Irrelevant all the above are recognised as cheating by the player base and DBG, trying to lump them together with boxing (Is not and never has been cheating) to support an argument wont work.
*Beats dead horse* Everyone that wants to box in order to RMT, to make their own groups/raids etc. can all still do it as before - just do it on multiple computers. Everyone that has only one computer or only has room for one computer or has a spouse that barely lets them have one computer to start with - can only play one toon. Truebox = multibox to your hearts content - just make sure you only play one account per computer.
We can just disagree as to where to draw the line. I see no functional difference between hacking a solo monk, giving him shaman abilities and firing up a box to do the same. In both cases, a single player becomes significantly more powerful than intended. You find it ok if it's a box, but please realize there are plenty others that would find hacking the abilities perfectly ok too (especially when "playing their way" alone in a mission or instance "not affecting anyone else.") Maybe you can pause a moment and think about it.
I think some people are overlooking this.... Some/many people who box would just stop playing completely if EQ suddenly somehow became unboxable (like a fair few people seem to want). Before you start yelling YAY! just think about it a mo, many people box multiple accounts, those accounts are all paid for in some way, cash or Krono (which is all cash to DBG). If my guild is anything to go by, people playing a single char now are by far the minority, so imagine EQ losing possibly half of it's revenue. If you think DBG are going to stop boxing, you are, quite frankly, nuts. EQ is an old game, the average age of its player base is WAY off what is was at release, many of the people who play now, myself included, play in very quiet hours where grouping really isn't viable. Sure if no boxers existed you could maybe get a group going, but many groups these days rely on someone boxing some dps or CC etc. to even get started. If DBG did manage to pull it off on a new TLP I'm sure it would be a hit for a few months, but then the inevitable drop in players will start a snowball effect meaning lack of classes for groups or just lack of bodies. I'm sure a no box server would bring some people in, but it would no way replace the numbers lost to not letting people have multiple accounts.
See the problem is your still equating it with cheating with the "you think its ok to box and cheaters think its ok to cheat" line. You don't like boxing and that's fine its your opinion and your entitled to play your way. but others do like to box 1 or 2 account and that's ok too as that's there opinion and they can play how they want too. Maybe you can pause a moment and think about that. as for cheating yes cheaters are going to cheat and they will do it in every game but boxing a couple of chars isn't cheating. there has been plenty of game design in eq over the years that I disagreed with also including guilds that locked down content or mass aoe groups taking over entire zones but I wouldn't equate either to cheating or ask for them to be disallowed tho both are less of a problem now with aoc's and picks, similarly no ones asking for 40 box armies but 2-3 on 1 pc box seems reasonable.
I don't think I've ever gotten harassed for boxing. The key is to act like a regular group. I set up my guys and then pull to the group. I'm not as efficient as people who steamroll with everyone on autofollow but I have fun.
To anyone who played on Ragefire or Lockjaw when they started, the box ARMIES were the issue. 40 mage/necros running around with pets killing everything with no regard for anyone else. That was the big problem. The truebox rules just allow people to accomplish smaller goals without a huge timesink. This is a huge quality of life improvement. For anyone who's ever played a cleric in classic, it can be incredibly, incredibly boring. Much better to have a box just doing CHeals every once in awhile.
Absolutely ridiculous to compare a legal activity to illegal. Boxing is perfectly legal whether you fire up that Shaman account to buff your Monk or if you group and level them together. DBG says its a legal activity, they allow it, so it doesn't matter what you or I think regarding it's legality. It is never legal or ok to hack your character to give you abilities you don't have. At least with your Shaman box you legitimately have the abilities and using them won't get you banned. Unlike hacking your Monk... Oh yeah, since you're against a character being significantly more power than they should be, no more buffs for joo... Buffs are a part of the game too, always have been. People have always done drive by buffing in newbie yards. I remember the first time I ever got buffed in the newbie yard in Nektulos Forest, I was a freaking god for the next half hour. It was glorious!
This isn't necessarily the issue. They haven't given any indication that they would like to enforce no-box rules. For better or worse, they would lose a lot of revenue from boxers if they did. And that isn't all going to be replaced by more single account players.
Like Daimos5 above, I also saw the box armies and don't need to see more. I have played with different friends who box a few toons at a time and that's great. The true-box limitation is compromise that seems to work just fine.
If you don't like boxing then go to P99 which is more popular than live EQ and has over 2k players on 1 server . There is IP locks . Else please let us box and play solo in group game lol.
Ditto.... I can't auto follow and kill unless it's /pet attack early levels sub 10 After that it's everyone sit and let the enchanter pull while I got a charm pet in the group that hopefully doesn't break charm while I'm out pulling.
