Addons
A couple of days ago, one of my readers asked,
In your screen shot there, you have some kind of status bar/timer/metric utility at the top of the screen. I’m curious as to what that is and where I can get it.
Here’s the screenshot so you can see what he’s talking about.
I responded briefly in the comments, but had more to say on the subject, so I’m going to do that here. In this post I’ll introduce you to addons in general and in my next post I’ll tell you more about the addon he asked about in particular.
So what is an addon?
If you’re new to WoW, you may not even be aware of this, but there are thousands of fan created mini-programs, called addons, that give you increased utility for various parts of the game. When WoW first came out, Blizzard purposely made it very easy for fans and players to change and tweak the game’s user interface (UI). Since then, tons of addons have been created and more are being made everyday.
It’s important to know a couple of things about addons before you go somewhere and start downloading them. Addons are made by fans and so they are not officially supported by Blizzard. They do occasionally have bugs and can potentially cause some problems. However, most addon authors take their work and reputation pretty seriously and so will attempt to answer user questions and provide as much support as they can.
Sounds good. Is it legal?
In a word, yes. The longer answer is this: 99% of all addons are completely legal and even encouraged by Blizzard. Blizz has even integrated some popular addon features into the game, such as combat text and additional action bars. On the occasion that Blizz decides an addon is going too far and providing too much utility, they will change the way the game code works, so that the addon will no longer be effective.
With that said, however, there is one thing that you do need to watch out for. Any “addon” that allows you to leave your keyboard and still have your character play is strictly against the rules. This is called botting and will get you permabanned. However, no legitimate addon site would carry botting programs, so if you end up with one, you probably meant to get it.
So how do I use them?
Most addons will come with installation instructions, but generally you unzip the file and put the contents into your Addons folder. The typical path is C:\ Program Files\ World of Warcraft\ Interface\ Addons. Once you’ve done that, start WoW and head to the character screen. Click the little Addons button at the bottom left of the screen. If your addon has been installed correctly, it will show up here, and you can continue on to load the game like normal. If it’s not showing up, go back and read the help file.
If you load it and the addon proves to be buggy, or you decide you don’t really want it, you can delete the folder it went into in the Interface/Addons folder or disable it from the addons screen. You can also specify which addons to load for each character from that screen as well.
Cool, so where can I get some addons?
There are a few sites out there that have them, but here are the ones that I use the most:
Curse.com
WoWInterface.com
Inc Gamers
Hey, thanks for the intro to addons. I look forward eagerly to your next post.
Why, thank you.
/bats eyes
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Thank you for sharing!
Instead of editing, monitor. ,