As World of Warcraft’s next expansion nears release, players are preparing for the first time in the MMO’s history where combat mods, or addons, won’t offer much help. The most popular ones simply won’t work when Midnight arrives as part of Blizzard’s plan to level the playing field for all players.
Unsurprisingly, this hasn’t gone over well with everyone. Some addon developers have called it quits, while others have expressed concerns over Blizzard’s new rules. Professional world first raiders aren’t sure what their jobs are going to look like in the next year and more casual players are worried their favorite classes are being over-simplified as a result.
Going forward, “addons should no longer offer a competitive advantage in WoW combat,” Hazzikostas says. Anything that changes the look of the UI or shuffles around information already displayed by the game is fine, but anything that makes decisions based on info from a boss mechanic is off limits—in fact, that information is now in what Blizzard calls a black box that can’t be accessed by third-party tools.
Hazzikostas acknowledges the problems this has caused—particularly with non-combat addons that were caught in the crossfire—and admits that it’s on Blizzard to quickly fix whatever comes up. He describes the skepticism over whether it can pull it off as “fair” and says that he doesn’t “expect blind faith in the absence of results.”
“I understand that this amount of change can be scary, and that it’s natural to worry that the long-term benefits aren’t worth the short-term disruption,” he says. “We’re going to do everything possible to ensure that your experience with Midnight is a great one, that customization and self-expression remain hallmarks of WoW’s UI, and that the game is more approachable than ever.”
The Midnight beta is live now for everyone who preordered the expansion (and those lucky enough to be invited), which means it’s a crucial time for people to jump in and see what works and what doesn’t before the final release.
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