Playing a massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game can sometimes be a lonesome endeavor, despite the hundreds of other players running around in the gaming world. In most cases, getting a good team together proves frustrating, even when part of a decent guild, since so many factors come into play. Everyone needs to be around the same level, and not having a critical class available like a healer or fighter severely slows things down. Also, there's a chance of bringing on a poor player who constantly gets the team wiped out. I can't afford to waste twenty minutes putting a group together when I only have an hour to play. The only other option is to solo play, but it seems awfully silly to pay for an MMO just to play alone.

To help overcome this problem, I tried to get my wife to play City of Heroes and paid for two accounts. When two subscription fees became too much, I also bought Guild Wars Nightfall for her. It's always beneficial to have couples gaming together. I know her skill level, and I don't have to waste time looking for strangers to join in, but even though I managed to get her to agree to some scheduled quality play time, I've come to terms with the fact that she's just not very enthusiastic about gaming. It's not as though she rushes to the computer when it comes time to play, and oftentimes, it seems clear that she'd rather do something else. So, the experiment didn't work, but I still had a few weeks left on the second account and the same problem I started with. If only I could clone myself. That way, I could use my wife's account to team with myself. With my skills, I would totally rock. That's when I discovered a program called Multiplicity.

Multiplicity enables the use of multiple computers hooked up to the same network with one mouse and keyboard setup. Each computer works independently, and requires its own monitor, but players control them all from the primary system. It works similar to a KVM switch, but uses software and a network instead of hooking into a device.

Set up was amazingly simple. I installed the software on both my computers, designated one as the primary, and put both monitors side-by-side. Then all I had to do was move my cursor to the edge of the screen and it seamlessly jumped to the second computer. The possibilities were overwhelming. I could watch movies on one computer and email friends or instant message using the second. I could run a processor intensive program on one and do something else on the other without missing a beat. So, there I was with two computers, two MMO accounts and a means of literally becoming an army of one.

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