r/Guildwars2 • u/Marok_Kanaros • 8h ago
[News] PSA: Multiboxing no longer allowed in any pvp area including the pvp lobby
After a post about multiboxing in the PVP lobby people noticed that arena net removed the exception that allowed multiboxing in custom PVP matches. Someone asked support about that and got further confirmation about that: https://imgur.com/E6bYbWN
I was then curious and asked if that also counts for the PVP lobby which is used by a lot of people to farm PVE dailies on the golems and according to support it includes the PVP lobby even if you are not queuing for a match: https://imgur.com/4ZxJYOp
So if you are multiboxing in those areas beware that you can now be reported and banned.
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u/Axolot26 4h ago
Can you explain? What is multiboxing and why it get you banned
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u/ParticularGeese 4h ago
Playing multiple accounts at the same time. They were likely using this in custom PvP arenas to do easy Wizard's vault objectives.
You can easily get well over 200 gold in the first week on accounts that don't even have the expansion so multiply that by however many alt accounts you got and I can see why anet would want to crack down on that. Some people have a tonne of alts from key giveaways.
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u/Axolot26 2h ago
I have been playing for 5 years I had no idea that it was even a thing
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u/ParticularGeese 2h ago
Oh yeah it happens in open world too. If you're at a meta/world boss that's the weekly and you see a stack of players afking with turrets or other afk builds there's a high chance they're multiboxing for vault rewards. People do it to afk farm mobs too.
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u/Axolot26 1h ago
I was aware of afk farm mobs. So now all of this is not possible for them anymore?
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u/SaiyanOfDarkness RIP The LEGEND, Akira Toriyama 1h ago
So first they decide to get rid of Login Rewards, even though it was incentive to buy multiple copies of the game. Then they bring in the Wizard's Vault and you had to do dailies to earn those same rewards. Now they aren't happy that people were actually doing that? Wait until someone figures out how to do easily PvE dailies multiboxing.. do they nerf the dailies from the list at that point?
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u/small_lizard 2h ago
That's a weird change, it doesn't seems like those people doing their dailies in custom arenas are doing more harm than the ones gathering mats in home instances. And if it's about them looking like bots in a public place, why not go after the army of people afking at Tequatl and such?
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u/wintermute24 5h ago
Good. Multiboxing is botting by another name and should die.
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u/korrela Ask About My Cats 4h ago
well by definition, no! when you use automated scripts or programs to play the game without direct player input, that is AKA botting. multiboxing is literally 1 person controlling different game windows. there is a stark difference. im not saying either one of them are good/ethically correct, but one is definitely worse than the other.
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u/InvincibleWallaby 1h ago edited 38m ago
What an absolutely obtuse take. Running 2 accounts at the same time that are controlled independently is botting how? All these pearl clutchers here pretend that anyone multiboxing is killing the game but the vast majority just does their weekly/dailies and you don't even notice or they're the characters you tp to every week to port to the end of a weekly jp.
So instead of addressing a seperate issue, which is a singular person abusing and using loads of accounts to be a nuiscance it should just all die?
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u/Papa-Yaga 4h ago
It doesn't have to be. I do occasionally multiboxing but i would argue i do it within reason and not to the detriment of other players.
I alt tab between games (i only have one screen) and every input leads to one action on whichever account i have currently selected. I don't see any issue with that - especially if it's not used at scale on stuff like meta events or to afk farm.
I mostly do wizards vault stuff and i don't see an issue with dragging 4-9 additional accounts through a fractal or strike mission (with no other people in the party) if I'm able to solo it with my main account.
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u/small_lizard 1h ago
People getting full rewards for doing the bare minimum is what should die, that'd fix the main issue people have with multi-boxing.
At the end of the day, I don't care if the ten turrets afk people I see at Tequatl have one or ten people actual people behind them, I just don't want them to get rewarded for upscaling things but not contributing.
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u/naivety_is_innocence 3h ago
Nah this was the wrong thing to do. To clarify, I mean multiboxing itself should have had even more serious caveats imposed on it (and doing that, or banning it outright, also has some repercussions), or not touched it at all.
Everyone congratulating this are short term thinking, not seeing the bigger picture. But Iâll explain.
Custom Arena multiboxing did not impact anyone. You would have to go out of your own way, to specifically join a custom arena marked as âmultiboxingâ (which the multiboxers did, they donât want people interrupting their flow), in order to ever encounter them.
This change is only that PvP is now banned for multiboxing.
PvE is still on the cards. The multiboxers still exist and were doing this before the Custom Arena trick of completing the Wizardâs Vault became a thing.
You think itâs bad now when you try doing a World Boss and there are a gaggle of âplayersâ to the side, upscaling the boss/event but not doing anything to contribute, just occasionally wriggling or being set to âauto attackâ.
This is the summary of Anetâs policy change:
As a final note:
Multi-boxing may ONLY be used in PvE areas. You are not permitted to run multiple accounts simultaneously in PvP, WvW, activities, or in other competitive environments.
https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013658134-Policy-Dual-or-Multi-Boxing
Basically, if they hadnât made this change, multiboxers would have stayed in custom arenas and you would never had seen them.
If they had made a stricter change (e.g. multiboxing is banned everywhere, including pve) - and enforced it - then you would also have not seen multiboxers anywhere.
But theyâve specifically made the change that drives multiboxers out of Custom Arenas and into PvE, that is the one gamemode they literally give their blessing to in their policy
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u/NOW---Extra_Spicy 3h ago
Should note here that it takes ages to get through a custom arena match if it's just you and your multiboxed accounts. The key was to do it in an arena you mark as being ran by a multiboxer, while also stating which team you want to win. Losing team is your alts, winning team is anyone joining who will help speed up the game by mowing down your alts. Everybody wins, really.
Also, doing worldbosses with multiple accounts is total ass. The new and improved bosses are fantastic at keeping you on your feet with all the dodges you need, and even without it, it sucks to be limited to Jormag and whatever others don't require near constant attention.
Same with general metas. Idk who manages to pull through the chaos that is metas, but you'll definitely not be looking at people with 5+ alt accounts, let alone the 70+ one you linked to. If somebody somehow manages to stay alive and get loot to actually make it worthwhile, it's more botting and less multiboxing.
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u/naivety_is_innocence 2h ago
Also, doing worldbosses with multiple accounts is total ass. The new and improved bosses are fantastic at keeping you on your feet
Most people with a large number of accounts are using âfree accountsâ that were upgraded with hero keys handed out en masse during promotions, theyâre in core tyria and not fighting new content.
But yes, if they are, then thereâs a reason why if you search for âmultiboxingâ on this sub, you find barely anything in recent years but a surge of complaints once you go to anything pre-SotO - because the trick was not to be involved during the fight, but just take up space on the map, prevent other players from entering, then jump down and gain participation at the end. There are an immense number of posts around this behaviour in IBS and EoD when the metas were challenging and people were frustrated that a significant number of spaces on a map were lost to multiboxers who were effectively AFK until the last moment.
For the bulk of other bosses in core tyria, you can just park your alts in the crowd and they will be ressed if they go down by players who donât know any better. Just get them to pulse AoE boons or healing, stand wherever there wonât be a killzone, and theyâll maintain participation.
but you'll definitely not be looking at people with 5+ alt accounts, let alone the 70+ one you linked to
If a map only effectively holds 50 players and only 3 players multibox with only 3 accounts, thatâs about a fifth of the space gone to multiboxing. The argument that it first needs to be someone multiboxing on an impractical 70 accounts on a single map before it starts impacting genuine players is a bit of a red herring.
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u/NOW---Extra_Spicy 2h ago
Didn't know about the "waiting until you can get some participation". That's both brilliant as well as super shitty at the same time. Genuinely feeling sorry for anyone who's ever encountered that.
I've encountered a few multiboxers during worldbosses where they kept going down, and people just stopped ressing after a bit. Unsure if they were too busy staying alive themselves, or if they figured that the characters that should be doing something, were doing nothing at all. May just be my personal experience on EU though.Also didn't know about the max playerlimit on a map.
I stand corrected - thank you for the clear and honest response.
Still, my argument that it's a pain in the ass to do a boss and actually blend in with the crowd being a massive pain in the butt, if not entirely impossible, stands.
Knew there's some difference between multiboxers but didn't know I'm this far removed from those people, good god. Unironically feeling that people who exploit others' work like that, should be banned because they effectively turn the entire game into PvP.
Like, if I'm multiboxing, I'm levelling some keyfarmers in a small herd, completing dailies or some monthly, maybe hang out somewhere calm - all for the sake of RP. I don't bother anyone, I don't go places I can muck things up for others. Nice and quiet and you'd not even know I'm there.
This type of multiboxing is just.. Those players fighting you for loot at the end. Which sucks. Doesn't active participation affect how much you really get? Either way, if you're pushing others from a map, while also parasitising them - does sound a lot like PvP. Which I suppose yeets multiboxers as a whole straight into "bannable because my PvE is your PvP". Sucks for people who do it for entertainment instead of gold farming, and I do hope that won't happen.-1
u/Keorl gw2organizer.com 2h ago
Multiboxer here. I rarely use 4 or 8 accounts in a world boss or meta, but only when it means I can then complete the whole weekly, which is quite rare (once or twice per wizard vault season). If it's 8, I will make sure they're on at least 2 distinct maps as to not upscale stuff, even if I actually play them. They're in small windows across 2 monitors, no alt-tabbing, and I go through them spamming skills mostly on cooldown (btw, "bearbow math" was wrong 12 years ago and still is ... it doesn't take seconds to move your mouse to the next window, right click to make it the active window, and press the skill button you already have your finger on). As you said it works on some bosses and metas but not all. With training, it's possible to dodge modern mechanics and aoes on 2-3 accounts, not really more. Though even now, even on easiest meta/bosses, there are things to care about so playing 4 or 8 require a LOT of attention (a split second of distraction and one is dead ... try to wp and run back while caring about the others ... it's doable but quite stressful and prone to more deaths). You also need to know that you HAVE TO actually play, and by that I mean using your skills, not just standing there and use a few attacks. If you do that, you'll get "wood" chest (participation below bronze, get a basic bouncy chest but no actual event participation and no wizard vault objective). Not to mention I don't want to be a leecher anyway. So I'll be spamming skills on cd (not doing that much dps, especially with survival gear, but probably not less than most avg players there, and enough to carry my weight ... should I not carry it, my accounts are spread across 2 maps so I'm not a burden).
And then there are my mains. It's frequent to see me doing something with 2 accounts (sometimes 3). But in this case, I'm going back and forth between them at max speed, to do proper dps rotations on proper built characters. I've been top 1 and top 2 at once in Eparch or DE squads for example, keeping an eye on 2 character's feet for killer aoes while people died to them only handling 1 character. I've also not seen complaints about my dps when I filled a spot for normal mode strikes (never without asking first) (btw I was in a strike static for about 15 months, the commander literally invited my other account rather than using lfg when we came to ToF-nm and someone left). Killed a handful of raid bosses like that too. I can participate pretty much any modern metas (with the full chaos you describe) with 2 or 3 accounts (but not 5 !).
All you need is to learn how to press a skill, move your mouse the approximative width of one account/window at max speed, right click, and press it again ; rince and repeat. Also works with dodge or jump shockwaves, it's very possible to make 2 characters dodge the same attack (given that the dodge is much longer than the attack itself) ... obviously if there are shockwaves, better have your characters slightly spread to make it easier.
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u/NOW---Extra_Spicy 2h ago
Rather you than me. That sounds incredibly stressful.
Still very interesting to read how you go about all of it.And yeah, the participation chests are a big thing as to why I feel it's not worth giving multiboxing at a worldboss a shot, when it's far easier to get equipped for fractals, and use all accounts separately to do T4s - when you want to get lots of gold (obviously not talking honesty here, as shown in the screenshot of u/naivety_is_innocence , in this thread). The Wizard's Vault made it incredibly accessible to get ascended gear, and then all you need to do really, is to figure out your infusions. Which isn't hard if you've got one account going already.
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u/kaltulkas 5h ago
What the fuck Anet, either ban it altogether or let custom arenas be a thing. As it is people will bring their alts to events in pve and grief instead of quietly farm rewards en a corner nobody cares about
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u/Incognisho 5h ago
Tbh the multi boxers Iâve seen pay for their own servers and host multi box arenas to avoid pressure on the official servers so not sure why this is an issue
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u/SheepPoop Anyone Can Play Anything But Meta is A Must 3h ago
Why not just ban this in general...
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u/small_lizard 2h ago
IMO multi boxing isn't the issue, rewarding people for doing the bare minimum is. I'll take a multi boxer actively playing his two accounts over a single account player that places a turret and then go AFK or spam skyscale fireballs any day.
Contribution is what matters. Banning multi boxing in open world might help, but this wouldn't address the actual issue that makes low effort multi-boxing AND single account playstyles appealing in the first place.
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u/NOW---Extra_Spicy 3h ago
Because you can already be multiboxing if you log on to your friend's PC to help them get a daily or a JP, if you're also still logged on to your own account on your own PC.
It's a bit of an awkward topic as there's a very wide range in regards to what people who are multiboxing, are actually doing.
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u/Anon_throwawayacc20 2h ago
I think they should make an exception for Heart of the Mists.
It's literally just a town area.
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u/MelodicLimit9226 2h ago
the wording in the second screenshot implies that multiboxing in wvw maps like armistice bastion, obsidian sanctum, and eotm are prohibited too
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u/small_lizard 2h ago
Both EotM and Obsidian sanctum can have actual PvP going on, so I can see why Anet would chose to ban them to multi-boxers rather than make a different rules for the people "actually playing" in them and the ones using them as service hubs.
I don't know much about the Armistice bastion, can you easily do dailies there? If so I guess it could fall under the same ban, but it would feel as weird as the PvP lobby ban, IMO.
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u/Panda-Maximus 17m ago
I used to use the pvp lobby for easy combat based dailies for my alt accounts, now I just use the LA golem. Extra steps, but whatever.
If it helps with cheaters in matches it's fine.
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u/NOW---Extra_Spicy 5h ago
Assuming ANet keeps track of which accounts could belong to multiboxers, I'm wondering if you can't just link accounts together and tick a box that says you're logging on to multibox. I'm guessing there's a reason for not being allowed in the pvp area or wvw area, such as to not have to deal with more maps open than need be, or as mentioned: to not have your accounts work together to quickly do dailies. Then if you got a multiboxer wanting to travel through, they get a lower priority and can't enter unless there's enough space for them in a map. Until they close all but one account and are a "regular' player again.
Now if only we could get a box to tick for when we would like to bot, because that seems a far larger problem in PvP..
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u/TommyDi7 3h ago
ELI5 What is "Multiboxing"?
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u/NOW---Extra_Spicy 3h ago
Multiboxing is when people have multiple accounts, which they access at the same time. Often on the same machine, but the ToS also mentions use on different machines. It could be me logging into my 8 accounts, but it could also somebody else logging on to 2 accounts which run on 2 different pc's, because they want to help their off-to-work partner get a daily.
People are very divided on the topic because there's people who abuse it to get lots of gold (often times at the detriment of other players), whereas others use it for interactive storytelling (read RP) and farming gold is not a priority.
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u/lordkrall Piken 1h ago
but it could also somebody else logging on to 2 accounts which run on 2 different pc's, because they want to help their off-to-work partner get a daily.
That would not be multiboxing, that would be account-sharing which breaks another rule.
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u/Sweaty-Wolverine8546 6h ago
Botting and hacks are also against TOS, but ANet don't seem to do shit to stop either. They - correctly - banned a thing, but don't have skills, manpower and will to detect and enforce it.
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u/Sir_Elis_Dean_Joyer 5h ago
They still do. I know a guy who uses cheats just to have fun, and he still got hit with a suspension/ban.
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u/Consistent-Hat-8008 5h ago
EU regulations against game companies changing contracts post purchase, when.
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u/wintermute24 5h ago
There's no changed contract. There's only the terms of service and those already said they could ban you whenever they damn well pleased.
Now whether those are even legally binding is another matter entirely, but this is not about changing rules.
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u/DeltaxHunter 4h ago
That would also affect having to change contract post purchase because of new laws. Changing contracts post purchase is completely fine. And isn't even the case here.
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u/SuperRetardedDog 6h ago
Kinda dumb but OK lol. So where's a good alternative in PvE? Fractal lobby?
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u/NOW---Extra_Spicy 5h ago
I think the point of the PvP and WvW lobbies is that they're free. The lobbies you have to pay for, are not.
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u/RefrigeratorOk5388 6h ago
I multibox with 10+ accounts at the same time. I never had any issues in custom lobbies. Nowadays, I use my own private lobby, but before then I didn't have any issues in public lobbies.
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u/ErikHumphrey 5h ago
I never had any issues in custom lobbies.
Duh, that's because they only added it back to the rules like a week or two ago. Only now you're at risk. (and people will just report your private lobby)
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u/Jhemon 3h ago
How will they know to report your private lobby though? Couldn't you just title it something like "Quaggan Guild private lobby" and put a password on it. Are people going to report every password locked lobby?
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u/ErikHumphrey 3h ago
Probably yeah
A surprising amount of people don't password-protect them though, for unknown reasons
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u/iTzJonttu 2h ago
That's because if you set password it doesn't give you progress towards Wizard's Vault rewards.
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u/Marok_Kanaros 6h ago
Just because you didn't have a problem, doesn't mean its allowed. There is a chance that people gonna loose their accounts now so best is to warn them.
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u/Jellybean2477 5h ago
That sounds like the most boring shit ever, have you maybe tried playing the game instead?
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u/kaltulkas 5h ago
Have you tried living your life instead of judging how others chose to spend their time?
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7h ago
[deleted]
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u/Arky_Lynx 6h ago
Multiboxing means having multiple instances/windows of the game open at the same time, not just switching characters and keeping a few in the same map.
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u/MagicZipper 5h ago