And here I was thinking it couldn't get worse.

[strawberryman]

A frequent thing I'm seeing nowadays on Midgardsormr is the occurance of
2-boxing powerlevelers (PLs). One of my friends has already mentioned this on DV, for those of you who have an account (To be honest, I don't.), but for those like me who don't frequent FFXI forums, I feel I might as well bring it up on one of the few forums related to it I actually post on (albeit infrequently with large gaps inbetween, but).

Anyway, the problem here is this; people are bringing PLs to parties. Not just normal PLs. They seem to apparently be a second account of the player in question, and they are 'doing the party a favor' by multitasking in both the party and the outside high-level help. By and large am against PLs. But I can acknowledge when a PLed party is raking in experience at lower levels that other parties could not, so in most cases I won't have a problem as long as the party is comprised of competent/experienced players instead of newer or quite frankly idiotic players that need to learn their jobs, so that it doesn't end up boosting the latter group to higher levels before then.

This is usually not the case with 2-box PLers. More often than not, the player that is 2-boxing abandons or frequently neglects their position in the party to provide the 'outside help the party needs'. This frustrates me. I have heard of the rare few that can actually pull this off, but I have never been in a party with said individuals, and most of the things I hear from others are negative. To an extreme.

Like so. Just the other day, I heard from one of my good friends (though he may be experience-hungry) that someone had brought a 2-box PL... to a level 70s party. Not only should that be completely unnecessary, but the performance of the character actually in the party was mediocre at best. I have also heard from another party of his that someone in his party was 2-boxing... with a character in another party.

With above examples in mind, and the knowledge that there are some of you inhabiting different servers, my question to you is thus; what's your take on 2-box PLs OR 2-boxing in general, and what are some positive/negative examples you might have seen?

ADD/EDIT: So here's a detail I missed about the 2-box party-guy. He was playing THF in one party and RDM in the other. For those of you who don't know, those are both very demanding as far as attention and are very different from eachother as far as their place in a party.

[Bahamut2000X]

I've partied with a lot of people like this. I haven't had too many problems thus far from it. Usually the person doing it might slack a little on their lower level (understandable on 2 accounts) but doesn't really do that bad a job. I think the only time I saw someone really slacking on the job they were leveling was when it was a WAR in Qufim, but even then all he had to do was target the mob, attack, and use WS which he still managed to do.

I agree it's rather obnoxious when they play a demanding to play job and just half ass it in the party.

[ThePheonix]

It works best when the low lvl character in the party is not main healer, puller, or tank (so, some kind of dd that has no other responsibilities) so that most of the attention can be diverted to the PLing, this way the dual-boxing could be considered useful (that is, assuming it's just there to get some experienced players a SJ leveled or help them get past the dunes or something of the sort)

PL could possibly be of some use on imps in the 70+ for casting silena every now and then but if a party needs to rely on a pl at that level it's pretty sad.

My own experience with this comes from my brother getting a seperate account, and since square so kindly told us that he pretty much has to start over if we want to play at the same time (they do not do any account-splinting / character transfer between accounts in case anyone was wondering) so I've been taking his character to buburimu (away from anywhere most people party) and PL the new character with either his old one (67 rdm) or my own. He didn't seem to be too happy about 'losing' a few fully-lvled subs, near-75 main and missions, etc.

[Rostum]

This has been happening for a very long time, in almost every MMO. It definitely started early on in the game's life. I don't see much of a problem with it, especially since last time I was on FFXI (late last year), there weren't that many low-level parties around (hell I was seeking on Bard at level 25 for 3 or so hours!).

And honestly, if it really bothers you, just leave the party and explain why. No need to bother with it if it really hinders your game play.

[Del Murder]

I've never had a problem with it in lower level parties, and in general I've been pretty impressed with people's ability to play both characters well enough.

Obviously if this is going on in higher level parties you have some issues. That's just stupid.

[Rostum]

Though sometimes it's nice to have a spare WHM laying around there to cast R3.

But yeah, the only problems I ever had with higher level parties were that people were too damn stupid to get to the camp. I remember once in that volcano area in Aht Urgahn place where a few people in my party just never could get to the camp and died so many times they decided to log off...

[Del Murder]

I hate that camp. A Taru PLD is not good times there.

[Citizen Bleys]

2-boxing is one thing--playing two characters in different parties is effing obscene. I 2-box once a week to do an escort run (free exp for my bst), and I have a hard enough time running my 2 chars back to Asstok using different routes. I can't imagine anyone levelling two characters at once in party situations and being anything more than the worst party member that all of the other players have ever had the displeasure of partying with.

I would blacklist that fool.

[Rostum]

Oh wait, he was playing in two separate parties?

[strawberryman]

Oh wait, he was playing in two separate parties?

Yep.

[Rostum]

What a douche.

[dodhungry]

I personally dont have a problem with 2 boxing. Thought about doing it myself but never got around to it.

The only thing I dont like about it or any PL is when your a tank and the PL keeps all the agro on them. You cant get your skills up when thats the case its critical for a tank to get those needed skills. But thats just my 2 cents.


BTW why would it be bad to be 2 boxing if your lower lvl was a whm? Just have your lower lvl leech and get exp while your main dose all the healing. To me thats same diff.

[Roogle]

I think that the most important aspect of dual boxing is that the player ensures that both characters and both machines are working together — this includes having the same goals, having the same motivations, having the same levels, and working together in a party.

I believe that it is bad player etiquette to be a party member and a competitor simultaneously; in fact, it goes against the point of a party leveling together because the second character of the player will be in direct competition with the first player of the character.

[Citizen Bleys]

2-boxing has its uses, but when both characters have an intensive role to play, it's simply impossible for one person to play 2 jobs to their fullest. I mainly use 2-boxing for simple things: When I do Escort with my buddy, I put my second character on auto-follow so he gets the exp scroll for free, but my full attention is focused on my main job. I also used my 75 thief to farm coffer keys for my lv50-55 beastmaster, and to duo/trio BST AF3 (On my BST, all I did was charm, familiar, fight and then turn my full attention to my SAM; the other BST paid full attention to the screen, but probably didn't need to, since that fight's easy for a 75SAM without the AF3 mob's 2 buddies getting in the way)

None of these examples in any way harm the goals they're designed to achieve. The closest would be the escort run, but it actually saves us time since both 75 jobs can run ahead and pre-kill mobs that we know will be in the way (3 scorps) rather than waiting for the NPC to get close.

[Garland]

It depends on the two jobs. Let's face it, what else is a melee going to do but sit there and cntrl A, maybe WS now and then? Some jobs really don't have much to do. If the exp-gaining job is brainless, then a dual-box PL isn't too bad. If the person is dualboxing say ninja and whm, then there's a problem, as both require attention and only one will get it.