LFG Addons limited Classic WoW (confirmed by blue post)

[Janaa]

All the people saying "addons were in vanilla lol," I actually am happy that they have to eat their words here.

Err, how? Addons are still in the game. Did you misread the post? They're not removing addons.

They're breaking some API functionality because someone made an LFG addon that *wasn't* in the game in vanilla. Here's hoping they don't break too much functionality of other addons while doing so.

But addons are still in the game. Just like they were in Vanilla.

[Mrbleedinggums]

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wo...crater-illidan

Hope they enjoy getting DDoSed then

[Arainie]

Nope, you don't have to use the addon-no one was going to force you. They couldn't use it if the addon wasn't installed.
If someone wants to use it-fine. It doesn't affect -your- gameplay.

At the end of the day-who cares? Play the game how you want-why does how someone else plays bother you? It's none of your business.

I am fairly certain that if you go back and look at some dev interviews you'll find that "don't use it if you don't want to" was one of the things they said was not in line with Classic reasoning when it comes to addons. Just putting that out there, maybe someone here has a source!

[Mozu]

Err, how? Addons are still in the game. Did you misread the post? They're not removing addons.

They're breaking some API functionality because someone made an LFG addon that *wasn't* in the game in vanilla. Here's hoping they don't break too much functionality of other addons while doing so.

But addons are still in the game. Just like they were in Vanilla.

People were using that argument as an argument for LFG addon, as if no addons could be removed simply because addons existed in vanilla.

[athenaew]

Nope, you don't have to use the addon-no one was going to force you. They couldn't use it if the addon wasn't installed.
If someone wants to use it-fine. It doesn't affect -your- gameplay.

At the end of the day-who cares? Play the game how you want-why does how someone else plays bother you? It's none of your business.

You actually accidentally mentioned one of the core reasons and design philosophy that differs between retail and classic. Vanilla was build exactly so that it WAS everyone else business. What players did impacted each other. The community feeling of vanilla is exactly this - people know each other and interact through gameplay with others around them. The way you played defined how others see you in game. It was hard to hide your business. You didn't play singleplayer.

[Clozer]

I'm honestly impressed by the classic team, they've been very reactive to community feedback.

?

They just look at wow vanilla 1.12. If it was there back then they do/allow it, if not they dont. Nothing to do with the community. In this case im pretty sure that 99,99% of all players back then didnt use any such addons => ban it. Pretty simple decision really.

[klogaroth]

You actually accidentally mentioned one of the core reasons and design philosophy that differs between retail and classic. Vanilla was build exactly so that it WAS everyone else business. What players did impacted each other. The community feeling of vanilla is exactly this - people know each other and interact through gameplay with others around them. The way you played defined how others see you in game. It was hard to hide your business. You didn't play singleplayer.

You also didn't care if lfg existed or not, cos there's no way you'd run with randoms if you had people you knew available. Your dungeons weren't everyone's business, because you weren't going to invite just anyone. At best there'd be cross guild comms channels to put groups together without getting whispers from randoms. If your guild was massive, you may even have had channels that only contained certain guild members.


It was only after the much worse lfd of wrath that the groups started to mix.

[Janaa]

People were using that argument as an argument for LFG addon, as if no addons could be removed simply because addons existed in vanilla.

Some idiots were, and we kept correcting them that - no, they can't remove individual addons. As they aren't doing here. They can only disable API functionality to prevent the addon from working. Which is what they're doing here.

I don't really care that they're disabling functionality to stop ClassicLFG from working. Never would have used it anyway. However, being somewhat familiar with the API, I'm concerned as to how they're going to break API functionality in order to "prevent this addon and others like it". Since at its core, it was a really basic hidden channel communication addon. If they break global hidden channels and restrict to, say, the party/raid/guild hidden channel (the private hidden channel), then all RP mods are pretty much dead in the water. They require out-of-party communication to work.

There's a few other addons that use hidden global channels as well. Not as many as you'd think - things like DBM, etc, use the private hidden channel. But I'd be heartbroken for RPers to see their RP mods broken.

One theory I have on how they could do it, is make custom global channels created by addons local only instead. It would render LFG addons largely useless (they could still technically function with other people in your area, but with the mod mostly not working, few people would even have it), but have limited impact on RP addons. Some workarounds would need to be put in place but they'd still have a lot of functionality, like custom items, etc.

[Sosuke Aizen]

I'm fairly indifferent to the whole LFG add-on drama, but I definitely understand the why of their decision. And I suppose it's better for the game and the classic experience overall. Mind you, I didn't actually expect them to take a stand, so that's cool too.

I’m with you on this. I didn’t think they would have either. I really wish they took a stance on some of the pollution in retail. The biggest one that comes to mind is the way they handle things like flying. As far as retail is concerned, flying was simply achieved by getting max level then buying a tomb for your main (if I remember correctly that was from Wrath). In bc we could fly as soon as we got there - not sure if it was after your first 70 but still.

[Hitei]

?

They just look at wow vanilla 1.12. If it was there back then they do/allow it, if not they dont. Nothing to do with the community. In this case im pretty sure that 99,99% of all players back then didnt use any such addons => ban it. Pretty simple decision really.

"They just look at if it was there, then allow it. Nothing to do with the community"
"It was there, but the community isn't using it so ban it"

??????

[Drusin]

Waste of time, we'll just use Discord. Or someone will make a stand alone program. Or someone will start an OpenRaid. Or any other number of things the internet can do.

[FelPlague]

Yeah idk why people think just because an addon existed in vanilla it has to be allowed in classic. By that logic they should also enable oldschool Decursive and Healbot again.

so do you want nochanges, or just the changes that you feel fit?

[Big Thanks]

so do you want nochanges, or just the changes that you feel fit?

How do we recreate the scenario of the addon existing but almost no one using it?

[stevenho]

I'm concerned as to how they're going to break API functionality in order to "prevent this addon and others like it".

Blizzard did not use the word "prevent".

[Drusin]

How do we recreate the scenario of the addon existing but almost no one using it?

Use a Neuralyzer



and flash out 15 years worth of gamer knowledge.

[FelPlague]

How do we recreate the scenario of the addon existing but almost no one using it?

You cant
how can you recreate the game being new and no one knowing how it works, where everything is, or what is to come?
how do you recreate the opening of AQ when EVERYONE knows EXACTLY what materials are needed, and what needs to be done for the quests.
how do you recreate difficulty of learning fights and developing strats when they have been known for YEARS

you cant
classic is not vanilla

[Janaa]

Blizzard did not use the word "prevent".

Indeed, was paraphrasing. They used "significantly limit" which also leans towards the idea of a global hidden channel restriction to local. That would have the least impact on other mods such as Gryphonheart, while "significantly limiting" lfg addons.

[horbindr]

They'll find a work around-it's really not that difficult if they can program an addon like this in the first place. No difference between this addon and a discord community imo.

if it comes down to it, blizz just sends an email to curse asking them not to host this type of addon anymore, and that will probably limit the userpool enough to make the addon die out. extremely few addons can sustain a usserbase without curse.

i'd also say discord is more similar to LFG/trade chat, than a fully automatic addon that immidates queues.

[Erinne]

so do you want nochanges, or just the changes that you feel fit?

The latter. People who treat vanilla as some kind of sacred cow are dumb af, especially when it comes to addons which may well have functionality that the game developers did not intend for players to use.

[God Save The King]

Pretty disappointing. For the people who did not want to use it, they could have just refused, instead of ruining the improved experience for the rest of the playerbase. Reminds me of the anti-flying crowd ruining flight for everyone instead of just refusing to use flying mounts. It will simply result in outside discords/tools for organization instead of letting people do it all ingame.