Like for real. It’s 3rd party software. They are selling it… and screws over normal players. It’s toxic AF with the massive AH spam…
How is this allowed?
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Technicalities.
The add-on policy only says they’re not allowed to sell the addon, and they don’t. What they sell is services related to their website (ad free, discord channel, etc).
If Blizzard didn’t want AH addons, they’d block LUA access to it.
Blizzard is pretty slow on the uptake at times. Think they need to look into this one more closely. I have a feeling it’s behind a LOT of the current AH lag.
Are you saying the addon itself is badly written and causing problems or that too many people are using the AH with addons and TSM being possibly the most popular should therefore be nobbled by Blizzard?
It feels like a lot of the Classic AH issues are pretty similar to the ones being suffered in retail before the deposit changes and latter the overhaul. Retail and Classic servers both have much higher population caps than original Vanilla servers, and more people mean more auctions. Addons like TSM contribute to the problem by making it super easy to do a bunch of single item listings.
Without AH addons, the problem would likely still exist, although it might go down a bit if there was a bit more friction in the listing process.
Hopefully, as the initial rush for BCC dies down and people stop dumping all the stuff they horded to try and make bank off of new people leveling the auction houses will become more manageable. I haven’t really had much of an issue on a smaller BCC realm.
2 Likes
They’re not selling the addon. They’re selling data accumulated and formatted for the addon that isn’t moved through the game itself.
Yes, it’s a technicality, but it’s not a violation of the Terms of Use of the game.
- 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.
dont they violate the bit i bolded about not charging for services related to the add-on?
I’m just guessing, but my take is that if the addon is useless without the for-pay service it would violate the TOS. If it can be used without the service, then it’s OK. For-pay leveling addons like Zygor have been on similar territory since Vanilla.
Of course, another issue is whether Blizzard could shut down TSM without negatively affecting other auction house addons and, if not, whether they would consider it worth the cost.
They’re not charging for services. They’re charging for access to additional data.
doubtful. the clause uses “premium” to denote you cant have a basic mod and then another variant that has more data/functionality available.
the additional data is related to the addon. access to the data is the service being provided. if you want to pretend its not a service then go ahead.
we know blizzard wont do anything about it though, not unless it impacts the game or its economy but dont pretend its not violation.
From what I can see, about the only thing I might have a problem with is the paying for Beta access as that is specifically “the addon” even in a beta state, but that’s me.
The others like add free browsing and synching are just every day things people are willing to cough up money for and certainly not related to the TOS.
Shopping and notifications don’t seem to be TSM specific but most likely data gathered through Blizzard’s freely available web AH API then crunched and analysed for the purposes mentioned regardless of using an AH addon or not, TSM or not.
The clause says you can’t have separate free & paid versions of the addon, but from what I can tell TSM doesn’t have that. Subscribers appear to be using the same addon that non-subscribers use.
What data do you have to pay to access? It looks like everything is available for free on their website.
I agree with Fizzlemizz that the beta access is the sketchiest looking part. But they do have a way to get the betas without paying. You have to go over to their blog to find the link though. I suspect that’s how they justify it.
Access to data through an out-of-game application is not service. It’s access to the data. Apples and oranges (which, granted, are still both fruit, but different kinds of fruit).
No ‘pretending’ about it. They’re not “doing” anything. The addon itself is the same with or without the additional data. You’re free to develop your OWN data that is compatible and use it (or sell access to that data to someone else).
I get that you don’t like TSM and the effect it has on the AH, but it really is very little more than accumulated history and current state of prices there.
It’s no different than RaidBots selling premium access to their website for simulating your toons. They have the data, quite often gathered through their own published addon (although not exclusively so - you can create your own sim data). They proved a “wait in line” level of service for free. If you want faster access to it, you pay a little. Because this is done outside the game environment and doesn’t alter any addons themselves, it’s perfectly fine with regards to the Terms of Use.