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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsCarbonite going free, continuing development
by Mike Schramm 
Mar 30th 2009 at 1:30PM
The guys behind Carbonite have finally responded to Blizzard's new addon policy, and probably not in the way you might have guessed: they're continuing development, and they're making the addon free. Carbonite was rumored to be the addon that started all of this trouble: they had a partial version up for free download, and were charging for the full version of the addon, which apparently Blizzard didn't appreciate. But rather than shutting down the addon completely, they've decided to go free for everyone, and they're continuing development -- version 3.00 is supposed to be out next week.It's worth noting that they still have a number of donate buttons on their download page, which Blizzard is supposedly fine with -- all Blizzard wanted was the donate buttons out of the game itself. And of course, if you find this addon (or any other) helpful, you should definitely support the people who make it.
Reaction on the addon's forums is grateful as expected -- lots of people figured that this addon would be shutting down for good, so many are glad to see it will be continuing development. And one developer does say that Carbonite will be removing any obfuscation from their code, as per the new policy, so it's possible that other addon developers will be able to more easily hook into their code and use their techniques. Of course, whether the addon will still be financially worth it for the devs remains to be seen but for now, they're going along with the new policy and widening their audience at the same time.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Add-Ons, Making money, Hardware
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Cat Mar 30th 2009 7:30PM
That's great.
It was probably actually Glider that got Blizzard to issue the new addon requirements. Bots require a great deal of AI work and such and are unlikely to be available for free.
Granted, Glider isn't an addon, per se, but it makes for very strong legal ground on Blizzard's end if they simply say that no profit may be made from programs that augment their game. So, next time one of these cases comes up, they don't need to argue difficult to understand technical information. They can simply say, "This company is attempting to make profit from an augmentation of our game. This is in direct violation of our terms of service." Very black & white, and easy to understand for the gaming layman (read: Judge).
Stripes Mar 30th 2009 8:13PM
Well, like me you will know that you don't need to click that "donate" button for a while as your previous more-or-less mandatory payment can be converted to a donation.
I liked Carbonite Full, enough to pay the fairly low fee (like $3/month or something) for a year in advance. I don't like it any _less_ now, so why should I be upset?
(sure some people now get it for free, then again, other people may donate more then I did)
Besides there were two other very real possibilities, if they had not gone free they might have vanished. They might have vanished with my $30 or so, which isn't a big deal compared to "OMG, my Carbonite might not work any more!"
Both of those are far far worse then "OMG now people might pay less then me!", or "OMG if only I had waited a bit longer I could have payed less then all those other suckers who actually click the donate button!"
jbodar Mar 30th 2009 10:28PM
A one-year sub was only $15 a year ($1.25/month) actually.
Kondharz Apr 1st 2009 9:26AM
Everyone needs to lay off of QuestHelper and its developer.
Things come up and what they do is their own business...or for lack of a better term now, charity.
Now, that yall aren't just eating up QH and its dev, please lay off the people who payed a subscription for Carbonite.
Seriously, that's lame. Their money, their business/charity.
Damn, yall are a whiney and finger pointing bunch.
Now, all that said.
I have used both Carbonite and Questhelper.
To be honest, I liked Carbonite better.
It seemed more polished and the only reason I stopped using it was that its free version stopped development.
I liked QuestHelper and was pleased with it while I used it and while I am saddened that its developer won't be continuing its development, I do wish him/her the best.
But I also wish he'd reconsider.
Feather May 10th 2009 12:04PM
i had quest helper, and it stopped working on me, tried Carbonite and wondered why i never tried it before now, if mini map confuses anyone, there are options u can make thing how u choose from carbonite to make your game play more pleasant, would hate to ever loose Carbonite for ever since i dripped QH and went to Carbonite, i no longer have lag issues, sure feels good too, smiles, have nice day
Kz Mar 31st 2009 12:58PM
The way I see it - Carbonite is dead. Here's how Carbonite might deal with Blizzard's demands: (1) shutdown immediately, get no more revenue, let go all workers, or (2) offer Carbonite free while asking for donations, reduce expenses to bare minimum, delay the final shutdown. Donations will not support Carbonite's current expenses, but why not get some revenue rather than no revenue.
Long live capitalism.
Moldavia Mar 31st 2009 10:04PM
They are probably going to release the free version so the lua is not a bunch of characters to comply with the wow demands of open information. they however will probably NOT release the paid for version for free just remove it completely. I say this because it makes sense. Either that they will add only a few of the basics from the pay version into the "free" version and leave it at that. Who knows guess we wait until 3.0 to know for sure what their intentions are however I bet they are not going to simply go free.