It’s a given that addons are handy and provide many benefits, but what about the big picture? I think there are many addons that are quite problematic, with perhaps the biggest offender being Deadly Boss Mods—the addon that gives you an alert for literally everything a boss does.
If it weren’t for this addon, people would actually have to look at their surroundings in the 3D. What DBM does is reduce the game to an exercise of following simple orders the mod feeds you through its alerts, “GROUND SLAM IN 3…2…1… NOW MOVE TO THE LEFT!”
There are also other questionable addons such as WeakAuras, which lets you set up all kinds of conditions to alert you of things. It’s basically DBM except that it’s limitless in how configurable it is.
The prevalence of these addons—practically everyone has certain addons installed—also leads to a problem where players are ostracized if they don’t have a certain addon installed, creating a situation where certain addons are effectively mandatory due to the disadvantage a player suffers should they not have those addons installed. “You don’t have X? What, you’re a noob?”
Addons such as Deadly Boss Mods also figure into Blizzard’s design philosophy because they need to balance the game with this autopilot mod in mind.
I suggest that all addons be banned. That way, everyone would be on a level playing field, and raiding would again be more than following the verbal instructions of an addon. It would also bring more balance to PvP because the guy stacked with a million addons wouldn’t have an advantage over someone without any or fewer of them.
It also lets colourblind players know if that circle is gonna heal or kill us
It also lets blind/partially-blind players know that they need to move
It also lets people who enjoy the game but due to various disabilities, health issues and other problems, play the game they enjoy without it being impossible or insanely more difficult. Whether this is from sight, sound, movement (eg typing quickly), sensory based (with all the circles and movements to watch out for, this can cause some issues for people that get overwhelmed easily, where if they concentrate on the few cues from add-ons, it makes it possible to keep up with or concentrate).
Sure, that’s a legitimate point. A lot of it could be implemented by Blizzard natively into the game.
But I think it’s also not quite that simple. There’s always a trade-off. For example, you could argue that CS:GO should allow an aimbot addon because it would make the game more accessible for everyone. Well, sure, it would, but it would certainly be a trade-off. I think addons are in a similar spot.
In games like CS (wow, the last time I played one of those was back when source released 🫣 they are still going?) The difficulty is primarily based around aiming - that is what the developers made the base game to be about and that is pretty much the sole reason people play it.
While in MMOs like World of Warcraft, the main gameplay is about using the abilities on your bar, plus the stats from the gear you have accumulated, to ensure the enemy dies before you do.
Even if they removed all mechanics from every boss fight, the base game is still there. The game would be a lot less fun, but the game itself is still entirely playable with full base gameplay.
Give everyone aimbots in CS, and the gameplay goes out the window in its entirety.
Interesting point. I’ve always tried to avoid DBM. I hate playing the game following DBM instead of being aware of what happens on my screen. I think that makes me a better tank in dungeons as I keep watching out for mobs breaking out, going for healers. I spot pats that are coming towards us… that kind of stuff.
But once I became a raid moderator, it turned out that I needed the add-on because some players do need my voice in discord to tell them what and when to do something. It helps me negate mistakes and potential mistakes of other raid members, as some people just naturally react a lot slower than us dark souls veterans.
I would actually enjoy the experiment of this though. I would love to see a few months of WoW without DBM, just to see how many people would still say “The game is easy” and how many would realize it’s only easy because you’re using that equivalent of an aimbot in WoW.
But this
is quite correct. The analogy is not perfect. DBM is not exactly like an aimbot and the problem is not that simple.
If there was a way to just ban DBM, I think that could really improve the game by bringing a kind of challenge back, many people might have never experienced to begin with and it might make Pug-Raids less viable aswell, which creates another insentive to join a raiding guild and do some networking.
Yep, and this is precisely why the argument “just don’t use it” falls flat on its face.
In a multiplayer game like an MMO, the collective actions, and in this case tools used, of the players largely determine the gameplay experience of every individual player and how they must play. In many cases, not doing something is eliminated as an option because “the way of doing things” becomes so deeply ingrained into the game.
I think the technology behind the addons is rather impressive, especially for the time, but I think ultimately they may be a net negative due to how they potentially unbalance the game and become mandatory.
Yep, remove DBM and while you are at it, remove every unit nameplate addon. Make the people shout personally on discord who has debuff or low health in those 25 man raids.
Just kidding, ban discord too, make it detectable with your warden agent and if someone is using it during raids, ban him.
I kinda agree with you but most of the times it’s more of a heads up addon than anything else. Cause mine sure aint saying go left in; 3 , 2 , 1 …
It tells me when a boss does a spell, mechanic or w/e they’re on about, still mostly on random folk or at random places, I still have to look out for fire or a ‘friendly player’ who decided to stand next to me.
Though I can only speak for a range dps.
Would be awesome if we didn’t have it though, less holding hands and read / learn tactics and stuff. For me who didn’t really got into the ‘‘good old’’ days, would’ve made raid nights perfect.
But hey here we are 2022 everything on the interwebs, guides to read trough and endless videos to watch. Whats the difference really? Not everyone has the time etc etc well I won’t go trough all that. But the addon, just as many other things in live, is just to make it a bit easier and accessible. (as it goes for most addons if not all)
