It is Time to Ban WoW Addons

[ashblond]

To be honest I get more enjoyment out of tinkering with my UI than
playing the actual game these days

Hahaha, this is an interesting and funny input. And I can understand. LOL

[Razorice]

No, thank you. I like the ability to customize my UI experience how I want it, also Blizzard sucks with their UIs.

I wonder which streamer told you the raids are too hard, because I doubt it was anyone with good progress.

[Lochton]

What you just said directly contradicts what Ion said.

Ion: Design change because of addon issue.

You: Addon exist because of encounter design.

LOL. You mistake causes and consequences. It is just ridiculous.

But.. you ignored the first stage?

Blizzard makes content, players make addons to make content easier, Blizzard makes content harder because of the addon, and players make more tools to make content easier. It is an eternal loop on that part. The only other way would be to do like Final Fantasy, which is basically saying, make fights easier, and then addons will still exist.

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Banning addons would just remove the part of the game that permits players to adapt to their own enjoyment.

[ashblond]

I would like to refer you to the part where Steve Jobs was presenting the first iphone and said the problem with all -berry phones was that they had those plastic keys there whether you needed them or not. But every application needs a different set of buttons etc.

This is exactly what addons do for wow. They make every player DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES how they choose to understand what is happening in the game world.

Why is that bad? For instance I need my addons that track what my off targets use skill wise. The game could never imagine or cater for every such small need but these needs exist and its a grace for wow that it allows the possibility to use them.

Killing addons is perhaps the fastest way to kill wow as it stands. Ban addons= unplayable game in seconds. Tbh I doubt I would even find my way out of Oribos without addons :P

I can understand.

Then the question is: Why so many other games don’t need addon, but wow needs? What is so special about wow that makes it completely different from other games, that wow can only be played with addon? Nothing, it is just a game, same as others.

All those 3rd party customized addons are not 100% needed. It is just that wow players are so used to them over the years. With simple improvement to basic functions, wow is absolutely playable without addons. And that is what Blizzard should do.

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But.. you ignored the first stage?

Blizzard makes content, players make addons to make content easier, Blizzard makes content harder because of the addon, and players make more tools to make content easier. It is an eternal loop on that part. The only other way would be to do like Final Fantasy, which is basically saying, make fights easier, and then addons will still exist.

Yes, it is like a never ending arms race between Blizzard designer and addon creators, except Blizzard has an upper hand and can end it by banning addons.

[Azharok]

I can understand.

Then the question is: Why so many other games don’t need addon, but wow needs? What is so special about wow that makes it completely different from other games, that wow can only be played with addon? Nothing, it is just a game, same as others.

All those 3rd party customized addons are not 100% needed. It is just that wow players are so used to them over the years. With simple improvement to basic functions, wow is absolutely playable without addons. And that is what Blizzard should do.

Imo it's because the base UI is absolute garbage when it comes to tracking the important stuff... Like for instance your buffs and debuffs are in the top right corner of the screen, say you have a spell casted on you during a boss fight and you need to move to X spot. With all the spell effects going on and what not, you'd have to look up to the right side of the screen to glance at the debuffs while not standing in shit, and not fudging your rotation (or healing) then react accordingly if you have the debuff. Whereas if you have a WA for it, you can just put a massive icon in the middle of your screen and be like "this is the queue for me to move to X" and be done with it. They've managed to streamline a lot of specs regarding procs and whatnot, but it's still not perfect, at least you don't have to track buffs in the corner of your screen to not fudge your rotation. But it could still use some improvements.

[Minikin]

I'd give up everything. EXCEPT my dps meter.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Mods make games better, filling in deficiencies in the game and allowing one to tailor the game experience for themselves. ArenaNet was stupid to ban the Machinima Studio mod. Square Enix is stupid to ban mods. Hopefully Blizzard doesn't follow in their footsteps.

I never got the obsession with preventing "cheating"... in a predominately non-competitive PvE game. This is a video game you play for fun, not the olympics. No, being the first one to kill a video game boss or esports isn't real sports. Allowing mods would be a huge gain for no real loss.

[LordVargK]

The day addons disappear from WoW is the day I stop playing for good.

[Lochton]

Yes, it is like a never ending arms race between Blizzard designer and addon creators, except Blizzard has an upper hand and can end it by banning addons.

End it by banning player options, you say? End it by reducing customizability? The death of more intricate fights, resetting the praise of WoW raiding to that of a more basic design? Or best of all, end a feature that will then make Blizzard developers realize they couldn't be without, so they have to make their own version of it, making addons a core strategy of the WoW setup? We're already seeing them add some smaller changes to the default UI which we commonly had through add-ons.

[Dakara]

As a Healer, I despise addons and the amount of work that goes into setting them up, but the Default UI is a long way off being fit for task in Higher keys etc

[ashblond]

I'd give up everything. EXCEPT my dps meter.

Which should be integrated in default UI and function.

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Mods make games better, filling in deficiencies in the game and allowing one to tailor the game experience for themselves. ArenaNet was stupid to ban the Machinima Studio mod. Square Enix is stupid to ban mods. Hopefully Blizzard doesn't follow in their footsteps.

I never got the obsession with preventing "cheating"... in a predominately non-competitive PvE game. This is a video game you play for fun, not the olympics. No, being the first one to kill a video game boss or esports isn't real sports. Allowing mods would be a huge gain for no real loss.

I beg to differ.

I can understand that a lot of players love Mods. But there are a lot of downside allowing 3rd party addons: more bugs, memory usage, certain lags, less safety, etc.

Even the addon managers themselves can be a mess, just look at the current problem between curse and wowup, and the history from curse to twith to overwolf etc.

I am all for more customizations, but they should be integrated into Blizzard in-game functions, and directly upgraded with the game itself, instead of 3rd party apps that become more and more intrusive with ads.

[arkanon]

Which should be integrated in default UI and function.

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I beg to differ.

I can understand that a lot of players love Mods. But there are a lot of downside allowing 3rd party addons: more bugs, memory usage, certain lags, less safety, etc.

Even the addon managers themselves can be a mess, just look at the current problem between curse and wowup, and the history from curse to twith to overwolf etc.

I am all for more customizations, but they should be integrated into Blizzard in-game functions, and directly upgraded with the game itself, instead of 3rd party apps that become more and more intrusive with ads.

So you DO like add-ons, but want Blizzard to integrate them into the base game rather than be 3rd party devs.

[ashblond]

So you DO like add-ons, but want Blizzard to integrate them into the base game rather than be 3rd party devs.

Yes, I like them to be good in-game functions, instead of 3rd party addons.

[Relapses]

Yes, I like them to be good in-game functions, instead of 3rd party addons.

But only the ones you approve not the bad ones. You know, those add-ons.

[pahbi]

How much money has blizz saved by basically turning over UI development to unpaid addon writers?

I'll bet money is the reason why we will never see any major improvement on the default UI, nor any kind of ban on third party UIs.

[ashblond]

End it by banning player options, you say? End it by reducing customizability? The death of more intricate fights, resetting the praise of WoW raiding to that of a more basic design? Or best of all, end a feature that will then make Blizzard developers realize they couldn't be without, so they have to make their own version of it, making addons a core strategy of the WoW setup? We're already seeing them add some smaller changes to the default UI which we commonly had through add-ons.

Yes, Blizzard has already made their own version: raid frame, casting bar, mouse over, dungeon journal, etc. But players are still using boss mods, because they are just much better and make things easier. And they already directly affect Blizzard's encounter design. And there is no end to this eternal arms race, until Blizzard bans combat addons.

[Relapses]

How much money has blizz saved by basically turning over UI development to unpaid addon writers?

I'll bet money is the reason why we will never see any major improvement on the default UI, nor any kind of ban on third party UIs.

Uh, did you miss the entire panel Blizzard had about DF's new UI features?

[arkanon]

Yes, Blizzard has already made their own version: raid frame, casting bar, mouse over, dungeon journal, etc. But players are still using boss mods, because they are just much better and make things easier. And they already directly affect Blizzard's encounter design. And there is no end to this eternal arms race, until Blizzard bans combat addons.

Now you want to BAN combat addons? You just said you LIKE addons?

[Tziva]

We already have a lot of threads on this, including this active one here: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...t-break-addons

Please share your opinion in an existing thread rather than making a new one.