Overwolf Client and Addon Management - PLEASE Don't Support This!

[Duffle-earthen-ring]

@Reeven-thrall

@Daddy, @Evyx,

I think you are missing the part where at least three 3rd party open clients already exist: Ajour, WoWup and CurseBreaker.

We don’t need one more, rather we need to adress the common problem that would ail any 3rd party manager: Overwolf menacing to shut down access to the Curse API.

Exactly! We need to try to communicate with the addon devs to see what their plans are.

BUT creating a simple GraphQL API to catalog repo locations could not hurt. (I say GraphQL because I am so over REST)

[Duffle-earthen-ring]

@Chroesire-bleeding-hollow

Basic framework for a dirt cheap addons index site:

• Addon developers put their addon releases up for free on Github/Gitlab
• Index site is static generated HTML hosted for free with [Netlify’s generous free open source plan] netlify
• Index site includes static, versioned generated JSON blob that addon updaters can download
• Devs submit their addons for inclusion with a simple Github pull request

This would cost almost nothing to run.

I like how you think!!

[Duffle-earthen-ring]

@Evyx-proudmoore

I am genuinely new here though I post a lot… What is going on with this Curse API and why is it so important? I know that will seem dumb but I literally don’t know what’s special.

Not dumb at all.

Twitch sold Curse off to Overwolf.

Also, we are not the only gaming community being screwed by this guys. Curse hosts other game mods too. The Minecraft mod sections is much larger than ours. I have not looked to see what they are going to do.

@Chroesire-bleeding-hollow

TSM and Details might be harder to replace

If you are using TSM you are using their client anyway. They are pretty much covered.

[Chroesire-bleeding-hollow (Chroesire)]

@Duffle-earthen-ring

If you are using TSM you are using their client anyway. They are pretty much covered.

Yeah there’s actually a number of addon suites that now have dedicated clients. TukUI, WeakAuras/wago, and I think maybe ElvUI?

I don’t blame them either, managing all the subcomponents of those addons through Curse or even manually is a colossal pain.

[Kaurmine-area-52]

@Dreadsurge-sargeras

and thus force anyone wanting to update addons to install their client.

I also use wowinterface.com + github.com/

[Reeven-thrall (Reeven)]

@Evyx-proudmoore

I think the boogeyman is that they might be mistakenly told that they need to also make their addon open source. Which some might be very against. But we should just reassure them that their addon is uploaded to a private database and their code need not be exposed.

Just that the host is open source.

(But many devs seem to really respect open source so this might seem a perk.)

Addons are open source by default. Blizzard’s EULA requires it, and ultimately they’re all human readable LUA script.

What addons are not is free (libre). The code must be visible, but it still belongs to its author exclusively (an exemple of a team that’s very aggressive defending their exclusive IP on their code is TSM, they go after unofficial “forks” everytime they pop up). That would run afoul of Github’s free plan which requires free repos to be libre (or did they change it again?).

[Chroesire-bleeding-hollow (Chroesire)]

@Reeven-thrall

(an exemple of a team that’s very aggressive defending their exclusive IP on their code is TSM, they go after unofficial “forks” everytime they pop up)

Man I know TSM is incredibly useful but the entire sphere around it is just so freaking weird.

[Duffle-earthen-ring]

@Reeven-thrall

That would run afoul of Github’s free plan which requires free repos to be libre (or did they change it again?).

When MS Purchased Github they opened unlimited Private and Public repos. For free that is.

Don’t quote me on the unlimited for private, but its for a certain team size.

Shoot. I need to go look

[Kaurmine-area-52]

@Chroesire-bleeding-hollow

free

You’ll find some addon devs are in support of overwolf though because they want money Not implying anything is wrong with that, they are working after all but you may find some devs aren’t about that ‘have it for free’ life.

@Chroesire-bleeding-hollow

Man I know TSM is incredibly useful but the entire sphere around it is just so freaking weird .

Reason mentioned above lol

[Duffle-earthen-ring]

@Kaurmine-area-52

You’ll find some addon devs are in support of overwolf though because they want money

This is the other sticking point.

Honestly the monetary split that curse gives them is crap. But trying to figure out another way to do it has been the struggle.

That being said, there are plenty of addons that are firm believers of opensource. BigWIgs team and a lot of the guys that used to be hosted on wowace back in the day like Tekkub

[Chroesire-bleeding-hollow (Chroesire)]

Oh I know. Years ago I had an addon up on Curse that earned me a few hundred bucks in Amazon GCs over the course of a few years.

Most other software-for-the-community sorts of projects get by on things like Patreon and Github Sponsorships, which are infinitely less skeevy. With the kind of money big guilds drop on WoW tokens and server transfers and the like I’m sure they could spare a few bucks for the addons that make their gameplay possible.

[Reeven-thrall (Reeven)]

@Chroesire-bleeding-hollow

@Reeven-thrall

(an exemple of a team that’s very aggressive defending their exclusive IP on their code is TSM, they go after unofficial “forks” everytime they pop up)

Man I know TSM is incredibly useful but the entire sphere around it is just so freaking weird.

All modding spheres have their bit of weirdness. On WoW I’ve only ever been a basic dumb user, so I’m not so familiar with the addon creator community.

But on Skyrim, where I actually am active in the modding community, I can guarantee we have no shortage of our own mix of drama queens, overall weirdos, OK folks and technical wizards all trying to fix Bethesda’s own special mess

[Chroesire-bleeding-hollow (Chroesire)]

@Duffle-earthen-ring

BigWIgs team and a lot of the guys that used to be hosted on wowace back in the day like Tekkub

I read somewhere that Github hired Tekkub fairly early on. Not sure if he’s still there.

[Duffle-earthen-ring]

@Chroesire-bleeding-hollow

I read somewhere that Github hired Tekkub fairly early on. Not sure if he’s still there.

I would not doubt it. All of us owe a LOT of thanks to Tekk for what all he contributed,

Just look at all the projects and libs he did for the game.

https://github.com/TekNoLogic

[Eretflex-area-52]

Still dont know how installing addons manually is defending. But hey upvote yourself with your alts.

Can you please show me where im defending? Perhaps i didnt see it.

[Willkiller-korgath (Willkiller)]

I believe that their take on it is a version of “All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.”

In other words, if you aren’t condemning the sketchy practice you aren’t doing enough.

/shrug

Each to their own opinion I guess.

[Kaurmine-area-52]

@Duffle-earthen-ring

https://github.com/TekNoLogic

Never heard of any of those addons except for oUF If you want to talk about crazy great devs though look at https://www.curseforge.com/members/funkehdude/projects . That dude wrote like every addon I’ve ever loved

[Raiimir-stormrage]

@Eretflex-area-52

Still dont know how installing addons manually is defending.

Dude, be real. This is gaslighting. If even I have 10 addons, manually going to each developper site to check the version and when it was released, download the zip and manually installing it will be a massive waste of time.

There is no reason to defend a hostile corporate takeover of curseforge that locks us out of our add-on management, without submitting to adware garbage on our computers.

@Eretflex-area-52

But hey upvote yourself with your alts.

What ? lol I didn’t do that. Obviously people think you’re wrong here, might want to take a step back and re-evaluate your position.

[Duffle-earthen-ring]

@Kaurmine-area-52

Never heard of any of those addons except for oUF If you want to talk about crazy great devs though look at https://www.curseforge.com/members/funkehdude/projects . That dude wrote like every addon I’ve ever loved

Yep! FunkyDude is another OG addon dev!! Ahh great times!

[Eretflex-area-52]

@Raiimir-stormrage

This is gaslighting

Well you established you have have no idea what that means.

I manually install I have no problem just because you get your panties in a bunch because I refuse to use an add-on is your prerogative