WoW UI AddOn Development Policy discussion thread
 

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We realize that this may be a highly contentious subject. However we expect people to behave in accordance with the rules. Failure to comply with the site rules may result in you taking a forced vacation from the site. With that stated, here is a repeat post of the new Policy:


With the continuing popularity of World of Warcraft user interface add-ons (referred to hereafter as “add-ons”) created by the community of players, Blizzard Entertainment has formalized design and distribution guidelines for add-ons. These guidelines have been put in place to ensure the integrity of World of Warcraft and to help promote an enjoyable gaming environment for all of our players – failure to abide by them may result in measures up to and including taking formal legal action.

1) Add-ons must be free of charge.

All add-ons must be distributed free of charge. Developers may not create “premium” versions of add-ons with additional for-pay features, charge money to download an add-on, charge for services related to the add-on, or otherwise require some form of monetary compensation to download or access an add-on.

2) Add-on code must be completely visible.

The programming code of an add-on must in no way be hidden or obfuscated, and must be freely accessible to and viewable by the general public.

3) Add-ons must not negatively impact World of Warcraft realms or other players.

Add-ons will perform no function which, in Blizzard Entertainment’s sole discretion, negatively impacts the performance of the World of Warcraft realms or otherwise negatively affects the game for other players. For example, this includes but is not limited to excessive use of the chat system, unnecessary loading from the hard disk, and slow frame rates.

4) Add-ons may not include advertisements.

Add-ons may not be used to advertise any goods or services.

5) Add-ons may not solicit donations.

Add-ons may not include requests for donations. We recognize the immense amount of effort and resources that go into developing an add-on; however, such requests should be limited to the add-on website or distribution site and should not appear in the game.

6) Add-ons must not contain offensive or objectionable material.

World of Warcraft has been given a “T” by the ESRB, and similar ratings from other ratings boards around the world. Blizzard Entertainment requires that add-ons not include any material that would not be allowed under these ratings.

7) Add-ons must abide by World of Warcraft ToU and EULA.

All add-ons must follow the World of Warcraft Terms of Use and the World of Warcraft End User License Agreement.

8) Blizzard Entertainment has the right to disable add-on functionality as it sees fit.

To maintain the integrity World of Warcraft and ensure the best possible gaming experience for our players, Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to disable any add-on functionality within World of Warcraft at its sole discretion.

For more information…

If you are an add-on developer and have any questions about this User Interface Add-On Development Policy and how it pertains to the add-on that you’ve developed, please don’t hesitate to email us at [email protected].

The official announcement is here.

Good Job Blizzard.

Very interesting move on Blizzard's part, which is wholly understandable.

"Add-ons must not contain offensive or objectionable material"
Sorry, but seeing as the user chooses to install the addon, just as the user chooses to disable the language filter, this one's kinda bupkiss. But I'm sure they have to for legal reasons and ****.

I'm glad to see an official declaration that you can't charge, nor can you obfuscate code. I can only hope that Blizzy enforces this one. Obfuscated code gives nothing back to the community, but still takes from it. It's like using bittorrent and never seeding.

I agree with most of the points except for

'5) Add-ons may not solicit donations.'

I have absolutely no intention to remove my donation buttons in my addons. I consider my buttons non-obtrusive and non-annoying.

Also, how do they really expect to enforce this? They could theoretically ban individual addons, but I really doubt they would.

Also, as someone who approves and denies addons on CurseForge and WowAce, how can we really enforce this on our end without opening up every single lua file?

ckknight,

I don't think you have anything to worry about. :) It states that your addons cannot visibly request for donations in game. You are permitted to ask for donations from your addons distribution site(s). :)

I had to go back and re read that hehe.

Now all add-ons which do not comply to this guideline have to be removed from WoWI?

I have donation buttons in-game.

If you open the config menu, it'll have a "Donate" button. You click it, it pops up a frame that provides a copyable link that you can put into your browser.

I don't bother the user ever outside of the main settings, but it is in-game.

His point is that he has said buttons in game. However, I agree with him, they are non-intrusive.

I have a request in to Blizzard to find out if they are (one would presume) allowing a "grace period" for authors to comply. We'll see.

Pretty normal stuff here, though I don't know how I feel about the free only addons (not that I can remember a whole lot of pay addons). I have a feeling this is ass covering from the Glider lawsuit and to be able better protect themselfs in the future.

I definitely agree, but I also think this is compounded by a knee-jerk reaction to Carbonite's new ad-supported version.

I think they're just trying to cover themselves legally, say "we don't allow that", but not really bother to do anything about it unless it becomes something high-profile (as Carbonite has become in the past two weeks).

This would hit nUI as well.

I've not seen any in game buttons for donation with nUI. Did i miss this button inside the game?

I won't lie, I have no clue what carbonite or nUI are.

Yes, I know :)

My point was that the buttons in game can be removed, and he can still get donations from the pages where he distributes his addons. ;) Essentially, they are not removing an addon authors right to get donations. They just don't want to have those donation requests visible in game. I can understand this.

Problem there is wowmatrix. But then, those users are less likely to be donating anyway.

nUI has a "Premium" version for the people who donate, which has raid frames and stuff that the free version doesn't. But its basically a thank you for the people who donate.

Scott has more info in his forums.

I for one support this!

GJ Blizz!! :)

Nice to see they've stepped in an ended the incessant debate about whether paid premium addons are OK... I've gotten a bit bored of people endlessly arguing about that here and in the wowui@incgamers shoutbox.

As for the ban on donation buttons, that seems a little harsh on hard-working authors, but they're probably trying to prevent people using that as a loophole to sneak in premium content in addons.

Ended? They just changed the subject of the debate I'm afraid.

lol I know. I am a nUI supporter and a tester for it on the PTR. I was referring to an actual donate button inside of the game. However, there is a mention of nUI support via donations in the chatbox when you first log in... which basically gets buried and pushed out view from other addons loading.

I can understand the ruling to a degree. It doesn't mean that I agree with it though ;)

I am truly on your side here, Scott. Don't think for one moment that I'm not (hugs). This whole thing irritates me to no end because I love nUI (my boyfriend teases me about it endlessly, in a joking way of course). Considering how much of a tightwad I am with my cash, nUI had to be something pretty darn unique for me to part with the amount that I did (even though I know that programmers make far far more than that per hour). I also donated because of your current situation and I firmly believe that what comes around goes around (be good to someone and your good deed comes back to you threefold).

I've completely lost my train of thought here :( I just know that nUI makes my play time more pleasurable, and if I could afford to pay you what your time was worth, I would without hesitation.

I canceled my account and then tried to post in the Blizzard forums thread. Apparently I can't post there now, but I can post in the realm forums. I'm wondering if this is a bug, or if the new forums want to silence what people have to say. I won't reactivate my account to post this, and if anyone thinks it relevant or useful, please copy paste, if you like.

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Sad day, imo. Not that Blizzard implemented these rules, but that they think they had to. I think their free of charge policy is going too far, but on the same side of the coin, in game solicitation (that others can see) is also going too far (I'm not familiar with the offenders, and I won't pretend to be).

Now, to say they have the "right" to not allow money to be paid for programmer's work (that doesn't violate the general ToS / EULA), is out of the scope of what WoW (or MMOs in general) really are. When people have issues/problems, and they go to an ADDON or these forums or a friend they think will know the answer... who answers back 9 out of 10 times? It's not Blizzard, it IS the COMMUNITY.

Community effort is what keeps Blizzard in business; without it (and the ability to keep it), Blizzard would go out of business. There are some addons that, if removed (or a specific function of that said addon), I'd not play this game. Blizzard fails to deliver in the area of 'real' customer service; addons (and the advice of their authors) sometimes fill the needs of giving the player what they want in order to keep them playing the game. If this advice or help comes at a price, the person needing help has options.

These options include waiting for Blizzard help, getting help from someone who may or may not be as knowledgeable as Blizzard or 'paid' author, getting an addon that fixes the problem, ignore the problem, or just quit playing. When you start taking options away, you lose customers, you lose interest, and you lose freedom. If I'm attempted to be forced into to anything, I fight it, that is my nature. I think for myself and depend on myself for my right to be who I am. Sure, this is just a game, but it's a real community and I feel it necessary (as do others) to voice my opinion of what is right in a "free" society. If it must come to taking away my options, and members of this community away, then I'll go away with it (as will others who have PRINCIPLES).

I donated money to charities, institutions, and even addon authors. I continue to support those who make no demands of it, but to those that try to enforce my continued support, I end my relationship with them. Ask St. Jude's children hospital, I donated to them for ~ 1 year, every quarter. When they started mass mailing and strongarming me into support, I ended our relationship. Same for the addon authors who took this same approach with in game chat screens filled with their sob story or constant update info (as useful as they were), ended. I don't need the Government, or Blizzard to end my relationship for my own safety, I'm capable of that myself.

So, I'd suggest that Blizzard rethink and / or reword their new terms in regards to addons. It could be more damaging to them than they realize. Or maybe I'm wrong and the players of WoW are just mindless sheep that follow the herd.

It's about the principle.

~Yhor

I imagine it is just something to keep them from being liable in the case that a user gets screwed by some third party addon. I would be surprised if they are going to bother even trying to monitor and enforce the policy without being provoked by legal action against Blizzard by some dope who got scammed by purchasing an addon or something.

I know it's wrong of me because you're trying to show your support to the authors (even tho some of us support this new rule)... but I laughed at this.

I usually get donations from people that asks for major feature implementations in my add-on(s).

Though as long there are no direct ads and they don't bother people (such as popups, chat spam and so on) I support donation buttons, both on sites and in-game.

The one reason why they should be in-game is because, as mentioned earlier, are other leeching sites and the automatic updates.

And also as spiel said, if its free, why pay?
Don't think of it as a payment, think of it as a gift (this goes for the end-users).

"to support the hundreds of hours I spend developing this mod for your enjoyment" sounds like an underhanded attempt at solicitation to me. Why not just say "They say I can't solicit donations, so I won't. Instead I'll simply ask you to visit my site [link] and show your support how you see fit."

And then give your rant there :)

spiel, imo, you should put your donation link back up. I think you would be surprised.

This made my day brighter. :D

Well, you know that we are trying to come up with ways to help, too. Give everyone some time, hey?

Except a lot of people use downloaders like wowmatrix and others, which automatically downloads the addons - so they'll never see the website.

Apparently was a bug.

First I want to say I'm still tossed up over the no "for pay" addons rule. I am a programmer myself and I'll never argue that programmers don't deserve compensation for the work they do. Especially people who make mods that attempt to please such a large range of people and take time to listen to requests and input from so many people.(Seriously you guys are awesome *Yes all of you. Even the ones who make ridiculously simple/stupid mods)

HOWEVER

I for one think that people complaining about the rules regarding in game donation buttons are are being quite ridiculous I have a couple mods that have in game donation buttons and I for one always laugh at them when I see them because I feel they are the dumbest idea ever. Do the authors who write these mods actually expect this conversation to happen.

or this

The answer is NO that isn't going to happen.

So evidently that's not why the authors put it in there. So I must assume that argument is actually "If I don't put it where they can find the link (in game) they wont be able to find my site to donate if they choose to."

What kind of morons do you think are downloading your mod that they would completely forget where to go to get your addon AND develop an allergy to Google that prevents them from searching to find it.

But then again how would they get the updates if they didn't know how to find you.

"Well there are updaters out there like wowmatrix and curse's updater and such so they never have to come to my site so they never donate from there."

Solutions to that issue.

1.) Stop offering your mod through there so they have to come to you.

Argument against solution #1: They will stop using mine and find one that is easier to update.

If they don't care enough about what mod they are using for that purpose were they really going to track you down to donate anyway? But you may be right so lets move to solution #2

2.) Add a notification in game that there is a new version to the mod and they should visit your site to download it. And release updates 2-3 days behind to the auto updaters so people have incentive to visit your site(and will see your donate link and maybe even think I came here to get this addon and I like it I should donate something. But they don't have to and can still use their auto updaters. There is a trick to making this work better Update with newer and better improvements to your mods often. This will serve 2 purposes actually 1. Getting people to your site. and 2. If you update often and people know it they will appreciate it and show it.


Personally I think this move by blizzard is directed at the leveling guide mods that charge for use and can quite easily be and several have been a scam.

I think that removing that aspect of things is a good move.

I have also heard that there are theories that some mods with obscured code may be hiding account security compromising functions.

To prevent this banning obscured code seems to be a logical step. However it makes it somewhat difficult for people who make legitimate for pay mods to keep a hold of their mod and keep it proprietary.

I can think of another solution that would be far worse that we should all be glad Blizzard didn't decide on.

mod writers apply for a key for each mod blizzard sends them a key then anytime the mod is loaded it asks blizzard if it can run. When the authors finish the mod they submit it to blizzard to for inspection if blizzard approves it they activate the key and then and only then can it be used in game.

personally Ill be ok with the changes as they are.

I would hazard a guess the two main drivers of this are carbonite and questhelper.

Carbonite due to the paid nature and Questhelper due to the GM support (read relocate toons out of dalaran) in game that must be supplied.

I can't off the top of my head think of any mod that has a higher overhead than questhelper. Or such a large user base.

I totally agree (not too sure about the hugs though :p)

Ill grant you that one (we should find a way to start a boycott against them)

dude you are nUI your users WILL find you. I don't care if you dropped every major site out there and put up a domain called JimmysUIhut.com they will find you (at least I'm pretty sure my wife would)

I don't know how its done but I know Carbonite and WIM both have a way of doing it so I know its not impossible.

go look up a vid called "Sony Releases Stupid Piece Of Sh** That Doesn't F**** Work"
most people will do just about anything for the newest and greatest version of something(especially that fancy UI that gets ooohs and ahhhs every time they post a screen shot.

you may be right about that but what about information gatherers there are several database mods that gather information and others that can log chat and several that can use that chat itself.
personally I have considered the idea of a mod that watched chat for key words and recorded their context. To do psychological studies on people who play wow. ie watching chat for "I'm married with X children" to get statistics on people with kids who play and that conversation is followed by the kids ages so I can get further demographics and such information might be worth money if sold to the proper data collection agencies who use such info to send spam and such.

so even if they aren't stealing your account they could still be doing bad things.

on several points I cant blame you. In ways I can defiantly see where you are getting the shaft. I mean your addon makes wow playable for many people if they were left with the default UI they'd leave and play something else. Blizzard is making the money from those subscriptions BECAUSE OF YOUR WORK and yet you cannot request any form of compensation other than an often obscured donation button.

Please don't get me wrong I cant blame anyone from getting upset but I don't think an in game donation button is that big of a deal I only knew of one mod that had it before this whole thing started and I went and looked I found out that SEVERAL of the ones I use have it and I never knew it.

I'd imagine the baddons file that was added into the MPQ and in the WDB folder with WotLK is what they will use to ban addons.

The game currently does not interact with the file but I'd imagine that will be changing with 3.1. Editing or deleting the file won't do anything since it is recreated at login and probably would revert any changes.

Ouch, Big Brother is watching.

Here's my better-thought-out two cents that isn't motivated by a desire to get on the first page:

I can see what's motivated Blizzard to ban paid addons. It's a pretty transparent ass-covering on their part. People who play WoW are just dumb enough to sue Blizzard over getting scammed a mod that they paid for, and Blizzard realizes that, but I think they've opened up a can of worms they didn't foresee.

To be honest, I really don't see a problem with providing a better product for those who donate to the cause, and Blizzard certainly has no right to declare that people aren't allowed to sell their own original code, just because it happens to be written using the WoW API.

I think the most mutually beneficial course of action now, is for authors to not do a damn thing. That's right. I say leave your donation buttons and premium versions in there and defy Blizzard to punish you for it. Based on what I've seen today, I think the community will stand by you in not budging on this issue.

Besides, If I know Blizzard, they'll back down on this before the modding community does. ;)

It's almost April 1st guys, might have anything to do with the Blizz announcement?

If it was, it would have been announced on April 1st. This is the official direction that Blizzard is going right now.

No, definitely not. 10 days out is not Blizzard style. This has come on the heels of the introduction to Battle.net. This, imo, has everything to do with microsoft managed advertising software being implemented into the game, tba at a later date.

I may be misreading into this, but the more I read, the more I come to this conclusion.

I found these rules interesting. They don't really change anything for my work and I don't personally feel the need to conflict with them, but it does raise some questions.



Individual rules that I disagree with:


#2 -- Add-on code must be completely visible.
Two issues with this

"completely visible". How does Blizzard have any legal control over legibility? I can see their goal is to remove DRM-ish stuff, but beyond the lua and xml APIs, it's the original author's work. So if the author writes sloppy buggy code... so? If the author puts in a simple encryption/compression, what exactly has the author done wrong legally? Just because Blizzard says they cannot read your addon -- I see no legal grounds for this.

"Publicly accessible". Not only does it costs servers to host addons for the general public, but I have several personal addons that I don't make public. If I made a personally addon that improved my gameplay over some one else's... that means I'm forced to use my own resources to host an addon for fair play? I have to upload my addon to the internet before I use it? What is the line that Blizzard is looking for?


#3 -- "unnecessary loading from the hard disk, and slow frame rates"

While such things are a goal for authors, forcing Quality Control onto people that you don't pay (Blizzard onto authors) does not make sense to me. And really... EVERY addon will slow frame rates. Addons that preform a lot of work can drop my framerate below a playable level, but that doesn't mean I cannot simply turn it off. I turn off combat parsing addons while doing serious raidings. Addons are not required to play, so why does there need to be a self-monitored, no-pay QC?

This rule is vague and so inclusive of everything that Blizzard could slap this rule against anyone they didn't like.


#6 -- "offensive or objectionable material"

Too subjective, and thus too inclusive. Any addon with an opinion, statement, or belief is also victim to this.



#7 -- ToU and EULA

Addons are not people. Addons don't follow ToU, because they cannot agree to a terms of usage. This needs to be reworded to something along the lines of

"All add-ons must not contribute to the breaking the User's compliance with the World of Warcraft Terms of Use and the World of Warcraft End User License Agreement. "






And in general, how does Blizzard have any legal rights over the copyrighted work that others have produced? Blizzard has supplied a lua and xml engine, and they can control what goes into these engines via their ToU and EULA, but Blizzard doesn't own the lua or xml language.

My biggest issue is that Blizzard has been successful partly due to addons, and has taken works of addons and included into their own code, but when Blizzard's product has grown to a certain size, they decide its time to shed off the third party support that helped make the game popular as if they OWNED / PRODUCED THE RIGHTS TO THE POPULARITY THAT WAS GAINED.


But like I said before, the rules don't really affect me anyways. I just think the rules are overstepping the bounds.

As sad as I am to post this, I'm beginning to agree that this is a result of the MS thing.

Download Carbonite and take a look at their code. That is what Blizzard is really referencing. Carbonite uses some tricks to make it difficult for someone outside their development group to read their code. Blizzard wants code to be as plain as their code is. Sloppy or not is not really the issue.

My $.02:

I am both for and against this new policy. I think the major issue that I have are these two:
I think #5 should be changed to "may not solicit donations in an intrusive manner". Frankly, if nUI or Quest Helper or any other addon has a small blurb when it loads or a small donation button in the corner, these should be allowed. Either that, or the automatic updaters need to be changed so that the Author can put a donation link somewhere where the user can see it when it is being downloaded, which would require a change of policy on those sites that produce them.

As for number 6, well, that's kind of ridiculous. I can understand not allowing, say, an addon that spams obcenities into chat, but frankly if it doesn't impact anone ELSE'S experience in game, I should be allowed to have, say, a durability meter that showed how badly your equipment is damaged by armor falling off of a big-breasted lady.

Just my two copper, but I agree with just about all of it.

Only change I support is having an in-game Donate link for the authors. no popups or anything intrusive, but a button that you have to click for the donate info is perfectly acceptable.

I have a feeling this is intended to be directed at intentional deterioration of gameplay. I doubt they will ban addons simply because it was poorly written.

Have you ever read your terms of service for gameplay? Blizzard has an immense amount of discretion and this is probably intentionally vague so that Blizzard can make that discretion. Adding in specific cases without leeway is tantamount to suicide as anyone will always find a loophole. Naturally we would expect this would be enforced in the same manner as is all other discretionary policies Blizzard maintains.
[/quote]

WOW..

Everyone, take a step back and breathe for sec..... /facepalm.

Reality is that people who donate are STILL going to donate. Blizz has absolutely no way of knowing that. There is no reason for anyone to take thier donation links down off of this site. This site is not owned or operated by Blizz. And I doubt they really could give half a rats booty about it. The only thing you cannot do is put a donation button in game.

Good lord.. Virtual pitchforks for everyone I guess.......

Can I have one? I could use it to stab 3 gold spammers at once

LMAO! Go Shirik! We could form a phalanx... :D

Step back guys, before I have to step in .... keep it civil.

You are wrong. I only have donate links on my addon pages, absolutely ZERO mention of donations in-game. I have made quite a bit off donations, if you feel like digging through all my addons you can find out exactly how much.

No, donations are never going to be a "steady income", and if you believe they can be you're a fool. But then, the people that do realize this are charging for leveling guides and addons, and making good money doing it. The other fools like me are programming for the sheer joy of it, and getting a little kickback from grateful users.

The terms of service is just as bad -- Whatever happened to enforcing good character names =(

Even though I understand the spirit behind the rules, they are stated in such a manner that I already feel incriminated. Example: One of my addons listed WoWInterface as a source. Nothing can stop you from calling that an advertisement of a service.


Why don't they just get to the point and simply say that Blizzard holds the right to cut your service and charge you if your addon goes against their desires?

I don't think they would see a link to WoWInterface as an advertisement of a service as WoWInterface is a free site hosting free add-ons for the Warcraft community. I would imagine they mean advertisements as a link to purchase the full version of an add-on, or a link to a website where you have to pay a membership fee for service.

You have the option of becoming a site supporter here and paying a fee, it isn't mandatory so you're not advertising something that costs anyone money up front, just a free community.

Okay guys I don't want to have to start doing cleanup, because in all honesty it's a real pain in the butt clicking all those buttons because they're in obscure areas that I always forget because I (thank god) don't have to use them that much.

So, to preserve my sanity (or what's left of it), let's take this away from being as personal as it has gotten and focus solely on the more global issue. I realize some authors have different opinions on how they want their things to be distributed/advertised/whatever, but let's leave personal lives out of it (that includes attacking one's moral behaviors, especially because there is more than one belief of what is "moral").

So personal attacks on Blizzard is not okay?

Guess I'll have to find the neighbors cat.

/jest

I do hope the conversation can continue in a completely civil manner though, I am intrigued at the possible cause and effect of all of this. I sincerely hope Blizzard will shed some light soon.

Well, sorry but I have donated to Addon authors where I have liked the addon. I have not donated to you because I have not ever seen your addon tbh. :)

If someone is impressed with an addon's features AND basically an honest person they will pay. If they are not, they will not, even if you shove the 'donate NOW' button up there nose.

Creating and maintaining any addon was your choice. Free choice so do not moan because you are not being paid. I hold store doors open for people who need it, and sometimes other people go through the door too. I do not expect to get paid, I can choose not to hold open the door. You can choose not to write/maintain addons and do a job that pays you for your effort :)

This is a great analogy, but I'm afraid you're very clearly lying. Stores don't have manual doors anymore!

*hides*

Seriously guys, enough with making it personal. This is the last time I'm saying it.

Debate, civilly, the policy. Leave the personal stuff OUT of it.