Glad to see this come about.

The "stunt" David pointed out drove me to uninstall and stop supporting Carbonite in any way. If you want to make money, that's what your job is for. Sure, you might put worlds of effort into your addons, but they should be made and maintained for love of the game. When/If Carbonite becomes what it once was and should have stayed, after the devs cry it out of their brown eyes and wipe it off a bit, I'll pick it back up and resume support on it.

Krotukk: What stunt?

Yes, i remember carbonite would spam me at times about donations. What I did not like was when it notified me when there was an update... which meant it was somehow passing on information outside of WoW.

I uninstalled it and ran my anti-virus/spyware programs after that

Amaxe:
Don't be alarmed. Quite a few addons occasionally use the invisible means for an addon to distribute data to simple show what version you are running. If your addon detects that another user (in the party, raid, guild) uses an addon with a newer version, it alerts you.
All communication is in-game.

@Amaxe

I'm pretty sure it only does that when someone you group with or otherwise engage with has a newer version of the addon than you do. There are several addons that do this and it is without installing any kind of spyware.

I love carbonite and gladly give the add on developer money because for me it is worth it. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It seems to me that if they want to charge or not should be left in the hands of the add on developer. I agree however that they shouldn't be allowed to spam people in game for donations.

"If you want to make money, that's what your job is for. "

Wow. Someone needs to learn a thing or two about Capitalism and how America works. If someone wants to use a skill they possess to create a useful tool that makes someone's life easier and charge for it, it's their right. As a consumer it's your right to choose not to buy it if you think it's priced unfairly or worthless.

This is complete bullcrap and most likely an attempt for Blizzard/Activision to start making their own add-on suites that they will be charging for. Here, let me show you exactly what went on in the boardroom.

Activision exec: "Wait, so you're telling me we let players customize their own game interfaces?"

WoW Dev: "Yep. Some of the things people do are really great and help a lot of people. It really improves gameplay and makes our confusing interface a lot easier to use."

Activision exec: "Do they charge for them?"

WoW Dev: "Well, most are free and maintained by the community but there a few that charge or ask for donations."

Activision exec: "Find out which ones charge and ban them, then we can sell those products to the customer for an extra charge through our own website. Half the user base probably don't know the name of their own operating system nevermind join a programming community. Hey Janice! Are the bonus checks in yet?!"

Hold up's epic post was epic =)

Bottom line: It's their game and they have every right to try to control who makes money off of it. If they're not getting a cut of paid addons, then why should they support some other guy getting rich? They don't have to support it, and now they are officially banning it.

and this isn't a move by Blizzard so they can start selling their own addons, that logic is completely retarded. If Blizzard wanted to start charging for things they could have started a long time ago by selling in-game items, preleveled characters, or you name it.

"If someone wants to use a skill they possess to create a useful tool that makes someone's life easier and charge for it, it's their right."

Sorry, 'hold up', you're just a bit off-base here. The word you're looking for isn't "right", it's "privilege", and the administrator of any venue has the overriding privilege of denying you that privilege.

I'll illustrate. (Dear FBI agents reading: I promise that I do not have any intent or desire to actually do the following.) Under your philosophy, if I have the skill of being able to aim and fire a gun, I am well within my rights to walk into the Post Office and tell the people waiting in line that I'll murder the people ahead of them in line if they pay me for it. I am using a skill that I possess (shooting guns) to provide a useful tool (a method of eliminating people ahead of other people in line) that makes someone's life easier (shortening the post office line), and I'm charging for it.

This is clearly absurd. The United States government reserves the privilege of putting me in jail for a very long time if I try that stunt.

Likewise, Blizzard controls the game and the interface. They reserve the right to ban you and your add-on if you break their rules.

It's too bad that you don't like it very much, but that is the way it works.

This news makes me very happy. While I would say that Carbonite is an amazing addon, certainly worth the price, I refused to use it out of principle. I did not like the precedent that it was setting. Carbonite starts making money off of WoW, so all of the other successful addon authors think to themselves "hey, why aren't we making money off of this too?" and it's a slippery slope to the day when the only mods worth using all charge a fee.

Kudos to Blizzard for stopping this problem before it starts, by not letting other people make money off of their game.

I love this one. I just reinstall it when it expires. I hope it stays.

Quote:
"Hold up's epic post was epic =)"

Not really.

Hold implied the reason for this being greed on the part of Blizzard. In that, they wanted to charge for the same features, that add-ons currently supply for free, or for donations.

That's just conspiracy theory crap.

This has to do with how most people are stupid, and if they experience anything that looks like "extra hidden payments", they will blame/rage at the company behind the product.

In essence, Blizzard is protecting themselves from giving people a bad experience with the game, because of something someone else did, that they had no control over.

Example:
Stupid person downloads an add-on that has a feature he really likes, and plays with that long enough to get used to it. The add-on programmer then switches to a pay-to-use philosophy. Stupid person doesn't want to play without the add-on, as he's gotten so used to it, and doesn't want to have to pay even more to play the game, so he does what stupid people does.

He thinks: "Stupid game!" and cancels his account.

Honestly, I hope the Carbonite maker quits after hearing this. Putting advertisements in an addon and requesting people pay for the version that isn't broken = failure.

I am happy blizzard did this. Take it to 'back in the day' where people would write code because it was fun and useful, and maybe to score some recognition and have people use their product. Now everyone just wants to turn into the next Bill Gates.

There's another reason that Blizz is doing this that I haven't seen mentioned yet. Is anyone here familiar with a certain very popular model of Asian MMORPGs? Read the article behind this link, everyone here should find it fascinating and more than a little scary:

http://www.danwei.org/electronic_games/gambling_your_life_away_in_zt.php

Games like these allow players to pay real-world money for in-game advantages over players. The fact of the matter is that if an add-on provided no advantage, then you wouldn't use it. Imagine for a moment the add-ons that you absolutely couldn't live without. What if the devs started charging $1 a month for them? Would you pay for it? What if it cost $50 or $100 a month? What if your guild required you to have these add-ons to participate in raids? What if every hardcore guild required these add-ons? Anyone who chooses not to pay is effectively being denied the ability to compete in a world that is designed to reward you not on how many dollars you own, but in how much time you invest. There isn't intended to be a tradeoff, which is the reason why buying gold is outlawed, not because Blizzard is trying to oppress the gold farmers but because keeping their customers happy means keeping the playing field level.

Again, this isn't the only reason. I'm also not trying to exonerate Blizzard, as they're definitely in it for the money, which is fine. They've made a decent product and deserve to profit from it as much as they can while satisfying their customers. Remember, you only play the game because they let you, and they only make the game because you let them.

"I'm pretty sure it only does that when someone you group with or otherwise engage with has a newer version of the addon than you do. There are several addons that do this and it is without installing any kind of spyware."

I think one of those is/was Omen. :D I haven't noticed it in quite some time so maybe they took it out, but back when our guild was running Kara I used to always be informed by Omen that a guildie who was obsessive about updating his addons had a new version than I did.