I admit it. I'm a bad man.  It's not my fault though, I just don't have enough free time to be a good man.  You see, I play World of Warcraft.  It's a massively multiplayer on-line role playing game (MMORPG).  In MMOs, you are, in theory, supposed to group up with other players to go on quests and such.  I did this a lot when I was first got the game.  I even have a guild with around 100 members.  But as time has gone on, it's increasingly difficult to find people to go on quests with.  So for me, World of Warcraft is pretty much like Blizzard's classic RPG, Diablo except in 3D, I play it single player.

The problem is, without other people, some of the quests are really hard. If only I had a reliable "friend" who could help me out.  My son plays World of Warcraft on occasion. But he's not so much into questing as he is exploring and fishing.  Sometimes we've played together -- I have two accounts, one for me and one for him.  The second computer is only a few feet away from mine so we could play together.

And after dying that 3rd time trying to get through some cave, I would just look at that second computer.  Just sitting there.  What if I created an alternative character, like a priest or something to help out my first character so that when I am questing by myself, I can heal up myself just enough to get through.  After all, I'm paying for two accounts and it's NOT a PvP server so it's not like it's harming anyone.  The problem then is controlling both characters.  Trying to juggle two keyboards and mice is tough.

That's where Multiplicity comes in.  Using a network cable (or Firewire or a special USB cable that gives you an IP address) I hooked up both computers. I made my main machine the primary and my son's computer the secondary. Multiplicity then found the secondary machine right away and within minutes I  was using both computers with one keyboard and mouse.

Only my primary computer needs the keyboard and mouse.  When I move my mouse cursor off the monitor connected to my primary computer onto the monitor connected to the secondary computer, I'm now controlling it.  The transition is perfect, that is, there's no lag at all.  Now I was ready to fire up World of Warcraft and give it a try.  I created an alternative character and made her ("Amanda") a priest.  I then made a couple of macros that made it easier to have Amanda follow my main character around. 

Within a few minutes, I was able to control both characters without any issue at all. I just whip the mouse over onto the other monitor to make some adjustments to Amanda and then back to my main monitor to be killing the monsters and what not.  In instances where my guy would be getting overwhelmed, I just have Amanda cast a heal spell or a protection spell and off I go.

Now some people might say this isn't being fair.  I say bull feathers to that.  I'm paying for two accounts (me and my son's). If anything, I'm still at a disadvantage compared to the guy who has buddies helping them "power level" them.  I'm still at a disadvantage to the guy who's guild buddies supply them with massive gold and equipment right away.  And in terms of questing, having a party of 3 or 4 real people (and if I wanted to really get into this, I could use Multiplicity Pro and control 6 characters at once if I was really hard core) is still easier.  But those of us who are more casual players or simply enjoy playing the game mostly as a single player experience, this is a great help.

Just as often I'm using Multiplicity so that while I'm traveling to some place in World of Warcraft I can move my mouse over to the other computer and be surfing the net, checking email, instant messaging, etc. all without having to worry that I'm slowing down my primary machine by using its memory and CPU.

Multiplicity is mostly used by companies and power users, but ironically, its ability to handle full screen games so smoothly makes it an excellent gamer's utility as well.