MSN/IRC/AIM plugin/addon??

[Dagoob]

It's not as easy as just making a plugin for pidgin. I'm looking at making something that anyone can use, not just people that have a certain program. I personally use Trillian, and would like to make this a plugin for that.

I don't use IE or iTunes, and never will. I was using them as a reference, like saying "iPod" when referring to and MP3 player. I would never own one, but that way people know what I'm talking about.

FireFox defanitly "= win", but as for music programs, Billy = win, everything else is too bulky.

Yeah, you're right about the whole Vent/TS thing, but that's like wishing for unlimited bandwidth. Just won't happen...

[Layrajha]

Originally Posted by Dagoob Hmm... What about using OCR code to look for "/im text" in the chatbox whenever the Enter key is pressed [etc]

Because, again, it's not allowed? (cf. my first reply in the thread)

[Dagoob]

Originally Posted by Layrajha Because, again, it's not allowed?

I don't think there's anything in the TOS about using OCR code. I mean it doesn't alter or even access any of WoW's files or the WoW server. It's basically the same as taking a screenshot of your character and using that image to crop out the head and use it for an icon or something. I don't think I'll be going the OCR route anyway, so it's not worth looking into.

[Layrajha]

Originally Posted by Dagoob I don't think there's anything in the TOS about using OCR code. I mean it doesn't alter or even access any of WoW's files or the WoW server. It's basically the same as taking a screenshot of your character and using that image to crop out the head and use it for an icon or something. I don't think I'll be going the OCR route anyway, so it's not worth looking into.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html

Paragraph 4.B:

You agree that you will not (i) modify or cause to be modified any files that are a part of the Program or the Service; (ii) create or use cheats, bots, "mods", and/or hacks, or any other third-party software designed to modify the World of Warcraft experience; or (iii) use any third-party software that intercepts, "mines", or otherwise collects information from or through the Program or the Service.

Maybe I don't understand it really well, but I don't think there's any subtle way to understand that which would allow you to use OCR.

[Dagoob]

Well technically OCR doesn't intercept or collect information from the Program, it gets information from the screen. Other than converting the image to text, it's not any different than taking a screenshot and posting it on a forum, or Copy+Paste-ing something from a chat in WoW (I know this isn't possible in some games, never had a use to try it in WoW). But like I said, I'm not going to be doing this anyway.

[Layrajha]

Even if you're not doing it, just to somehow try to learn and be able to answer if the problem is asked someday, I would still argue that taking a screenshot or copy-pasting things is different. It's not really a third party program that does it, it's a service that is part of your operation system.


Also, it may not intercept information FROM the service (as you argued, the information can be considered from the screen, even if I think it's a bit weak legally, as it's still information that belongs to the game), it's still gathered THROUGH the game. I mean, whatever you do, if you make a scheme from your brain to your IM program, at some point, there is WoW. The information transits via your nerves to your fingers, to your keyboard, to your motherboard, to your proc, generates an interruption that is handled by world of warcraft, produces a change in the gfx's pixels configuration using world of warcraft's code, and is intercepted by your OCR soft, which itself transmits its data to your IM program. WoW is part of this chain, while you're not allowed to use a third party program (the OCR) to collect information (your instant message) through the program (WoW).

[Dagoob]

When I hit level 10, I took a screenshot. So if I wanted to save a list of locations for each time I level up, it would be like:
= Teldrassil

So is this violating the TOS? I'm not trying to argue anything by any means, I would just like to know for future reference. I've seen this done for various things in other games, but maybe they had different TOS's. Again, this method won't be used anyway.

[Layrajha]

Well, 2 things:
- What's sure is that if you use the screenshot button as the hotkey that calls the Screenshot() API function, and use the file produced in your screenshots folder, there is clearly no problem, as no 3rd party software is used to obtain this file.
- So the doubt remain if you use your OS' screenshots. But again, is your OS a 3rd party software? I doubt you can say that, as basically it's necessary to have an OS to run wow, and they constantly exchange information.

But yeah, I agree that it's unclear. I mean, I somehow contradict myself here, as, for my first argument about screenshots, my previous argument on the chain from your brain to your IM software doesn't work (I mean, WoW is in this chain again, even if it's more distant to the 3rd party software).

So, pff... I'd still say that OCR is really a direct example of something that recovers data from the game. About screenshot, I'd say that it's not a problem. Running OCR on screenshots that are taken every day, after WoW is closed, that still sounds fine. Obviously, if you manage to get a computer that can afford one screenshot per second, and if you run OCR on these, there's a problem. So, where is the limit, etc...?

I guess that basically, the ToS forbids everything, and many are tolerated. But whenever they want to say "you broke the ToS" to someone, they can

[Dagoob]

Haha! a screenshot/sec with OCR, that would be nuts!

It seems like it would be more of a violation to use a file created by WoW (the file saved in the screenshot folder) than to just use the information in the clipboard. There's a program called WoWStatus that gets information from files in the WoW folder, then updates your MSN status. I see your point about getting info "from the program", but it's not like I'm stealing passwords or anything. It's like all of the people that have character information in their signatures on forums. Most of the time it's just cut from screenshots. So wouldn't that be in violation also? This is a tricky question. I sent an email to Blizzard asking about this, so maybe we'll get an official decision.

[Layrajha]

Nice idea about the email, I'm waiting forward to hearing more about this.
About the signatures, it's often things that are made using the armory, if we're talking about the same ones, so it should be no problem.

[Dagoob]

Originally Posted by Layrajha ...it's often things that are made using the armory...

True for WoW, but what about other games?

[Sepioth]

Plain and simple this can not be done. Don't you think in the rich addon history of WoW this would not have been done a LOOONG time ago giving the popularity of IM programs??

You say your not trying to argue but you keep trying to find other ways to get this done. Just give up already

[xbxice]

What about Gamepe www.gamepe.com any feedback...

[Slakah]

It's not as easy as just making a plugin for pidgin. I'm looking at making something that anyone can use, not just people that have a certain program. I personally use Trillian, and would like to make this a plugin for that.

Maybe take a look at Libpurple.

[blackpandemic]

REGARDING THE ORIGINAL POST - as some people seem to have gone off on personal tangents.

The easiest way to do this is to set WoW to windowed mode and then just Alt-Tab to things, that's what I do and it works just fine. However if your CPU is not too beefy it won't run WoW that well windowed.