Talk:Multiboxing

Should we have this article?

This is an article about a fairly controversial topic, with fairly high risk of suspension. Should we have it in the first place? I've plastered appropriate warnings all over it for now, but it's not strictly about the game: it's about the fact that ArenaNet allows you to run multiple instances of the game under very specific circumstances. Quite new around here so not sure what to think, but it feels like it needs discussion so here we are. Heillos (talk) 10:34, 7 July 2022 (UTC)

I multibox, and I want something I can refer people to quickly (`/wiki multiboxing`) with an overview of the policies. I'd say rather that multiboxing is only banned under "very specific circumstances" (which are listed). I think the scare warnings are overdone; some of the implications section is community interpretation, yes, but most is direct from the policy. My only concern there is that policy could change w/o updates to the wiki article - but the warning is not appropriate for that concern. I can move the two suppositions (re autorun and multiple control) to their own subsection which should get the nice big warning flag though. Re controversy - I have never heard of any in the community, though I suppose if you feel opposed then there is at least one member of the community to whom it is. I appreciate the cleanup work and wikifying it - I figured I'd get to that later, so I'm glad you have more relevant experience :). --Yevuard (talk) 18:35, 7 July 2022 (UTC)

Whilst I think having an article about multiboxing is probably okay, I think we should keep it short. In brief:

• Normally only one instance of GW2 can be opened at any one time.
• There are third party applications which support opening two or more instances of GW2.
• Multiboxing is where a user is playing with two or more accounts logged in simultaneously. This is only permitted where each account is being actively played.
• Provide some links to the ArenaNet official policy.

I don't really think we should be summarising their policy on the wiki, let the official articles speak for themselves. On the plus side, I agree with the current article not linking to specific tools. -Chieftain Alex 19:38, 7 July 2022 (UTC)

Agree about not linking to tools; the wiki is not an index of 3rd party tools. I would note however that the current text of the article shows that general purpose tools may be used to multibox, as well as no tools at all.

Wrt not summarizing the official policy - I agree in principle, but feel knowledge distillation is very valuable in this instance. My thought was to cite the official policy well, and provide source material (citations not added yet, source material provided).

Yevuard (talk) 20:36, 7 July 2022 (UTC)

A few more thoughts.

• three warning templates is somewhat ugly, perhaps we can remove one or two...
• The assumptions section should imo be removed.
• "what can I do whilst multiboxing" - this section irks me; particularly anything suggesting combat - treasure mushrooms & the asocial section in particular I suspect doesn't fit the intention. -Chieftain Alex 20:49, 7 July 2022 (UTC)

I am not against the article as long as it has official information, but imho we should cut down on the assumptions, and some of the "What can I do while multiboxing?" stuff seems questionable as well. ~Sime 21:15, 7 July 2022 (UTC)

Checking back in this morning, thanks for the discussion folks :) I agree that the warnings are a lot (It was two when I added them, they've been split since then). My reason for adding them is that the consequences for a user misreading a wiki page are typically not ArenaNet suspends/terminates your accounts. If we're going to have an article about something that is allowed, so long as you don't cross any number of lines which are near at hand, we should be clear up front about what the consequence is. I'll add citations tonight when I have some time, and see if I can reword all three warnings into one at the top of the page. Heillos (talk) 21:53, 7 July 2022 (UTC)

Cleaned up the warnings and added a bunch (perhaps even too many) of citations. Also for the record here, I don't have a particular opinion about multiboxing, but a search of the forums for "multiboxing" supports the idea that this is seemingly a controversial topic. Players frequently associate it with botting or AFK farming, for instance (which obviously it is not, when done legitimately and within the policies, but that's the association that exists). Heillos (talk) 01:37, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

Thank you. Reference volume is nuts but I'm okay with that. I've pruned a bit of the article, and am pretty content with how it is now. -Chieftain Alex 04:57, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

Feedback 2022/08/31

This is not what I was looking for..... Bad ARTICLE —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 49.148.118.36 (talk) at 08:28, August 31, 2022‎ (UTC).

Thank you for the feedback. Can you please tell us what you were looking for, or what's missing from this article to make it a good one in your opinion? Heillos (talk) 08:33, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

Feedback 2022/09/10

The Topic is Multiboxing...NOT freaking GW2 policy. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 49.145.174.25 (talk) at 18:38, 9 September 2022‎ (UTC).

You will not find a guide here. You might want to consult your favorite search engine. —Kvothe (talk) 20:51, 9 September 2022 (UTC)

To put a finer point on why there won't be a guide here, as far as I understand it:

• Most ways of multiboxing require third-party tools or software. We have a policy of not referring to, and especially not linking to, such. (With very limited exceptions like gw2efficiency.)
• Just about the only way to multibox without an external tool is to own multiple physical computers and run Guild Wars 2 on each of them, which is also mentioned in the opening line.

There's really not a lot for us to say on how to multibox: you "just" launch multiple copies of Guild Wars 2, using the method you chose. It's not for us to recommend one software over another. Heillos (talk) 22:22, 9 September 2022 (UTC)