Who really cares.
I’d bet it was to break CensusPlusClassic, Blizzard does not want us informed, they refuse to release subscriber and server population numbers or faction ratio themselves so this was our only alternative.
Those of you obsessed with add-ons really need to start using your brains so blizz can stop dumbing down the game.
I’m hoping it broke the gold selling, chat channel inviting bots.
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If the guild auto-invite addons that seem to whipser everyone on the server not in a guild and auto-invite them to join used this functionality, it’s possible that it factored into the reason for the change.
This seems like a really bizarre mentality to me, but I’ve seen/heard it from other people, too.
I would argue that using addons (that appropriately abide by API policy) is, in fact, “using your brain” in a greater capacity than not using addons.
Blizzard created the UI API on purpose - to allow people to customize things, and make it so people could adapt the UI to their given playstyle. So, why not adjust things so that they are more convenient for use for you?
That said, CensusPlus isn’t even in the same realm as general UI addons, as it’s more of a data gathering addon. There are some of us who really enjoy seeing this sort of data, and being able to play with different ways of visualizing it. (Well, maybe that’s only me…)
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Hazyrd, good grief, can you be more insulting? I used censusplus to find a new realm to try. It also had a guild population section, so I used it to find a guild as well. I also checked the Horde vs Alliance ratio to make sure I wasn’t going to get steamrolled by Horde all day long.
I play alone, research rather than go with popular opinion and consider myself self sufficient. I am very far from stupid.
I’m disappointed the addon is broken.
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Anyone who uses WIM, Prat, people interested in server stats, etc.
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Wasn’t aware that addon were the reason retail sucks.
I think if anything this may have been done to break the tool, not because Blizz didn’t want that info to come out, but because the numbers that are being spread around are likely WAY-WAY off the actual statistic since the survey/gathering methodology is fundamentally flawed.
This might especially be the case because if the numbers in reality are dramatically lower than the census estimates due to flawed gathering methodology it could spell truly negative repercussions to the company share prices when Blizzard gets around to announcing the first month metrics for WoW Classic sales. Imagine hearing rumors about 5 million players all over the net (Like have already been circulating) on WoWClassic but when the time comes for Act/Blizz to release the actual info they inform the public that it’s only 100,000, that could be a huge PR problem and even affect the company valuation.
This is kind of frustrating. It would be nice to be able to track server stats. If they break the Census add-on they should supply the information. Honestly they should have been doing that from the start. Don’t want 999999 pings a day of players trying to track class/level/race data? Release it yourself…
I used LfG add on to see what the fuss was about and it’s really not all that nefarious. It basically scans the global chat channels and filters out the noise so you don’t have to sift through chuck norris jokes to find LFM SFK
concurrent pop vs h:a ratio 30+ its totally not accurate.
So… not to be pedantic, but the gathering methodology isn’t inherently flawed - it’s the only way it’s doable. It’s possible the collection website needed to at least reveal how many samples were taken over a given timeperiod, in order to come up with a a measure of how reasonable accurate the conclusions were.
If the addon is used as designed, and by many people, it should be gathering - basically constantly - data of players “in the world”. While it does not (and cannot) account for accounts with multiple toons, that should not make a meaningful difference in the end result.
I had only been running the addon for a couple days, and had gathered data on something on the order of 20,000 characters (on Atiesh). The more people using the addon - and for longer - the better the end data.
YES, it would be way better if Blizzard were to provide this sort of information, directly. But in lieu of that, this was the “next best thing”.
Again, the caveat being that you needed a certain “critical mass” of people running the addon so that it’s scanning both faction, and almost “continuously”. (And you need people uploading the data).
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Blizzard actually specifically debunked that claim.
Yes I know what they said.
Look at the date in that post, it predates the alleged hotfix.
Yes I know.
I don’t think there’s any possibility of the population numbers being that low. At least one time my guildie posted a screenshot of his queue sitting at 70K+ deep and Grob has shown me queues of 40K deep.
Thats good… its better people activly interact with people and create friends structures, then try to auto mate their inability to socialy interact with people…