Thoughts on in-game addon advertising...

[kerrang]

Whilst I started this 'discussion' not knowing whether any form of in-game promotion would be beneficial or even desirable - the 'fervent' nature of people's dislike for the idea, whilst not a BIG surprise, does make me wonder...

The problem is that people are so "it's a 100% bad idea" that I'm left wondering - because almost NOTHING is "a 100% bad idea" (even prostitution - tho that's a pretty major tangent to take at this point I think!)

In a community of people who create many and varied addons to make the game 'play better', I'd have thought SOME of that creativity could have been applied to making those addons 'known better' - ESPECIALLY where the addon is intended to help people other than the player who's installed it.

It's arrogant - IMO - to assume that if your addon is good enough, people will promote it for you or seek it out regardless - part of creating something, for me at least, is ensuring it finds it's audience (few artists paint pictures and then hide them away do they?).

I realise everyone has a different threshold for 'spam' - or for anything they find intrusive or annoying in-game - but as I said earlier, the game is SO full of noise, spam and "hooting dickholes" that some subtle, humourous and carefully aimed 'promotion' would be like pissing into the Pacific in terms of the degree to which it could contribute to that in a negative way

[Dridzt]

The problem here is you didn't want a discussion (hence the quotes around the word).

You came with a conviction just looking for positive votes it seems.

The vast majority of people posting in this thread (myself included) gave their opinion of why it would be a bad idea.

Main vein of argument being that it would adversely affect their gaming experience,
particularly if this practice of in-game advertising became more widespread.

You keep coming back with stuff like "subtle, humorous and carefully aimed"
which is another way of admitting it's an annoying practice, but the annoyance can be mitigated.

Problem is that if this becomes widespread you have no control of how it will be used.
You repeatedly ignore the argument about what it would mean for the gamer
if this practice you advocate is widespread and adopted by more authors/addons.

Posters here are not just objecting to you including adverts in your addon,
(so how well made they are is irrelevant) they're objecting that it's a desirable practice in general.

Public exposure of your addon is achieved by posting it on an addon site (like this one),
Making a tutorial about how it can help a player solve a specific problem etc.
People will google for buff, self-buff, auto-buff and stumble across your addon.
Or will ask in guild/general/trade and get it suggested.

The difference is that the initiative is on the side of the end user.

If I want to buy a painting I will visit the gallery.
If the artist comes to my home and plasters a poster of his work on my windows
I'll probably not be very appreciative.

In conclusion either agree to disagree with the majority posting here and
go ahead with your idea regardless, or leave it be.

Your last few posts are verging on trolling, no one is "out to get you".

[septor]

Originally Posted by Mikord I am also not "dedicated to making anti-spam addons" either. However, over the course of playing WoW since original beta, I have seen various mods do this and the only thing I've ever heard after a while is something similar to "Dude turn that off", or "Ignored." Your stance is that one message isn't spam, but the problem is that it avalanches. It's not just one message once more than one person starts using the mod. It's one per person. Then if every mod starts doing it, now it's one per person, per mod. Imagine a 25 man raid with everyone using your mod and 7 other mods that do the same thing. 25 * 8 = 200 spam messages for a variety of actions. The last thing people want to see every time they join a raid is 200 different messages from all the different mods each of the raid members is using constantly spamming them under a variety of circumstances. It just becomes irritating.

THIS is why my Popup analogy exists. I'm not worried about it spamming my screen, I'm worried that it will spark hundreds of other mods that will do the same thing as yours, which will spam my screen. I guarantee people don't give a crap why or how you did something, they're just happy you did it.

[kerrang]

Originally Posted by Dridzt Your last few posts are verging on trolling, no one is "out to get you".

This comment is the funniest thing I've read here in some time - it's also the last thing I'll be reading in here tbh...

[Duugu]

*deleted*

Sorry

[Cairenn]

Alright guys, remember the site rules. Keep it civil. Debate is fine as long as it doesn't cross the line.

[Tekkub]

I ain't saying it's a good or bad idea, I'm saying consider how people will react. How many people will it attract vs how many it'll drive away. You will gain some user and lose some. You'll also ensure that some users never use your addon at all, even if they may have before. Personally, if I saw one of these ads, I wouldn't go download the addon, and if I came across it in the future I would avoid it simply because I knew it advertised itself.

[oomu]

very bad idea.

I will simply ask people to stop using that

and I'll try to find an addon to filter it. prat or something has to be able to do that.