Blizzard Asserts Rights Over Independent Add-Ons

bugnuts writes "Blizzard has announced a policy change regarding add-ons for the popular game World of Warcraft which asserts requirements on UI programmers, such as disallowing charging for the program, obfuscation, or soliciting donations. Add-ons are voluntarily-installed UI programs that add functionality to the game, programmed in Lua, which can do various tasks that hook into the WoW engine. The new policy has some obvious requirements, such as not loading the servers or spamming users, and it looks like an attempt to make things more accessible and free for the end user. But unlike FOSS, it adds other requirements that assert control over these independently coded programs, such as distribution and fees. Blizzard can already control the ultimate functionality of add-ons by changing the hooks into the WoW engine. They have exercised this ability in the past, e.g. to disable add-ons that automate movement and facilitate 'one-button' combat. Should they be able to make demands on independent programmers' copyrighted works, such as forbidding download fees or advertising, when those programmers are not under contract to code for Blizzard? Is this like Microsoft asserting control over what programmers may code for Windows?"

Comments

Re:No, it's more like the GPL

[nEoN nOoDlE]

WoW ... is not playable without a few addons ... Blizzard [has] a crappy client that is so lacking in so many respects that add-ons are at minimum an appreciable comfort, but really more of a vital necessity ... I'm growing very suspicious of the relationship between Blizzard and gold sellers ... [Blizzard] knows they can't do addons right (right now, they seem to be unable to do basic class design right)

For someone who pretty clearly thinks WoW is garbage, despises Blizzard, and thinks the developers are a bunch of bozos walking around their offices bumping into each other, you sure seem to spend a lot of time playing and thinking about their game. To me, your post shows that they need to get rid of the 3rd party add-on system altogether because people have grown completely dependent on it. It sounds like the whole system is bloated. WoW is a game, it's not a development platform. The best games are simple to learn but difficult to master, and if everyone just relies on an add-on to help them beat the higher level creatures instead of skill and perseverance, then the point of the game is lost.

Re:QuestHelper

[Anonymous Coward]

"As for it "hurting them", unfortunately I think you over-estimate how many of their 12 million users even use plug-ins, never mind base their continued patronage on their availability. I would be willing to bet that if they turned off the add-on API tomorrow, they'd lose less than 1% of their player base. There would be some grumbling from another 1% - 2%, but in the end it really wouldn't matter much."

You're an idiot who has no fucking idea what you are saying.

Let me be clear: everyone who raids semi-seriously uses an addon. Every successful raid has at least one person with Deadly boss mod or another one giving out raid warnings (big messages on your screen) so that one out of 25 people is enough for that. No one raids without this, not the biggest fish, not the small fry, until the content is farmed to fuck.

DKP, when used, is handled with mods more now than before.

Gladius is the current incarnation of arena mods. Every serious arena junkie uses UI mods, some minor, some extensive, but obviously the ability to see the state of your opponent's trinkets instead of hoping you caught the stupid fucking animation is pretty goddamned big, as is the ability to target them without fucking pressing tab through the totems or hoping to snag their moving nameplate.

Quest Helper is used by everyone I know in game. The only people who I don't know if they use it lack command of the english language enough to communicate with.

1-2%. You ignorant douche.