How can Overwolf have a monopoly on addon apps?

Community General Discussion
21

What I dont understand is this…

Overwolf paid for this twitch app. Ok that’s fine, they want to recoup their cost. Can they not attempt to do what Mixer or Epic does?

Why not incentivize addon devs to go exclusively through their app? Or can addon devs not control where their addon is downloaded from?

That seems like a better approach than trying to take the whole thing.

This is just me coming at it from a layman’s point of view. I have zero idea how addon devs make their money or if they make money.

22

If you are using Chrome, it is Ublock Orgin for your adblocker.

4 Likes
23

They can only stop addon managers that scrape their own website. Meaning that once they have control of what is currently the twitch library and curseforge, they can act against addon managers which scrape from it.

They can’t however take any action against addon managers like Minion, which take addons directly from wowinterface and do not touch the twitch/curseforge code or addon library.

2 Likes
24

It would also probably also be more stable if they did it themselves instead of having outside sources do it.

25

Based on how successful and just fine Epic is, pretty sure they know what they are doing.

Community outrage doesn’t really mean much when there’s a far bigger number of people who just don’t care/follow

26

After doing a little more research, it seems their plan for their app won’t have in-game advertisements. I imagined it would be like their Hearthstone app, which works like that, but they say the ads “definitely” won’t appear in-game.

So I’ll take back that statement in light of new info.

27

They do, addon devs on Curse get some of the ad revenue, they have for a while now.

They can put them up for download anywhere. Curse is just the biggest and best known so that’s where most devs go. It’s like trying to sell your art on a random website when Etsy exists.

1 Like
28

Legally, and TOS-ily - no, they shouldn’t and can’t. If they are monetizing their addon in any way that’s a Lawsuit waiting to happen.

4 Likes
29

seconded on this one. I looked over the code base earlier and it’s solid and (for now) trustworthy.

30

Pretty sure you are free to create your own platform. Trying to get your own platform up to popularity is a second.

31

Overwolf gets around that by not being an addon that interacts with the game. It’s an overlay that basically appears over top of the game. I don’t believe that is what they are doing with WoW though. I could be wrong but I believe they are just going to be a regular app like the twitch app.

1 Like
32

Ok thanks for the explanation that’s makes more sense on how they get paid.

33

No doubt but they are fundamental to WoW at this stage in it’s life. It wouldn’t be cheap or easy but it’s what customers deserve.

34

Not to mention boss encounters are designed with addons like DBM in mind, because otherwise that addon makes it too easy.

35

What kinds of incentives do they offer?

I’m a cloud/windows developer, and the curse app (and the addon section of the twitch app) don’t look that complicated. I bet I could make Something similar it pretty quickly.

How do we start the revolution?

36

You’ll be able to do it that same way you have been

1 Like
37

Because the addon’s are on their server and if they don’t want a third part addon connecting to it, that is within their rights. You can manually do it because you will be using the cursed forge site which is part of Over Wolf. But third party addon manager will not be part of that network.

38

Why would they want to accept that responsibility? Not only does it require a massive repo and hosting service, but they would then be responsible for ensuring the addon’s are not something other than advertised plus a staff to handle an approval and vetting process. And we both know the second they did this and an addon breaks down, people would be here telling Blizzard to “fix their addons”.

There is no upside in it for them.

1 Like
39

uBlock Origin on Chrome works the best, IMO.

2 Likes
40

Because we as customers deserve it? We shouldn’t be worried about some third party getting a monopoly or their client having malware or whatever.

Addons are pretty fundamental to modern WoW. Blizzard has more than enough resources to make a platform for them. The upside is happier customers.

You need only look at reddit and this front page or spend time in any guild to know there is a certain level of anxiety over the future of addons right now and there shouldn’t be.

2 Likes