FAQ: Is Multiboxing allowed in Diablo 3?

[lax]

This question is getting asked all over the internet, feel free to link my answer since there's no other way to do it on one PC without VMs anyway

The answer is Yes.
While the answer to this question is a matter of Blizzard policy and can change at any time, Blizzard *is* graciously allowing us to multibox Diablo 3 with basically the same status quo as with World of Warcraft.

That is, they will "tolerate" multiboxing to the extent that you are Good Citizens (see Is ISBoxer allowed? for some reading on that), and even when Warden is enabled, they will not be targeting Inner Space or ISBoxer.

This is an unofficial answer, which is the same as we get for pretty much any game. For legal reasons, game publishers do not come out and officially "approve" of software they do not exercise control over. For example, they cannot legally guarantee that the software does not and will not ever contain functionality that they would disapprove of.

But you said it can change any time
It can. Same with World of Warcraft. Same with pretty much any other game we multibox that has a Terms of Service/Use/Whatever they want to call it at the time.

At this point, Blizzard knows me (and ISBoxer customers as well as other multiboxers) well enough to not just flip the switch, so to speak, and ban us without prior discussion. They COULD if they wanted to, obviously, but somebody would have to seriously provoke that.

How do you know? They didn't give an official word!
I have maintained a positive relationship with Blizzard for several years, and I asked the right people for the unofficial word before investing my time in supporting sandboxing Diablo 3. The team that will be banning people from playing Diablo 3, frankly, has far more important things to worry about than whether or not you are playing more than one account. More important things such as account hacks and fraud.

Some of you may not realize this, but there is a bit of legal history between me and Blizzard. You can find information on the internet if you really want, but the real point is that those days are long gone, and these days are much better for everyone involved. Blizzard wants more customers that they don't need to ban, I want customers that are not at risk of being banned, and, well, none of you want to get banned. That is win-win.

But a Blue said that he didn't know it was possible to do on one computer and that it is certainly allowed on multiple computers
That's cool. So he wasn't aware. Did he know that it's possible to do on one computer using common virtual machine software? What's the difference to this particular Blue whether someone has four virtual machines or four physical machines? (Besides that the guy with four physical machines probably has more money to spend on additional hardware?)



And lastly... I recognize that some people will probably enjoy doing this for the real-money Auction House... It remains to be seen how multiboxers will affect that, but I think everyone is hoping that the Auction House is viable for casual players to sell things too. They didn't build this thing just so a few big names can monopolize, so we'll see how that goes.


That should pretty much cover it. Let's have some fun.

Just to help out, Blizzard Staff has posted on there forums that Multiboxing is ALLOWED, as long as you purchase multiple CD-keys "No account sharing!" There only thing is they will NOT offer any support for any problems you may have with the software ISboxer etc... Here is an official post from Blizzard Staff and the link

Reflex,

Assuming she has her own account and characters, it's still not a supported method of playing Diablo III. It's not supported for World of Warcraft either. I'm not saying it absolutely can't be done, just that we can't offer any help in setting it up and with any issues that may arise.

____________________________________________________________________
Support Information Administrator

Link to the original topic:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/ ... 684?page=1

blizz just banned 4 of my accounts which I used multi pc to multi box with... they said I was using unauthorized software which I wasn;t... Me and my spouse rotate "shifts" persay to farm act 3/4 inferno for gold and items to flip on rmah. I will update if my bans get reversed.

FYI, I did bot in the past but this method of farming blew any botting methods out of the water( been doing this the past month). So i am not gonna say i never ever botted but these bans had to come from an ip ban or they mistaken isboxer as a bot for some odd reason.

[MiRai]

blizz just banned 4 of my accounts which I used multi pc to multi box with... they said I was using unauthorized software which I wasn;t... Me and my spouse rotate "shifts" persay to farm act 3/4 inferno for gold and items to flip on rmah. I will update if my bans get reversed.

FYI, I did bot in the past but this method of farming blew any botting methods out of the water( been doing this the past month). So i am not gonna say i never ever botted but these bans had to come from an ip ban or they mistaken isboxer as a bot for some odd reason.

A ban for botting can easily come months after you've actually ran a bot.

[lax]

Source: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5825582768#15

This is a very tricky topic to address, because there are quite a few different approaches to multiboxing out there and only some of them goes against our Terms of Use.
It is an issue if and when multiboxing automates gameplay, but as long as the player who is multiboxing is the legitimate account holder on all the involved accounts, and as long as all the characters being played are 100% under the player's control without any kind of automation involved, then we are okay with it... if we use air planes as an analogy: it is fine to pilot one plane and remote control other planes, but it is not fine to switch on the auto-pilot on any of the planes.

This post was later updated:

This is a very tricky topic to address, because there are quite a few different approaches to multiboxing out there and only some of them goes against our Terms of Use.

It is an issue if and when multiboxing automates gameplay, but as long as the player who is multiboxing is the legitimate account holder on all the involved accounts, and as long as all the characters being played are 100% under the player's control without any kind of automation involved, then we are okay with it.

Edit: Removing the air plane analogy, because looking at it in retrospect, I can see that it wasn't really very accurate. Please look to my next response for further clarification: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/ ... ?page=2#25

And on the next page of the same thread: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5825582768?page=2#25

Again, the question of multiboxing is a very hard one to address and it is a rather grey area because there are several ways to interpret what constitutes automation... to us, automated gameplay is when characters perform actions without direct interaction and instruction from a human player.

You are free to play more than one character at the same time using more than one client at the same time, but each character must be played the same way you would play a single character normally in a single client. This means that one character must not react and perform actions automatically based on actions performed by another character. You can send commands and instructions to multiple characters at once, which is fine of course, as long as each action performed by each character is a result of direct player interaction and player choice.

Multiboxing characters must be controlled 100% by the player!

ISBoxer does not automate gameplay (and is incapable of doing so). Like they've always said and we've always said: don't bot, and Be a Good Citizen (tm)!

[Mahther]

Happy day. This won't end the harassment threads, but it'll help shut em up when they start.

[MiRai]

Might have to add this one to the mix as well:

There is a new addition in the legal section that states you may not have any more than 3 accounts registered to one person. This has been added in the last few months, though I am not sure exactly when. Keep this in mind when signing up for accounts to multibox with. I am not sure how that affects those of us who signed up for 4 accounts before the new addition to the legal section.

Well I still haven't figured that one out. Can I use my 4 copies of RoS if I buy them (which isn't free exactly) ?

[MiRai]

Well I still haven't figured that one out. Can I use my 4 copies of RoS if I buy them (which isn't free exactly) ?

There is no limit on the number of accounts you can use to play the game. The recent addition to the EULA pertains to Battle Net Balance.