This particular flavor of hard work should always be free, per Blizzard.
It’s right there in the Add-on Development Policy.
He can feel free to solicit donations (outside the add-on itself, this is what got oQueue in trouble back in MoP), and if he feels his work isn’t being rewarded, he can stop putting out updates to the community, releasing them only to his guild/friends/whatever.
What he can’t do is paywall the useful portion of the addon and expect people to be okay with it.
A “donation requirement” isn’t a donation, it’s a purchase price.
I was gonna say something similar. There’s no doubt he was wrong for going about it in the manner that he was trying to, but the reality is harassment and death threats isn’t okay in any capacity, so hopefully he can get back onto a better track in time.
This was the tipping point that caused the implementation of formal rules stating that addons shall remain free.
Carbonite was a fantastic collection of QoL addons that not only charged for a premium version, but also obscured the LUA code so that it could not be ripped.
Blizzard came down on that, and the version of Carbonite you see now was given over to that dev from the original team. It’s a vast collection, and so I don’t believe he was ever able to restore it fully. I certainly cut ties after a year and not seeing the functionality I previously enjoyed.
Through that we also lost Cogwheel, who wrote the majority of foundational guides for addons and a contributing author to “World of Warcraft Programming” 1st and 2nd edtion. He never charged for his addons, but as a programmer, he wished to retain the right to charge, and left over that.
During that time the scraping wars took off, and nefarious sites would alter addons against the author’s wishes. Curse and WowInterface were the top two sites fighting to educate and stop the use of those other sites.
In retrospect, it was a very exciting (and sad) time in the UI and Macros forum. That forum is incredibly helpful, and should be on everyone’s go-to list for all things UI & Macro related.
Eh, it sucks but im wondering how much of the community really relies on an addon that they can plan out the most optimal pulls in shadowlands dungeons which are probably among the most linear dungeons ever created. Im sure its the greatest tool ever for the top 3% but for the rest of us 97% its still the same. Kick the guy who does the bad thing, stun him if he still tries to do it, regroup for next pull.
Why the heck are so many of you guys against Nnoggie? Poor guy’s wasting his time and brain to make an addon which isn’t an easy task, and you are rooting “blizzard, crucify the guy!” or similar… you are a bunch of ignorant and evil guys. I understand blizzard says no addon should be paid for and thats understandable. But if you say blizzard completely owns that addon you are a googleplex of light years away from such statements. the only thing blizzard owns in that addon is maybe MAYBE the icons of the mobs… which blizzard’s employees made. The fkin icons…
So don’t be so harsh… even though wow subscribers don’t have to pay him, blizzard should actually pay every addon maker if we are going to talk like that and facts.
I don’t think many let it slide, people are just using the many alternative versions that popped up and it’s out of mind now. I think it was the very first day someone snatched it from him.
I’m sure some people are still paying, which is unfortunate, but I think some players just over trust WoW “celebs”, just like some get overly invested in rl ones.
He backed off the paywall requirement. Imagine doing that because you’re mad at like 2 people, and end up p*ssing off like 150k players lol.
But mostly I think it was because other pro streamers were also starting to call him out on it. He was childish (still is) but he was getting some really bad looks from the content creation community.
I honestly don’t believe he cared at all about the average player.
