. And one thing that changed, since I played years ago, is that a LOT of people are multiboxing or playing with a lot of accounts.

For those who came from a game like World of warcraft back in Burning Crusade, you know that multiboxing was extremely toxic for people that does not use it, and ended up being banned from the game. Typically, it reduces the number of players that wanna group and kill the balance between 2 players. You cannot compete with someone that is playing 5 toon at a time.

What is the community view on that topic?
Do you guys really enjoy having 10 toons 220 to the extent of killing the leveling and immersion of everyone ?

To be fair, i know this topic is the same on a lot of mmo. Some ban the multiboxing, some don’t. I understand the laziness of old players on a MMO but I can’t understand how the devs don’t see how bad it is in the long run.

TLDR : I feel like AO changed to become some sort of solo-game with multi-accounts, it’s really hard to play with random people when you’re not max lvl because a lot of people play with 4-5 toons at the same time and it’s killing the desire to play.

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I second that. As a normal Player you feel like second class. Many ppl tend to start a new char, buy Levels then buy equip. If they are maxed out they move on to the next game.
And they do all that with real money (GRACE). I think thats called pay to win and i hate to see that in AO. Oh and back to topic, that would not be possible w/out Multiboxers.

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Not sure where you got that impression but it is certainly not banned in WoW nor against their EULA.

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Multiboxing is a double edged sword it has its place and it doesn’t at the same time. With low population games it is difficult to do content without people and if you can manage multiple accounts then you dont encounter that problem. It also keeps the player engaged with that ladder of progression and seeing what you can and cant do with X amount of accounts AKA there is an aspect of entertainment. Also FC likes money, as should any company, so it keeps them afloat and in contrast the game.

The disadvantage is that someone with multiple accounts is why should they team with outsiders and compete for loot? You lose that player to player interaction and what an MMO is. Another thing is that multiboxers control the flow of nodrop loot from raids/instances. This causes a ripple affect in players actually doing the content to get their loot. Why raid when I can buy it? That is a whole other can of worms with FC addressing this type of issue which wont ever happen. There is also the imbalance of PvP, one player being able to control X amount of professions to instantly kill people and the ability to bring numbers to PvP.

Multibox is not the single thing that the has contributed to the decline of AO. There are many reasons and some are greater than others and depends on the players perspective. TLDR: Multibox is here to stay get use to it.

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True, i checked it out, i thought it was

my bad.

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My best recommendation would be to join a good org that still does content for people. Not a big org, mind you.

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For a long time I was completely against Multi Boxing, nowadays to be honest I’m not really sure.
I had a solo account (+ several froob ones) for more than 15 years, 2 months ago I did my first second paid account a huge window of opportunities opened for me. I passed two or three characters to my new account and now I can do stuff instead of waiting for days to be able to get some minor things done.
When I did DB Quest I always needed help, now I can solo it until Informant.
I can now solo PoH first boss with my soldier & doc and get as many Alighieri’s as I need.
Can do Vortexx on my own.
Can do Zods on my own.
It’s not that much, pretty simple things, but makes a big difference (and I’m not using any MB software, just some macros). It revamped my gameplay abilities and also my pleasure in playing the game itself, but deep down I think it kills the companionship between players and yes, it makes it more like a single player game, specially to those who MB it the hardcore way.

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According to FCs EULA, Multi-boxing ISN’T allowed.
It’s using a 3rd party program to affect gameplay. And technically it’s also covered by FCs rules on afk playing (since you’re not actually controlling those characters).

This being said, FC basically turned a blind eye towards it.

Personally, I don’t think it should be allowed. I often run with 2 or 3 characters, but I’m manually controlling all of them!

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No, they said that multi-boxing was ok a long time ago on the old forums, like 4-6 years ago when it started to become mainstream. You can nit pick their EULA to fit your agenda but this is from the horse’s mouth, they allow it.

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Wasn’t quite like that.
They basically gave up because they didn’t want to expend the effort to stop people doing it.

There’s no nit-picking involved here, even FC admitted it was clearly in contravention of the EULA. But, it was a hassle to stop, so…

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People seem to repeatedly share the statement “According to FCs EULA, Multi-boxing ISN’T allowed.” I don’t speak specifically for AO as I’ve never played it, but I have read the EULA for most of Funcom’s games (including AO) and the key points are the ones you also raised above:

using a 3rd party program to affect gameplay. And technically it’s also covered by FCs rules on afk playing (since you’re not actually controlling those characters).

Multi-boxing isn’t against those rules. If you have 2 or more computers (or clients), and you are controlling the individual actions on those clients independently (no automation), you are not in breach of anything. The key principle is one click or keypress produces one action. If you click one key and multiple clients respond, that would require either a software or a hardware solution; that would clearly breach the rules.

Other games that I play I will sometimes use 2 pcs to play, controlling one with a keyboard, the other with a mouse with lots of buttons. That is not in breach of either the letter or the spirit of any of the rules. To say multi-boxing is not allowed is an incorrect interpretation. Using a specialist program or tool to facilitate it is.

It’s just down to skill how well or how badly it works.

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Untill a cupple of years ago the EULA also said that you are not allowed to play the game without owning the original cd. Using programs like clicksaver is against the EULA. Multiboxing on the other hand is alowed

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This is not how multiboxing works in AO. Most players who multibox play on at least 3 accounts and use some kind of 3rd party software to sync their actions.

IIRC according to an old post on the old forums (as Machschau noted) as long as the software just sends (repeats) keystrokes and doesn’t manipulate AO client directly (although that is, admittedly, a thin line), it seems to be sort of OK (or at least ignored by devs).

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Granted, as I said I don’t actually play AO so I don’t even know if I could play it myself manually on more than one client at a time.

The point I was making is that there is a difference between

  • playing on multiple clients manually, and,
  • using a tool to automate aspects of play on multiple clients.

The first is OK in pretty much all game EULAs that I have read (including AO); the second, blind eye turned or not, is different. I will often be manually playing two accounts at once in pretty much every game I play. I feel it is important to emphasise that distinction as very often people who see that as some kind of unfair advantage blur the line, unconsciously or otherwise.

I’ve lost count of the number of times that “pure” multiboxing is conflated with botting, automation, keystroke/click duplication and extensive macroing. It’s not the same.

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I don’t think the definition matters much since neither gets banned in AO right now anyway.

The fact you can go to arid rift at practically anytime of day and find 1 or more completed unattended bots farming AXP is all you need to know that the EULA doesn’t matter much at the moment.

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Here be my 2 pennies worth

The community is everything in this game.
If you dont believe me watch any of the people who create content for the game you have people like Caloss2 who makes youtube videos and streams in a way that people can follow and as long as you get a little help you can copy it the same. DatGSguy streams everyday, he shows twinks of all levels and does massive giveaways that help get people kickstarted or complete characters who neede that last nudge. If these guys can get 50+ people involved in events im sure there is still a great community out there to join and have fun with.

As a multiboxer:

Firstly we dont take anything away from the game or at least none of the MB i know. Yes we can solo things and that naturally leads us to gearing faster or such. Yes we can sell lootrights so that opens people to buying rather than teaming.
What i have also found is MBer tend to be VERY keen to help others, you need a DB quest we can fill the team and help you do that, Inf mish yes we got your back, want beast run, guess what you now only need to know a couple people and you can go beast.

All that stuff still happens with single account players just less often.

We dont MB to push other out of the game we do it to keep ourselves in the game and help others.

My biggest echo is what i started with, find a Org that has active players and you will get teams, missions, quests and enjoyment. AO is not a game you can go alone. You are as strong as your friends and org members.

If you still think MB too OP befriend them, offer to go with them, if they are raiding they will appreciate the help in DD or heals ect, so what if you dont get loot first time that loot was never guarenteed yours even in a raid of single account players, but now the 2nd run probably will guarentee the loot.

As for the software yes people know bots exist, I hope FC keep getting the accounts banned for people who use them. For most multiboxers we simply press a key repeatedly, we keybind EVERYTHING on all characters to that key (its done via the hotkey bars in f10 menu as part of the game). Mongo, Team heal, perks, specials its all on one key. Is it optimal nope does it do the job sure. What i am trying to clarify is we press a button once and we get 1 action for that. We use the follow command that part of the game too.

If you need anymore convincing come see me stream :wink:

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How are we expected to see you stream if you dont provide a link?

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He shared it a little while ago…

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easiest way would be to click that link ^^

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I did not leave a link on purpose, i wanted the focal point of my reply to be on the subject matter not a “come watch me stream” post.

Yes you can see anyone streaming on twitch and we are pretty active there.

Would love some more streamers and the chance to colab and do viewer selected content