Might be just a means to cover themselves. Doesn't neccesarily mean they can or will do anything against it. (As long as the add-on isn't malicious anyhow.)
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Might be just a means to cover themselves. Doesn't neccesarily mean they can or will do anything against it. (As long as the add-on isn't malicious anyhow.)
Will be interesting to see where Blizzard stops with this one. First it was the removal of account sellers, then it was the removal gold sellers (I don't think you will find anyone who says that it was a bad thing), now its the removal of addon sellers (imo another great thing, but I think the restrictions on in game donations links needs to be softened a little to allow small links in the addon info panel and or a couple of chat lines on login). Will it continue onto third party applications that can be used with wow (like hotkeynet and others) in a move to stop glider (only because they have tried to stop it in court) so there is no money to be made from wow outside of what Blizzard itself sells?
Honestly, I'm not too surprised with this move. On the one hand I can understand the need to protect their brand/image, however I feel they're being a bit heavy handed of late. But again, totally not surprised. It reminds me of when they tried to strong arm Joana's Guide and Brian Knopp's Guide. They sued then settled out of court.
I was playing DAoC LONG before WoW and there were addons there. At first they were rogue but Mythic eventually embraced them and made it easier to produce them. Even added some to the stock UI I think.Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Mooni',index.php?page=Thread&postID=188230#post18 8230
I wouldn't be surprised if this gets drug into court - this is by far and away anti-competitive behavior and while IANAL I believe this would be thrown out quickly and easily.
I have personally paid for two addon's in my career as a wow player, RDX and Carbonite - both are far and away best at what they do. Both were professionally developed and maintained and always worked on patch day. If a professional version of Macaroon existed I'd happily pay for that as well, as it would ensure that the author was properly compensated and encouraged to make current versions.
This will hurt the players in the end - and it will hurt blizzard in the end. The only people it won't actually hurt are the addon authors who charge, as they'll move on to new projects elsewhere.
I guess when you have 10 million players + you really don't care who you lose. MMORP Monopoly ignition in 3..2....1...
You know, that comment there sums it up, perfectly.Quote:
Originally Posted by 'uogsammich',index.php?page=Thread&postID=188360#p ost188360
I had considered writing an email to Blizzard, complaining about the way they have handled this and that in the end, it's only hurting the players. I would have even canceled my accounts for a month to show how pissed I am about this. But then I thought .. what the hell difference would it make, if I dropped my five accounts to them? I doubt they would even bother to reply.
While I do back Blizzard's right to control how their system is used for addons etc, why shouldn't people that are spending hours upon hours, coding these addons and doing a great job of it, make a little cash on the side as a thankyou.
If Blizzard want to continue this, then they need to get off their arses and reinvent their interface, removing the need for players to write addons to add features the game should really have in the first place.
first, no... keyclone would not fall under this as it is not a wow add-on (as many people have stated)
secondly, i am quite surprised Blizzard is going this route.
personally, i think you can have it both ways and Blizzard could actually make some $$ doing it... by following the same add-on model the iPhone uses.
add-on devs are allowed to develop add-ons, but they cannot be installed onto the phone (by users) without going through the app store. an app will only appear on the app store after the devs have submitted it to Apple for approval. Blizzard could do the same by requiring all add-ons be submitted to them in open source, then they could check/test and release an obfuscated component. the monies brought in from the add-ons would easily pay for the extra staff required to test them.
that would be a win-win. it would give the users assurance that the add-on is ok, the devs would have an easy avenue for charging users, and Blizzard would control the add-on channel.
Don't forget that with today's economy, it'd open up a couple jobs as well! :p
They don't want people paying for add-ons for the same reason they don't want people buying and selling in-game currency for real money; it provides a potential advantage to players who are willing to pay for it over those who are not. They want to keep the playing field as level as possible. I can understand that it might limit what people are willing to create for the game and that's potentially bad for players, but I think the alternative carries a greater risk. What would it do to the game if we discovered tomorrow that every raid add-on cost a 10/month subscription? What if it were per-account? How many add-ons do you have installed across how many characters? Where does it stop and how many players would be left?