Worst part is there are prolly a lot of people who had no strong feelings one way or another and were willing to try overwolf till this. Strong-arming the competition instead of making a better client really makes it look like it will be an ad/malware infested pile of junk that they want you to have no other option than to use. So if they do try pay walling them it will just be that much worse.
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Theres no difference between using an addblocker and visiting their site to manually download or finding some third party program to do it. If their product was good enough people will take the path of least resistance and just use it clearly its not with how hard they are trying to force people to use their bloatware.
Apologies if this was already answered but OW is going after other add-on managers so they can monopolize the market on monetized add-on organizers. They're doing this under the guise of "protecting content creators" when it seems pretty obvious given their track record of scraping that they're really protecting their bottom line instead.
I should not have to worry about data scraping where I am at least since it is illegal for them to do it in my state. See Clearview ai as an example.
"How you build your character is not a feature of a MMORPG, it is the feature. Everything else is secondary even the gameplay itself is secondary to building your character, its the kind of stuff you think about when you are at work or school and couldnt wait to go home to play WoW or Diablo 2. We have all done it." ~Into, 2016
They aren't competition. They are outright using the Curse database
and profiting off of it. If they want to be competition, they need to create their own database. You aren't a competitor when you are leeching.
Again, every single one of those alternative are stealing form the Curse database. That is outright wrong. If those others are so clearly better, then they should be able to create their own database and all the add on creators will go there. The fact that they have to steal to exist tells you they aren't capable of running their own.Theres no difference between using an addblocker and visiting their site to manually download or finding some third party program to do it. If their product was good enough people will take the path of least resistance and just use it clearly its not with how hard they are trying to force people to use their bloatware.
Then don't make your API public easy as that. They control what the API can and cannot send and to whom they can and cannot send just blacklist or do not allow outside use of the API. By not doing either they are allowing these other updaters by default to legally use the API how they currently are and any C&D will be thrown out over it. Blizzard does the same thing with addons and the Api if they dont like something they change it and break it.
Last edited by Hablion; 2020-10-10 at 06:13 PM.
"How you build your character is not a feature of a MMORPG, it is the feature. Everything else is secondary even the gameplay itself is secondary to building your character, its the kind of stuff you think about when you are at work or school and couldnt wait to go home to play WoW or Diablo 2. We have all done it." ~Into, 2016
Those other "add on managers" are using the curse database which means they are outright stealing what isn't theirs. They are all free to create their own databasse and encourage other add on makers to join them.
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Curse did that. NOw, Overwolf is doing exactly what you said. They are making their API private. 3rd parties will no longer be able to leech.
Good to know you wont answer what the difference between me using an addblocker to get the addons directly and a third party addon to do the same is and just going but overwolfs moneyz those guys are stealing wha. The could have just done things to try and foster some good will to get the fence sitters to just download and use their clients instead they pushed everyone who isn't already on their side off the fence and told them get lost.
Again, Overwolf is NOT CHARGING to download add ons. They are paying the creators through the ad revenue. The user will not be charged any money to download an addon. SO, Blizzard isn't going to do anything.
Also, you do know that Overwolf is aware of people using ad blockers right? They take that into account.
You say that as if it's as easy to just tell everybody to start using a new website to upload their add-ons to. Curse has been around forever, long before the scraping fiasco was even a glimmer in the eyes of the OW team. I get that it's nice for the developers of these add-ons to receive a bit of a kickback for their hard work but I don't think moving in the direction of letting one single company monopolize the management of add-ons is the right way to handle this.
Then there is nothing else overwolf needs to do then since once its made public those programs will no longer function though for me personally if i have to choose to only use the app or not use the addon at all I will choose not to use the addon.
For one reason being I will not have my rights violated for them to data scrape me and I will notify my congressman and state government over these sorts of violations as well.
"How you build your character is not a feature of a MMORPG, it is the feature. Everything else is secondary even the gameplay itself is secondary to building your character, its the kind of stuff you think about when you are at work or school and couldnt wait to go home to play WoW or Diablo 2. We have all done it." ~Into, 2016
NO they are not the same. If you are using an ad blocker on the Overwolf app, you are still using their app, still accessing their database and still giving htem a download which the creator gets paid for. Using a 3rd party means you are stealing from Curse as are the 3rd parties and the creator gets zero.
If the 3rd parties are so much better, than they should have no problem creating their own database and out do Overwolf.
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You better start notfiying because you have been scraped by every site you visit. You have already had your rights violated over and over again by dozens of companies.
It doesn't matter how long people have been doing it. 3rd parties are taking from a database they do not own. That is stealing even if nobody complains. People shoplift and don't get caught all the time. That doesn't mean they weren't stealing. You still a candy bar from a gas station, it is stealing whether the cops catch you or not.
It's not competition. It's leeching. That's like saying me taking for myself a crate of Coca-Cola from a truck unloading soda crates to a restaurant is "competition" for the restaurant.
This is some very flawed logic, here. You're basically saying that a thief is entitled to break into your home if you leave the front door unlocked. Or that
They own the database. They own where the addon creators uploaded it to. So, once the creator upload to their database, they own that copy. The other parties taking from that database are stealing.
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I do care about the product and I also care about the creator getting paid for their work. Good to know that you don't give a damn about the creators and only care about getting things for free. Overwolf isn't screwing anyone over as all those 3rd party managers stole from the database in the first place. They are completely free to create their own databases.