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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBlizzard to break the AVR mod in Patch 3.3.5
by Fox Van Allen 
May 20th 2010 at 5:00PM
Blizzard poster Bashiok broke the news of AVR's impending demise, citing its invasive nature and the fact that it takes away from the need for on-the-spot decision making:
Bashiok -- AVR Mod Broken in 3.3.5This is a notice that we're making changes in 3.3.5 in attempts to break the ability for the AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality) mod to continue functioning. For those unaware, this mod allows players to draw in the 3D space of the game world, which can then be shared with others who are also using the mod. In some cases this manifests itself through drawing/tagging/defa
The full announcement after the break.
Bashiok -- AVR Mod Broken in 3.3.5This is a notice that we're making changes in 3.3.5 in attempts to break the ability for the AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality) mod to continue functioning. For those unaware, this mod allows players to draw in the 3D space of the game world, which can then be shared with others who are also using the mod. In some cases this manifests itself through drawing/tagging/defa
We're making this change for two reasons. The invasive nature of a mod altering and/or interacting with the game world (virtually or directly) is not intended and not something we will allow. World of Warcraft UI addons are never intended to interact with the game world itself. This is mirrored in our stance and restriction of model and texture alterations. The second reason is that it removes too much player reaction and decision-making while facing dungeon and raid encounters. While some other mods also work to this end, we find that AVR and the act of visualizing strategy within the game world simply goes beyond what we're willing to allow.
The change we're making in attempts to break the functionality is light in its touch and approach. When blocking any functionality we run the risk of affecting other mods, but we've targeted the changes as carefully as possible. If we find that the AVR mod (or any mod attempting to replicate its functions) are usable after 3.3.5 we will take further, more drastic steps.
We're making this change for two reasons. The invasive nature of a mod altering and/or interacting with the game world (virtually or directly) is not intended and not something we will allow. World of Warcraft UI addons are never intended to interact with the game world itself. This is mirrored in our stance and restriction of model and texture alterations. The second reason is that it removes too much player reaction and decision-making while facing dungeon and raid encounters. While some other mods also work to this end, we find that AVR and the act of visualizing strategy within the game world simply goes beyond what we're willing to allow.
The change we're making in attempts to break the functionality is light in its touch and approach. When blocking any functionality we run the risk of affecting other mods, but we've targeted the changes as carefully as possible. If we find that the AVR mod (or any mod attempting to replicate its functions) are usable after 3.3.5 we will take further, more drastic steps.
Reaction to the news will surely be mixed -- there are plenty of purists who feel that AVR's very existence goes against what Warcraft is supposed to be about, and there are plenty of people who find AVR an invaluable tool that does little more than enhance their playing experience.
What's your reaction to the news? Did Blizzard go too far, or were they right in stamping out a blight on the World of Warcraft?
Filed under: Blizzard, News items, Add-Ons
Reader Comments (Page 14 of 14)
Daerth May 21st 2010 9:30AM
I see some people are confused about this. Let's not forget that there are 2 parts to the AVR mod, there is the base AVR - which allows you to draw stuff, and share it with others but there is also AVRE (AVR Encounters) which is basically a boss-mod sort of addition to the basic AVR.
AVRE doesn't require any sort of "player input" or drawing, it will mark different areas of particular importance during boss fights automaticaly. In my opinion this - AVRE - doesn't help you play the game, it does it for you and if you want something to play the game instead of you, just don't play at all.
I saw some people arguing that AVR does not help you much more than DBM does, which I believe isn't true. DBM and other sorts of boss-mods tell you the cooldowns of spells, who's the spell being used on etc etc, but they still leave out a lot of space for individual reaction. AVR(E) literally shows you where to stand not to be hit or w/e which is a decision you should be making yourself.
It could be argued that this is a great tool for more casual guilds, or people who are having a hard time cracking tactics on the harder bosses. However Blizzard is already making huge steps to help those players see the whole content (separate hard modes, the ICC damage/hp/healing buff).
My GM asked all of us to get this addon, and it helped us to get through Putri 25m HC, but let me tell you one thing - when I saw how this addon works, I was not proud at all when we finally got the kill. Why you ask? It's like I said before. AVR(E) simply tells you how to do the hardest and trickiest parts of the fight, which removes the challenge almost entirely.
I'm glad they're breaking it.
/thumbs up for Blizz
The Goddamn Batman May 21st 2010 10:02AM
This is a crutch, and before you ask, no I do NOT use any of the mods, with the exception of Omen when I'm tanking, and only then because I was curious as to what my TPS is. I don't use it when I'm dpsing because the way threat is represented in the stock Blizzard UI is MORE than enough.
Don't assume that everyone uses mods just because most people do. :P
robitrock May 21st 2010 11:56AM
We're making this change for two reasons. The invasive nature of a mod altering and/or interacting with the game world (virtually or directly) is not intended and not something we will allow. World of Warcraft UI addons are never intended to interact with the game world itself. This is mirrored in our stance and restriction of model and texture alterations. The second reason is that it removes too much player reaction and decision-making while facing dungeon and raid encounters. While some other mods also work to this end, we find that AVR and the act of visualizing strategy within the game world simply goes beyond what we're willing to allow.
DBM is different in that it only tells you when a spell is being cast, it doesn't draw a circle that you stand in so you don't get hit by stuff.
With DBM there's still thinking involved while AVR does the thinking for you.
Dizzo May 21st 2010 12:18PM
Sad, to see it go it was pretty fun addon. DBM cant be remove now, its to late they design encounters assuming someone will be running it. You cant test that your self turn off dbm, decursive, anything that tells you has debuff and run molten core. You will see it takes player reaction , decision-making , and communication to beat the encounter. And all the goofey things they add to counter dbm like Malleable Goo where dbm can tell u who targeted but not where gonna land compare to bosses in molten core its more debuffs and u would gave to call out stuff and actually have to pay attention bosses cast bar. With dbm encounters on, they had to add a bunch of rng stuff, you spend more time running around than raiding.
Snori May 21st 2010 1:15PM
I have AVRE disabled, and still have refused to install DBM.
Those people who are saying that "In real life you don't have circles"
Wow has a huge perspective problem. If you have any question, play a mage. Ice Nova? Either Mobs are in melee range already, or forget trusting it. Blink? I think half of the "bugged" nature of blink is we can't tell in advance WHAT 20m is.
Give me SOMETHING to compensate for the poor depth rendering (fixed, non-headmount FOV) and I don't care.
And if you say I can just zoom in, I've got far more peripheral vision than you do in WoW. Stupid tiny FOV...
Farproc May 21st 2010 2:39PM
Lets not pretend that the Blizzard UI is actually usable :- without having used it I fail to understand what is so game breaking about an Addon that appears to (a) facilitate communication, and (b) make up for the appalling lack of 3d cues in the game engine. All our tooltips state that this or that spell has a 15 yard range, or a 30 yard range, or 36 or whatever, but there's no actual yard-stick in the game for us to know what that means.
Its just bad design to have the difficulty of encounters hinge on flaws in the UI model - the difficulty of encounters should NOT depend on your ability with the macro system and or which unit-frames addon one uses. I thought the great thing about Wow was the way that the Addon system allwoed players to customize the input system, come up with improved ways for managing healing and damage and tanking tasks in complicated encounters - and hopefully Blizzard would incorporate any advances into their own UI.
Instead, in practice, theyve tuned encounters based on the difficulty of using the default UI to perform raid debuffs fast enough, then, WITHOUT adjusting their UI tuned encounters based on the difficulty of performing raid debuffs using addons (forcing the use of said Addons - how many Addons can you actually raid *without*?) And then, again, instead of being clever, tried to make encounters hard by nerfing the addons (rather than making the act of raid debuffing easier, but the choice of when to do so harder).
Grovinofdarkhour May 21st 2010 6:21PM
Bookmarking this thread so I can come back and downgrade every inane, repetitive "...And break Gearscore, too!" post repeatedly throughout the weekend.
Marcosius May 22nd 2010 9:15AM
Break Gearscore too. Useless epeen addons are useless.
EaterOfBirds May 22nd 2010 9:21AM
i downloaded this like a couple of days ago, and for the sole purpose of working with totem radius :(
Hohen May 22nd 2010 12:38PM
I am pleased Blizzard will put the kaibosh on this mod. Though I find it very impressive bit of coding, and I appreciated the work that went into it; I was very bent at the bandwidth chatter activity among raid members, using the mod potentially slowing things down.
The worst part which caused me to remove it entirely; is that it was causing my camera angle to not snap back to norm after a fear or other CC upon my character. It was disorienting and annoying as hell. I had to manually edit and restore the cfg file to restore it to normal operation though no interface settings were changed. The cfg files for account and toon had to have the camera settings deleted so they again picked up the chosen settings from the wow interface settings.
This occurred as soon as I installed the thing and was rectified after editing the config files and then removing the mod, and editing the config files again.
Another low point as due to most of the other raid members having it installed; (it was required), there was a bit of confusion between those who had it, and those who would not or could not install it.
I use a 26" display at 1920 x 1200, which is ample viewing field. This mod was just too damn much and often the plan marks would move from their spot as you moved to the boss area and float above the game surface getting in the way.
Bosses were downed before the advent of this mod; I expect them to be downed when its gone. I did not see any evidence of this mod speeding up a Sindragosa kill; if anything it made the running around all the more painful due to the back channel lag and clash of perspective in what raid members would see.
DBM has nice alarms, a range indicator, a low memory footprint, and has worked well in the past.
I use a 26" display at 1920 x 1200, which is ample viewing field. This mod was just too damn much and often the plan markes would move from their spot as you moved to the boss area and float above the game surface getting in the way.
Matt May 22nd 2010 3:46PM
Personally, I don't even use DBM, and I never intend to. Everything DBM displays can just as easily be noticed in the game world if you pay attention. It's really not hard. And yet, I'm constantly watching others around me who DO use DBM standing in void zones, not DPSing a target, not healing someone who's cursed/in the slag/etc.
Now, I don't mind DBM - I'm pretty convinced it's not actually making anyone's life easier. But AVR took things much too far. With AVR, I wouldn't even need to be in Vent during a boss fight. I would need to communicate, listen, or pay attention. I just wait until the addon tells me to do something, then I do it. It really is the quest helper of raids.
pedge May 23rd 2010 5:07PM
Totally agree on the rely factor. I had a feeling it wouldn't last so I made sure not to touch it out of fear of the same thing.
bmecher2000 May 25th 2010 9:49AM
To figure out range to other party members, get a range finder add-on and target them once in a while when you think you are too close.............Couldn't you "eyeball guess" the aggro range of mobs while leveling? stay out of aggro range on your raiding pals. Simple, no mod needed.
I saw the mod several times, and thought it would be good for a play book sort of briefing tool. blocking out the X's and O's of a fight, but never downloaded it.
Salphalo May 29th 2010 7:09AM
now if they would just brake gear score
EzrahSezMoo Jun 1st 2010 12:49AM
/cheer
and @Jabbaprime: YES. Far too many people are relying on gearscore as a measure of skill anymore...
I'm a big fan of using addons that make your overall playing experience smoother, like UI frames, bartender, and recount. also sexy maps. for aesthetic purposes. :)
but I can't quite bring myself to even consider AVR or GearScore as must-have addons. or really addons at all. i'd love if they were both nuked off the face of the earth.
re: AVR, if you have to use it... stop playing WoW. seriously. the rest of us have been part of the "Don't Stand in That" Olympics since vanilla. it's not hard to do, you just have to use your eyes, and subsequently, your brain. common sense. fire burns. kthxbai.
re: GearScore, i've seen people with a 3k GS beat the everliving christ out of ppl with 5k GS on charts. consistently. problem exists behind keyboard, not on pixels.
blizz talks a lot about bring the player, not the class... well what about bringing the player and not the gearscore?
for those of us who don't have the time to spend raiding constantly... it'd be really nice to get into a pug for a reg ToC10 without having to have a 5.5k gearscore. -_-
adamjthomas Jun 1st 2010 1:05PM
Good job Blizzard! They even have reason to believe that this addon is also has a keylogger attached to it. One of my guildmates had his account hacked and his DK tank deleted. Now we need to ban gearscore! Who's with me? :D
hash_89 Jun 8th 2010 9:45PM
@ BB Crisp
You are being too emotional. Is it PMS?
New raids are all about calculation and timing and placing. Every single bit of end-game stuff in WoW is calculation. What stat how much with what talents and what buffs. everything in WoW is calculations. I'm very surprised you did not realize it yet. The functionality of DBM is essential for the success of a high end raid. Just imagine doing an ICC boss fight without DBM. Its similar to a blind jumping on to a high speed race track. Even for a fight like Rotface where you dont have much use of DBM imo, you will be amazed how many ppl will stand there at the boss with ooze hitting them like crazy. I have a big screen with a big resolution to play WoW so i see most of the room very clearly. But not everyone has it. and they cant most of the time see a small green bubble hitting them from behind while trying to keep up a complex rotation to max out DPS. So , no offense but just back off. If you want to enjoy mutual feelings rather than calculation, timing and placement, I suggest you go find another game. something a 10 year old can play.
DBM is good. Non intrusive but informative. I think many people will be with me than against me. I dont think anyone would want to do a one boss in ICC for the whole week with 100 wipes.
Deathrunner Jun 8th 2010 10:07PM
also, I believe in RL screaming his guts out when someone is on fire. lol Its kinda fun for me but I dot think its for him. So pls use Eyes and ears. I never had to use avr.... i never wanted to becz i am not that stupid. its like drawing X marks on the floor to teach you how to walk. lol
altho, DBM is pretty good. For example, it lets you knw how many stacks of debuff u have. For healers its specially useful even in simple situations like those big skelly things in icc first trash lot. lets say, heals didnt knw when to jump (thrs no way to know it by jst watching the screen) they wont be healing anyone for a while. and you all be very dead at the first trash in icc even b4 you start the bosses. :P
Turnerman Aug 15th 2010 10:25PM
It's funny that we're 11/12 HM ICC 25 and I've never heard of this addon. I guess it won't be missed much by guilds that don't need it.