Aren’t addons cheating?
An old roleplaying friend surprised me recently, asking the question “aren’t addon’s cheating?”
Wait, didn’t this type of question go out of fashion in 2006?
We were catching up, and he asked me what I’d been doing with myself lately. I told him about my blog here at The Gold Queen. “Gold Queen? Sounds like a gold buying site to me, sounds a bit dodgy.” I quickly explained that “gold queen” is a silly nickname thought up by my son, and not some ego trip. Afraid anyone trying to buy gold here will be chased off the site by an irate gold queen waving a big stick.
Players still think addons are cheating?
It was hard to believe that any world of warcraft player still had the opinion that addons were cheating, or that sharing information on auction house work could be cheating.
Bear in mind that this RP server is one that considers selling Lil’ Timmy’s White Kitten for over 1g as a ‘scam’. But they will happily sell their cut inferno rubies for over 500% of the cost on my home server! I guess it just goes to show how wide-ranging opinions can be. It was a little wake up call for me to remember that not every player knows all the latest tips and tricks. It’s easy for world of warcraft gold bloggers to indulge in a little competition with each other to write the most profound economic theories, or to come up with the very latest most glamorous way of bulk crafting or AH posting.
Don’t forget the ‘little guy’. He’s only a ‘little guy’ because he hasn’t had as much experience as you, he’s not a ‘newbie’, he’s a ‘beginner’. And we were all beginners once.
What do Addons do?
Addons are small pieces of script that plug-into, add onto or otherwise enhance your World of Warcraft client. They don’t alter any part of the game, the world, or your realm server. Addon’s are not bots. Addons are not hacks.
An example of an addon that you might use already is Deadly Boss Mods. This addon warns you about events during a raid boss fight.
An auction house addon performs functions such as storing information about the last posting price of a particular item. Then display that information in a neat line in your tooltip when you mouseover that item the next time. You could write this information down by hand on a notepad, or into a database, however the addon just makes this easier and faster for you. In the same way that a macro makes casting spells makes that easier and faster for you.
Addons get more complicated and sophisticated, although the majority can either be used immediately when they are downloaded, or are very easy to set up at least for basic functions.
What Has Blizzard Banned?
Hacking is banned – when you try to adjust the world to your advantage.
Botting is banned – when you try to run software that automates normal every day actions such as killing mobs, fishing, or ‘farming’ pvp honor.
Paid for addons are banned. Incidently, I think this includes the shiny and glamorous Manaview paid-for addons that are launching loudly this season.
All actions on the Auction House must require an action from you – a mouse click or keyboard click – in order to process. The same goes for things like milling macros or addons – you have to keep pressing that macro button to mill the next set of 5 herbs.
Where Can I Get Legal Addons?
I recommend Curse gaming, WoWAce and WowInterface
Check out my package of Auction House addons
About the Author
The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande. With many level 100s, 9 years expertise in making gold, 10 garrisons, 16k achievements, 1505 days played, and over 18m gold earned. The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing World of Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling snatch lists, and farming gold making.
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