Should You Use CurseForge? CEO Explains WoW App’s Privacy, Feature, Ad Changes

[Acidbaron]

Do not believe this has been posted yet and considering the twitch client says support will stop at December the second.

Link to Forbes article

Overwolf does not have the greatest reputation so the change from curseforge twitch into curseforge overwolf without doubt raised some concern as most of us use addons and would like to have something to use that we deem trustworthy. So it is an interesting read to see what their plans are, yes there's some corporate speak in there since it is an interview with the CEO, so plenty of how this is to empower and enable developers because that is where they came from and want to see them get more money, etc.

Not a fan of overwolf myself, but this is what we have to work with so might as well try to get an objective look at them.

Some highlights.

• It appears Curseforge was going to leave twitch or was looking for a new place that was more sustainable long term.
• Transparency going forward on how Curseforge will be developed is important to them.
• Things will remain as is for now and new things will be rolled out over time.
• A dedicated team for Curseforge, new features will be global search and smart sync.
• Subscription model will return to generate more revenue, which of 70% will go to addon developers.
• All users will keep having access to Update All,” auto-install, Sync and multi-select features.
• New privacy policy to address concerns, no more selling of data to companies including research they don't feel "internally comfortable with"
• They further elaborated how they handle data and how transparency is important to them make of that what you will.
• Adds will return in the form of in-app banners and muted video ads, in a non-intrusive manner.
• Developer response they claim has been positive so far.
• Elvui and Weakauras 2 is missing on their client still but they are looking to work with them and add them to their client.

Looks positive as you can expect from such a piece, guess time will tell. Their transparency is a good move but while they changed their policies things can be changed again.
Not having weakauras 2 is a bit of disappointment to me personally elvui also but that wasn't on twitch anyway.

So will you be using this or have you already transitioned to another Mod application if so which?




Edit:

In the light of "Sharing is Caring", three alternatives;

WoWup has been promoted as an alternative, it can be found here https://wowup.io/

I am currently in the process of transitioning and considering paying ( 3 a month) for it as i used to pay for CurseForge before their move to Twitch.

Something you may want to know using WoWup;

The Good,
All addons are supported, it gets their data from GitHub, CurseForge, WowInterface, TukUI. So even Elvui gets updated through it what isn't the case with Twitch and now Overwolf.

The (maybe) Bad,
Most addons are on CurseForge, popular ones can be found elsewhere however.
Overwolf is planning to cut access of to CF API for WoWup at one point, the developer is however looking for alternatives to this.

To read the story between Overwolf and WoWup you can read it here;

Part 1
"Yesterday I was approached by a member of the Overwolf team who essentially told me I could either join them by embedding WowUp into their framework or stop using the CurseForge API."
Part 2
"One takeaway from the meeting was that nothing is changing yet. So, for now it's business as usual continuing to provide a client that does what you need. "

Minion - wowinterface addon manager https://www.minion.gg/

The Good,
It's free, has all the basic features (update all..) and it comes from a site with their own database, so even if Overwolf limits access to Curseforge you'll still get updates.

The (maybe) Bad,
If your addon is not on WoWinterface it won't be available through the app, however most if not all popular addons are on there.


Ajour, another addon manager similar to wowup - https://www.getajour.com/

The good,
Access to all addon databases, Tukui, wowinterface, Curseforge.
Open source, free to build your own addon from this.

The bad,
Same as with WoWup access to Curseforge and other API's might be restricted in the future, dependent on other databases for addons.

[Kyanion]

Yeah no, in app banners, muted video adds, an extremely bad reputation from Overwolf. Not a chance in hell that ever gets installed on my computer.

[Unlimited Power]

Been using WoWUp since day 1 and will continue to for as long as it works.

If/when Overwolf retracts API access and breaks WoWUp, I'll look into alternatives, but that alternative will never be Overwolf

[Baneto]

Hard no to Overwolf from me.

I will continue using WowUp personally, its lightweight and has all I want from a platform installing/updating addons.

[Jarlathe]

I will go old school and manually update mods before I ever install Overwolf.

New privacy policy to address concerns, no more selling of data to companies including research they don't feel "internally comfortable with"

That sounds like "just the tip" to me...

[Djuntas]

Cursebreaker or wowup for me.

[Squigglyo]

"We promise not to do all the stuff we used to do. Pinky promise, don't worry about it, you can trust us"

[callipygoustp]

Shady company tells me they aren't shady. I'm convinced.

[Hyrican]

well... as long as the company does feel comfortable with sharing data to 3rd parties... not the end user... all is fine i guess? loading ads continuously from ad platforms that in itself includes additional trackers and attack vectors...

ad platforms can not provide safe ads with privacy in mind... how should a "small indie company" only interested in the benefit of their customers be able to do better?

[Eazy]

Wait... there was other way of installing addons than just doing it manually?
And people now will be getting ads and their data stolen to other companies because they want to let the app install them for themselves?

LMAO

[WowIsDead64]

Do not believe this has been posted yet and considering the twitch client says support will stop at December the second.

Link to Forbes article

Overwolf does not have the greatest reputation so the change from curseforge twitch into curseforge overwolf without doubt raised some concern as most of us use addons and would like to have something to use that we deem trustworthy. So it is an interesting read to see what their plans are, yes there's some corporate speak in there since it is an interview with the CEO, so plenty of how this is to empower and enable developers because that is where they came from and want to see them get more money, etc.

Not a fan of overwolf myself, but this is what we have to work with so might as well try to get an objective look at them.

Some highlights.

• It appears Curseforge was going to leave twitch or was looking for a new place that was more sustainable long term.
• Transparency going forward on how Curseforge will be developed is important to them.
• Things will remain as is for now and new things will be rolled out over time.
• A dedicated team for Curseforge, new features will be global search and smart sync.
• Subscription model will return to generate more revenue, which of 70% will go to addon developers.
• All users will keep having access to Update All,” auto-install, Sync and multi-select features.
• New privacy policy to address concerns, no more selling of data to companies including research they don't feel "internally comfortable with"
• They further elaborated how they handle data and how transparency is important to them make of that what you will.
• Adds will return in the form of in-app banners and muted video ads, in a non-intrusive manner.
• Developer response they claim has been positive so far.
• Elvui and Weakauras 2 is missing on their client still but they are looking to work with them and add them to their client.

Looks positive as you can expect from such a piece, guess time will tell. Their transparency is a good move but while they changed their policies things can be changed again.
Not having weakauras 2 is a bit of disappointment to me personally elvui also but that wasn't on twitch anyway.

So will you be using this or have you already transitioned to another Mod application if so which?

It's almost obvious for me, that their intention is to show ads and collect private data via their application. I don't use any 3rd party apps since death of Curse Client. I'm not one of those people, who install 100500 addons. I have 100% necessary ones only. It's not hard for me to update them manually once in half a year. If this opportunity will stay - then nothing will change for me. And also. If addon authors will feel like they're exploited, even if it will bring them some money from ads, I guess they'll go away from that platform.

[Acidbaron]

Thanks for the responses so far,

Been using WoWUp since day 1 and will continue to for as long as it works.

If/when Overwolf retracts API access and breaks WoWUp, I'll look into alternatives, but that alternative will never be Overwolf

Taking a look at WoWup as i find it visually more appealing than cursebreaker (priorities i know..), seems they do support all including Elvui what is a nice bonus and what i need. Do they support all of Elvui or simply the core package if i am unclear i mean are addons based on Elvui like Benikui also included? Thanks for the recommendation i completely forgot about it.


To stay on topic of how this might change the landscape for addon creators and users;

WoWup does seem to get their data for now from Curseforge although not exclusively this might no longer be available in the future.
What makes me wonder however with Overwolf set on paying addon developers (more?), may we be looking into an era of exclusivity? I hope not but it is something to consider as it is a trend that has already happened in gaming elsewhere. Or does overwolf lack the capital for me to be even worried about that?

[Thelxi]

My only experience with Overwolf is in TFT, but I can say that the software is annoyingly invasive and resource intensive. I'll happily go with something else.

[Mendzia]

I only used Twitch App to WoW addons... all the streams watching will be continued with Adblock...
It is time to check this WowUp i guess.

[Inukashi]

no more selling of data to companies including research they don't feel "internally comfortable with"

This is my favourite part. They spin some vague text around "We sold your data to every Phising-mail creator we could find" to show how they care. I wonder how much it costs to make them feel internally comfortable with it.

As long as you can download addons directly from their side, there will be a client that can autoupdate addons.

The moment you won't be able to download addons directly from curseforge, there will be a new addon repository.

[Acidbaron]

Updated the OP to add in the WoWup suggestion and the current situation of them using CurseForge API.

- - - Updated - - -

This is my favourite part. They spin some vague text around "We sold your data to every Phising-mail creator we could find" to show how they care. I wonder how much it costs to make them feel internally comfortable with it.

As long as you can download addons directly from their side, there will be a client that can autoupdate addons.

The moment you won't be able to download addons directly from curseforge, there will be a new addon repository.

I am also of opinion if they crossed that bridge once to grow financially, they can and might do it again.

True alternatives will rise up but they have to be made first, however does look like things are in the making.

[Raven]

At the state it is right now, no not going to use it, alot less features then Twitch app and at the same time use more then tripple the resources, so no will handle it manual for awhile.

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

I just manually update my few add-ons I have currently. Like I think there are like 5 or 6 addons I use but mainly two of them I use regularly.
Like I download the zip file from the site and then extract it into the WoW Interface/Addon folder. Don't most people do that already and so this whole app thing that auto-updates wouldn't affect that many people?
I can understand though that people with lot of add-ons would highly likely use an app to auto-update since manually updating each of them would take long.

[Harbour]

I just deleted my Twitch app yesterday and go for WoWUP.
Expected annoying stuff with signing up and installing but instead i just unarchived it and it literally worked at the same moment, scanning up my WoW folder and offering an updates. Way better than Twitch. Gonna stay with it now.

[Dalheim]

I've always updated my addons manually, and I'll continue doing so.