Ads, Revenue, and API - WowUp and Overwolf Split Over Addon Development

Live Posted 2022/02/09 at 3:00 PM by Archimtiros

denial of their application for API access by Overwolfpartner with addon hosting competitor Wago.iothey mean adsNo Longer Turning a Blind Eyetaking over CurseForgeserious threat to both their business and the earnings of addon creators

Overwolf

CurseForge does not have an official API for 3rd parties who want to download files from its servers. The way some addon managers operate today, is by reverse engineering the calls between the Twitch Client and the CurseForge backend. A good analogy is someone reverse engineering the Spotify app to stream songs from Spotify’s servers without receiving Spotify’s or the artists’ consent to do so.
Unauthorized use of the CurseForge API introduces challenges that need solving. Most notably:

Authors did not give their consent to have their creations distributed outside CurseForge
Authors’ earnings will be impacted, as CurseForge has no way of monitoring engagement outside its own ecosystem, and changes are coming to the rewards program
Downloads originated from 3rd party services rely on CurseForge servers and CDN, incurring substantial costs and offering nothing to cover them

Restricted Access Creates New Competitionrestrict their APIAjourCursebreakerWowUp announced a partnership with Wago.ioMethod owned WeakAuras repositoryWe welcome competition. Competition leads to better products and a more developed community. Our ultimate goal has always been that people will choose CurseForge because it’s the best way to support addon developers, and because it is the best product out there, not because it is the only option. But while we welcome diversity in the marketplace, we can’t sponsor the costs of the competition that is building its user base on top of Curseforge infrastructure, metadata entered by addon developers and our server and CDN costs.The Fight Over Addon Developer Compensationdata collection concernsaverage monthly earnings increase of 700%DejaCharacterStatscommented on RedditAnecdotally, I have ~150K users of DCS and 75K users of DCS Classic. Users simply do not donate to mid sized popular addons such as mine, let alone the thousands of smaller addons. There are many reasons; bystander effect, uncertainty as to author identity/authenticity, belief addons are a hobby not to be profited from, etc. I started making addons during late Cataclysm. I make more in one month from Curse's ad rev share than I have received in donations for all of my addons combined over the last 9 years, including the last 5 years of DCS.WowUp Will Also Feature Adsonly if they also enable adsusing WowUp to download from Wago will require enabling ads

jliddev, via WowUp Patreon

However, to use the Wago.io addon provider, users will be required to have an ad shown in the corner of the app. I know what you’re thinking “ads!? I use WowUp to avoid ads!”. The good news is that you still can. If you do not want to see ads in your WowUp you can opt not to use the new Wago.io addon provider and they will not appear, simple as that.

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Comment by zushibaI agree, the abuse people are putting up with to play the game at any sort of competitive rate is only increasing. At some point this becomes a Blizzard problem, not a community problem.Comment by ClinoclaseI still can't believe this is a thing when WoW has the easiest way to install addons of any game I've ever played. People REALLY need external services to extract a file and drop it into a folder?

I have always ran as many addons as the game could handle, a rat's nest full of loads of dependencies and I've never needed assistance in keeping it together. I can't understand the need for this. It's not like we're talking about Skyrim or something where everything needs to be woven together in exactly the right way so the game doesn't break.Comment by LobscotchSomewhat odd that people are complaining about overwolf without mentioning that it's the addon creators that want to be there because it's a lot better deal for them. I'm sure most of the addons would exist anyway, but it's hard to expect them to get updated at current pace without getting any money out of it.Comment by Linaori
WowUP was a great alternative, but if it decides to crap ads at me, then it too, will be deleted. Comment by schiavettoHope this gets big enough that it grows fair competition and also gets Blizzards attention to add in a few features people rely on addons to get.

Bad look for everyone involved honestly, though.Comment by NevcairielOverwolf is really testing peoples willingness to be abused.Comment by OldshamanDont care about this, a lot of Addons are already available on wago and the rest will follow.
So no need for curseforge and overwolfComment by OnlookerI'm in support of damning all the money hungry addon developers. If you cannot develop an addon out of passion, don't do it. Someone else always will fill that void. Addon developers making a job out of it and making what are basically game features is what's ruining this game year on year. If these addon devs disappear, blizzard would be forced to fix their game's outdated UI, which is a Win for everybody.
Don't bother keyboard warrioring against this post, It won't make any difference to me or anyone else.Comment by novadudeOverwolf is really testing peoples willingness to be abused.Comment by Alwayslastwhy not just use overwolf?Comment by Onlookerwelp so much for add ons, i refused to do manual %^&* before i used a manager, and now i guess i wont be using add ons at all, thanks overwolfComment by EvenstarGamingProblem is some players aren't that comfortable manually changing things because they don't want to %&#$ it up (example me) and cause themselves more problems by moving the wrong thing or updating the wrong text or whatever. I don't want to break my game or computer so having something to that for me is less pressure and I can enjoy the game. Call me a luddite if you must but I'll be finding another manager to do updates and stuff because that way I'm not going to cause more damage with a mis-click/paste. We're not all super human players who know how to format stuff in system files.Comment by VarusEU
Sounds to me like you are doing the abuse - wanting all the service, without even tolerating a single ad to pay for it.
Comment by novadudeProblem is some players aren't that comfortable manually changing things because they don't want to %&#$ it up (example me) and cause themselves more problems by moving the wrong thing or updating the wrong text or whatever. I don't want to break my game or computer so having something to that for me is less pressure and I can enjoy the game. Call me a luddite if you must but I'll be finding another manager to do updates and stuff because that way I'm not going to cause more damage with a mis-click/paste. We're not all super human players who know how to format stuff in system files.Comment by thorr69why not just use overwolf?Comment by VarusEUDont care about this, a lot of Addons are already available on wago and the rest will follow. Comment by Nevcairiel
Sounds to me like you are doing the abuse - wanting all the service, without even tolerating a single ad to pay for it.
Comment by BigBadLionI don't like this. Blizzard must take an action and stop this mess.Comment by NymrohdWoWup seems to be keeping all the addons I am using, I can turn telemetry off, I do not mind the tiny add on the corner that doesn't even have sound.Comment by NHugmeOverwolf is really testing peoples willingness to be abused.

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