I have mixed feelings. There are some addons that are great, others, I think, have destroyed games.
For example addons to see the aggro you generate, the dps you generate, the overheal you do, I see it useful.
Deadly Boss Mod for example, I don't like it, it makes people instead of learning mechanics and enjoying the game, only focus on looking at the messages instead of enjoying the work done by the devs, artists and musicians.
In this case, I wouldn't know what to say
No third-party at all. Just make a good and highly customizable UI
100% this
Claro que los addons son buenos en términos generales, cubren carencias o dan comodidades que los desarrolladores no tienen el lujo de realizar debido a que están ocupados en cosas más importantes; pero como dijo alguien anteriormente, una cosa es tener comodidades y alguna que otra alerta para controlar tus "coldowns" y otra completamente diferentes es rushearte un jefe sin siquiera saber qué estás realmente haciendo. El detalle está en que si se permiten addos, entonces los permites todos, y si se bloquean, entonces privas de comodidades que no afectan en nada. El "punto medio" sería tener un filtro de addons para poder elegirlos de un listado del juego y nada más; aunque esto implica tiempo extra del equipo de desarrollo, al menos, para agregarlos y revisarlos.
Translation:
I think the addons are good in general, they give comforts that the developers can't do because they (developers) are developing importants things for the game; but, as someone said before: get a comfort is so diferent to get a rush for a boss with no knowledge about what is happening. The problem is: if the addons are allowed then really all the addons are allowed (Good and "no so good" addons), but if you deny all the addons so you are denying comforts and useful thing for the player. A "middle point" could be have a filter for introduce the addons and turn it on in the game, but this need a "human filter", then the developer need be use time for be that filter for review and add the addons.
With the addons topic I really have mixed feelings after all my experience playing mmorpg's. The thing is that they are really useful sometimes, but I also think they kill at some point the authenticity and immersion of the game. As I think, the world of mmorpgs in the past were better because players had less information in all the fields of the game, including addons, and everything were less optimized, so the worlds felt more realistic. Nowadays it lookslike that players have so much information that they know how to do everything about the game when this just was launched.
I think addons make the live of the game shorter because provides the players so many information, like stats, farming areas, the key for doing the quests...and I think in this kind of games, information is power and addons reduce the importance of this information. One example of this is that if you find out in some area a great spot of some expensive mineral or plant, the incomes that you can get with this, are going to be more immersive and the time you spend looking for that area, is going to worth something. If, on the other hand, you have an addon that allow everyone to know the best farming spots, that "aventure" I described will never exist, loosing that interesting content.
So, to sum up I think the game should be the purest as possible and the game indeed should not provide excesive information to players
I believe ingame tools is ok but I consider that is important to have damage, aggro and healing meters, that way you have resources for personal improvement during each boss. I believe is important because our performance during each boss is different considering each boss have different mechanics and movement patterns.
I would suggest the way WoW is going: You can implement things like a good Auction House experience (also with detailed info about items that were sold / not sold and some graphs). Or things such as damage and threat meters.
But there are many different styles how to play a game like this. I for example love to be able to cusomize my UI and datamine pretty much anything by using addons. I think you should give people the possibility to do so, as long as it is generally open to anyone and no one would get an advantage over others.
Absolutely NO addons should be allowed in the game. It's a doorway for cheaters, bots and gold sellers to destroy the game.
Make a highly customizable UI that we can change and toggle elements and there's no need for addons.
I'd also make the same argument for Macros and API's. (API or Application Programming Interface, is a software intermediary that allows two applications to communicate with each other.) Addons, Macros and API's all give nefarious people options to corrupt gameplay in some way.
I played alot of mmorpgs and met a lot of ppl in there. I actually really like addons since no game can hit all tastes in terms of UI-Design and stuff like that. For example, my brothers interface looks like dimensions different to mine, not only in position and scaling, but also in colours etc.
Since Im not a developer and have no clue about the vulnarability you get by implementing addons (bots, hackers etc.) I actually dont care to much how you decide at the end, but for me, the most important thing beside a huge possibility to move and change your UI is the Dmg/Heal meters.
In my eyes all "alternatives" to check your dps was just bad. It kills the complete competetive aspect of an mmorpg if you cant track detailed numbers. For me as a min-maxer its really important. For those, who say "dmg meter brings toxic behaviour" is just bullshit. For example "New World" has by far one of the most toxic communitys. Theres just a small part of ppl who kick someone because he is "low on dps" or insult him. Toxic ppl always find a way to flame, they dont need an dps meter for this. Also the DPS meter exists since 2004/5 in WoW and theres still ppl dont using it cause they dont care. So for me, its just the most important thing to use one, since the "theory" behind some specs is also a huge and interesting part in mmos. Its also more transparant to fix / balance classes.
For this Dev Discussion, we want your opinions on the Third Party Add-ons.
Are they a must-have? Do you think they can cause breaches in security?
What about if we implement all the necessary things directly in your UI,
like Damage/Heal Counter, one or many bags, gathering tools, all of them?
As always we can't wait to receive your feedback on these important topics!
I've never been a fan of 3rd-Party Add-Ons. I get that they provide convenience and can help with seeing damage numbers etc, but they can also lead to elitism and that is a bummer. I prefer a game that has all the "bells and whistles" included already. I assume I'm a minority in this matter, however. LOL.