World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

Have you ever been walking around Azeroth in World of Warcraft and seen five Shamans walking around all in sync? Those Shamans are multiboxing which is the act of using multiple game clients to play multiple characters in one game. This is used primarily to level up faster but there are other uses such as for farming gold, PvP, and general entertainment. You can get started as simply as opening up another client or running an intricate network of computers that relay the commands from a single keyboard.

This is a primer on how to get multiboxing up and running and get some questions out of the way. After you read this article you should be able to understand how to get started and where you can go with multiboxing. You should not be able to solo the Lich King with 3 Death Knights though, at least yet.

History

You can trace the roots of multiboxing back to the ages of text based online RPGs where players would open a second telnet client to play two characters. When graphical games came out players found that if they could play multiple accounts at once they could avoid the tedious task of grouping up. In games like Dark Age of Camelot it was almost necessary to multibox a buffing/healing class in order to be competitive. In modern times grouping isn't as strictly enforced and buffs are not nearly as important while leveling up as in games of old, but there are still many good reasons to play multiple accounts.

Hold On - Quick Question

How do I open multiple World of Warcraft clients on my computer?

You can open multiple WoW clients by dun dun dun double clicking your WoW icon. You don't need to add quotes and do -m or anything like that. I suggest turning the launcher off though to save you the trouble.

Terms of Service - Is it safe and/or ethical?

Some people see it as cheating. One person, one character, one client, and one game is a common train of thought. Some see it as an unfair advantage because not everyone wants to or can run multiple characters. Once you go past playing two characters (which is easily done on one machine) you will begin to see a hefty cost for parts and monthly subscriptions which some people can't afford or are not willing to go out of their way to pay the extra money. Which is absolutely fine. We're all allowed to have our opinions.

Personally I don't see it as cheating because the effort involved hinders any ability to exploit the process. When you're playing multiple characters then the game becomes increasingly complicated. This is even more true if each character is controlled by one keyboard and mouse. The benefit you gain is equally taken away by the amount of extra work. Which doesn't mean it's not rewarding, but that the work involved pays for whatever benefit you gain.

Now, the next question is it legal in the game? Terms of Service/EULA for World of Warcraft prohibit any third-party software or hardware to interfere with the game. So you cannot use any solution that modifies game files, changes the data stream between the client and the servers, and you cannot use any solution that plays the game for you. That means you can't use any program that doesn't operate off of an action you do with your computer hardware. If you use a multiplexer to broadcast your keyboard strokes then you have to be the one pressing the buttons to trigger the commands. No software should trigger the commands for you.

As for the act of running multiple clients? That's fine. Broadcasting keystrokes to multiple clients? No problem. Using a program that takes the key "A" and broadcasts "C" to one client, "D" to another, and "4" to the other 3? Nope. Using a program that takes the key "A" and sends it to 5 clients? That's fine.

(Links to WoW Forums with GMs saying what's ok and what's not)

An Overview of Solutions

There are multiple solutions available to get multiple clients going. There are two main branches. "Hardware" and "Software." Hardware solutions involve using a "KVM Multiplexer" (KVM stands for Keyboard, Video or Visual Display Unit, Mouse) that takes one keyboard input and sends it to multiple computers. Software solutions involve AutoHotKey, Synergy, etc. that will send keystrokes to different programs. Hardware solutions are very expensive, require multiple computers, and can be difficult to setup. Software solutions are difficult to setup, but can be rather cheap or just out and out free.

Which solution to you need? I wouldn't know, personally, it's all up to what you want to do. If you just want to tack on a character and have it follow you then you don't need a single thing, really. If you want to have 5 Shamans loading up their Earth Shocks to pound some faces in, then we've got to explaining to do.

Hardware Solutions

A company called Verta produces the most widely used KVM Multiplexers. A warning ahead of time; you're looking at anywhere from $100 to $400 USD for a solution due to how complicated it is to take one signal from the keyboard and send it off to multiple computers. Essentially if you want to have, say, 5 computers all running WoW with one keyboard and one mouse then you would want something like Verta's USB-845-KM-BC which takes one mouse and one keyboard and sends it to five computers. You'd also need, of course, five computers. Then you'd need either a KVM Switch for your monitor (to flip between the screens) or five monitors. Really costly, huh? You bet. You're looking at about $330 for the multiplexer, $400 for each computer, and $200 for each monitor. That's over 3,300 dollars to play five characters! Of course, some of us have multiple computers laying around (personally I run four at home in different rooms) or have jobs where you'd have multiple computers laying around.

As for the setup, it's easy. Install your switch following manufacturer’s instructions (which is generally to plug it in, plug the cables in, and have fun) then get the number of computers you have going setup themselves (put the WoW shortcut in the same location on all five) and then switch through to do the logins. I don't ever, ever, ever suggest having the same password for multiple accounts so what I would do is unplug or switch between or whatever you can do to get one computer/one keyboard going and login that way. It saves yourself the big security risk.

That's it! Setting up a hardware solution is very expensive but provides a layer of security and simplicity you won't find elsewhere.

Software Solutions

This is where things become tricky. There is A LOT of programs and software riding through the Internet tubes that can get you multiboxing in no time, and a lot of them allow you to use just one computer instead having to use multiples. Some of it’s free, some of it isn't, and some if it might get you banned. You have to be careful with what you use, do your research, and follow any blue posts you see that call out certain software as exploitive. It's a tricky thing, too, because Blizzard is very fickle about what counts as automation and what doesn't. Just to go over the rules again: you have to press the key to make the game do something. You can't press A and get A,B,C,D send to different game clients. You have to press the key and the key that you press has to zoom through to each. Furthermore, each client needs its own mouse. You can't just send the mouse location to another client, the mouse actually has to move and click through to there.

I'm not going to recommend software and say it's 100% safe, but I will make suggestions and allow you to do your own research. The two big programs people use though is the widely known Synergy (which allows computers to share keyboards and mice) and AutoHotKey which allows you to send keystrokes between multiple clients. Keyclone has been said to be alright by Blizzard here by an official blizzard poster, so it might be something to look into as well. It'd take a long time to explain how to setup all of these programs, but with some research you can get things going.

Remember that no program should ever play the game for you or manipulate the game in any way. It's alright to send keystrokes to multiple clients, but it's not alright for anything to play the game.

What Kind of Computer Do I Need?

I've heard of people with a single core 2.8ghz computer with 3 gigs of ram run up to five copies of WoW without a hitch, although the settings and resolution were abysmally low. If you don't know what ghz or gigs or anything like that mean then I'll give two explanations, just hold on.

On average WoW is very forgiving when it comes to computers. A dual core 2.8ghz system can run two clients with moderate settings without a problem. A quad core 2.4ghz system (which is very beefy) can run more than two clients with moderate settings without a problem. It can run even more if you turn the settings way down.

I'm not going to throw more technobabble your way and just simple summarize things.

Setting Things Up In-Game

Alright, so you have things setup to go; how do you get things running in-game? Again, another big question with lots of answers. Here goes.

If you're just running multiple clients, not using any software or hardware, and just want things to group up and follow you, then the best thing to do is just group everything together, make follow macros, and then put common commands (heal self, heal someone else, etc.) in easy to use macros. Setup the interface so that you can alt-tab in and accept a quest really fast.

If you're running a hardware solution, then make each window the exact same. Setup your keystrokes for simple rotations. If you're using 5 Shamans for instance, you'll probably want all the keys to be the same. Like 1 for Frost Shock, 2 for Chain Lightening, 3 for heal self, etc. If you're using a mix of characters then you'll want to setup rotations where one key may have 4 attacking and the other healing the whole group or each attack button has the healer healing a different character. You'll want to sit down and get some paper out and figure everything out.

If you're running a software solution then the same goes, except you'll want to consider the fact that it might be easier to turn off your key broadcaster and alt-tab through to each client to tweak things and such.

Well, that's multiboxing for newbies. All of your questions might not be answered or you might hate the general idea of multiboxing. If you've got questions or flames, come join us on the forums and I'll be hanging around with our community to help answer any questions and respond to any flames! Happy multiboxing.