The Great Addon Debate

I know, I know. Everyone is excited right now about the patch coming out today. For weeks now, people have been anticipating Uduar, the new dual spec system, and the Argent Tournament. I'm all downloaded and squared away, waiting for Blizz to release the flood gates and let us back in.

What's the first thing you'll be doing? If you're anything like me, the first thing you'll be doing is asking, "What happened to all my addons?" Not a patch goes by where I am not too excited to see content to remember to check the status of my addons. I have to log out, check the box to load out of date addons, and head back in.

This time, though, we might be seeing a larger number of broken and out of date addons. A lot of addon authors have gone "on strike" in protest of Blizzard's recently established policy, stating that you cannot charge for premium mod service, and you cannot advertize or ask for donations within the mod itself. Many of you, I'm sure, have heard of this already. It's been debated before. And now that there's a date set for compliance a lot of people have renewed their protests.

Allow me a tangent for a moment. About ten years ago, I started writing fanfiction. I used it as a tool to hone my skills as a writer, and it was especially effective online because feedback is relatively instantaneous. I put a lot of work into the fanfic I wrote, because otherwise it would be a waste of my time. I'd never learn anything if I threw just anything out there and demanded praise. I wanted to see what worked, so I put in my best efforts. I know many other fanfiction authors who do the same. Is that to say that all fanfiction authors are like that? Of course not. For every fanfic author writing something worth reading, there are a hundred others who are posting pure garbage. For every fanfic author writing something truly artistic and worth paying for, there are a thousand who are merely passable.

The legality of fanfiction is a huge gray area of intellectual property rights and fair use. As long as fanfiction authors, no matter how much they've put into what they've written, don't charge for what they do, they're largely ignored. They're fans doing what fans do--being fannish. But, I've read some fanfiction of novel length and publishable quality. If it hadn't been fanfiction, I'd have gladly paid to have that book on my shelf.

This is where I get my attitude about WoW addons. It boggles my mind that some addon authors can't see how they're playing merry with Blizz's intellectual property, and the moment Blizz says they're crossing a line they throw an open revolt. I'm not belittling the time and effort and skill that goes into making a great addon, especially something as complex as Questhelper or Carbonite. I do, however, think it's crossing a line when certain addon authors can make a living off of producing them. This is Blizzard's cash cow, not yours. It is NOT the same as Microsoft demanding you stop writing programs. I've heard that argument over and over, and it doesn't float with me. If you are writing an addon that only works in that particular game, and they own the rights to that game, you're violating their rights by demanding money for it. If you don't agree, perhaps you should take them to court and see how that pans out. If you can get a judge to rule in your favor, I'll withdraw my stance that you're still playing in their playground, like a fanfiction author making Arthas and Jaina live happily ever after.