Overwolf bad for Blizzard/Activision business

Community General Discussion
81

well for that to even be a thing is whats creating an issue. not just on the forums but reddit, twitter and other places, the damage control and negative feedback may be a thing that actually keeps it from happening. thats why posts like this are made

82

I switched to Wowup recently when the date was announced for Overwolf to take over… But it concerns me that a company with their record could go to forced usage. I’d quit playing Warcraft if that ever happened.

83

Legally speaking WoW Addon’s can’t be copyrighted; users are freely able to mirror / host / do what have you with any and all addons.

Not advocating to suddenly do this as you’ll incur the wrath of the addon publisher but they are effectively free once out in the wild; you could create a “private” platform but the verbiage of the agreement for addon development does seem to indicate that monetization is not allowed and that the addon source cannot be obfuscated and needs to be “publicly” available though doesn’t highlight restrictions to that.

84

You don’t like what could happen fine I don’t either. But you aren’t helping anything by spreading inaccurate information.

Such as “Overwolf is also in the process of shutting down other open source options of getting addons, like wowup. Monopolizing the addons. A lot of what they do seems like it would also be against blizzards Tos.”

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85

It literally has no impact on anything. Get a grip.

86

That’s one of the most ridiculous statements on this I’ve seen yet.

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87

even i havent said that, id just go elvui (despite it looking like it was drawn by somebody with crayons and an extra chromosone) if overwolf ever put curse into full lockdown

88

didn’t misinterpret anything, made a post that directly reflected the changes wowups own creator was saying overwolf were trying to make…I didn’t randomly create some theory lmao. I knew my add ons where needing updated, knew twitch was expiring soon, read up on the alternatives I’ve used in the past, came across tons of info from wowup and others, realized that if that was gonna happen id rather not even bother with it. then made a post about it.

I highlighted an already existing issue and concern many others have. yet a few of y’all defend overwolf like someone insulted your mother haha.

highlighting things that are an issue/ or even potential to become one ARE a good thing, because negative feedback can result it prevention or change

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89

I get all this… but there is nothing that I know of that says that the addons have to be hosted on a web page capable of manual download. Which means Overwolf could if they so chose for people to use their product in order to gain access to the addons that curseforge hosts. Now the addon authors are free to place their addons where they wish, but considering the Overwolf has stated that they plan on dedicated 70% of the ad revenue to the addon authors, is kind of an incentive that they’ll stay on the curseforge site.

Also the monetization is purely for the authors themselves. They are the ones that cannot charge. I don’t believe a hosting site such as curseforge is under any such restriction.

90

Until this “Overwolf” nonsense started popping up everywhere, I don’t know there was any other way to install addons.

91

Why? Because I don’t want their advertisement streamed to me while I play Warcraft? #boggle

92

So you’re refusing to acknowledge his 2nd update then. You really are just trying to stir up drama.

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93

Uh, you know you can turn off the client after you update your addons, yeah?

2 Likes
94

Because there aren’t going to be any ads ingame just in the app. And you could always use WowUp or Ajour.

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95

lmao…look who’s starting drama.

and his second post didn’t say, “oh, don’t worry, its all good”

it say nothing has changed “yet”.

so according to you its only acceptable to raise concern AFTER something happens.? rather than anything preemptive? Sorry but nope.

96

I highly doubt that, but if they do that, then Blizzard can and should shut them down for TOS violations. If they are like everyone else who has done something similar, this will not be passed on to the creators and will be kept as a convenience fee.

97

I’m saying you’re starting drama because you’re saying it’s ALREADY happening and that’s what you’re wrong about.

98

I mean… per UI Add-On Development Policy

  1. 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.

  2. Add-on code must be completely visible.
    The programming code of an add-on must in no way be hidden or obfuscated, and must be freely accessible to and viewable by the general public.

Notably these points, I think are where Overwolf might be in for some trouble; I haven’t personally used their client but if you are indeed forced to watch an ad or download their client in order to access the addon vs a easily reachable website it might not be deemed “publicly available”.

I would wager watching an ad is the equivalent of monetary compensation when it’s used as a hard download-gate without a skip.

99

The old Curse Client did that for years and had no problems with Blizzard. They also had a Premium subscription that was ad free.

1 Like
100

You realize the app has an in game overlay right? Also while the API is still viable for WoWup to utilize the answers I’m trying to find is what happens when that isn’t the case.

Have a wonderful day.