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 WoWUI@blizzard.com.

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

Discussion thread on WoWInterface is here: http://www.wowinterface.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21290

We need a sticky here. Thanks Cairenn <3

I guess you can be but only through donations? Wonder why they've decided on this.

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Q u o t e:
This is utter BS. What right do they have to tell us we can't be compensated for our hard work?

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Well, they own the servers.

That said, this pretty neatly kills off QH. It was nice while it lasted, I suppose.

Only through donations except you're not allowed to ask for donations except on your web site -- which most people will never see.

This is utter BS

This is all Carbonites fault for making a @#@@ing Adware version. This is a direct response to Carbonite and now the rest of us developers have to pay the consequences for it with #5 and #6.

Also #2 will effect the 'slightly obfuscated but not in a way ment to be used for obfuscation' of Bejeweled with its usage of LuaSrcDiet to shrink the code, remove comments, but not make any real changes to the result when its done loading. When really its targeted at Carbonites 'encode everything into giant binary strings, decode, and then loadstring it, while also abusing a EOF bug to prevent it from being loading into an external lua interpreter, while also renaming all variable to crap like NX.omgwtfbbqlolhax and NX.ifthenelse' which does need to die.

I am in no way saying your hardwork is not appreciated. Nor am I saying you don't deserve to be paid. However. You should know (and i know you know this) That you are using blizzard software. That is their right to tell you what you can and cannot do with it.

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Q u o t e:
I guess you can be but only through donations? Wonder why they've decided on this.

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I believe Carbonite probably pushed it's endeavors a bit too far for Blizzard's comfort. It was probably that version that offers a free version with in-game advertising that did it.

Tacos are not llamas

To: Carbonite Developers

From: Blizzard

Message: We don't like you, and thus, we're gonna take it out on all the mods that are actually good. Thanks and have a good day.

Restricting us from putting donation info into a static about frame is going to far IMHO. But not putting donation info in a popup or printing it to the ChatFrame on a timer is an acceptable restriction and a good thing for the community.

It clearly says you are allowed to ask for donations on your webpage or distro site. So reawlly the only addon affected is carbonite. Not sure why everyone is getting mad at blizzard, I'd be more angry at Carbonite sleezy ingame ads.

I, for one, welcome our new ant overlords.

I'm glad to see official policy finally. #6 is crap, but I know why it's there, and for it's intended purpose I'm glad it is there. If only the user sees the "objectionable material" I highly doubt Blizzy will act, because they are accepting that when they install the addon, just as they're accepting it when they disable the language filter. #6 is there for the cases where their addon subject other players to said content, and for that the policy is a very good thing.

Good by paid and obfuscated code. You weren't contributing back to the addon community, but you were certainly benefiting from those of us that do contribute our code.

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Q u o t e:


It's their right to tell me what to do or not do with THEIR software. Not with MINE.

They have every right to block any addons they want for whatever reason they want. If they want to block for-pay addons, so be it. It pisses me off, but so be it. HOWEVER, there is absoultely no basis for them to go after people who choose to charge for their addons.

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YOUR software directly affects THEIR game. And Carbonite's crappy ads directly affect their customers. You know that's why they are picking on every one.

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Q u o t e:
I guess you can be but only through donations? Wonder why they've decided on this.

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You can also thank Glider for this.

I am sure as part of the case against Glider, the whole 'charging for an addon' issue got raised. Blizzard has to apply rules evenly across the board, so Carbonte will get treated JUST like Glider simply because that's how it has to be for Blizzard to defend it's copyright.

I have donated to mod authors whose mods I enjoy, but, and I say this as kindly as I can: I don't feel OBLIGATED to pay for mods.

If you are looking to get paid for programming, this is NOT going to be a lucrative (or even break-even) area to do so. Because in the history of gaming mods, DEMANDING money for your work NEVER ends well.