wow Multiboxing Support Article, Refunds and Clarifications

[Starym 3,800]

 

While the immediate hit of players cancelling their subscriptions due to Blizzard's decision to no longer allow key-stroke replicating software happened, well, immediately, there's also the matter of Shadowlands pre-orders. We have a few things to mention here, starting with a newly made official support page related to multiboxing, as Blizzard explicitly explain that multiboxing itself isn't forbidden:

Multiboxing (source)

Multiboxing, or playing multiple World of Warcraft accounts at once, is not a violation of our Terms of Use. Please note, however, that use of input broadcasting software may result in account penalties.

For more information on our stance about input broadcasting software, please visit https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/23558957/policy-update-for-input-broadcasting-software

Next we have an incident with a player trying to refund multiple Shadowlands pre-orders across several linked WoW accounts, with a very incorrect GM responding and sharing misinformation:

Just been confirmed that it's not policy and this was a mistake.

— FatbossTV (@FatbossTV) November 4, 2020

And finally, while not technically a fact, it's still funny (and likely true):

 

Yesterday's announcement was a really big one for WoW in general, and while it probably wasn't quite the multiboxing apocalypse as many are interpreting it to be, it's still a very strong stance by Blizzard, especially considering the staggering amounts of money they almost certainly lost with this move.

[Qisapa 12]

They should have waited like month into sl to prevent refunds. Nice anyway. More changes like that plesse.

[joshelloco 2]

This will have a major effect on some servers economies and that's a good thing

[SidonisAntares 290]

Any game play automation has always been a bannable offense. What this announcement really means is that they believe they have a reliable way to detect you automating the gameplay of those additional accounts. It's not like the software is a secret, so clearly they've had testers analyzing the software against their servers internally to be able to consistently identify its use.

 

Edit - I'd even go so far as to say that its entirely possible they've introduced something client side to assist with determining the difference between an input broadcast and actual keystrokes.

Edited November 4, 2020 by SidonisAntares

[Bobbis 208]

2 hours ago, Qisapa said:

They should have waited like month into sl to prevent refunds. Nice anyway. More changes like that plesse.

That's just a *filtered* move right there

[Qisapa 12]

3 hours ago, Bobbis said:

That's just a *filtered* move right there

Well, this is Blizzard we are talking about. They never had a problem with screwing players or employees...

Edited November 4, 2020 by Qisapa

[Arcling 898]

6 hours ago, SidonisAntares said:

Edit - I'd even go so far as to say that its entirely possible they've introduced something client side to assist with determining the difference between an input broadcast and actual keystrokes.

Especially if there are multiple instances of game client running on same computer, I'd guess they can identify it very easily. Also repeatable tasks, when used for farming, create simple patterns.

[FrankPeanuts 0]

Well, since multiboxing is fine and input replication softwares are not, heres how you do it.
Run 4 instances of virtual machines with windows and wow installed on your PC (hope its a good one).
Run wow on your actual windows.
Use your keyboard and mouse inputs on all 4 virtual machines and your actual PC.
There you go. Youre not using any input replication software that blizzard can possibly detect and is just playing 5 accounts.

[SidonisAntares 290]

14 hours ago, FrankPeanuts said:

Well, since multiboxing is fine and input replication softwares are not, heres how you do it.
Run 4 instances of virtual machines with windows and wow installed on your PC (hope its a good one).
Run wow on your actual windows.
Use your keyboard and mouse inputs on all 4 virtual machines and your actual PC.
There you go. Youre not using any input replication software that blizzard can possibly detect and is just playing 5 accounts.

yeah until the client runs a simple wmic query to get your vm info, or for shits and giggles they could run the red pill vs blue pill script.

[Znifler 58]

On 11/4/2020 at 10:58 AM, Bobbis said:

That's just a *filtered* move right there

Would have been fun though. Yet, I'll miss ganking those sad multiboxers.