Last week on Twitter, I saw someone refer disparagingly to EVE Online as “the multiboxing game.” I want to talk about the concept of multiboxing in this week’s Massively Overthinking: It’s basically the idea of running multiple accounts at the same time and/or to benefit each other, whether or not they’re actually on a different PC, whether or not it’s for combat or crafting or something else entirely.
It’s always had a sort of seedy reputation, right? Even if we do it or know people who do it – or even if the game and its monetization are literally built to let you do it, like EVE – there’s always been this idea that it’s somehow not entirely fair, even if it’s legal. And yet it’s been common in MMOs as long as there have been MMOs. As I’ve been playing Lord of the Rings Online the last few weeks on a less-RP-friendly server than I used to, I’ve seen people multiboxing out in the world kind of a lot, with characters clearly on follow.
So let’s chat. Do you multibox in MMOs, or have you ever done it – or something akin to it? Why or why not? What do you think about the practice in general? Should MMOs ditch it or support it – or just accept it as an uncomfortable reality for a small number of fans?
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna.bsky.social, blog): I think multiboxing was more popular in my social circle when MMOs were newer, honestly, and we did a lot more sharing of accounts and people helping each other level. These days, especially in newer MMOs, it’s associated strongly with RMT bots, so I understand the skepticism, but that’s just not how it started at all, and it didn’t have the “cheating” vibe it does now. I knew lots of people who did it in EverQuest, for example, and considered it a point of pride that they could multitask at a high level. It really took off for me personally in Star Wars Galaxies because of the one-character-per-account situation and SOE allowing multiboxing as a rule.
Nowadays, I will occasionally play three characters at once in SWG Legends (you are legally allowed one account, but you can log in three of your five toons at the same time – a common rule in SWG emulation, and no it’s not cheating), but it’s mostly to swap items, buff myself, or (even more rarely these days) harvest meat and hide. I usually just buy it, though. I am too lazy to hunt with multibox efficiency now. I don’t think people realize how much work multiboxing is.
And that’s really why I don’t bother setting up a toon to follow me around in other games like LOTRO or Guild Wars 2. I just don’t care enough to bother with the fuss. I’ll just play normally or use a level booster if I really need an alt to be maxed right now. Maybe that’s why I’m surprised to see people doing it in 2025, when level boosters are ubiquitous and cheap. Maybe if they’re leveling their kids’ accounts or something. I could see that. I’m just not playing for max efficiency anymore. I just want to relax and achieve Flow.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes.bsky.social, blog): I never multiboxed in any MMO I played, but I most certainly had a mule character in Final Fantasy XI because that was kind of the best way to have extra storage and sales on the auction house; now that exists in Final Fantasy XIV as the retainer.
As a result of my general disassociation from the practice, I don’t think I’d shed a tear if multiboxing went away. Nowadays it seems kind of pointless from a technical standpoint unless you’re trying to possibly game the system or bot farm.
Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): I mean, honestly, who cares.
I’m not saying that because nobody does care – some people do, primarily multiboxers themselves. But the reality is that multiboxing has existed in MMORPGs as long as the genre has even existed, just because human beings are like that. If you give people a video game that requires four or five or six or two dozen people to play, someone is going to see if you can play it solo through one method or another. And unless it involves breaking the terms of service, who cares?
Like, I’m hard-pressed to see a scenario wherein this is a problem. It’s not as if we have a rash of multiboxers who have historically ruined access to content, it’s not a habit that has ever been dominant in any sort of competitive arena, it’s perfectly allowed in pretty much every game, and so forth. You can argue that it gives some people an advantage in forming a party, but it does so through a lot of extra effort. It’s not even meaningfully part of things that are against terms of service like RMT, which is usually something shunned by companies in and of itself and only occasionally overlaps with multiboxing.
It certainly doesn’t seem fun to me, personally, but that doesn’t make something cheating. If any studio considered it cheating, it would probably take actual action against it, but in general, none of them does. It’s weird by my reckoning, but that isn’t the important metric.
Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog): Nope, I’ve never been cool enough to multibox. Nor really had the inclination to do it. I don’t see the appeal, since I don’t feel the need to roleplay an entire entourage.
Sam Kash (@samkash@mastodon.social): I think it’s kind of difficult for me. I don’t usually pay attention to other players that I’m not interacting with directly. However, when I’ve seen something similar to multiboxing, I usually just figure they’re bots or botting and report them. There’s not a lot more that I can do directly.
It doesn’t feel good in most instances for players who aren’t multi vs. those who are. If it’s PvP, that’s definitely a flag for calling shenanigans. In PvE, I’m a bit more lenient. There’s probably some long-term economy detriment. In a game like GW2, you could be slamming the gathering nodes and able to collect a lot more than intended. Even if the person paid for all those accounts, you’re still collecting a lot more than natural.
Sure, players or a guild can coordinate to gather the same amount. But probably not as easily as one or two people who have those accounts. It was always easy for me to sit down and hit a bunch of nodes quick before I start my evening – but a lot tougher to get a group of people coordinate and do that same run at the same time every night.
Tyler Edwards (blog): It’s cheating, plain and simple. Developers tolerate it because it means more box and sub sales for them, but let’s be real, it’s totally cheating.
I think it can be OK to run multiple accounts for other purposes. More space for alts because you hit the character cap, mules like Chris’, a second account so you can invite characters to your one-person guild. That sort of thing is fine. But truly multi-boxing in the sense of playing multiple characters simultaneously? Yeah, that’s just cheating.
Every week, join the Massively OP staff for Massively Overthinking column, a multi-writer roundtable in which we discuss the MMO industry topics du jour – and then invite you to join the fray in the comments. Overthinking it is literally the whole point. Your turn!
