Addon Changes Aren't Over - Interview with PC GamerNot Backtracing on Addon Plans - Interview with PC Gamer
Discussing the why and wherefore, the Game Director acknowledges that while addon support has been around since the inception of World of Warcraft, what they're capable of has ballooned well beyond intent or expectations. Hellfire Citadel marked a turning point, with addons trivializing major mechanics checks to dynamically solve problems for players mid-combat.
Ion Hazzikostas, via PC Gamer
"Add-ons have been part of the game since literally day one, since beta," he says. "What we started to see 10 years later in Warlords of Draenor was increasingly bespoke add-on solutions that were designed to simplify and solve specific mechanics."
"We've probably let this go farther than we should have," Hazzkostas says. "But we really just boiled down to the question of, do we want this to be what WoW is forever? We probably should have done something sooner, and it would have been a less-jarring transition for the community."
Since then, the computational power of addons has only grown, leading to an arms race as developers made encounters more demanding and players created more complex tools to solve them. Even Blizzard's attempt to block addons from reading so-called "private auras" was met with further creative problem solving, with players using manual inputs to trigger the computation instead, ultimately with the same result of addons handling most major group coordination.
Ion Hazzikostas, via PC Gamer
"I see discussion in the community to the effect of, 'Blizzard's backtracking on this. Blizzard's walking back their plans.' This was always the intent: to swing the pendulum to the other end and then creep it back in a measured way," Hazzikostas says. "Our goal was never to stamp out the add-on ecosystem. It was to move away from it being something that feels like a required competitive aspect of the game."
The sweeping addon changes came as a shock to many, but while Blizzard was upfront about what kinds of addons they intended to break, and what they intend to leave available, they've taken a rather circuitous route to get there. Many addons that weren't meant to be impacted were initially blocked, though by this point, most functionality has been restored - the majority of collection, roleplay, and user interface customization should continue to work, as long as they don't interact with combat.
There are a lot more players than developers though, so Blizzard is fully expecting and prepared to deal with loopholes, as players find more creative solutions to work around their new limitations.
Ion Hazzikostas, via PC Gamer
"Players are numerous and creative, and there will doubtless be some loopholes, some workarounds, some clever solutions. We'll make adjustments to both encounters and to the add-on API as needed in close to real time to keep things fair and to keep things fun."
If the player workaround feels both required and frustrating, "we're going to take action quickly."
Likewise, Edit Mode and the Cooldown Manager continue to see updates, though they still pale in comparison to what was achievable with addons. With a slew of new addons dedicated to improving those tools, the game director has also pledged to continue iterating on the amount of baseline customization available to players.
Ion Hazzikostas, via PC Gamer
"We don't view this as a one-and-done. We have gotten to a baseline experience that we feel good about, but there's always room for improvement."
