Project Lore

Blue Stew is a new daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. What a long, long weekend, folks. I decided to take a little breather from WoW, myself, spending a little "quality" time with NCSoft's Aion, instead. I also gorged myself on snacks, caught up on True Blood Season 2, and felt sorry for myself because I couldn't attend PAX this year (but at least I didn't catch the swine flu!). What were you guys and gals up to? As for Blue Stew, I sincerely apologize about the lack of updates, but there was simply nothing to talk about. Labor Day, as it turns out, has nothing to do with going to work, so I imagine that a lot of Blizzard employees were off hanging with their families and friends instead of answering questions on the forums. Today seems no different, with a marked decrease in overall Blue activity. But I think we can find at least a couple of things to talk about from the WoW Europe community. The Availability Of AddOns? Vanera is either an extremely bored CM or he's not very good at veiling his questions. It didn't take more than three replies for someone to call him out on the poll he posted earlier in the day. Ceriulun posed the following:

"Would the question be: 'Would you like an official AddOn browser feature in the new Battle.net?' my answer would be 'Yes.'"

It was the first thing that came to my mind, as well. Blizzard's been sticking their paws in all sorts of honey jars lately, and though it's not quite the same thing, I can't help but think about the company's reactions to Warcraft-theme iPhone apps. Specifically, the way in which they systematically shut them down before releasing their own, comprehensive Mobile Armory software. Will an AddOn Browser join Cross-Game Chat as one of the new Battle.net features in WoW? Now, Blizzard has a pretty open policy towards AddOns. Occasionally, they've even seen fit to incorporate the functionality of popular ones into the basic UI (see: the failure of in-game voice chat and the recently-added Equipment Manager), so I don't think they're about to outlaw anything like that. Rather, a poll like this seems to target modding community sites like WoWUI or Curse Gaming. Some of the sites have even started releasing independent AddOn update clients, which may be verging on the edge of what's kosher with Blizzard and what's not (and they sound an awful lot like those iPhone apps in terms of out-of-game functionality). But, if you use these clients, I wouldn't start fretting just yet. Perhaps, like Ceriulun proposes, Blizz just wants to incorporate their own AddOn browser into the game. If they follow a model similar to what they plan to use for the StarCraft 2 community, that means that you can download and install add-ons from the in-game interface, they can be ranked for popularity and monitored for safety, and the ones that rise to the top could even begin to earn revenue for their creators. It certainly seems to fit with Battle.net's modus operandi of having everything you need in one place. As convenient as something like this might be, what do you think about Blizzard exercising that much control over AddOns? Open Letter To Blizzard: Thank You Illea's made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside with the following post:

I know I'm just one man in a sea of millions, and I may not be able to express myself fully, but I felt this need to share my love of the game. Hopefully it might serve as a reminder to some. =) I want to thank the people who work at Blizzard Entertainment and all the people who have made World of Warcraft what it is. Because it is truly an amazing game. I can't think of any higher praise than saying that, after several years, I still get excited thinking about it. Once I stop bringing my problems to the game and really *feel*. Listening to the soundtrack. The sheer magic. Makes me want to create a piece of art. But since I can't do that right now, I write! Anyway, I think many people have forgotten that. Most of all, playing it remains *fun*, beyond any doubt. You really nailed the basic elements that make the experience fun, and I'm very grateful that you paid attention to that process. Most of all, I trust you. I believe in your ability to make the choices that serve the game and its players best. To continue improving this game. Even in the face of criticism, I believe you have made and will make the right choices, and I respect your ability to make the unpopular ones. At the same time you manage to be down-to-earth with your players, you can really sense the life and love behind the game, websites, events, posters... Somehow you all seem like buddies. I know that there are many others who feel like me. Who think this is a game that keeps on giving. Heck, just the other day I decided to really take a walk in the Temple of the Moon, noticing myriad things I never noticed before - the music and imagining the space, and it was a great experience. I'm looking forward to really rediscovering content both new and old. It's a great feeling, giving yourself to the experience. Of course there will be problems and challenges as the game goes on, but if I were to trust a group of people to deal with it intelligently, it would be you guys. I know the future of the game rests safe in your hands. Thanks for being an inspiration.

D'awwwwwww... it's good to see some nice words used on the forums once in awhile. Next time you want to bitch or cry about something in the game that you think is unfair, just stop and remember why you still continue to play the game. Somewhere along the line, you had fun, and hopefully you still do. If there is one company that cares about its fans more than any other, it's got to be Blizzard. They just happen to have one of the most continually popular titles on the market right now, and it's nigh impossible to make all 11.5+ million players happy at once. Couldn't you give 'em a break? Today really is a bit of a bum day for news, but as usual, comments are appreciated. I'm especially interested to know what you think about a potential in-game AddOn browser!

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There's so much going on here, that there's little room left for any of the real action! Where would we be without the advent of add-ons? In the dark ages of pre-packaged interfaces and a serious lack of Peggle, that's where! Every time I get back on the PTR, I find myself tossing curses left and right, having the default UI foisted upon me once again and not knowing where any of my buttons are. It's not that what Blizzard gave us was bad, it's just that it ended up being so ultimately... standard. With a surprisingly open policy towards modification (of the non-cheating variety, of course), one might think that Blizzard predicted, nay nutured, such a robust add-on scene. Visit one of the many sites that feature these applets for download, and you'll see thousands. Certainly, many are nigh worthless or badly programmed -- the pinnacles quickly stand out -- but they're there nonetheless. You can't deny the response the community has given. But as much as I'd like to believe or pretend otherwise, I really am a creature of habit at heart. Change scares and mystifies me more than I care to admit. There are certain add-ons that I play with every day and would dearly miss the moment they stopped working. But there are others, even very popular ones, that I've tried my damnedest to learn using, to no avail. They feel too bloated, have too many customization options, profiles that somehow end up changing setups on my other characters when they shouldn't, or they just end up making my interface look like Satan's ass after a trip to the Indian buffet. These are add-ons that can work quite well in ideal circumstances, but I never seem to be privy to them. As a reference for what I still use: X-Perl Unit Frames, Titan Panel, Recount, Deadly Boss Mods, and AtlasLoot are my bread and butter. The first is largely for cosmetic changes and the ability to drag frames around, the second is for convenient and easy-to-access information that stays largely in its own space, the third is for measuring my DPS, the fourth is for reading timers on bosses, and the last is simply a luxury that stays out of my way until I need it. As I've already made clear, there are others out there, though. I see videos or screenshots of other players' user interfaces and ooh and aah about how pretty they look, I figure out what they are, go download them, and attempt to set them up in the game. It is only near the end of this process, after fiddling with configurations for awhile, that many of them simply offer me no added functionality. In fact, they sometimes decrease it. One add-on that I tussled with for awhile was IceHUD. You may have seen this one before. It's got those cool, curved bars (though there are options for several shapes) that hover just to the sides of your character, like a protective bubble of pure, strategic data. It took me awhile to get everything squared away, adjusting the spacing and size of each bar, as well as attempting to create custom ones that monitored certain timed abilities on my rouge (like Slice and Dice or Hunger for Blood). And even then, I wasn't happy. I realized two things very quickly that I never took notice of before: One, I had already trained myself to look into the corner of the screen to find out things like health or energy. And, two, the area that the bars occupied was a huge visual dead zone for me. I was used to finding my vitals elsewhere, and I would get lost in the middle of a fight, because I simply didn't know where they were. A similar thing happened when I installed Elkano's BuffBars, a sleek set of timers that you could stack together on one side of the screen or the other. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I thought I could save space and make my interface look cooler if I could get rid of the gaps between the normal buff icons. Likewise, I could have the add-on name them for me, so I would actually know what half of them were. But I had the same issue. I was looking for things in certain places and not finding them. I ended up having to chop up the bars into smaller sections and take the time to ensure that pertinent info would be sorted into the correct columns. Once this happened, I had already divorced the add-on. It was time for BuffBars to go. Another revelation: the reason why I didn't know what some of those buffs were was because I honestly didn't need to. I knew what the ones I needed to find looked like, so it ended up being better just leaving in the defaults. What all of this amounts to is something called information overload. My experience is not like everybody else's, and certainly other players can glean more from these add-ons than I can, but I'm sure that we all have some installed that just infuriate us every time we load them up. Quest Helper? Pshaw! I know where most everything is by now and that GPS arrow just got annoying, urging me in directions I didn't want to go. Bartender? OK, I do use this one, but every time I change my bars on one character, it seems to change those on others, causing me to lose icons (and many times, not realize it). There are a lot of important things that Blizzard's default UI doesn't supply us with, and they know it. The demand for certain applications has caused them to release versions of their own, such as the recent Equipment Manager or the upcoming modifications being made to the Quest Log (skulls for important mobs or goals on the map, anyone?). But going overboard with add-ons can quickly lead to fatigue. Too much useless information prying its way into your eyeballs, scrambling important messages as they make their way to your brain. My advice? Scale it back a bit. Relax a little. You can have convenience without sacrificing that all-important data. Take a look at what your class or characters really need to pay attention to and largely restrict what you install to those add-ons that focus specifically on that sort of information. Be wary of sweeping cosmetic changes that end up obscuring instead of clarifying. My interface isn't beautiful, but it is usable. Yours can be like that, too! In fact, I'd like to hear your success stories, as well as the failures. What does your user interface look like? Have you found a happy medium with your add-ons, or are you currently suffering from too much information? What popular add-ons have you failed to connect with? Please school me on your experiences in the comments section!

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Last Friday Blizzard put the kibosh on charging for any and all World of Warcraft add-ons.  In an update to their World of Warcraft UI Add-On Development Policy, the company's lawyers added three points to tackle monetary gain by LUA creators.  To sum up the associated points, developers can no longer charge for their add-ons, or premium content.  Nor can they ask for donations or display advertisements inside the game client.  The Add-On creators can still make ends meet through donations and ads via their website, but that may not cut it. It took a few days, but the weight of the changes have begun trickling down to us end users.  According to Zorba, "Questhelper's dead."  The author's decision to end QH's run after upcoming v1.0 is not due to Blizzard's addition of some of its functionality, but because donations via the webpage do not compare to the in-game nag.  Outfitter has also been killed by the change. Blizzard is creating its own equipment manager to support its Dual Spec feature, so that won't hurt much. It appears that there are three key things Blizzard had an issue with:

1. Blizzard doesn't want other people making money directly off their work.

2. Blizzard is trying to stop end users from getting harassed by advertisements, pop-ups and donations.

3. Authors have few - and easily adjustable - rights because without WoW, their creations are worthless.

The last point, is probably the most troublesome.  QuestHelper has been downloaded millions of times.  If even a fraction of those people use the mod, that means Zorba is providing a service to more people than most MMORPGs can count as subscribers.  With such a huge base, shouldn't an author have some rights?  I am going to put my neck on the chopping block and say that they do, just not as much freedom as they previously did. Since day one Blizzard has been playing with the add-on community.  During the Molten Core days, add-ons were used as automated decursing utilities, and macros were far more powerful than they are now.  Blizzard nerfed both because they felt that gameplay was being compromised, and as unfortunate as it is for the authors, that is what they did here.  Blizzard saw add-ons like Carbonite - the mod that reportedly kicked this off - adversely affecting a users experience due to the ads.  And if it wasn't the ad-based flavor, then they directly made money off Blizzard. Blizzard has laid down the law and there is little we can do to stop them.  Striking is a possibility, but could easily backfire on many authors by driving users to mods that serve the same purpose.  A general strike would be required, and I just can't see that happening.  The changes and incoming losses are just something that we will have to live with.  These hardworking Add-On developers do deserve our money, but they are going to have to come up with more creative ways to shake it out of us.  Although I believe I could easily live without any of my mods, I have and will continue to support the more complex ones (Auctioneer is the love of my life). Unfortunately, I don't have a golden suggestion for the developers to keep the green coming.  That being said, one way to guarantee more revenue for your work would be to host your own website, and attempt to create a community for the creations.  This will drive traffic directly to you, your advertisers and your donation button, rather than allowing sites like Curse or ZAM to reap those benefits. As personal as it may seem, Blizzard has removed an important part of your freedom, not your rights.  You can still pour your heart and soul into the add-on.  You can still make a living off it, you just have to do it by their new rules.  It won't be easy, but don't be like the RIAA and demand that the old standard remain in place through hell or high-water.  Come up with creative ways to draw income and attention to your creations.  Give those casual users yet another reason to feel guilty about ignoring the donation button.  Please, don't just throw your hands in the air and give up.  You owe it to yourself, your contributors and the add-on to at least try some new techniques before walking away. We will likely see more big name add-ons shutting down in the short term, so be prepared.  Which mods could you not live without?  I could manage to live without all of them, but my Auction House days would be far less profitable without my beloved Auctioneer.

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