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There’s a reason I linked to the Dual-Boxing forums yesterday, and that reason is a passing interest I had in multiboxing that, yesterday, materialized into a dry-run on my own boxen. For those who have no clue what I’m talking about, let me step back a moment and explain.

Most online games are played by individuals who each control one character. Once computers started to become affordable for the masses, some gamers decided to change this classic formula, and log into an online game using more than one character. When this phenomenon started, it required one computer per character, and so the term “multiboxing” was coined.

Note that we’re not talking about botting here. In a traditional sense, botting involves writing scripts that automate the control of a character, such that a given character is not under a player’s control for the majority of the time. This is why botting lends itself towards gold-farming, whereas multiboxing is little more than an arrangement of computers in which one player controls numerous online characters at the same time.

In its simplest sense, multiboxing is one player who controls two or more computers. This can best be illustrated with an example of dual-boxing, which is multiboxing with only two computers. If these two boxes sat side-by-side, with two keyboards and two mice in front of the player, dual-boxing is accomplished so long as the player manages to direct the actions of a character on each computer. Obviously, this can be rather unwieldy, and if it sounds complicated with two computers, imagine how difficult it is with five, or even ten computers. The types of hardware and software used in multiboxing setups vary, and with computer speeds as great as they are these days, dual-boxing can be performed by running two instances of the same game on one computer.

The multiboxing trend has become more sophisticated over the last couple years, to the point where players don’t need one keyboard and mouse in front of every computer. Hardware and software exists to send the signal from one keyboard or mouse to every computer in the multibox setup, enabling an action performed on one input device to be reflected in the actions of every character played. Obviously, this means that it is an easier decision to multibox with characters similar to one another, than characters with very different abilities.

Massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMMORPGs) are a good fit for multiboxers, and in traditional multiboxing setups, players would run characters of the same class, because broadcasting keystrokes lends itself for this scenario. For example, if the player tells his “main” character, a Mage, to cast a fireball, all the other characters (also Mages) will cast fireballs. In effect, multiboxing allows the player to multiply his character’s power by the number of boxes used in his multibox setup.

Nowadays, multiboxers are running setups with various character classes. Oftentimes, all the characters in a given setup will be of the same class, except for the “main” character. This is common with setups running more than three instances of a given game, though some experienced multiboxers have played World of Warcraft (WoW) with five independent classes, making for considerable complexity.

I decided to give multiboxing a test, since I had a friend’s WoW account on hand, and two computers with a WoW install on them. My setup would prove a bit more difficult to setup because my main computer is an Apple MacBook Pro, while my other is a PC. Nonetheless, Synergy allowed me to use one keyboard and mouse to control both computers. The one problem I had (and was not able to find a workaround for), is that Synergy would not allow me to move my mouse from my Apple to my PC if the Apple was running WoW in fullscreen mode. Rather, I had to run WoW in windowed mode on the Apple in order to drag the mouse over to the PC. Maximizing the WoW window helped some, but this solution still irked me some. Oddly, it did not matter if WoW was running fullscreen on the PC.

There is a version of Synergy available for the PC that allows users to broadcast keystrokes to all computers in the multibox setup. Unfortunately, this version of Synergy is not available for OS X, so I could not use my hotkeys on one computer to cast spells with both characters simultaneously. For my multi-platform setup, I would need to buy a keyboard multiplexor to broadcast my keystrokes, but this is a solution that costs roughly $200. Otherwise, I will need to hold out for broadcasting-enabled version of Synergy for OS X, or a product like it.

By the end of the night, I wasn’t even relying on Synergy to control two characters. That’s not to say that my control was particularly graceful (because it wasn’t), but a series of macros made things easier. My WoW dual-boxing setup consisted of my main (a Hunter) and a much higher-level Shaman, which I respecced as a healer. My idea was to have a dedicated healer along, and to this end, my control of the healer was fair for my first dual-boxing session.

Basically, I wrote three macros, one each to cast Healing Wave on the party’s three members (the Hunter, his pet, and the Shammy). These, I mapped to the keypad of my second computer, as buttons 7, 8, and 9, respectively. I then wrote a macro to cast Lightning Bolt on my Hunter’s target, which I assigned to button 4 on the keypad. Finally, I wrote a macro for the Shammy to follow the Hunter whenever I pressed the period key on the keypad. This setup, with the occasional problem of my Shammy facing the wrong way, allowed me to have a healbot nearby, to bail my pet out of disasters. If a pull went really bad, I had a heal for every party member only a button press away.

I’d like to tweak this setup with the ability to broadcast hotkeys and mouse movement, because then I’d be able to fully control the movement of both characters without having to rely purely on my /follow macro. Currently, a USB keyboard multiplexor is not available, but for the time being, I’d like to stay away from PS/2-based multiplexors, if only because my main computer is an Apple.

I can see how multiboxing can be addictive, if only because the complexity requires one to stay much more focused when playing than when controlling only one character. With me only using healing spells, one offensive spell, and occasionally dropping a totem, the Shammy was already a burden to juggle along with my Hunter. Granted, these classes don’t necessarily compliment one another as good as other classes, but the possibilities intrigue me enough to give the setup another try.

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