Is changing/adding sounds bannable too?

Community General Discussion
1

Just wondering. I don’t want to risk a suspension or ban after the recent banwave.

I currently have a folder named “Sounds” in the Interface or Addons folder (don’t remember where), where I have custom music so I can play as background music while playing WoW by simply clicking a macro.

Is this considered a violation of the ToS? Should I delete this folder and its contents?

I am not changing any files or sound whatsoever - I just added music files that I like so that I can listen to that instead of WoW’s default background music by clicking on a macro… that’s all.

Would very much appreciate a blue answering this question.

Thanks.

2

You are not actually altering any game files or injecting any code, and Blizzard has said it is allowed in the past. Keep in mind that the way sound replacing works can be changed by Blizzard at any time by simply having the game ignore custom folders. So if they didn’t like it, they could easily break it.

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3

It depends on how exactly this program works. As long as you are not altering the base game files themselves you should be alright. DBM and other boss mods play non-Blizzard sound files. There are addons and other tricks to mute certain sound fx that people may find irritating such as the toy train or cat growl. Those are fine.

The issue with today’s bans is that these people were actually altering WoW’s graphics files.

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4

I’m not using any program at all - I literally just dropped .mp3 files in a folder named SoundtrackMusic in the Addons directory and then made a macro (with legit coding) to play that music while playing WoW.

EDIT:

With “legit coding” I mean this (for example):

/script PlaySoundFile(“Sound\Music\CityMusic\Darnassus\Darnassus Intro.mp3”)

5

That should be fine since you’re not altering the game files. But if you’re concerned I would suggest just using an external windows based music player. Since my PC gets a bit laggy I just play Pandora through my iPhone into a Bluetooth speaker.

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6

Thanks, guys!

7

So how about the silencer to make the guns quiet? s that still allowed?

8

Unless they’re going to ban literally everyone who uses something like DBM, Weakauras, or Bigwigs (since those add/modify in-game sounds), you’re probably fine.

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9

As far as I know, yes. The game files are not being altered. It just mutes or lowers the volume on certain sound effects that some of us may find irritating. This has no obvious gameplay effects that could be considered an advantage for one player over another. The same result could be achieved by simply turning your speakers off.

One good way to be sure would be to submit a ticket here through the WoW website explaining exactly what you’re concerned about. Give them the name of any software, what exactly it does, and how you use it. The admins should be able to tell you for sure if you’re in the clear or tempting fate. If you haven’t been punished yet it’s very unlikely you would be for simply asking a question.

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10

Yes, do that if you’re worried. At least then if you get dinged for it (after being told by a GM that it’s ok) you have a record of it.

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11

There is (or used to be) an addon that was an in game music player. So it’s fine.

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12

Cool, thanks.

13

This isn’t illegal. There are at least five addons I know of that are on Curse which do this same thing.

I’ve had a Sound folder since Wrath. Mute Annoying Sounds add-on has existed for quite a long time, as well.

You’re fine to do this.

1 Like
14

I don’t think you can accidentally modify the game files, you actually have to try in order to achieve that.

If you have a sound replacement addon, I believe it just plays that instead of the original file, no modification there.

15

This is actually bad advice.

GMs generally aren’t going to tell you which particular software resulted in a ban. That would give exploit/bot writers ammunition as to what works and what doesn’t.

In saying that for sound replacements Blizzard are generally okay with people replacing sounds by overriding wow’s data format’s loading system as long as you are not distributing copyrighted sounds

AKA
Modifying game files = not okay
Put a sound file in a special folder in the wow folder thereby overriding that same sound from loading = Okay
Recording a small sample from a CD you own and using that in game = Okay
Recording that same sample and uploading it to Curse.com as part of your own sound kit = Not Okay.
Downloading a public domain sound , modifying it then uploading it to curse.com as part of your own sound kit = Okay (provided you include the appropriate license files)

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16

To re-iterate here.

By putting a sound file in a certain folder in the World of Warcraft folder isn’t modifying game files.

What your actually doing is fooling wow’s file system that loads up when you open the game. It loads up a file system in memory from your data files. It’s built to look for certain folders in the wow folder and load those instead.

So a sound file replacement mod works because to World of Warcraft it loads up your custom sound instead of the one inside the data folder.

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17

Thank you so much, Bluspacecow :slight_smile:

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18

Main reason those altering character models were banned/warned was because they were using a 3rd party software to do it.

It wasn’t because they altered the files client side.

At least this was my understanding.