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This week’s discussion is about addons, specifically if they confer an unfair advantage on the players that use them compared to those that don’t – specifically in crafting and using the auction house.
I posed this question to Seth of One Copper, who answered it in his podcast.
The question was
“What is your opinion on addons, specifically Auctioneer, QA, Auctionator, Postal, BulkMail2 being unfair considering the power they give compared to someone without the addons.”
To paraphrase his reply in to a single sentence
If you don’t use it, you lose it… use whatever you can to make your life easier.
And I agree with him! If you can make use of it, and it is not against the rules then why not?
On the other hand, I can see just how powerful these addons really are. If you’re in the inscription market just think about doing everything you do, from buying herbs, milling, crafting ink, buying the right ink and parchments, creating the right glyphs, creating enough glyphs, possibly mailing the glyphs and then listing them all – without addons. Do you think you could still compete on the same scale?
So that is the discussion point for this week
Are addons an unfair advantage in the AH-Whoring game, and if so which in particular? If not, why not?
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From My POV,
The Release of a related addon set a new standard of the market.
It’s the same on every technology driven market.
“Unfair Advantage” only happens when others can’t get the Addon
or some forbidden to write their own.
It’s not happening in WoW.
No one had a special privilege over others on certain Addon.
(Okay, except the GMs)
Zekta Chan´s last blog ..Top 5 Excuses That makes people stay poor
Addons would be an unfair advantage if you as a player were the only one allowed to use the specific addons. But if you concider the fact that anyone can go to WowAce or WowInterface at any time, and get whatever addons they want/need, then there is no longer an unfair advantage. It’s actually quite fair. That some players choose not to use addons because they don’t like it, that’s their own fault. If they feel they’re at a disadvantage, get over it and go grab some addons.
Hellreject´s last blog ..Hallow’s End
I remember when either we didn’t have postal or I wasn’t smart enough to know that we did and I had to manually put everything in my bag to manually disenchant. The day I found the right addons my production went up by 75% = advantage over those that are not as knowledgable as others.
I agree – the addons are available to all. If people choose not to, or don’t do the research to find out what is possible with addons then that is their responsibility.
Hulan´s last blog ..Goblin My Way To Riches
Nobody ever said working the AH had to be fair. Off the top of my head, I can only think of 3 markets where the addons can realy put you ahead. Glyphs, Gems, and Enchant Scrolls. The addons enable you to do more on a larger scale if you look at those markets.
The person working the AH correctly is still making more gold than they can spend. The person making 1-2k a week on the AH may think its unfair that people can use addons to make 10-15k. But once we move into that 10-15k a week, we are playing a diferernt game. In that game, all is fair.
Then you have someone like me that can write his own addons. Is it unfair that I know more about writing addons than the average user? Or what about the person that is at the gold cap? He has more power than any addon can provide.
Addons are fair because its up to the user to use them. Just part of learning the AH, they have to learn what tools they need and what they can do without.
its a level playing field if you want addons go get them.
i belive your stupid to try compete in such a market place when they are used by so many so well.
maybe there is an experiment in this can you compete aganst the power of the addon using the defult UI? in regaurds to the AH
The addon’s don’t do anything that a user can’t do themselves…if they take the time to do it. Really the just vastly improve the speed of things. So no, I don’t see how you can say it’s not fair, especially since most of them are available to everyone. Even the ones that people write for themselves are fair, seeing as how there is nothing stopping anyone from using them.”
I like what arkaven has to say about this being an experiment. I’d like to see someone try it out for a while, if a non-addon banker can take control of a market that would typically be addon heavy (inscription comes to mind as the best one).
LargeRichard´s last blog ..Outland Dungreon Hero – Underbog
Of course using addons is fair – if everyone has equal access to them (which they do, because all you need is an internet connection which you have to have for WoW anyway) then there is nothing to stop someone using them other than their intelligence. Nobody claims using addons in PvE or PvP is unfair; indeed, they’re necessities. You wouldn’t step into an end-game raid without a threat meter or DBM and in the same way if you want to get into the end-game of the economy you need the right tools.
TLDR answer: No, addons are not unfair. And you can tell I’ve just been reading Gevlon :P
Veliaf´s last blog ..My UI
Addons are fair hell if i didnt have auctioneer i wouldnt even fool with the AH like i do. Having 300 AHs posted would take a long time to point drag drop set price. If you want to make serious money in the AH and make your wow life easier addons are the only way to go. However if your the normal wow scrubb you wont post but 4-10 auctions a day random greens and other things so you wouldnt need addons. Also the person not using addons is more likely to mis price the item allowing me an oppourtunity to get 3g real quick because they needed to sell the item fast so they underut. Addons are fair because everyone can use the just not everyone is smart enough to use them.
While I agree that add-ons are fair game as they are available to all and it’s up to the individual to make the most of what’s out there, I can’t help but feel that some, and QA springs immediately to mind, just allow too much dominance. I can therefore see an argument for their removal or restriction as they enable so much dominance.
You only have to take a quick glance through the JMTC forums to see the constant stream of “Help with Camper wanted” posts. I suspect things would be remarkably different without add-ons such as QA2 and Postal.
Ok I’ve made a fortune, as a result of these add-ons so it’s perhaps unfair of me to want to deny their use to the next person who wants to get rich, but I can’t help feel that something needs to change.
First, addons are definitely an unfair advantage when compared to the default UI. Imagine the dedication it would take to compete in glyphs witout them. Addons are the closest thing WOW allows to automated production, and just as machinery was an unfair advantage in industry so are adds in wow.
Second, the cost of investing in addons (unlike machinery) is negligible and so there is no reason not to take advantage of them. (Except laziness or stupidity and those persons couldn’t compete with us on a level field anyway).
Third, this is business. Fairness is a cute idea. But even the thought this blog has put towards ‘playing fair’ has been overkill. In business you don’t care about how fair you are being to your competition. You care about your bottom line and profit margins.