ClassicLFG Addon will still work

[Echocho]

"When an add-on goes beyond presenting information or providing aesthetic customization, and attempts to create an interconnected social network that relies on other players also using that same add-on, we are likely to scrutinize it particularly closely."

That's what Blizzard said. It's pretty apparent that what they'll be restricting is the ability for addons to communicate with each other outside of a party or raid.

If the LFG addon is only parsing Trade chat or the LookingForGroup channel and your incoming whispers and post to those same places then it falls under "aesthetic customization", a different way to view the available information.

It's the "relies on other players also using that same addon" part that they have a problem with. If the addon can communicate without going through the regular chat channels then it becomes something else entirely.

The addon will still work roughly the same as it does today, it'll just be forced to go through the proper chat channels to do so which is fine in my opinion. If it doesn't take away anything from people without the addon and is just presenting the information in a different way then it's a good addon.

[Kanegasi]

I'm fairly confident they'll be restricting the invite API, killing the functionality of inviting "queued" people or even mass invites.

[Lunavale]

The addon will still work exactly the same as it does today, it'll just be forced to go through the proper chat channels to do so

That's a pretty substantial change, not "working exactly the same".

The main issue with it was always A) the automation of forming groups (which was presumably removed by the author already) and B) the ability to skip out on using the chat channels entirely.

It was because of B that the addon was such a big problem if it became widely used. If a large number of players weren't posting their groups in the chat channels, then players without the addon would be SoL, breaking the feel of Classic.

And obviously Blizzard isn't going to outright ban the addon entirely (yet, anyways. I could see this changing if it becomes an arms race), they're just going to disable the functions that they feel don't work with Classic and anything else is fair game.

[Dacien]

I still don't understand who these people are that are clamoring for a LFG addon. None of the Vanilla players or the players I knew from pservers are excited about this, they want it gone.

[anon5123]

"Chat channels", so you mean it will do the same thing vQueue does?

vQueue was an addon for pservers that pretty much just scanned chat channels for LFG messages and displayed them all in a window, allowing you to whisper the person as well. Nobody used it because...literally all it did was just keep a listing of LFG messages from chat channels.

[Kanegasi]

If they remove the ability for the addons to communicate with each other the auto invite won't even work since it can be hard to determine the nature of incoming whispers.

You could have a friend whisper you "hey, what are you up to?" while forming a group, he shouldn't get an auto invite because of that

That's the issue. I hope they don't restrict communication abilities. Restricting API invites to scare off the addon boogeyman that vanilla zealots are afraid of should be more than adequate.

[Big Thanks]

They are restricting the "social network" created by the addon ingame. (or so i understand by the blue post)

I dont mind (i think) a pure and simple chat filter.

[Kanegasi]

I'm trying to figure out an important addon that communicates with everyone else on the server but I can't come up with one. The only ones I can come up with are addons communicating with your raid or party and they can leave that functionality intact.

There is no "global channel" for addons in classic or retail, but there's plenty of addon communication.

Addon chat can be in one of these routes in their own hidden channel parallel to visible chat:

• a party
• a raid
• a guild
• an instance (not sure if instance chat is or isn't in classic, since it's a code thing and not related to content)
• in whispers (important for some addons, especially RP addons)
• custom channels (huge problem if restricted, again especially for RP addons, but also facilitates server-wide communication when the addon makes its own channel)

Just because you aren't aware of an addon or use an addon that uses these communication channels doesn't mean it's okay to restrict them. Make sure you fully understand an issue before supporting a side.

[Ghostile]

I still don't understand who these people are that are clamoring for a LFG addon. None of the Vanilla players or the players I knew from pservers are excited about this, they want it gone.

LFG addons were part of vanilla tho

[Dacien]

LFG addons were part of vanilla tho

And that's fine, but I don't know anybody from Vanilla or pservers who are passionate about LFG addons and petitioning to save them and keep them.

[Ghostile]

And that's fine, but I don't know anybody from Vanilla or pservers who are passionate about LFG addons and petitioning to save them and keep them.

Not everyone goes full retard when something changes (or they think something has changed)

Curretly it would appear the addon will still work despite the changes, but some features will be limited.

[Zentail]

LFG addons were part of vanilla tho

This is exactly what I've been getting at with people too. I know plenty of people who used LFG AddOns in Vanilla and relied on them heavily lol. One of my friends who played Vanilla and was excited literally read that blue post and said, "Well, guess I'm not playing Classic anymore." This is someone who isn't going back to Retail, as he literally wasn't playing the game at all and was going to come back for Classic.

[Ghostile]

This is exactly what I've been getting at with people too. I know plenty of people who used LFG AddOns in Vanilla and relied on them heavily lol. One of my friends who played Vanilla and was excited literally read that blue post and said, "Well, guess I'm not playing Classic anymore." This is someone who isn't going back to Retail, as he literally wasn't playing the game at all and was going to come back for Classic.

#nochangesunlesstheymatchmyfaultymemory

[Dacien]

Not everyone goes full retard when something changes (or they think something has changed)

Curretly it would appear the addon will still work despite the changes, but some features will be limited.

If it works the way Call to Arms did or some other addon did back then, I don't have a complaint about it. I just don't see it being used by the people most likely to constitute the core player base. If I had to guess, the only people that would use something like this would be people not likely to stick around very long.

[Samuraijake]

this might come as news but...

1)blizzard isnt weak.
2) its their game.. they have veteran devs for their game.. and they have the power to break anything.
3) besides these things... they can flat out ban/terminate accounts at will if they want for violating their rules... no not ToS... their flat-out fucking rules...because its their game in the end...

[Yadryonych]

A discord screenshot. A standard for reliable source

[vsb]

It was obvious to everyone who knew how addons worked, that this kind of addon is not possible to ban without hitting huge number of other addons everyone uses and loves. This addon will continue to work just fine. Now stop all this nonsense and move on. We need to fight for skeletons.

- - - Updated - - -

I still don't understand who these people are that are clamoring for a LFG addon. None of the Vanilla players or the players I knew from pservers are excited about this, they want it gone.

Every vanilla player I know likes this addon and they think that spamming in LFG channel was the stupid thing.

[Dacien]

This is exactly what I've been getting at with people too. I know plenty of people who used LFG AddOns in Vanilla and relied on them heavily lol. One of my friends who played Vanilla and was excited literally read that blue post and said, "Well, guess I'm not playing Classic anymore." This is someone who isn't going back to Retail, as he literally wasn't playing the game at all and was going to come back for Classic.

I can't imagine a person excited about Classic, and then LFG addons get disabled, and he just deflates and loses all enthusiasm for Classic. I don't know who this person is. He's an enigma to me. Like his entire motivation for playing Classic hinged on having a LFG addon?

[vsb]

That's a pretty substantial change, not "working exactly the same".

The main issue with it was always A) the automation of forming groups (which was presumably removed by the author already) and B) the ability to skip out on using the chat channels entirely.

It was because of B that the addon was such a big problem if it became widely used. If a large number of players weren't posting their groups in the chat channels, then players without the addon would be SoL, breaking the feel of Classic.

And obviously Blizzard isn't going to outright ban the addon entirely (yet, anyways. I could see this changing if it becomes an arms race), they're just going to disable the functions that they feel don't work with Classic and anything else is fair game.

You know what? You can always join /join ClassicLFG, hide that channel from user and then exchange some cryptic mumbo-jumbo that nobody can decrypt anyway. So here's your hidden channel LoL.

[Dacien]

Every vanilla player I know likes this addon and they think that spamming in LFG channel was the stupid thing.

Everybody's got their anecdote, I just don't even remember an addon like Call to Arms even being brought up in Vanilla. People were still talking in chat to form UBRS groups or what have you in late 2006. And I played a lot on pservers, and they just simply did not exist. I don't know who these Vanilla veterans are that loved LFG addons, but I've never met them.