wow Multiboxing Restrictions Now Cover ALL Software AND Hardware Input Mirroring

[Staff 1,365]

 

Some huge news for the multiboxing community, as Blizzard have updated their policy to include all software and hardware input mirroring being forbidden and actionable! 

Multiboxing Restrictions (source)

On November 3, 2020, we posted an update to our policy for input broadcasting software, and soon thereafter, we began taking action against accounts found to be using third party software to automatically mirror keystrokes to multiple game clients. We find that, like full automation of play, multiple-account mirroring disturbs the gameplay experience for the vast majority of players who control a single account at a time.

We will now additionally prohibit the use of all software and hardware mechanisms to mirror commands to multiple World of Warcraft accounts at the same time, or to automate or streamline multi-boxing in any way. Players found to be in violation of this policy are subject to account actions. These actions can include warnings, account suspensions and, if necessary, permanent closure of the player’s World of Warcraft account(s), as activities which effectively replicate automated gameplay are contrary to the terms and conditions of the Blizzard End-User License Agreement (EULA).

We urge all players to cease using any means of mirroring gameplay across multiple WoW accounts immediately, in order to maintain uninterrupted access to World of Warcraft.

[sckhar 14]

❤️

Sometimes Blizzard does something good.

 

[Babel 39]

Question is, are they going to reinforce it? The bot plague is quite severe.

[SidonisAntares 288]

1 hour ago, Babel said:

Question is, are they going to reinforce it? The bot plague is quite severe.

The bot sweeps, like all multiplayer bannable activity, happens in waves. Partly to investigate to make sure someone isn't being wrongly targeted, and partly swooping it all at once in order to disrupt as much gold distribution as possible. Unfortunately the same tools that allow people to hide from tyrannical governments online, also make it easy to change up your IP location, because legitimate players could be playing via proxy, Blizzard can't really do something permanent like ban the IP aggregates coming from proxy servers. It also takes people actually reporting them when they see them, because its a lot easier for the human eye to spot automated movement than it is for software to, currently. Semi-related, this is why Blizzard doesn't permanently ban IPs involved in DDOS attacks, they just blackhole the IPs and/or subnets they're coming from until the traffic dies off. Reason being, again, innocent people whether players or just compromised computers.

Edited May 6, 2021 by SidonisAntares

[Sartamas 1]

Sadly, it still have no effect on packs of druids. You still can use /follow macro and just run around, clicking each herb. The first update made difference, cause now they can't instantly gather the whole node, but this one will hurt only dudes, who plays dungeons and doing other stuff, that not affecting economy in a big way.

The only way to deal witch packs - return to old node system, imo

[Wildwitch 108]

I see the glass half full. This is a HUGE step into the right direction! This isn't the ONLY issue - it's just one of the BIGGEST issues!

[elmurufdd 45]

i mean how r they going to detect hardware mirroring with a QMK powered kb i could set up mirroring thru macros and key binds completely undetectable by any software

[Corpsefury 6]

1 hour ago, elmurufdd said:

i mean how r they going to detect hardware mirroring with a QMK powered kb i could set up mirroring thru macros and key binds completely undetectable by any software

Detection isnt the only way, thats why player reports are important to bring a GM's attention to them, sometimes they are so obvious that all you need is observation, WoW isnt a court of law, you don't need to prove anything, just be suspicious enough.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Corpsefury

[Nayrusa 50]

well quite easy since any form of multiboxing is now against tos

you can see by ingame behaivor if someone is a multi or not

[hirlix 8]

5 hours ago, SidonisAntares said:

The bot sweeps, like all multiplayer bannable activity, happens in waves. Partly to investigate to make sure someone isn't being wrongly targeted, and partly swooping it all at once in order to disrupt as much gold distribution as possible. Unfortunately the same tools that allow people to hide from tyrannical governments online, also make it easy to change up your IP location, because legitimate players could be playing via proxy, Blizzard can't really do something permanent like ban the IP aggregates coming from proxy servers. It also takes people actually reporting them when they see them, because its a lot easier for the human eye to spot automated movement than it is for software to, currently. Semi-related, this is why Blizzard doesn't permanently ban IPs involved in DDOS attacks, they just blackhole the IPs and/or subnets they're coming from until the traffic dies off. Reason being, again, innocent people whether players or just compromised computers.

I sometimes use a vpn myself and quite a lot of services and sites ban the ips associated with vpn services. I think that is absolutely ok since many people use it for shady business. For example I found that if I forget to turn off my vpn I sometimes can't pay with my credit card. I wonder why that is... Same goes for games like WoW. They gotta ban the ips in order to prevent criminal or in the case of the game "criminal" activity. It sucks for the few people who need vpn to play at all but not doing so would negatively impact so many more people that it's worth it.

[SidonisAntares 288]

6 hours ago, hirlix said:

I sometimes use a vpn myself and quite a lot of services and sites ban the ips associated with vpn services. I think that is absolutely ok since many people use it for shady business. For example I found that if I forget to turn off my vpn I sometimes can't pay with my credit card. I wonder why that is... Same goes for games like WoW. They gotta ban the ips in order to prevent criminal or in the case of the game "criminal" activity. It sucks for the few people who need vpn to play at all but not doing so would negatively impact so many more people that it's worth it.

I'm sure there are worst case offenders where the only traffic they get coming from a proxy address is bots and they ban it, but again, they'll just be back on a different proxy server tomorrow.

[ResoWho 68]

back in the days when i played ultima online i had to proof that i shared a computer with my brother since having more then 1 account wasnt allowed but we had no character limit on the accounts. but those were simpler days

Edited May 6, 2021 by ResoWho

[SidonisAntares 288]

5 hours ago, ResoWho said:

back in the days when i played ultima online i had to proof that i shared a computer with my brother since having more then 1 account wasnt allowed but we had no character limit on the accounts. but those were simpler days

WoW originally had that in Vanilla, but abandoned it due to playerbase size and the amount of admin work that created for Blizz.

[Dreamcatcher 65]

I'm confused!

Using Software or/and Hardware to broadcast keystrokes to multiple wow instances, automate and streamline Multiboxing (Using following methods meaning softwares and hardwares) is now against the EULA

but using simple /follow macro and give each command to each window manually ( looting a corpse with each open window separately one by one 1:1) is still fine? So this change now targets hardware Multiboxing too?

[Reichsadler 0]

On 5/5/2021 at 11:02 PM, Nayrusa said:

well quite easy since any form of multiboxing is now against tos

Multi Boxing is not against TOS, there are just restrictions on broadcasting and mirroring input.

I multibox with a pocket healer much of the time while leveling alts and the ban on broadcasting makes it more cumbersome where I now need to swap windows to toss a heal or buff, or hit my follow macro rather than being able to just hit alt-f on my main window to have my other toon(s) follow or have a click through region on the screen so when I clicked on that area it clicked on the screen of a character in another window where I have my healing mod Vuhdo placed instead of the screen that is currently active.  

I was not thrilled that Blizzard banned broadcasting between clients but I can understand the need to if they want to address some people running around with 5 shaman that all cast chain lightning at the exact same time and just deleting people in pvp and such.

Also it seems that some people think multi-boxing and botting are the same thing which seems to have a unfair backlash on those that just multi-box and don't bother anyone.

[Ragingwolf 286]

4 hours ago, Reichsadler said:

 Also it seems that some people think multi-boxing and botting are the same thing which seems to have a unfair backlash on those that just multi-box and don't bother anyone.

Depends honestly on the scenario.  In PvP it serves as an unfair advantage when people do Multibox but I want to say a lot of reporting on what seems like bot behavior is being triggered for a series of reports in open world content.  And when it comes to mob killing in a specific zone or material gathering it becomes an issue specially if there is a World Quest involved.  When the average player sees an 'x' amount of the same class following around 1 character compared to multiple of the same class killing everything in sight and on a set path that average player will most likely report what they are seeing.  Unfair and unjust?  Not necessarily imo.  But then again I have yet heard of a justifable cause of where Multiboxing should be allowed and how it benefits the server/community.  I'm willing to bend an ear if you know of a justified reason.

 

[Croga 0]

On 5/7/2021 at 3:37 PM, Ragingwolf said:

Depends honestly on the scenario.  In PvP it serves as an unfair advantage when people do Multibox but I want to say a lot of reporting on what seems like bot behavior is being triggered for a series of reports in open world content.  And when it comes to mob killing in a specific zone or material gathering it becomes an issue specially if there is a World Quest involved.  When the average player sees an 'x' amount of the same class following around 1 character compared to multiple of the same class killing everything in sight and on a set path that average player will most likely report what they are seeing.  Unfair and unjust?  Not necessarily imo.  But then again I have yet heard of a justifable cause of where Multiboxing should be allowed and how it benefits the server/community.  I'm willing to bend an ear if you know of a justified reason.

 

I used to multibox a Pally and 4 Shamen. I mostly did dungeons for shits and giggles. No one was getting hurt by that.

There is no reason to set the rule "benefits the server/community". When I solo I don't benefit the server or community, so why should multiboxing benefit anyone?
The rule here is that it shouldn't *hurt* the server or community and most multiboxing doesn't.

[Ragingwolf 286]

41 minutes ago, Croga said:

I used to multibox a Pally and 4 Shamen. I mostly did dungeons for shits and giggles. No one was getting hurt by that.

There is no reason to set the rule "benefits the server/community". When I solo I don't benefit the server or community, so why should multiboxing benefit anyone?
The rule here is that it shouldn't *hurt* the server or community and most multiboxing doesn't.

So why do you believe that a lot of the playerbase is against multiboxing in general?  There is no harm in running content like Dungeons and old Raids that I can agree on.

[Extraslug 2]

So just to clarify, this was sent to a player apparently a day after the TOS update that had put in a ticket asking about the issue. https://i.imgur.com/ZBaLnaM.png They are looking from what it appears to be keystroke and command mirroring via software or hardware. If you can control multiple accounts with 1 key press per window at one time and no funny business with broadcasting aka mirroring commands to multiple wow accounts, you're fine. 

[Croga 0]

On 5/9/2021 at 8:50 PM, Ragingwolf said:

So why do you believe that a lot of the playerbase is against multiboxing in general?  There is no harm in running content like Dungeons and old Raids that I can agree on.

Most of the playerbase is against multiboxing because it's being misused in ways that *harm* the server.

But that was not my argument. My argument was against the statement that multiboxing should be banned because it didn't *benefit* the server/community and I said that there are a lot of things that don't *benefit* anything. Multiboxing has been banned because sometimes it hurts the community/server, not because it doesn't benefit anything.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Croga

[Ragingwolf 286]

9 hours ago, Croga said:

Most of the playerbase is against multiboxing because it's being misused in ways that *harm* the server.

But that was not my argument. My argument was against the statement that multiboxing should be banned because it didn't *benefit* the server/community and I said that there are a lot of things that don't *benefit* anything. Multiboxing has been banned because sometimes it hurts the community/server, not because it doesn't benefit anything.

Then how does it sometimes hurt the community/server in general?  I'm not trying to be provokive with the statement just learning the difference and wanting to see all sides of the arguement.  For a time multiboxing was fine untill the last year and now.  What would drive Blizzard in deciding that this action needed to be carry out and hit a portion/fraction of the playerbase that have been utilizing multiboxing.  Is there another underlying issue that has yet come to light?  Was there a few 'bad apples' that were abusing the ability to multibox for RMT or fraudlent services in WoW or other?  

[Croga 0]

On 5/12/2021 at 2:59 PM, Ragingwolf said:

Then how does it sometimes hurt the community/server in general?  I'm not trying to be provokive with the statement just learning the difference and wanting to see all sides of the arguement.  For a time multiboxing was fine untill the last year and now.  What would drive Blizzard in deciding that this action needed to be carry out and hit a portion/fraction of the playerbase that have been utilizing multiboxing.  Is there another underlying issue that has yet come to light?  Was there a few 'bad apples' that were abusing the ability to multibox for RMT or fraudlent services in WoW or other?  

As an example;

Set up however many accounts you want and go farm ore/plants.

That wasn't a problem in the past. The first character walks to the ore, mines it, the rest gets nothing.
Now the ore/herb doesn't despawn right after farming it. It stays there for a bit so others who were running to it aren't disappointed. That brings the problem with it that if someone uses 25 characters multiboxed to get the same ore, he gets 25 ore instead of just one.

The result is that those who don't multibox get only a fraction of the ore/herbs and thus don't get the economic benefit of the harvesting profession.

I don't pretend to know all the motivations of Blizzard but having been the victim of such I can understand that they don't want this to happen. It's almost as bad as botting. (which brings us to another thing; multibox software can make botting easier by not hooking into the game but using graphical scraping, then sending keystrokes to the multiboxing software....)