[Kitalrez]

Well, I just voted "Yes". I qualify that by saying that it's not something I think players should be investigated and banned for, but I consider it kind of an annoying cheat. A bit like the old Japanese/NA account latency when claiming issue we used to face. If you're always on the short end of the stick, it starts sucking after awhile and you resent everyone in the other group. But also, it begins to resemble a "GM Dave" blogpost:

Bannable Offenses from March 3, 2008

250!

Wow. Post 250.

To think that I have written 250 rants in this blog.

It really tells you something, doesn't it?

I have WAY too much time on my hands.

I thought long and hard about what I could write for number 250.

This was, of course, incredibly important so I sat down and wouldn't let anything distract me.

Five minutes later...

I'm playing Playstation.

I can't help it if I have a short attention hey something shiny.

What was I saying?

So, I'm playing Playstation. A few days ago, I decided to give FFXII another run through.

No, it had nothing to do with a certain helmet.

Shut up.

Anyway, I'm setting up my gambits for my characters.

For those of you who haven't played FFXII (what's the matter with you?), gambits are basically instructions you can set for your characters so that the other people in your group will follow preset rules that you have given them.

That's when an idea came to me.

Actually, "came to me" is putting it far too lightly.

This idea fell from the heavens and struck me in the brain. It was as if a giant light bulb flickered and then blazed inside my head.

There may have been a chorus of angels.

I'm not sure.

I immediately went to work moving Susan's computer across the room so it was side by side with my own.

This was made all the harder by the fact that Susan was using it at the time.

Do you know how hard it is to take a computer that someone else is using and move it across the room with them complaining the whole time?

Some people are so inconsiderate.

When little miss yappy finally gives up and stalks away muttering something about hiding a body, I log in on my main account and then use Susan's computer to log into my GM account.

I quickly form a party on my main. We've got a good set up. Things are looking good.

This is usually where the story takes a turn for the worse. This is usually where some moron does something stupid and blows it all to hell.

Notice that I said "usually".

You see, I've figured out the problem with massively multiplayer online games.

It's those damned other people.

But what if we could take those people out of the equation?

What if I had the ability to control another player's character?

I do?

Really?

Huh.

RedMage>> Something weird's going on guys.
RedMage>> My macros aren't working.
Paladin>> Mine either.
Paladin>> But my character is still casting spells.
WhiteMage>> WHAT THE HELL?!
Dave>> Yeah...
Dave>> That's weird.
Dave>> I totally don't know why that's happening.
WhiteMage>> Can you still control your character?
Dave>> Of course I can.
BlackMage>> WHY AM I CASTING BLIZZARD?
BlackMage>> I'M NOT PRESSING ANYTHING!
Dave>> Yup.
Dave>> Complete mystery.
Dave>> And that was Blizzard II.
RedMage>> Maybe we should all log out or something.
Dave>> Yeah, you should try that.
Dave>> Dammit. It didn't work.
RedMage>> How did you know it didn't work?
Dave>> Well, I disabled your log out.
Dave>> Made sense to me.
Paladin>> YOU DID WHAT?!
Dave>> Oh, calm down.
Dave>> Look at the exp we're getting.
Paladin>> GIVE ME BACK CONTROL!
Dave>> I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave.
RedMage>> THIS IS INSANE!
Dave>> I know.
Dave>> Your name's not even Dave.
Dave>> That line would have been awesome if your name was Dave.
Dave>> Why isn't your name Dave?
Dave>> Stupid Not-Dave.
BlackMage>> FORGET IT!
BlackMage>> I'M GOING TO UNPLUG MY ROUTER!
Dave>> You could do that.
Dave>> Of course, then I'd have to ban you.
RedMage>> YOU CAN'T DO THAT!
RedMage>> IT'S NOT FAIR!
Dave>> Yeah...
Dave>> Tough call.
Dave>> On the one hand, you are a person.
RedMage>> THAT'S RIGHT!
Dave>> Of course, I hate people.
Dave>> Not really seeing a dilemma here.

And so, we spent the next four hours partying. No one died and we made a hell of a lot of exp.

We all had a great time.

I assume.

For all I know, they left to go make a sandwich or something.

You know, the game would be a lot more fun if people were just a little bit more accommodating.

Or were replaced by a number of preset commands.

Or robots.

Yeah, robots would be awesome.

Now, many of you may be thinking it wasn't right to just take over their accounts and make them do whatever I wanted them to.

Maybe you're right.

But let me ask you something: did Balthier ever get your entire party killed because he had to go answer the phone?

No?

Something to think about.

Basically, you've unfairly reduced your ability to get horribly killed at inopportune moments and for no good reason by the random idiots the rest of us have to deal with. You're denying these morons a perfectly good yelling at, too. And really, the only way most of them will ever clue in to the fact that they're doing things wrong and need to change is if the entire server yells at them.

Ok, I'll stop joking now. The real reason I'm annoyed when people dual box is that there are so many of you who really aren't any good at it. Closest analogy I can think of is driving your car and talking on the phone. There are some of you who are very good at this, and these people can pull this off effortlessly. There are those of us who are horrible at this and know this, (I fit into this category, ever try to dial with a manual transmission?) The problem is that the vast majority of people merely "THINK" they're good at combining these activities. I've driven behind you, you should be in an asylum somewhere. I can't count the number of times I've nearly killed both of us trying to respond when you pull some dumbass maneuver you shouldn't have attempted while on the phone. My horn is a signal, it means hang up the $%##^@ phone and drive.

To relate that to a party, let's say you're playing two mission critical jobs, PLD and WHM for example. Now, I on my little 37 taru BLM will significantly alter my own behavior to compensate for you being distracted. How? Let's say we've just pulled off a skillchain. My one big nuke to burst on this will easily kill the mob once the burst damage is factored in. However, I notice you're on the WHM account healing both the DDs from the chain, so I'm likely as not going to dial my nuke down a level. Maybe I do a 1st tier instead of a 2nd tier nuke. It's a crappier damage burst, and the mob is alive longer to beat us all up. You spend more mp, it takes longer, maybe we lose the chain, and downtime is increased? Why am I doing this? Let's say we're on goblins, I know my tier 2 will easily drop this gobbo with the burst. But, I also know that if I get partially resisted, he'll have maybe a few hits worth of hp left. He'll still respond as if that spell hit for full damage though, and I'm right in the line of fire. All it takes for my pitiful taru hp to vanish is 1-2 good crits and a Goblin Rush, which he'll have more than enough life left to pull off in time. Also, I know that it's going to take you a split second to get back to PLD and save me with that voke or spell. In this case, I'm putting the kid gloves on and sissy-slapping this thing to death. Your ability to play two jobs at once just isn't worth my character's death.

I'm not just pulling this example out of my ass here, this is something I've had to learn in at least a dozen parties I've played in. Is dual boxing bannable? No, and it probably isn't cheating in the purest sense of the word. Do I wish it was, however? GOD YES! Those of you who really suck at this and insist on doing it anyway are just as dangerous to the rest of us as distracted drivers are. Unfortunately, most of the people you play with are either too polite or in too much of a hurry to be somewhere you aren't currently occupying to tell you this.