Is using file overrides against the ToS? Such as placing audio files in certain directories to override the official ones?
A friend of mine cannot stand how ridiculously loud Orc Female voices are, and so they use modified audio files placed in a certain folder in the game directory.
They do not use any 3rd party software, launchers, etc. Just .wav files (IIRC) dropped in the correct folders.
Is this against the ToS? I don’t want my friend getting banned/suspended/etc, so I want to ask here and make sure that this isn’t against the rules.
My question is, though, if it were against the ToS, then why is it even possible to do that?
I’m going on the assumption that they allow certain file(s)/file type(s) to be overriden and others not, and the ones that can be overriden are OK?
But I’d rather hear it from a blue, just to be sure.
And I never debated it with myself, but after this thing with the character model bans/suspensions, I just want to make sure, you know?
EDIT: That, and overriding a file is not actually modifying the game files themselves – you’re placing a file in a folder, and the game is choosing to use that file, instead of the one in the game’s files (which they could easily stop if they don’t like it). In fact, IIRC, it even goes in the AddOns directory but I’m not 100% sure where these files go.
EDIT: Huh, I don’t even see the directory I thought these files were in. Maybe this isn’t even possible anymore and said friend didn’t even notice that the voices were back to normal.
This specifically says it’s against the TOS, and whatever happened should be taken as a warning and that future use of said programs will be dealt with in a harsher manner.
Changing audio files doesn’t require altering any actual game files, or any third-party client like altering models does. You just place whatever sound file you want in the correct folder structure and the game reads it. Blizzard could break that functionality if they wanted, and it wasn’t against the rules previously so I’d assume it still isn’t.
This is correct. Changing audio files does not require modifying game files, since Blizzard deliberately put a system in to allow you to do it. You drop sound files into a custom directory, and the game will read it. Models cannot be changed without actually altering game files, which is extremely against the ToU, on the level of botting. I haven’t actually played for a year and a half now, but as of the last time I did play, I’d been telling people on the forums and within the game that these “model edits” they were talking about were going to get them banned eventually. I remember telling one particularly stubborn person in Trade that, during Cataclysm. Looks like there was finally a ban wave for it.
As pointed above, audio files and texture model files work a little differently.
When you start mucking around with what one sees, it also opens the door to exploits, not so much with what you hear. While one person may just want cute ears on their NE, others will use the same technology to absolutely cheat.
