Friday, May 21, 2010

AVR Mod Broken in 3.3.5

This 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/defacing the game world, but more popularly is used to give visual guides for dungeon and raid encounters.

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.
Can I just give a small yay?


If you've ever been in one of my raids you will probably know by now that I hate cheating, and this mod just screams the feeling of cheating. 

And yaknow, I don't even hate cheating because I'm the most angelic honest person in the world. I try to do my best, but hey when they return me too much money in the supermarket I wisely keep my mouth shut too. 

No, I hate cheating in this game because it takes away the whole sense of accomplishment. 

When you beat a boss in this game after having worked hard on it, you get such a great woah feeling. The first time Lich King died in our 10man we all cheered over vent, we had fireworks going off and celebrated. But if you let the mod beat it for you....blergh, where goes your own honor then?

And it's not only this mod that makes me feel that. Every time someone suggests that we should use so and so cheat to beat an encounter I just get this nasty feeling of nononono in my stomach. I want to beat it as it was designed to be beaten, dangit!

And those guilds out there who are going in with a pseudo guild first to get around the number of tries left, just so they can be first in the world? All they've shown is that they have more time than the average player. And that they can level an alt. Poopoo big deal. 

No, I would much rather get reports on groups who killed fights with their very own characters, without trying to find ways around the system. People who keep fairly normalish raid hours. Teams who do not have all of their raiders on the PTR just to practice the fight. In fact,  I know there are guilds out there who refuse to bring players on raids if they haven't been on the PTR to practice. 

No, all you've beaten the more regular players on is your time schedule. And while I'm sure you have skilled players too. I wish you would just play by the normal ruleset and we'll see how well those guilds are doing. 

I'm looking forward immensely to the Cataclysm gear reset and 10/25 separation. And while I'm sure there will be enough guilds trying their very best to be the very first again. I'm looking forward to having a game balanced around only having to do one raid per week, instead of 10s and 25s. 

3 comments:

  1. Avr in no way plays the game for you so its not cheating we have been using avr for about three weeks now and it is an invaluable tool to help people who have never seen an encounter get a feel for what they have to do. It doesn't mean that the seasoned players in the raid don't know what to do during the fights.

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  2. AVR draws during fight where you should be standing and should not be standing. If you're not using it like that, more power to you. But that is what it can do.

    And yes, your more seasoned players know what to do. So all this mod does is take effort away from your new players to learn the fight. Effort, the thing that you have to put in to get that rewarding feeling afterwards.

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  3. AVR reminds me of playing go-fish. Well it would remind me of go-fish if you played the game with all the cards laying on the table...face up.

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