It’s Official! Zygor’s In-Game Addons Against WoW EULA

Blizzard today made changes to their add-on policy which adversely affects many different paid-for in-game leveling guides including Zygor’s In-game leveling guide and many others.

It ended up being a busy day for Blizzard with the roll-out of Battle.net 2.0 and updates to their add-ons policy which really hurts a lot of paid-for in-game add-ons. It seems like there isn’t a lot of surprise regarding this. It just seems to me that Blizzard is covering their butts legally and doing what is best for their players (in their minds).

According to the new policy any and all add-ons must be free, must not solicite donations, and the code has to be completely visible. From this, it doesn’t only hurt the paid-for add-on guides out there but hurts Quest Helper and others that often ask for donations over and over again.

It still isn’t known how Blizzard will act against the paid-for add-ons, will they just disable the add-ons so they will not work, or will they take action against the players who use them? Who knows, but I’m going to be uninstalling Zygor’s guide until I find out. What do you think?

For those of you who want it straight from the horse’s mouth you can get it from the WoW site or you can read it below:

World of Warcraft User Interface Add-On Development Policy

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.

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.

According to the WoWInsider comments about this Zygor was quoted saying (according to Erogroth):

Those policy guidelines are nothing new, they’ve always been there. Besides, we do not charge for our addons. When you purchase our products, you are purchasing the information and our time to provide the information. The addons we’ve built are simply our method of providing that information to you, they are free with our service.

At any rate, whatever must be done will be done and we, Zygor Guides, will continue to work hard to provide you with the best guides possible.

It seems Zygor doesn’t totally realize that they are not guidelines but policy now. It’s true Blizzard probably didn’t like the whole idea of charging for add-ons but now they have taken an official stance on it. For the not charging for his add-ons part, well, I’ll let you decide but it is called Zygor Guides 1-80 Alliance & Horde In-Game Leveling Guides. Don’t believe me, look below.

Oh well, It all depends on what Blizzard decides to do. Will they even enforce the new policy? What’s your stance on this new policy change?