multiple-characters
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Breakfast Topic: Sorting out multiple-account and -character finances
Let's face it, the way we pay for WoW affects the way we play the game. So for us WoW-playing families, altaholics, and multiboxers, how about brainstorming some ways to nudge Blizzard into offering solid multiple-account discounts? Every single member of my family has played WoW at some point, and we might reactivate some of those accounts if there were a discount designed to keep family groups on the active rosters together. Of course, any discount system would need a way to prevent farmers and groups of players from trying to co-op their way to cheaper subscriptions. I believe there's currently a limit on how many accounts can be paid by a single credit card. What other checks and balances could you put on a discount system to keep it fair? Can we think of ways to set reasonable limits without requiring onerous levels of identification and verification? And what about the economics of server transfers? It seems logical that there be a financially reasonable alternative for moving an entire realm's worth of characters from one realm to another -- or at least some discount for multiple characters. I know so many players who categorically rule out transfers that would improve their quality of life (scheduling, realm population, raiding groups, friendships...) because they can't afford to move all the characters they've grown to love. Give us your ideas! Because when it comes to our characters in WoW, it unfortunately takes more than love to keep us together.
The Daily Grind: What's your ideal group size?
Every MMO lets you team up with other players. This is unsurprising when you consider that it's one of the main selling points of the genre. But there's always an upward limit, and there are always target team sizes that the game bases content around. Content is largely designed in World of Warcraft to target groups of five, Guild Wars tailors most of its content for groups of eight, and Final Fantasy XI expects a team of six. But each of these games also provides content for more variable sizes. Today's question isn't whether or not you like teaming up; it's about what your ideal majority size would be. Do you generally prefer to have a group of three? Groups of two? Groups of five? How many people do you like to party up with on a regular basis? Or would you prefer that most content simply scaled to the number of participants involved? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Sharing the same UI across all characters
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. We've talked about the standard all-characters user interface before, but with my own experience moving to level up an alt over the course of the next few months bookended by raiding on my main, I wanted to talk again about building one UI for all your characters. Let's get the myths out of the way first. The first myth about building a UI for all of your characters that I want to dispell is the fact that you can't actually do this. That's totally wrong. One UI that you build and maintain can be worked into a setup that works for all characters, no matter what spec or class. Sure, you may have to move something here or there, but if you relegate those movements to addons with simple move commands, you'll cut down on your own confusion pretty quickly. Reader Ymer sent in his user interface that aims to be used across his bevy of alts, ready to roll for any of the four characters who decide to log in on that given day. Let's take a look at his setup, see what we can glean, and then make some general comments about using your interface for multiple characters.
The Daily Grind: What makes your characters stick?
If you're anything like me, alt-itis isn't a passing fad but rather, a way of life. I've never met an MMORPG that didn't inspire me to create a minimum of four alts (and usually many more). Even the original one-character-per-server incarnation of Star Wars Galaxies couldn't reign in my need to branch out. Currently I'm rolling with a couple of rangers in Age of Conan, as well as a Demonologist that is surprisingly fun to play. In addition to my mid-40s sorcerer in Aion, I've been smitten by the alt bug there too, with time split between a chanter and a spiritmaster. I even went back to EverQuest II to check out Halas Reborn, and couldn't resist rolling a wizard, an illusionist, and a conjuror over the weekend. The question, when surveying my army of alts, is which ones will be resigned to the scrap heap to make room for more experiments, and which will survive the cut and live to journey toward the max level? I don't know that I can pin down why some of my characters make it while others don't. Occasionally there will be a roleplay reason to keep one around. Sometimes a class is just really fun to play. Often I just fall back on my old standby of ranged DPS or crowd control. What about you Massively readers? I know some of you probably stick to one toon exclusively, but for those that don't, what is the deciding factor when it comes to designating a main?
Breakfast Topic: Cross-character consistency
Most of us probably have alts at this point. On my main server, I have a character of each class (and besides the shaman and the mage, they're all at least level 40). And all of them that have leveled past Feralas have a Sprite Darter Hatchling to love and call their own. I like keeping at least something constant across all the different classes. I've met people who use consistent naming schemes, which is helpful because it makes it easier to tell which alts go with which mains. I've met people that get the same color shirt on all their alts, although it's hard to see under all that armor. Some people like to take the same leveling path every time (like me), some people like to shake it up. I even know someone who's leveled the same class to 80 several times - Warrior no less. But Rossi is widely considered to be crazy. If you have alts, is there anything you always do the same way across all of them?
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WoW Insider Show: Special multiboxing edition this weekend with guest Xzin
Multiboxing -- we've mentioned it quite a few times here on WoW Insider, and it's always been a controversial subject. While the game is quite clearly not designed around players playing multiple characters at once, Blizzard has stated that they have no problem with it -- as long as people are paying for each account they use, and not using third-party programs to control their characters, Blizzard is fine with it.But I, Mike Schramm, personally have always been quite against the idea of multiboxing. Lots of folks have used macros and programming to control multiple characters all the way up to level 70 and beyond, and some have even taken teams of characters into PvP areas to win battlegrounds and gain honor, or even win the arena seasons, and all the rewards that come with that victory. In my opinion, that's a horrible mockery of the way the game was designed -- this is a social game that is meant to be played with other players, and to pit one person with five computers against a real-life team of five people just isn't fair or interesting. Sure, you might be able to control the movements of five characters with skilled programming and control, but the other team has to coordinate five human minds all together, a much harder and more interesting act, in my personal opinion. I am firmly against multiboxing -- it's not the way this game is meant to be played at all, and while Blizzard may be content to make more money off of someone paying for many accounts, I'm not content to be stuck in a game with them.Which is why, this Saturday on the WoW Insider Show over on WoW Radio (at 3:30pm EST), our guest will be Xzin, one of the most notorious (and popular) multiboxers the game has ever seen.
Blue poster Belfaire explains Blizzard's stance on multiboxing
Multiboxing, the process of one person playing multiple characters on multiple accounts at one time, usually by the use of multiple computers (thus the term) and macros that can be activated on all accounts by the push of a single button, has most recently seen coverage here on WoW with our 2-man Karazhan report. The act of multiboxing is one that has been the subject of some debates, mostly centered around whether or not it violates the EULA. Those in favor of multiboxing can breathe easier today, as Blizzard poster Belfaire has stated in no uncertain terms that Blizzard has no problem with the practice in a post on the customer service forums. In short, he says that the advantages of multiboxing are no different than the advantages offered by normal grouping. Since multiboxers can be damaged, feared and CC'd as easily as separate people playing separate accounts, and since they can't do anything the same amount of characters couldn't do when played by different people, there is no reason to consider it an unfair advantage in PvP or PvE. He also answers quite a few specific questions posed by thread starter and multiboxer Velath that clarify why Blizzard accepts Multiboxing and does not consider it an exploit or an unfair advantage.
