Blizzard to add-on developers: Your money is no good here (literally)

by Brooke Pilley Mar 23rd 2009 at 12:30PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, News items

The luau may be over for LUA add-on developers in World of Warcraft who make money for their code, as Blizzard just released a new add-on policy preventing them from doing just that. Under the new policy, add-ons must be free-of-charge and written in clear code. They may not solicit donations or run third-party advertisements.

This is a fairly surprising move by Blizzard since the new policy basically screws over some add-on developers who have helped propel WoW to the success it is currently experiencing. Not only has the game benefited greatly from add-ons that addressed deficiencies in the standard UI, but Blizzard themselves have patched in UI updates 'inspired' by successful add-ons, as Lum points out.

This is a clear message that no-one except Blizzard should profit from WoW. They are basically saying, "We'd love you to improve our game for free, but don't expect anything other than warm fuzzies as compensation." It will be interesting to see reaction to this news from developers of popular donation- and fee-based add-ons. How much of an impact will it have on WoW if they cease to develop and support these (or new) add-ons?

Tags: addons, blizzard, in-game-advertising, policy, ui, world-of-warcraft, wow

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Hardy said on 12:43PM 3-23-2009

lol, pretty assholish of them considering with out mods, for the most part, raiding is just annoying.

Course you probably had executives flipping out that a small group of people is making a couple grand "fixing" Blizzards UI problems.

And it is ironic that this article points out Blizzard just blatantly steals ideas from the modding community when they feel like it.

They probably should let people make money off mods, but actually MAKE a business model for it, not yell at people trying to better the game.

Tony said on 12:47PM 3-23-2009

I guess I can understand requiring that add-ons should be free, but removing donations is pretty asinine.

Cndrmn said on 1:05PM 3-23-2009

Blizzard didn't do anything until someone took it too far, which was displayng ads in game. Goodbye Carbonite.

And it is not forbidden to ask for donations either, just in game. I won't miss the "please donate" messages from Questhelper. If i want to donate, I will, but getting spammed with it won't make me do it.

The last thing WoW needs is players getting the feeling that they have to buy all kinds of extra stuff from 3rd party businesses to stay competitive.

kdolo said on 1:22PM 3-23-2009

If you had read the link to the source information, you would have noticed that Blizzard does not condone donations to developers, only fee-based add-ons and solicitations for donations in-game. I don't use add-ons that require a fee, and I use some pretty sophisticated add-ons. I do donate to developers of add-ons that require constant maintenance and whom regularly produce excellent products, and I don't think that this will change.

I don't think it's unreasonable for Blizzard to be the only ones to profit off of their product.

THAC0 said on 1:31PM 3-23-2009

Screw Blizzard, I quite playing their crappy MMO years ago. I hope that 3rd party mods dry up and everyone cries about the crappy interface that Blizz made.

drypulse said on 1:51PM 3-23-2009

well at least one of you actually read it

JP said on 1:59PM 3-23-2009

I'm no Blizz or WoW fanboi, but christ man... way to leave out important info in your "reporting" for an agenda.

Not allowing them to advertise or solicite IN-GAME, is a big difference from "you'll be a loyal minion of Blizzard, and you'll do it for FREE!"

two thumbs down on this "article".

droid said on 2:09PM 3-23-2009

It makes sense to me that they don't want people charging for add-ons. Though there's nothing wrong with donations.

Sorry I can't put on my foaming-at-the-mouth face and pretend to care with a bunch of I hate Blizzard ranting. As much as you scrubs want to hate on them they are pretty true to what they do and are the single reason why PC gaming is still alive, besides Valve.

Verit said on 3:09PM 3-23-2009

I guess that's one way to kill off players using decursive (it has a donate box).

SgtBaker said on 3:50PM 3-23-2009

It's actually pretty sensible thing to do from Blizzard - they don't want addons spamming for donate messages or ads (or even worse, gold-ads), IN-GAME.

They don't have any problems having addon devs asking for donations on their sites, outside the game.

However, this is where the root of the problem is - very few WoW players actually give a sh*t about the mod devs - they use "convenient" things like WoWMatrix that pull the mods off dev sites without even crediting the original mod authors. Normal needy "gimme-gimme-my-addons-now" WoW-players don't even know who wrote that raid healing addon they totally depend on every goddamn night. And most of them go into ragequit tantrums when they find out there's a bug in it.

Many devs - after seeing being ripped by WoWMatrix and similar sites have added "donate" links to their addons in hopes they'd get some donations coming their way.. but with this, I can see many of them just thinking it's too much of a hassle.

So don't go into ragequits over this move by Blizzard - it's you, the general WoW community, who has been pissing on your devs for a long long time.

droid said on 4:37PM 3-23-2009

Well said. Delete every reply except for this one.

RJGiskard said on 1:07PM 3-25-2009

Hmm, I don't find it surprising or unreasonable that they don't allow you to sell or solicit donations 'if you like the add-on', but banner ads on their sites? Even I find that a bit extreme.

Bossy said on 7:14PM 3-23-2009

Wow should be played without ANY add-ons in the first place.

Suddenly people would realise what a beautiful game it is.

Actually reading the quests and lore ..........

-Drexel- said on 7:46PM 3-23-2009

Well, Cndrmn, you don't have to worry about being "bothered" with a donation request from QH anymore because he said he's done updating it as soon as these changes go live. He says non-in-game donation request don't work nearly as well.

The nerve of him to ask for donations from the people that enjoy his multiple hundreds of hours of work completely free........

Dawn said on 8:04PM 3-23-2009

"The nerve of him to ask for donations from the people that enjoy his multiple hundreds of hours of work completely free........"

the nerve of people and Blizzard not appreciating the multi-hundreds of hours that gold farmers put in to earn gold to make it available those who want to purchase out of game.... /sic

:o/

-Drexel- said on 9:23PM 3-23-2009

Not sure I should even respond dawn...but I'll bite. How on earth is gold farming synonymous (sp?) with writing a UI mod and asking for a donation to make your effort worthwhile.

One ruins gameplay and hacks accounts all for real money trading for in game items. The other asks for a donation to help fund the constant updating of his/her mod so that literally millions of people can benefit from it. The guy that made QH should be an in game rockstar and instead people are bagging on the guy because he asks for a buck or two and/or comparing him to a gold farmer..........wow.

dawn said on 8:07PM 3-23-2009

This is not new policy.. this is Blizzards old policy.. they are restating it to clear up confusion and because some plug-in writers have gone a little too far lately.

SkwidSpawn said on 8:51PM 3-23-2009

I don't know anyone who pays for their UI mods. This won't affect very many people or addon developers, who can still solicit donations for their addons on their websites.

Jack said on 1:42PM 3-24-2009

Blizzard is the best now if they active shut down some of the crappy level guide mods like Zygor and others!

This a holes profit from WoW and this also will set back some gold farmers!

Please Blizzard sue the hell out of that A holes

Also all the legal addon markers that are crying now! Move you butt out of the addon biz :P

Trill said on 2:04PM 3-28-2009

If you read the long (105 pages and continuing) thread on the UI forums, most of the add on authors are more concerned about their rights under copyright law and what Blizzard has stated in #1 in their policy is contrary to copyright law.

These rules are not written as clearly as one would hope from as large as corporation as Blizzard.

Add on (UI) development happens outside of WoW. Blizzard doesn't have the right to say what you can or can't do outside of WoW, but are attempting to do so with this policy.

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