Am I the only one that thinks that removing Addons is only a net negative for the players? Like if Blizzard wants to make their game better… they can do that, but why would they remove the customizability and accessibility features that addons bring to the game? We have had addons for so long and now we are losing them under the guise of “we want to make the game better”.
Making the game better would be updating the base game to include the features and customization that popular addons like Cell, DBM, Weakaura’s, etc. have given us. If it is deemed necessary, then they could remove the excessive complexity that makes these addons such an absolute requirement in end game content. That way the people that enjoy restructuring their entire UI, or the people that need a voice to yell at them to GTFO, or maybe people that just need ways to track things that you cant with the base UI, those people can get what they want out of the game. As for the people that dont want to use addons, they dont have to! I see no value in removing them, especially since Blizzard hasn’t even given us a reliable alternative or replacement. We barely have the Alpha of the next update that will implement these changes, how unplayable will M+ and Raid be on release?
Its fine to say that we want to make the game easier so addons aren’t required. I know especially newer players could really benefit from a UI over hall or honestly just a better system for teaching how the end game especially works. I do think that over-simplifying the game punishes some of the long-time veterans that enjoy the complexity and the challenge in favor of winning over newcomers, However if addons really aren’t necessary because we “fix the game” and they become more for vanity than playability, then why do we need to remove them? This whole fiasco just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Blizzard encounter design has been in an arms race with addons for 20 years. The only way to win the war is to further restrict addons. The use of secret values is a great compromise. The secret values let you parse combat data and display it using the usual blizzard widgets without the addon author knowing what the actual values are. Custom cd trackers should still work with minor modifications.
If this announcement also came with the hey…look players. we hired 5 more UI devs since we really want to accomodate all the needs of the Add on market that had you go there.
that…would have been nice to see.
its the same amount UI devs, with added workload. Been there myself.
you got 2 hands, 8 hours a day. you ask if OT approved. get told no. well then, if the current workload tied up you 8 hours, guess how fast added work gets done lol. Hint…not very fast.
This is Blizzard’s fault. Addons were created to fill the holes left in Blizzard’s development. Blizzard saw this and instead of improving their UI, implementing some of the features that the vast majority of raiders and dungeoneers were using addons to supplement, and designing bosses that had mechanics that weren’t made trivial with the use of Weakauras decided to double down and say “well, can you solve this!”.
And of course they could, because Blizzard was trying to fight a computer.
Now sure, the fact that Blizzard is FINALLY doing these things is great. What isn’t great is that they think they can recreate two decades worth of development time that has gone into the most popular addons in the span of a few months. That is stupid.
Or, how about this? They stop caring that rwf is done in a few days.
That’d also solve the problem. Because the entire thing is based around the encounter team being butthurt that their fights are cleared first week by people that literally get paid to clear it first week,
The only people that really have skin in that race, are the encounter developers. From what I’ve heard aren’t very nice and understanding people to begin with, and are actually kinda egotistical.
Partially, yes, and they have acknowledged that it goes both ways. They could have shut down the API functionality that let combat addons do what they do a long time ago, but they tried to stem the tide by doing targeted restrictions. Ultimately, those targeted restrictions were never enough and the only way to completely solve the problem is to remove the ability of third party addons to read the combat interface at all.
They would still exist in their current use. They want to remove the “want” for them by putting the play back more on the player and not logic. DBM and Weakauras unfortunately are very good at taking away player agency. They want you to look at the game and make decisions on that not what an addon visually tells you and where to go. Also allowing them to change mechanics to support that.
Granted, ui changes like bigger debuffs on frames or customizing what class / spec frame buffs you see should be default. Even changing the look of the frame. I just think those addons had parts of them that sat inside the api in areas so killing sections was a side effect. Hopefully they will fix that part of it as it is outside the scope of their current goals mentioned.
Blizzards war is on Addons deriving logic and providing solutions to challenges within the game.
Their war isn’t on the entirety of addons.
Sure they dropped a nuke recently, but maybe it was the easiest approach that they could think of.
I’m sure addons which don’t rely on deriving logic would all be reinstated by Blizzard in the future.
I know someone that works for Blizzard, and we’ve discussed this. There’s some stuff they can’t say for potential NDAs, but yeah. I do know some things.
My thoughts as well. It’s easier to nuke something and rewrite specific parts then try to do something to the whole without affecting what they dont want.