MSN addon?

Tonfish · 10-25-09, 02:58 AM

I don't know if anyone have mentioned this before, but I'm curious about this. Is there any way that the messenger (windows or microsoft) can work ingame? I think there's a high need for that, I know a lot of people who just ALT+TAB all the time to chit-chat with their msn partner's (including me). I maybe wrong but I think it'd be a great idea to make that happen ingame. And of course it'd be a very popular addon. Is there a technical restriction or is taht prohibited by blizzard? Because if not, why don't somebody did that already?

Don't take me wrong, I'm not an addon author, I can't create something like that, I'm just curious about that.

And of course, I'd be more than happy if someone'd made that possible.

wurmfood · 10-25-09, 03:21 AM

Can't be done. The UI is sandboxed to prevent it from interacting with anything outside the specifically configured setup in the game. This is one of the major ways in way in which we are protected from malicious addons.

While this may seem like a pain, as it prevents a lot of desired interactions with outside programs, it really is a Good Thing.

Tonfish · 10-25-09, 03:30 AM

But then again, I know a lot of games which made msn/skype available and well, it's very appeling to me. I maybe wrong but it'd be a great idea for blizzard to make that available. I mean, they can make it themself so it won't be available for other outside programs, but only msn/skype. Maybe they have financial reasons for that I guess :/ Anyway, I'd really love to msn in-game!!

BWarner · 10-25-09, 04:01 AM

Financial reasons? Yes, but not in the way you are suggesting.

Consider the amount of development time for Blizzard to handle one or more proprietary, third-party messaging programs. Consider the amount of raw "Let's make sure this system ABSOLUTELY CANNOT be exploited for nefarious purposes" testing. Now, consider the net benefit they would be providing to their customers - next to nothing, as this service is easily provided by an external program, and is in no way a feature that is tied to the game itself.

In other words, there is little to no forseeable return on investment, and worse yet, it potentially opens up gaping security holes.

However, look for the new Battle.net to open up some new doors to communication within Blizzard's games.

nightcracker · 10-25-09, 05:46 AM

This can be done! XFire has a new plugin which can connect to MSN servers. This means you can use the XFire client to MSN! And since XFire has support for world of warcraft you can use MSN ingame.

Get XFire here(the plugin is automaticly included in the latest version) and make an account. Then go to options > manage accounts ALPHA(not sure if it is manage accounts, just manage something ALPHA) and set up for your MSN account. From that point on when you start XFire it will also log into MSN. Thats it!

Tonfish · 10-25-09, 07:06 AM

Thanks a lot! I'll try that out!

About the financials, I'm sure there is a way for microsoft and blizzard to make a contract which benefits both of them. There'd be no msn in other programs if it wasn't for the benefit of the game.

Anyway, I1ll just use what was mentioned above! And thanks for the quick replies!

**Seerah** · 10-25-09, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by nightcracker

This can be done! XFire has a new plugin which can connect to MSN servers. This means you can use the XFire client to MSN! And since XFire has support for world of warcraft you can use MSN ingame.

Get XFire here(the plugin is automaticly included in the latest version) and make an account. Then go to options > manage accounts ALPHA(not sure if it is manage accounts, just manage something ALPHA) and set up for your MSN account. From that point on when you start XFire it will also log into MSN. Thats it!

Just to clarify, XFire does *not* work from inside the game. So, it still cannot be done.

XFire chat is only an overlay.

Gsusnme · 10-25-09, 12:00 PM

I personally use XFIRE myself, though I don't use the XFIRE MSN plugin so I can't speak for that, but there is another application that has promise I have been following, still in early stages and not as stable (on a 64bit system, at least) called PlayXpert.

I use it on a limited basis seeing as how 64bit support is still flunky, but it allows you (like xfire) to bring up an overlay in game, but where this is better than Xfire (in idea) is that it allows you to connect to multiple messengers at once, such as MSN, AOL, ICQ, GTalk, Yahoo, and even your XFire account. Give it a shot, you may like it.

Jzar · 10-25-09, 12:23 PM

We know that Blizzard is changing. How bout the new Battle.net? I'm not clear if we're on the new Battle.net now, or if making us login with our new Battle.net accounts is just preparation. But soon, we'll apparently be able to message people on different servers, or in different Blizzard games. (Will this mean we'll finally be able to talk to allies on our own server? Maybe just if we have them friended?) Maybe once they've got this whole universal messaging protocol going, they'll open it up and allow third-party programs like Trillian, Pidgin, or Digsby, to connect to them from outside too.

Just wondering out loud here. Imagining along these lines, I still don't know that I see them letting us use MSN or Google Talk in WoW, but I think it's more possible now than it's ever been in the past.