Edit: Finally got my char back for forums. I took a few minutes now to explain it again, becausr so many people missed the point of this topic. I apologise for all these edits, but I think I either didn’t communicate clearly enough, or my “issue” is complex, so I need to explain it better.
So here is a link for the rules regarding addons:
UI Add-On Development Policy - Guides / UI and Macro - World of Warcraft Forums (blizzard.com)
There seems to be a lot of addon developpers, who constantly update their content and work to help the community in an honest way without charging. Maybe they get donations, but they don’t charge.
However, there are other addon developpers, who put their content now behind a pay wall. This is unfair for the addon developpers, who work for free, and it’s also harmful to the rest of the community.
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Some people put weakaura and plater profiles behind a twitch sub, which is behind a paywall. (not naming them). I don’t think this should be allowed, because then everyone does it some day, and you’d need a twitch sub for 4 people to get the weakauras you need for special M+ mechanics, or new pvp metas.
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Restedxp: You can download the addon, but you have to pay for the content in it.
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Raidbots dot com: DPS simulation to choose the best gear. It’s very important, if you wanna play well to sim yourself. Simming is done with an addon to import your vault, your talents and your char. It is a very crucial aspect of playing on a high level. The problem is that people sell a premium version with better simulation options, better features, and a skip for queues., which is used by pretty much every high end player to see, which items to chase after. I’m not sure, if it’s against the rules, but I also worry about the game in this regard.
Final edit to clear it up again, so people understand better:
I was personally confused with their T.O.S. approach, because it seems unclear and foggy considering how impactful some 3rd party services are for the game.
This post is also kind of a worry about the future of addons and 3rd parties. As of right now, simming yourself for DPS is a requirement to play this game on a high level and perform exceptionally well. Using weakauras and plater profiles, which are often very complex and required a lot of work, too. Doing these by yourself is often not reasonable for most players. That’s why I worry that we run into a future, where a bunch of third parties will sell profiles/exports for “free addons” that turn out to be a requirement to play the game on a “competitive level”.
Right now this is thankfully not the case, and the community freely shares their stuff. But what if they start charging in the future? I would understand them, because why would they not do it, if it’s allowed and works? This is my issue with it as of now, and why I want Blizzard to be more specific about their T.O.S.
In my personal view, I want combat addons to be extremely restricted and only influence pure U.I. elements on a superficial level, but I would also feel sad about accessibility, because some people with severe disabilities rely on addons to play the game at all. For those I could imagine Blizzard giving permits to individual players with disabilities, if they send them some sort of certificate, so they play a more mod-supported version and have some other help and improvements.
