The sudden shift in attitude is because the EQ population is worlds smaller than it used to be. Less and less people to group with. More cliques than ever before. So some folks are forced to box these days if they want to get anything done in this game. In other words, boxing went from a frowned upon method to something that was necessary if a person wanted to accomplish anything in this game. Simple as that.
"Boxers" are people...not aliens. People hack. You hav eno need top point out that some boxers hack unless you're trying to say they hack more than normal...then you put yourself in that category. Hackers are basically liars...so you put yourself in the category of high-probability liars and then ask kus to believe you are one of the few who isn't... I didn't. Don't lie about what I said. I said that some people hack, some of those people also box. Failure in logic - one does not cause the other. It might explain why you think [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] users are more likely to be hackers, but nothing about the other programs, or the ones who use nothing...Think before typing please. Here's another word for you:- "Hypocrite". You boxed. You are part of the problem.
I remember seeing the first boxed characters maybe around 2002, and it was usually just two toons being boxed, and not usually the same account owner. EX: Log on friend's level 60 druid to PL your twink, or log on friend's max level character to kill some quest mob for you. There was a guy on Vallon Zek who started six-boxing around 2002-2003, and I always thought that was pretty impressive. He did it with six computers, no alt-tabbing, and he had a separate keypad that split the signal to four of the computers. I think his tank and his cleric were the only two not tied to separate keypad.
You're letting one group leader have 6 times the power of a regular single account owner. You're letting one raid leader have 54 times the power of single account owner. That is not balanced either. I don't really see it as 'condoned'. I don't really see SOE doing anything about it or even caring, because what would be the point of having the box police? an exercise in absurdity?
While I don't agree with Orange, I understand where they are coming from. When playing text based MuDs there was a strict policy about not having more than one character logged in at once. This was pretty much consistent across all the different games I played with very few exceptions. While I understood the reason in the PvP types I never understood it in the PvE type.
I remember the first time I saw somebody with levitate lol, I asked them how they did it, and they cast it on me!
You again. If you have any problem with any of my posts Sinestra, take it to a moderator, I have said nothing in this whole tread that was personal. If you want to belittle people just because they have an opinion that isn't the same as yours, go do it somewhere else. I have seen you do this with Battleblade too. Someone doesn't agree with the majority, and you somehow think that gives you the right to resort to personal attacks. Fair warning to you and Genoane, I will report your posts if you keep the mudslinging and personal attacks up.
The first time I saw boxing was early 2001. No one thought a thing of it other than "Wow, cool that guy can handle two, three, four characters at a time!". The so-called "stigma" idea arose much later, usually from people who didn't have the talent to run one character competently , let alone two, three, four or more characters at a time. It usually boiled down to the "Hey! I can't do that so you MUST be cheating if you can do it!" mentality. Assertions that "many boxers were and are hackers" merely because they happen to box are ludicrous and fall into the "Hey! I can't do that so you MUST be cheating if you can do it!" category. Were one to follow said "logic" one would have to presume that each and every non-boxer is "clean". Either presumption would be ridiculous! Demonizing "boxers" has been going on for a number of years now. As with any attempt at demonization, if one has any sense, one considers the source.
It's not about demonizing for me, I don't have anything against boxers, I however don't think boxing belongs in a game that is supposed to be balanced and revolves around character progression and grouping. I proposed a single account server for years, for people who just want to group and have fun without seeing a character running with 4 other characters behind them and half the player populous being run by someone not even looking at their character. Just like some PVE player don't like a server with PVP, so do some people not like a server full of boxed characters.
How does being in the same world as boxers negatively affect your game experience? I'm curious on the specifics.
*it's an unbalanced form of gameplay *the content gets impacted by boxers because boxing is allowed during beta tuning *it actively reduces the grouping pool if there are server softcaps *you never know if someone in your group is boxed *you don't know if the person in your group isn't raiding or playing another character in another zone *you never know if someone is AFK or just on another character *it's immersion and lore breaking, not that immersion is still relevant with all the ridiculous mounts, still, it's immersion breaking in any game etc
*it's 100% balanced in that the person boxing has to play both characters, it's completely absurd to fault someone for deciding to play/pay for two or more accounts *there is no such thing as a server softcap, stop spreading false info *it's pretty easy to tell if someone is boxed and it's even easier to ask *again, fairly easy to tell if soandso isn't "all the way there" *who cares? an afk is an afk, regardless of how you want to phrase it - this has literally nothing to do with boxing The anti-boxing crusade is beyond hilarious in its motives. You will not suddenly see groups flying out of the woodwork if they decided to remove the capability to box, you'll see angry and bitter customers cancelling their account(s) and the forums exploding as a result. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, good can come out of restricting gameplay in such a fashion. If you are against boxing so much, you're more than welcome to not box. If you want groups, try doing a little more than putting /LFG on and then expecting inquiries to magically appear. Send tells, form your own, be proactive -- complaining that "boxers" are ruining the game or "reducing the LFG pool" is far and beyond the least productive solution to your grouping problem.
I can remember boxing back when Kunark came out, it was mainly to level up different toons on my daughter's account to save me from waiting on rezzes, buffs, ports..etc. I like low pressure boxing, in other words park them and forget them til you need something. While boxing didn't bother me the means ~some~ people would use to operate their boxes (third party programs) did and always will . Maybe I'm just jealous that some people have no problem with leaving a whole group up during a weekend never once going near the keyboard /shrug.
This game, like real life has class segregation. As many of the more experienced players look down and frown upon a returning player or F2P/Silver and more than likely not group with them in a pick up group scenario (which is basically dead for years now). This is for many reasons including the wide disparity in experience,AA counts,gear and skill as a result of a of a fifteen year old game. Some folks are not prepared to deal with the drama of PUG's anymore because of this disparity. So any returning player not hooked up in an active guild or guild with more players of their demographic will find it difficult to advance their character after 85 or so..As there are simply not enough people doing that content who are willing to do PUG's at that level range. This was my reason for boxing a second account in 2007 then a third (each on separate computers) in 2008. I remember when I started EQ in 2006 the PUGs were already dying except in maybe the hotzones. While trying to get a cleric via LFG or PUGs in the group game was met with silence even though they were many clerics parked in POK.
I have a friend that boxes his Wizzy main, mage and bard. I group with him every now and again and I started getting annoyed that I couldn't melee because his pet was tanking. Y'know what he did? He dusted off his old SK so that I could dps properly when really what he coulda done was had his usual set up plus a wiz merc instead of having me in the group at all. To begin with I frowned upon boxing, the reason really, when I think about it, just came down to the same reasons people have class envy. One person can do something which another cannot. Some folks act like boxers are the devil incarnate and make silly claims that they've destroyed groups. All they're doing is making the game more fun for themselves, and newsflash, even if they were stopped from boxing they probably still wouldn't be LFG. Personally, after seeing cuts in the business and staggered content releases, I think the extra revenue from boxers can't go to far wrong. As for the having pride in doing solo stuff with my one main on my one account, I think I'd actually quite like to box. I wouldn't mind having a mage to beam some AA for me.
I'm not sure how you can say it is an unbalanced form of gameplay, unless you are talking about more of a challenge. Some classes are unbalanced but not boxing itself. Anything a boxer can do should be easier for a real group of players. Content maybe easier due to boxers tuning during beta, but I am thankful for them testing content. Not sure about server softcaps, I would imagine unplayed accounts & F2P has more of an impact than boxers. Some boxers are better at playing 2+ chars than some players are at playing 1, if it bothers you ask. No difference to a player playing another toon, than somone watching TV. How can it be lore breaking? I still aruge with myself when playing 2 toons, in fact it is far easier to roleplay with yourself than with others! (yes I'm a nutter) Yes, I do box. I'm what I call a lazy boxer, I'll fire up both machines and have one account on each, that way I can see more of whats going on. I play wizzy and box either either mage or chanter with a couple of mercs healer if mage, tank if chanter. Chanter normally only slows and mezes if I mess up a pull, oh and dps auras, mage is only used for pet and rods, mage pet is far superior to my tank merc. Now if I could just stop the other half from play War Thunder and Star Trek, I wouldn't have to box at all!
