A Guild of One; Two If His Girlfriend Plays

Ever done WoW boxing? No, it’s not a World of Warcraft remake of Rocky 3, featuring Mr. T’s Night Elf Warrior Mohawk. It’s controlling multiple MMO characters through two or more PCs. Apparently someone took “or more” seriously and created a system that enables the control of up to 46 different characters. Honestly, the guy has enough copies of WoW and enough computers to have not had 20 lives.

With a setup I can only describe as belonging on a starship, a player who goes by the handle “GamesLAH” has put together a system of 47 computers for he and his girlfriend to play World of Warcraft, with each of them controlling 23 characters, all on their own server. I don’t know what’s more unbelievable: the 47-computer-set-up with personal server; that someone actually bought over 40 copies of WoW just for themselves; or that someone this obsessed with WoW still has a girlfriend.

GamesLAH says that he and his girlfriend have boxed before with Everquest, but on WoW they are practically their own guild.

“In 2005 we started playing WoW,” GamesLAH says. “We leveled a small army and twinked ourselves silly. We leveled, we quested, we PvP’d, we raided — we ‘did it all.’”

While in number, GamesLAH’s set-up is unique, there are several websites and forums dedicated to helping players figure out how to configure multiple PCs for boxing. While GamesLAH has certainly raised the bar, other PC gamers are boxing with five, seven, and even 20 PCs.

But how do WoW’s administrators and Blizzard feel about boxing? It’s a topic that has been discussed in WoW’s forums among users and Blizzard’s customer service members. The answers might surprise you:

“Multi-boxing is not a violation of the Terms of Use…On the contrary, it’s a fairly common practice and extremely fun to watch. [It] is viewed simply as a clever, yet tedious play style, but not altogether counter intuitive to the spirit of the game.” -Syndri, Customer Service Member

WoW does frown upon players using programs to automate game play, better known as ‘botting.’

Other than being able to charge more money, WoW is okay with boxing because it relies on real-time input.

“Unlike botting…multi-boxing requires user input and does not automate any aspect of gameplay. Each time an action is performed it is controlled by a real player sitting at their computer controlling multiple accounts.” -Ardek, Customer Service Member

Besides, where’s the fun in botting? You don’t get the colorful chatter, or the guild drama. Then again, “We are the Horde. Resistance is futile,” does have a nice ring to it.