If you've been playing World of Warcraft for a while, no doubt you're run into some mysterious activity.
Ever seen multiple characters mimicking each other?
Well, you've likely encountered someone multi-boxing.
Multi-boxing is running multiple instances of the same game and in turn using multiple characters to do the same thing.
WoW is rampant with them and its the bane of many levelling professions or collecting resources.
It looks like Blizzard has had enough...
Blizzard Cracks Down On Multi-Boxers
One form of multi-boxing, in particular, is being looked into by Blizzard, using third-party software.
Doing this broadcasts the player's inputs across multiple instances of the game.
In other words, whatever key you press will be pressed on each client.
Players do this to basically duplicate the number of resources they gain as well as gold.
Those that use multi-boxing have been doing so for years and actually within the Terms of Service.
Blizzard has now decided to do something about it saying, "we've seen an increasingly negative impact to the game as this software is used to support botting and automated gameplay".
"The use of input broadcasting software that mirrors keystrokes to multiple WoW game clients will soon be considered an actionable offense. We believe this policy is in the best interests of the game and the community".
As well as this they will begin handing out warnings to players who continue to use the software.
These warnings will turn into suspensions and permanent bans as warnings are ignored.
"We strongly advise you to cease using this type of software immediately to maintain uninterrupted access to World of Warcraft," Blizzard said.
Bear in mind that Blizzard isn't completely banning multi-boxing, just the most popular form of it.
Fingers crossed this will greatly reduce the number of run-ins players have with multi-boxers.
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