Authors CurseForge

Blizzard today has announced a new UI AddOn Development Policy, as follows:

With the continuing popularity of World of Warcraft user interface add-ons (referred to hereafter as “add-ons”;) created by the community of players, Blizzard Entertainment has formalized design and distribution guidelines for add-ons. These guidelines have been put in place to ensure the integrity of World of Warcraft and to help promote an enjoyable gaming environment for all of our players – failure to abide by them may result in measures up to and including taking formal legal action.

1) Add-ons must be free of charge.

All add-ons must be distributed free of charge. Developers may not create “premium”; versions of add-ons with additional for-pay features, charge money to download an add-on, charge for services related to the add-on, or otherwise require some form of monetary compensation to download or access an add-on.

2) Add-on code must be completely visible.

The programming code of an add-on must in no way be hidden or obfuscated, and must be freely accessible to and viewable by the general public.

3) Add-ons must not negatively impact World of Warcraft realms or other players.

Add-ons will perform no function which, in Blizzard Entertainment’s sole discretion, negatively impacts the performance of the World of Warcraft realms or otherwise negatively affects the game for other players. For example, this includes but is not limited to excessive use of the chat system, unnecessary loading from the hard disk, and slow frame rates.

4) Add-ons may not include advertisements.

Add-ons may not be used to advertise any goods or services.

5) Add-ons may not solicit donations.

Add-ons may not include requests for donations. We recognize the immense amount of effort and resources that go into developing an add-on; however, such requests should be limited to the add-on website or distribution site and should not appear in the game.

6) Add-ons must not contain offensive or objectionable material.

World of Warcraft has been given a “T” by the ESRB, and similar ratings from other ratings boards around the world. Blizzard Entertainment requires that add-ons not include any material that would not be allowed under these ratings.

7) Add-ons must abide by World of Warcraft ToU and EULA.

All add-ons must follow the World of Warcraft Terms of Use and the World of Warcraft End User License Agreement.

8 ) Blizzard Entertainment has the right to disable add-on functionality as it sees fit.

To maintain the integrity World of Warcraft and ensure the best possible gaming experience for our players, Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to disable any add-on functionality within World of Warcraft at its sole discretion.

For more information…

If you are an add-on developer and have any questions about this User Interface Add-On Development Policy and how it pertains to the add-on that you’ve developed, please don’t hesitate to email us at [email]WoWUI@blizzard.com[/email].

The official announcement is here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/policy/ui.html

Quote from Xinhuan

Does that mean i need to remove the "Do you accept donations? Yes, send them to [email]xxx@yyy.com[/email] using paypal" FAQ question in some of my addons that come with in-game help files?

It's kind of grayish as to whether it is "soliciting" or "requests for donation".

See that's gray for me, I don't know. This is a response to what carbonite has been doing for sure though.

It is a legal document more so than something that is always fully practical.

For example

3) Add-ons must not negatively impact World of Warcraft realms or other players.

Add-ons will perform no function which, in Blizzard Entertainment’s sole discretion, negatively impacts the performance of the World of Warcraft realms or otherwise negatively affects the game for other players. For example, this includes but is not limited to excessive use of the chat system, unnecessary loading from the hard disk, and slow frame rates.

Is very broad and in fact it is very hard for an addon to predict if it slows frame rates on a given system.

And bugs happen. So a version of a perfectly fine addon can temporarily slow frame rates. I certainly wouldn't expect Blizz to go around suing addon authors in that case. But if an addon intentionally messes with frame rates or tries to have malicious impact on system performance, they have a stated policy that will work.

But that's why I read the whole thing is as a legal document. Should there be a dispute, Blizz can point to this and state that they had this policy in place, and have it worded tightly enough that they have an easy case to argue. And should they want to ask someone to stop something they can point to this, and ask for a cease and desist based on it.

The long and the short of it is that they're responding to Carbonite. Since they're declaring policy, they're covering all the bases. Frankly I don't think they will take action against anyone unless they do crap like Crabonite has been doing.

But then, everyone's getting all pissy over this anyway, so why not join in? :P

I understand 5. as that they don't want any request for donations within the game.

The 3. is mainly aimed about "impacting the server and other players".
I would guess that Addons that make to much use of the addon sync channel or use named chat channel for addon communication faction wide could scratch that rule.

Hey guys just a heads up, I'll be keeping an eye on this. This is a controversial issue, and I expect people to stay level headed.


But yes I agree that I think this is a knee jerk reaction to some extent, but since the needed a policy to give them some sort of grounds for enforcement they're covering everything from mazzlegasams to questhelper asking once every few days if you'd please donate.

I'm hoping to get some more clarification from blizz, if you guys can post questions here I'll be sure to ask them when I can.

Curse client is not an addon, so none.

What they're saying is, there must be a free means of downloading the addon. That's all. In the past people have skirted the issue by saying "you're not paying for the addon, you're paying for access to the support site... where you download the addon. The addon was still only obtainable if you paid.

CC is *related* to addons, yes, but it's not *required* to get the addons.

Best idea I have heard all day Orion.

I think it's reasonable to start displaying donation info on the main site and maybe in the client, I'll talk to my bosses about it monday.

Quote from Xinhuan

Does that mean i need to remove the "Do you accept donations? Yes, send them to [email]xxx@yyy.com[/email] using paypal" FAQ question in some of my addons that come with in-game help files?

It's kind of grayish as to whether it is "soliciting" or "requests for donation".

Xin

Short answer to your question is no

Longer is because of the precise wording in Blizz's terms. If your 'you can donate here message' appeared in game it would break their terms. If your message appears in files that do not give messages on screen in wow, you are fine - so an installer script that put up a message box saying 'you can donate here', a big red lettered box at the start of a readme file and so on are all fine

Its 'in game' that blizz are saying is not allowed - what appears on a users screen elsewhere is not covered

Note also that the terms require that the addon can be got for free. That does not disallow paid for services that run updaters, providing the (by implication same) addons can be got for free in some way.

Also they explicitly ban 'crippleware' addons or ones that time expire after a while unless you pay for something are out too.

Guys, I'm not a lawyer but have spent 20 years decoding their language into everyday meanings in a very complex operating environment (and paying the bastards millions in the process for my employers)- this stuff is not so hard.

Sad to see some authors withdrawing addons, but I think a lot if not all are massively over-reacting

Xin was asking about in-game help/FAQ pages, so by the wording my answer would be a rather clear yes, he has to worry about it.

I don't see how saying that "you accept donations" is not a form of soliciting donations. I think the intend of their paragraph is clear. They do not want stuff relating to donations appear in game, but elsewhere is fine.