It is Time to Ban WoW Addons

[ashblond]

Addons have been a big part of WoW since the beginning. But it is time for us to look into its negative impacts.

- For hardcores

The recent WF races are no longer just a competition of game skills, but also a competition of which guild can write best codes and addons. RWF is in game and irl gold sink. It is working a full time job instead of a playing a game.

It is not surprising at all that more and more hardcore raiding guilds stopped or disbanded. And this trend will continue.

- For casuals

I have to agree some streamers have said already: raiding is too hard. It is already hard to find people, form a group and organize a raid for casuals. Then the raids are significantly harder and harder over the years. It is just not fun for casual raiding.

One of the big reason is the addon. Ion said in recently interview, Blizzard has to make the encounters harder and harder, because combat addons are more and more intelligent. This is just a vicious circle.

- For Blizzard

Players shall not be dependant on third party addons to play a game. Basic addons like UI customization, damage meter, coord, should be integrated in the game itself.

Blizzard’s decision to add voice chat, UI, mouse over, M+ rating, item level, etc. is a good direction. But it is not enough. We need more basic functions included in default settings.

And the removal of combat addons like DBM will certainly make encounter design more creative.

- For everyone

Nobody loves to download, upgrade, set their addons all the time on every computer he plays WoW. It is just a hassle and it should not be necessary.

The recent Overwolf and WoWup issue shows again how messy third parties are, from curse to twitch to wowup to overwolf to whatever in the future. Players don’t deserve this.

- For addon developers

It is great that you make a career and money from making useful addons. But for the greater good of the game and players, this has to stop.

In sum, Blizzard, it is time to improve wow default settings and ban ALL addons.

[xVicarious]

I've prepared the funeral arrangements for you. Good luck in the replies.

[Royru]

You know what? I actually completely agree. If it means removing some slight personal preferences in terms of ui in exchange for nuking addons that objectively make content trivial, then yeah nuke them all.

I mean if there was a way to just murder any addon that gives you an in game advantage it would be best.

A game should be designed around and completely playable it’s base ui and systems. It shouldn’t be making content around things that make the game easier for you.

[ashblond]

I've prepared the funeral arrangements for you. Good luck in the replies.

hahaha, thanks for the warning.

[glowpipe]

Yeah, no thanks.

[Rendark]

That would be great but it will never happen. The backlash would be immense.

[Caprias]

"Computational" addons like Ion called them have to be broken/removed 100% and full stop, everything else is pretty much fine though?

You do understand that 99% of addons get created/popular out of a need due to mostly shortcomings of the game? (the base UI is horrific to track and micromanage your stuff, and let's not even start talking about all the QoL stuff)

The best way to "fight" those addons is by making them redundant like they're trying to do with the new UI in dragonflight so that the experience for new players that want to get into endgame raiding or m+ isn't: get this 3rd party program that downloads some other 3rd party programs.

[Hipnos14]

I agree 100% with this, Ion said that it's complicated to kill the combat addons because it would mess up other addons that show buffs/debuffs or something like that, but if they are able to do it by revamping the UI even further in future expansions I think it would be better for the health of the game.

[Byleth]

If the base UI was expanded sufficiently, then I also agree.

[Swurds]

Hard disagree on banning, agree with WoW improvements.

Your original post seems to target three different issues:

1) World Firsts are becoming a fulltime job. That's true. I'm not seeing how that relates to addons. Even without them, the World First Race would still exist. People would still watch. Sponsors would still sponsor. So... the two don't really have a lot to do with each other.

2) How is raiding too hard? Raid Finder and Normal Mode raids are relatively tame, and still fun experiences for players of varying skillsets. Many might not even use addons. I know quite a few people who don't. On Heroic and Mythic... I agree. Without addons to announce mechanics... it can be quite difficult to survive encounters. But... it's still rewarding and fun.

As far as WoW making the game better... sure. I agree. And with DragonFlight's announcement of UI changes and such... yeah they're listening to player feedback. Should add-ons be banned as a result? No. They're giving WoW Devs ideas of what players want, and what tools need to become part of a standard toolset.

Addons make the game and community better. Either by adding QoL changes that keep players interested in the game or encouraging collaboration with development teams to meet issues WoW Devs haven't addressed.

[Zelk]

Nope FFXIV has no addons and it doesn't make raiding better and it definitely makes the UI worse

[Ealyssa]

No it’s not, stupid idea.

[Gurbz]

If Blizzard wanted to end WoW, there are more efficient ways to do it. Like, just shut down the servers.

Removing all addons would cause more controversy than if they permanently removed flying from the game. Doesn't matter if they implemented all the popular ones in the base UI. They could have the best UI ever designed in the history of gaming. Taking away something so integral to how people play the game, that has been a thing since launch, will burn WoW to the ground.

I don't even necessarily disagree that it could be a good thing in the end. But the backlash if Blizzard tried would kill the game before they could get it done.

[Alexjimithing]

Disagree wholeheartedly. I enjoy having addons and being able to tailor whatever to my needs.

[Caprias]

Nope FFXIV has no addons and it doesn't make raiding better and it definitely makes the UI worse

Can you dimwits that have never touched xiv raiding with a ten foot pole not make comments about it? It makes you look stupid.
Every raider, every, single, one uses at the bare minimum ACT and likely a lot of other QoL plugins.

[Royru]

"Computational" addons like Ion called them have to be broken/removed 100% and full stop, everything else is pretty much fine though?

You do understand that 99% of addons get created/popular out of a need due to mostly shortcomings of the game? (the base UI is horrific to track and micromanage your stuff, and let's not even start talking about all the QoL stuff)

The best way to "fight" those addons is by making them redundant like they're trying to do with the new UI in dragonflight so that the experience for new players that want to get into endgame raiding or m+ isn't: get this 3rd party program that downloads some other 3rd party programs.

I don’t really think 99% of them or even most of them are made because of “short comings” of the game. I think they are just made to make your life easier in a way that isn’t necessary but people do it anyway.

Like dps meters. You don’t need them. Auction house addons. Don’t need them. Ui addons. You don’t need them. These are all things people just want. Most online games don’t even allow for custom addons, you just deal with the base ui and that’s it.

The ones that are the issues however are things like DBM or any other combat addon that has the bosses fight patterns memorized and will give you a heads up on what you need to do at a specific point. You for sure don’t need those.

[ashblond]

If Blizzard wanted to end WoW, there are more efficient ways to do it. Like, just shut down the servers.

Removing all addons would cause more controversy than if they permanently removed flying from the game. Doesn't matter if they implemented all the popular ones in the base UI. They could have the best UI ever designed in the history of gaming. Taking away something so integral to how people play the game, that has been a thing since launch, will burn WoW to the ground.

I don't even necessarily disagree that it could be a good thing in the end. But the backlash if Blizzard tried would kill the game before they could get it done.

I totally agree that removing addons is a bold and risky move that will have a lot of backlash. I doubt Blizzard will ever have the will or courage to do so.

It is just my personal opinion that addons do more harm than good to this game gradually.

[Nynax]

"Computational" addons like Ion called them have to be broken/removed 100% and full stop, everything else is pretty much fine though?

You do understand that 99% of addons get created/popular out of a need due to mostly shortcomings of the game? (the base UI is horrific to track and micromanage your stuff, and let's not even start talking about all the QoL stuff)

The best way to "fight" those addons is by making them redundant like they're trying to do with the new UI in dragonflight so that the experience for new players that want to get into endgame raiding or m+ isn't: get this 3rd party program that downloads some other 3rd party programs.

Oh god, imagine being forced to use Blizzards Bag UI from now on/ That alone might make me quit lol.

[Sentynel]

I mean... it's surely one way to kill the game for good. Never gonna happen sorry.

[Soikona]

I like the idea of no addons. Like the among us boss, it’s made trivial due to the WA. I can’t exactly ignore the WA either since my RL says it is required.

Some fights would be a lot more fun without them, some are shit without them on the other hand. But the devs have to develop fights with addons in mind which I think is a bit much. Less addons and we might get better fights. Might…