I’ve always kinda wondered
Why doesn’t Blizzard either simply hire the creators of the popular addons or buy out their IP or both?
Quickly bake them into the stock game so its not an addon, but a feature…
Am I missing something?
I wanna believe they do…
Those who display love and compassion for a product, with sweat and blood, earned my respect.
Simple answer: Making one addon for WoW is a lot different than getting hired to Blizzard as a UX Designer
They consulted with the add on creators didn’t they? I can’t see them hiring them though, not with how volatile the industry seems to be at the moment
Well a few things. The only addons that are being broken are Combat Addons (I know some addons are multi-purpose but some of their functionality may be broken).
Secondly Blizzard is still turning the nobs on the API so it’s still to early to see where the line will be. The first iteration of Alpha is at the far extreme with a very restrictive API when it comes to combat and Blizzard is slowing increasing what the API can do from that extreme.
I understand that, but the hugely popular ones that are especially free and get updated multiple times a week?
Seems like someone passionate and worthy of being on the team.
Right but they’d also be hired on to work on like basically every aspect of WoW’s interface and they might not necessarily be qualified to do that.
And not to generalize too much, but obsessive hobbyists might not make for the best 9-5 worker bee. Especially when their pet project is done. Like it or not, having the skills to do your job is a relatively minor part of employment.
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Man. Don’t say this crap. Some folks are limited to their resources to dawn the forced illusion they look like hobbyists.
When in fact they’re trying to get into the job they want.
A hobby can look great on a resume. Thats what got Ion his foot in the door. But it’s still a hobby. That doesn’t diminish it at all. Most people put more skill and effort into hobbies than they do their actual professions.
They are trying to reduce the NEED for addons in general. The stock UI is pretty good honestly. I’ve not used WA’s in 2 seasons now, and I don’t miss them. And my UI has never looked better.
The only thing I’m worried about are the name plates. I have a feeling they are not going to be anywhere even close to plater, and that’s going to suck… but it’s not something I would be super upset about.
And that’s really it. But from a professional perspective, they’re not a “hobbyist”.
If someone were to perform a simulation of, say, computer repair, then it’s not “hobbyist”. From that point I’d call them, “computer technician”.
Perhaps, “Computer engineer”.
But hobbyist? No. Extremely vague and perhaps even disrespectful.
A professional makes money from their skillset. A hobbyist does not. It would be arrogant and disrespectful to refer to yourself with a professional title with no professional experience. Those types are called dilettantes. But carry on with this semantic crusade, if you so desire.
If you honestly think money is deciding factor, or the dictator, you’re out of your damn mind.
Remind me to NEVER work for whatever it is you do.
Ego…the Devs have massive egos
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Those are the definitions of those terms. But thank you for demonstrating why some people that feel entitled to professional recognition for their hobby might not have the soft skills that would make them a good catch for HR, even if their skills are leagues beyond anyone on the payroll.
Monkey comes off the back.
Again, you’re out of your damn mind. I can tell you one concept that completely trumps all means of a payroll.
I’ll give you a hint. It goes missing every day, is extremely easy to pick up, and you’re showing little of it.
Go ahead. Guess. Or not.
Idk, even if it wasnt to be a team member per say, but just to contract them integrate their addon natively and maybe do maintenance or something? These people work for basically free right now
I think cut them a check and put their name in the credits, you’d make them pretty happy and make the stock game less crappy
It’s clear many of these people are both talented and love the game. Why not capitalize?
Win win
You’re not missing anything. That is exactly what Blizzard should be doing. Bring creators in as contractors for a very specific purpose, give them money, and let them do their thing. Standard business practise.
Maybe it’s something Blizz looked into and thought they can do better on their own. Who knows, really?
I am a (professional) software developer myself. And from what I have seen with the addons and from my experience in working in more than 10 companies in my professional career, I can say that the developers of the complex and popular addons are very likely qualified.
The default UI is also written in Lua and uses the very same APIs that the addons use. Not sure how they split the work at blizzard, but there is the possibility that the UI devs also are responsible for implementing the Lua API itself, but when you are an experienced programmer that should nothing you can’t easily learn. In fact every new hire has to learn the specifics of the project they are onboarded to, but the addon devs would have a easier time with there experience in the game and from writing addons
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