Some History
I first came to multi-boxing about two years ago. I was leveling 2 alts. They where both Night Elves. One was a hunter, and the other a druid. I was running one through a level, then running the other. This became boring as I was repeating the same quests. The real killer was when I needed to do a quest which needed 2 players. I was on a low pop server and couldn't find help (especially not twice). I wondered if I could play them both at once. I got a trial account and tried running 2 copies of the game. This worked so I took the plunge and upgraded my trial to a paid account and paid to transfer one of my characters. I quickly realized that controlling 2 characters was going to need some software help, so I started to look around. I tried most of the software I found on the forums, and, although I could make it work (I'm a systems level programmer), it felt clunky.
The Other Products
The products I found all provided a useful function but I was fighting with a system that I felt wasn't designed to do what I needed it to do. That's no criticism of the products, each addresses their own area very well, but it was obvious that each had been designed to fill a specific hole in functionality and that no-one had sat back to take a look at the "big picture".
MMOs Are Not Designed For Multi-boxing
The basic problem is that the games we play are optimized for single players. We represent a small percentage of the overall user base for these products, and, although most companies tolerate us, they don't go out of their way to accommodate us.
A New Way To Multi-box
I decided to design a program which would deliver an overall experience which is no worse than playing the game with a single account. This sounds like a "cop out" - after all, "no worse" sounds like accepting defeat at the outset, but I didn't want to change the feel of the game, rather I wanted to make it just as accessible to multi-boxers.
Staying Legal
Many of the constraints in designing a multi-box system are to do with not allowing automation. The main reason for these constraints is to disallow bots and prevent cheating.
The product, therefore, had to be designed so that its connection to the game stays within these constraints, but the user side of the interface "fools" you into thinking that there is a deeper level of integration.
The One Person Group
MMO games are designed to be played in groups. I decided when I was multi-boxing that I wanted to behave as the group leader and have my alts act as my team. In that sense I needed to design a system to allow the multi-boxer, as close as possible, to think and act like a group leader rather than a solo player.
There are two aspects to this.
-
The information that the party leader would get via voice or chat need to be replicated (people shout when they need heals, when they pick up aggro etc).
-
A mechanism for giving leader commands needs to be available ("Druid, stop DPSing and heal the mage").
Fight The Mobs, Not The Technology
My early experience with multi-boxing software left me with an experience which felt more like work (I'm a programmer) than play (I'm also a gamer). This needs to change.
Removing the Barriers
I really like multi-boxing and I'm convinced that others would if they'd try it. People have several objections to multi-boxing. A personal goal is to handle as many of these objections as possible. Among the objections are:
-
You need expensive hardware.
-
You need to be a programmer.
-
Multi-boxing is cheating.
-
Multi-boxing is boring.
GameCommanderPro deals with the first two. GCP manages multiple copies of the game so that you can run them on one computer. It also manages your keys so you don't need 6 keyboards. GameCommanderPro's has a simple and intuitive interface that allows you to play multiple copies of your game and forget it's even there. The second two are common misconceptions and we plan to dispel them within the community.
The Design Goals
-
Stay legal.
-
Don't change the way the game plays.
-
Emulate a "human" party.
-
Present a user experience which makes the "system" feel like it's designed to multi-box.
-
Remove as many of the "irritation" elements as possible (such as having to accept quests 5 times).
How Did We Do
Take a look at GameCommanderPro. I think you'll agree that we've done it!
GCP is not perfect. There are some things that we'd like to do that simply can't be done (either because of the rules or the limitations of the game), but we've dealt with 90% of what we felt we needed.
GCP is completely legal - All the fancy stuff is done with smoke and mirrors (or to give us credit, some fancy programming). All we do is send keys. We don't access any proprietary information.
We feel we've balanced the control you need with the ease of use that keeps you playing the game, not fighting the technology.
With GCP, the game plays as it was meant to play, as a group rather than an individual. It's just like having a group - all the time! If more people multi-boxed with GCP, more people would see the game as it's meant to be experienced.
Sub-group handling makes you feel like a party leader, our free in-game mod presents the information you need on your main screen. We hardly look at our alt windows any more.
GameCommanderPro allows you to see your entire party's actions on one screen. No more wondering about whether alt 3 has the same macros as alt 2. No more dealing with cryptic macro commands.
Our command language makes it easy to understand what you're asking your characters to do when you press a key, and has the power to simplify (but not automate) the command process.
Our wizards get you started quickly.
The overall design makes it easy to multi-box - how you play the game is up to you.
What's Next
We know we're the "new kid on the block" but we have many man years of experience in delivering mission critical systems to
businesses. We're turning our expertise to the game market. GCP is just the beginning.
Click here to see what we're up to!