Curse releases premium add-on download client
by Adam Holisky 
Apr 29th 2009 at 5:00PM
The premium client offers one-click updating of all your add-ons, which is a very nice feature for those of us that have a few hundred of them floating around. When I tried this earlier today the updating went smoothly and without any problems.
Another feature of the premium service is that you're not subjected to all the ads on the Curse website while you're logged into your account. This is good if you're still going to the site often, but I'm not sure how often you'll go to their site if you're using their add-on downloader client.
The other big things that Curse advertises as part of their premium package is that you'll get access to premium only beta key giveaways, however there is no indication as to exactly what these betas are yet.
In line with supporting the Curse site (which you're doing by giving them money for the client), you're also supporting the add-on authors. "A part of your subscription will go to addon authors, helping them develop and maintain the Addons you love," according to the material presented on the Curse website.
Finally, and perhaps the most attractive thing to some, is the promise of faster add-on download speeds via the client. Having used both the regular and this new premium client, I was able to see a slight increase in speed, although it wasn't anything substantial. However with that said, I suspect that this will be a big deal on patch days when everyone is clamoring to update their add-ons.
Filed under: News items, Add-Ons
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 15)
Eric Diaz Apr 29th 2009 5:06PM
I wonder if Blizzard will get annoyed and change their EULA to ban charging for addon downloaders. lol
BigBiker05 Apr 29th 2009 5:50PM
You failed to mention that these were all INCLUDED features before the premium service.
king0lag Apr 29th 2009 6:06PM
Curse Gaming and there money grubbing corporate pigs can DIAF as far as I'm concerned.
Deb Apr 29th 2009 8:56PM
BOO!! Hissss They ban WoW Matrix and then pop up with an add on client I have to pay for to avoid using the crappy one they already hacked up like some chunky furball ? What do they think we are stupid!
Tiago Apr 30th 2009 6:01AM
Oh please.
Servers are free.
Developer time to create the downloader is free.
Bandwidth to host it all is free.
If it's all free how dare they CHARGE us for it? Right guys? Right?
I dont't plan on using the paid service, but they are well in their right to do what they intend to do.
It's great that they are providing some of the service for free.
Remember WoWAceUpdater? They didn't charge a thing for their services, look where that ended up. Had to take it all down because the costs were too high and revenue was negligible.
Gnosh Apr 30th 2009 9:29AM
Spoiler: if your client currently states you have a premium account, and you haven't payed... you're bugged.
Stop complaining about them gimping the software, it didn't mean to unlock itself for you.
Starlin Apr 29th 2009 5:08PM
That price is more than a little absurd.
Joe Apr 29th 2009 6:28PM
To be honest, I would have been more than happy to pay $30 to WoWMatrix to keep it working. However, I will NEVER pay anything to Curse to use their bloated client. Curse spent a lot of time making the client pretty (not that pretty) while greatly suffering in the usability category.
Alexander Graf Apr 30th 2009 2:57AM
Were you guys getting paid to write this post? The curse client is ridiculous. First off, all those "features" were included in the free version.
Now that they killed off the independant AceUpdater AND Wowmatrix, they suddenly start charging for the privilege to use their client? What the hell?
And the premium account doesn't speed up your downloads. I compared the download speeds of the previous version with the current one (and the Mac version too, which has no premium client yet). Actually, they throttled the download speeds for the non-paying members. Could you please rephrase that in your article to say "... is the promise of NO MORE ARTIFICIALLY CRIPPLED add-on download speeds via the client."
To be fair, their service is good and 30$ a year is nothing. BUT I cannot agree with their business tactics. Releasing a free client, finding out it sucks compared to Wowmatrix/AceUpdater (yes, I know Wowmatrix used Curse/wowi servers), then killing off / buying both direct competitiors and THEN making people pay for their client? That sucks.
styopa Apr 29th 2009 5:09PM
Aha, now we see why they killed wowmatrix.
Screw you, curse. Never. Never will I pay for your crappy updater, I'd rather manually suck your bandwidth.
Oh, and by the way, I've ad-blocked every damn add on your site.
(And for the whingers that will say that they have a right to block their bandwidth from being leeched? Yep, they do. I also have a right to tell them to bug off, and continue to chase my mods (most of which were developed for free, btw, and whose 'value' they're exploiting without compensating the creators - don't forget that) through open source options.)
Percinho Apr 29th 2009 5:42PM
"Aha, now we see why they killed wowmatrix."
Well quite. All the claims about it affecting the traffic through their site and hence ad revenues and such like were really smokescreens. The real reason they killed it was because it screwed the business model they had put in place to monetise their product.
Now, in many ways there's nothing wrong with that as long as basic users can still access all the add-ons, but it's a bit disingenuous to claim anything for The Greater Good when it's actually all about cramping your own style.
Radiophonic Apr 29th 2009 5:37PM
^^ This
Can't say we didn't see this coming.
Brainded Apr 29th 2009 5:54PM
@styopa:
I agree with you 100%. Screw Curse. I will not use any addons I can't get through WoWMatrix.
Jason Apr 29th 2009 6:03PM
I have to agree with you on this. Very lame and too damn expensive for what I can already do myself.
I'd also like to know how much is going to the mod authors. - "A part of your subscription will go to addon authors, helping them develop and maintain the Addons you love." Working, as I do, for an evil mega-corporation I know the ways of corporate double-speak, after all, $0.01 per client sold split among the developers is still "part".
Rollo Apr 29th 2009 7:53PM
"All the claims about it affecting the traffic through their site and hence ad revenues and such like were really smokescreens."
Smokescreens, nah. Ad revenue or subscription revenue, it's still the same argument. Curse haven't been dishonest.
$30 a year is too expensive for an updater, but if most of that gold was for the addon authors, I could live with it. I won't, but I could. :)
asuma Apr 29th 2009 5:10PM
pay 30 bucks for no adds, or use a free plug-in for firefox....
Eric Apr 29th 2009 6:43PM
Exactly. I'll ad-block and still use curse, which I like because it works and I get all my add-ons from them anyways. Free is free...
Saithir Apr 29th 2009 8:28PM
Unfortunately you get ads in the Curse Client as well... And disabling the Update All just plain sucks.
Clanklub Apr 29th 2009 5:10PM
Wowmatrix was free. Curse sucks.
Colerejuste Apr 29th 2009 9:26PM
If it wasnt for Curse or WOWI, there wouldnt be a WoWMatrix. WoWMatrix didnt actually host their own files, nor did authors upload to WoWMatrix. WoWMatrix just crawled around for addon updates (poorly), and then gave you a direct link to the addon hosted on Curse or WOWI.
WoWMatrix doesnt provide an facility for reporting bug fixes directly to the addon authors.
WoWMatrix was the sham. It grabbed content from other websites, tried to pass it off as its own, but took on none of the responsibility of bandwidth or reliability, all without permission of the sites it was leaching from.
If Curse and WOWI were to go off air, no downloads from WoWMatrix would work at all.