The Multi-box Thread: How it ruins the game.

Great post, OP. Accurate and as concise as possible.

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I'm a sceptic when it comes to multiboxers. I know there are some people doing it, but its not like a lot of people even can do it. ...

Best proof is the price of items. Do any regular solo/std-group players have the resources to bid for items in Default at the prices asked? of course not. Unless they've bought currency, that is.
High-end orbs are scarce and don't drop often. I play in a static group - characters always group together and only as a team - and with 5 players together from 1-59, about 60 hours play each, we've had 3 exalts drop. Total.
RNG? Maybe. But we've not got a sheetful of orbs between us... we've probably not seen more than 20 chaos drop in total.

Fine for a set grou, trade isn't an issue. But if you're in a game where trading/bartering for items is designed in as a requirement it sucks to be condemned to fali because you're not exploiting a "feature" which is in only because GGG can't see how to block it cleanly.

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Verb wrote:

How many of this "legion" of multiboxers have you met? or seen personally, not by someone else' testimony but yourself.
I'm a sceptic when it comes to multiboxers. I know there are some people doing it, but its not like a lot of people even can do it. A lot of good hardware is needed to run 5-6 clients at the same time.
So I sincerely doubt that there are "legions" of multiboxers in this game. Unless you got some proof that there are thousands of these people of course. If you do then please show me.

Also this economy system is a barter system. You can charge whatever you fucking want for anything. And its controlled by supply and demand. (look it up if you dont know what it is)

So having a stable price for everything is retarded, different people will pay less or more for the same thing. At least that is my experience in this game.

Yes, I KNEW I forgot something...

I wanted to say this, and I'll edit the OP and put this in.



There ARE people who've been playing since closed beta, and have the kind of riches that the multi-boxers have. I am not disclaiming all rich players as multi-box abusers.

But if you get right down to it, this game - just like any game at all ever - is growing in popularity as time goes on. A lot more people are playing now than people were playing in closed beta. In fact, every month the playerbase goes up by a lot. But when you look at all the people who can just throw around 12 Exalts at a moderately-appealing rare, it doesn't add up legitimately. They weren't gaining riches since closed beta. They started playing 2 months ago.

I... don't really know how it can be more clear. I can respect that you're skeptical about calling out such an implied large number of people, but I do also find it a little... naive.

You mention the economy is a barter system controlled by supply & demand. Well, you're right.

And Multiman6969 has the 700 Chaos supply to meet the current-day demands. Do you?

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ovium44d wrote:

an interesting read.

i kind of like the idea of a currency wipe, it goes along with the whole crafting_mats_as_currency thing in the first place. maybe it could be seasonal too, where you would literally be forced to craft away all your stashed orbs every few months.

however, one would have to consider dev's long term pov on this.
should they today decide to disallow multiboxing and make it punishable to discourage it, the currency thats left will eventually be either used or redistributed down to less wealthy players. this isnt painful for anyone. a curreny wipe though, would probably make a bunch of players really angry -- the less wealthy ones the most.

also, i find it funny how alch orbs are thought to be so worthless, while in reality they are quite the opposite. lets say an exalt is selling for 40alch these days. if u alched 40 prismatics/onyxes, you would probably get one that would sell for over and exalt, or at least a few that would sell for a total of over an exalt. on top of that youre left with a bunch of rings for the chaos recipe. alch orb, best orb.

The same thing that you said for Alch's also goes for Chaos's. Both are exceptionally useful for maps, also.

But it's not about usefulness anymore. It's about the supply. And as you can see, the supply of Chaos + Alch is extremely high.

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flab wrote:

I have to disagree, the mechanic that makes multi-boxing possible is the significant, unnecessary (imo) party drop bonus, recipes can just make it far more lucrative.

The current party mechanics are insufficient to justify partying in non-map situations to gain loot. Parties are still very experience-efficient going through Normal/Cruel/Merci. Nerfing them further would just further discourage low-level partying.

I blame the vendor formula far more than the multiboxing issue, at least when it comes to what the OP is actually complaining about. Multiboxing alone does not explain why one commodity would inflate so much more than another.

Oh, and regular currency wipes? that should remove anyone exploiting for anything other than their own use.

Sounds good. Any orb in-stash for over (say) 14 days since drop evaporates. Leave any stack that's unique in stash (i.e. so if it's the only stack of GCP, or Divines, or whatever).
If you want to level some other alt up, don't rely on a huge currency pile to do it... it's Wraeclast, it's hardcore :)

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kuja900 wrote:

An announced currency wipe would make no sense it does not solve the problem. It simply puts the problem at bay for a period of time (few months or whatever).

Yes, for sure. But that's why I suggest it going hand-in-hand with whatever the final fix to multi-box advantage would be.

Where's the Like or +Rep button?

The free market system is inherently flawed. There are hundreds of thousands of 'exploits' used to abuse it. Hundreds of years of laws aimed at controlling it and STILL there are dozens of new laws at every single level of government every single day. It isnt something that is normally taught because of the impact it would have on the economy. If word got out, people would lose faith in capitalism itself. Now of course PoE isnt as complex as real life markets, and thus a large share of these exploits arent relevant. But plenty are.
Multi-boxing is not the reason for inflation.
To those who see other people with more than themselves and feel hurt: dont be so fragile. It is only your own greed which causes this pain. And perhaps in the grand scheme of things, you deserve that pain. You should recognize that other peoples success is a good thing.
You can also widen your awareness to see that we are all one. Your own ego and greed can limit you from this perspective. But really, mankind as a whole benefits from advancement. We are as a species, growing. To oppose success which doesnt take anything away from you, is to oppose that continued growth.

what "announced currency wipe" are you insane ?!

i would never multibox but i have no burning desire to part from my hard earned orbs just because someone doesnt like how someone else is playing the game. d

if they wanted to make it illegal, they would. then use admin tools to monitor players and rely on "reports" and as punishment wipe players inventory & stash.

why do i need to suffer because of them ?

I don't like the idea of multi-boxing myself and I fear the effects of it.

I also don't think it's something devs should simply accept. There are ways to avoid it or, at least, make it a lot harder. Quick examples (from a quick brainstorming):

1. Give severe penalties on item drops for parties with huge level differences (many multiboxers use very low level "extras", because it's hard to have 6 level 60+ chars in different accounts). Penalties would take effect as long as players are in the same instance (don't need to attack anything really).
2. Only consider bonus to item drops if the players in the instance are doing anything (eg: attacking something every 30 seconds). If they are idle, the bonus doesn't work.
3. Detect players in the same instance that are doing the exact same actions (moving in the same direction, attacking at the same time) and consider them as 1 player in total in terms of bonus calculation to drops/xp/everything.

Those are not the best options, and they all have side effects, but it's just a point I'm making that there are solutions.