Everyone was asleep, but some of us eventually stayed awaken to bring you the fresh news !
(also because for Classic launch we will need to be fresh and ready at 12am so we have a tendancy to adapt our sleeping schedule you know...)
Bornakk
Community Manager
We’ve been closely following the community discussion around this add-on for WoW Classic, as well as analyzing it to make sure we understand how it works. After careful examination, we believe the nature of ClassicLFG is incompatible with our social design for Classic. Thus, in an upcoming patch (in the weeks following launch), we will be adding restrictions to the Classic add-on API that will significantly limit this add-on and others like it.
In line with what we shared at BlizzCon last year, we intend to be very careful about allowing add-on functionality that might undermine aspects of the social dynamics that are core to the Classic experience, even in cases like this where it’s clear that the addon author had no ill intent and was simply trying to provide a service to the Classic community. Ultimately, if a streamlined group-finding system was something we considered compatible with Classic, we would have kept the modern Premade Group Finder tool rather than choosing to remove it from the Classic client.
It’s difficult to articulate a clear-cut rule for exactly when an add-on crosses the line. However, when an add-on goes beyond presenting information or providing aesthetic customization, and attempts to create an interconnected social network that relies on other players also using that same add-on, we are likely to scrutinize it particularly closely.
This kind of player driven reaction by developers is great!
That's great. Feel bad for the guy who went through the trouble to develop the addon though.
That's great. Feel bad for the guy who went through the trouble to develop the addon though.
I mean if his work was for something that was ultimately bad for the game, it kinda comes out in the wash.
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Great stance by Blizz. Won't change much if there is a huge demand from players. Ultimately players have in the past and will again find a way to make group finders if they are so inclined. Sites like Openraid have existed in the past and group finder discords are bound to pop up. Just like in the private community, Discords will be a great place for players to coordinate groups. I'm inclined to say this is a bit better anyhow because it is not directly in the game and thus will be used by fewer people AND still requires more player effort and communication than an automated matchmaker. So while this is a babystep by Blizz, its a step in the right direction and I am glad that they are setting a precedent so early.
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This explains a lot.
Nice to hear, addons like this will keep cropping up for the first few months though so we're not done yet.
This is amazing. Of course people can find a way around it if they really want, but Blizzard saying "nono" to this is awesome.
Feel bad for the guy who went through the trouble to develop the addon though
I do not, I made a ticket warning him of this on github months ago when he was just starting out.
Collecting / parsing chat messages from /trade /lfg to facilitate you sorting through all the spam is great there were addons that did that in vanilla too (CallToArms was the most popular one)
In the private server era both CTA and vQueue fulfilled that same function. You could then manually form a group or invite the player from the usual invite or whisper menu.
Neither addon went the extra two steps of entirely automating group formation and invites so you can afk form and join groups with zero player interaction which is what this recent incarnation was poised to do.
- Blizzard said in 2005/6 that addons that facilitate cross-faction communication in-game (babelfish and similar) are a bannable offense.
- Blizzard protected movement functions from being used in addons early vanilla which broke a bunch of auto-travel addons (you could plan your whole world trip and afk while the addon walked you / mounted you to destinations and even took zeppelins and boats)
Some people still went up in arms for those.
- Blizzard warned that AVR (augmented virtual reality) goes against the intended gameplay design and would be bannable (until they found a way to break it through API)
There was still outcry ("boohoo we can't carry our bad friends through ICC anymore, why Blizzard?")
Fully automating the group formation process in Classic is akin to botting yourself into groups and they are fully in their right to discourage it or outright break it.
This is nothing new and deserves no outrage.
My only reservation is I worry what other legitimate addons might be hurt by the changes needed to remove the automation part.
PS. Creating an anti-LFG tool addon that floods the original addon with trash information is trivial so Blizzard stepping in is all around the best solution.
This is interesting as its the first official statement we’ve had since they announced that they would be ‘moderating’ addons for Classic back ar Blizzcon panel 2018.
So it’s confirmed then that they have taken a stance. The question now is what rules will they draw up for separating ‘classic’ and ‘non-classic’ compatible addons? If they do at all?
The question now is what rules will they draw up for separating ‘classic’ and ‘non-classic’ compatible addons? If they do at all?
Automation of gameplay is the obvious (and logical) answer one would hope.
The problem is that for example an easy way to break this addon is making the group invite function protected (= requires a hardware event, keypress/mouse).
This would keep the addon working as a chat parser / collating LFG/D chat from channels in nice lists but remove the automation part and require players to interact.
Problem is it would at the same time break a bunch of other more benign addons (some that multiboxers use, or friends/ couples to briefly go to the loo while their partner groups / puts them on follow)
I'm glad they said and are doing something about it. I certainly think it would ruin the experience for Classic.
we believe the nature of ClassicLFG is incompatible with our social design for Classic.
That's the key sentence for me. I'm wanting to join in and play classic because of the social aspect of the game and community involvement. I don't want Classic to turn into a "Breezefest" like Retail is where you can just teleport anywhere, find groups anywhere and literally almost never buy anything.
The fact that black monarch wanted this addon tells me a lot about him
Great to hear keeping dumbed down add-ons out of the game. Loving every minute of it.