Blizzard has set May 19 as the deadline for any add-on devs to comply with the company's new add-on development policy which prohibits add-on authors from charging for their add-ons and from soliciting for any donations in-game, among other things.

As Wdude initially reports over at the World of Warcraft forums, the Auctioneer add-on has apparently been experiencing a bug wherein it forces his (Wdude) game to crash abruptly. Blue-texter Slouken has already picked up on the thread with a possible fix. Further details are available in the full article.

Addon coders have to keep up with the times. Blizzard dishes out new changes like there's no tomorrow, and gladly it doesn't forget to update its mini developer kit for the World of Warcraft addon authors. Macro and UI community manager Slouken fired a broadside update at the World of Warcraft Forums, stating that the Interface AddOn Kit has been made compatible for patch 2.3.

And now that patch 2.3 is currently running on the Public Test Realms, this gives authors a chance to readjust their UI addons where necessary and play-test their builds before going to final or release versions.

First time addon coders might have to browse around the UI & Macros Forum before attempting anything drastic. A simple rearrangement of the interface would sound like a good start, but always remember to run the kit from the main installation directory of World of Warcraft.

Remember, it's not supposed to be run from the PTR directory (character files and accounts get mirrored there), but the main installation directory of World of Warcraft. Make the needed changes there, then run the addon in the PTR client for testing. Easier said than done.

Recently, Khaldessa of the World of Warcraft (WoW) forums founded the Anti-Hogger Nerf Movement (AHNM) as a form of protest and as a plea against any nerfs that Blizzard may implement on the elite Riverpaw knoll chieftain known as Hogger.

Supporters of the Anti-Hogger Nerf Movement believe that the nerf will essentially deprive both themselves and other players of what is now considered a staple part of the WoW experience: a chance for characters in the single-digit levels to encounter and defeat one of the first (if not the first) of many dangerous bosses they'll meet on their journey.

Opinions from various WoW forum members regarding the Anti-Hogger Nerf Movement have ranged from the serious to the silly, from wholehearted agreement to sharp disagreement and something in between. Some players have proposed that Hogger be buffed, nerfed or left alone and be granted other goodies on top of that, such as a bodyguard or an escort (Gamon, anyone?).

Others have proposed that another un-nerfed version of Hogger or a "Mecha Hogger" be introduced. A few MMORPG players have also suggested that Hogger should raid main cities such as Stormwind. At least a couple of forum members have dismissed the movement as useless, or have stated that Hogger won't really be nerfed at all.

Let's see how the folks over at Blizzard will respond to this.

Having trouble trying to get your World of Warcraft Addons to work? While these player tools are a handy way to maximize the way you handle your character, admittedly, they're fiddly to install.

And when you do fail to install the Addons properly, the side-effects can range from it not appearing on your character screen, or worse, mess up your game graphics.

Now, in case you're one of the guys who's been having installation problems (or an error message), Blizzard spokesman Mikepl over at the WoW forums dropped off an Addon installation guide you may want to read. Here's the basic installation instructions:

1. Navigate to your World of Warcraft directory.
2. Remove or rename the WTF, CACHE, and INTERFACE folders.
3. (Note: After this step Windows Vista users will need to restart their system)
4. Next log in to the game with any character. This will recreate the three folders.
5. Now please exit the game.
6. Install the UI mods you wish to use. By default, all UI mods should be installed in the Interface folder. If you are not sure how to install your UI mods please contact the publisher of your mods. Technical Support does not offer assistance with UI mods.
7. Log back in to the game and pull up the Character Selection Screen.
   

If you pulled off the installation properly, you should be able to see the Addons button on your Character Selection screen (Step 6). We imagine that this short guide should help clear up some of the more common problems the players encounter. Of course, it pays to keep your Addons updated.

While using mods or addons for World of Warcraft is always a welcome way to make gameplay easier, there will always be risk that some of these mods violate Blizzard's Terms and Conditions (as was the case with WoWGlider). This was the topic of an inquiry made by Orinakarr over at the WoW Europe Forums, regarding the Gatherer mod.

For the guys haven't heard of it, Gatherer is a tracking tool for herbalists, miners and treasure hunters. Quoting the wowui site, here's a full explanation of what it does:

The Addon does not track like a tracking ability does, rather it 'remembers' where you have found various items in the past. It does this whenever you gather (perform herbalism, mining or opening) on an item, and records the specific map location in it's history. From then on, whenever the item comes into range of being one of the closest 1-25 (configurable) items to your present location, it will pop up on you minimap.

Getting back to the subject matter, Orinakarr wasn't sure of this mod would give players an unfair advantage during the game - as this counts for a clear violation of Blizz's conditions. Spokesman Aeus dropped by a little later to explain that the addon was clean:

Gatherer just sees where you are when a skill is triggered and adds an icon to the map. As far as I know it consists only of the "standard" Addon files like .lua, .toc and .xml. No executable files are involved. So knock yourself out.

So there you have it. We hope guys also using this addon will breathe a little easier, knowing they don't risk getting banned for using it in gathering resources.

Blizzard Entertainment, as we previously reported, is planning to wreck havoc in the mobile arena. With a news like that, one's thoughts can't help but wonder if World of Warcraft (WoW) will ever appear on a handheld device. It sounds impossible at first but YouTube user viaarena123 has shown that it is actually very plausible.

The videos below show how the user was able to install WoW on OQO Model 2. The device was first shown during this year's Consumer Electronics Show back in January. Model 2 is actually a six-inch PC with a five-inch screen that runs either Windows XP or Vista.

Some of its technical features include 1.2 GHz or a 1.5 GHz processor, up to 1GB of RAM, up to a 60 GB hard drive, has Bluetooth 2.0, and tri-mode WiFi (802.11a/b/g).

WoW on OQO Model 2 Part 1

See the other video after the jump!

Given that creating game mods for World of Warcraft can prove to be a complicated task, we're happy to see that the Blizzard devs are willing to lend a helping hand for the occasional inquiry. With that said, we'll be taking a look at a WoW forum member Casull, who's reported a problem regarding frame code creation for an AddOn under development:

I have a class that wraps a frame called Host; Host's new() function creates that frame. It goes like this:

Create frame, set its textures
Give frame dimensions
Set frame's point
call another function:
--->call GetTop() on frame

and that last one is giving me a nil value. Still, if I /dump the GetTop() ingame without having changed anything, it gives me a value. I believed that for GetTop()to return a meaningful value, the frame needs to have height, and it needs to be placed somewhere, yet with both of these requirements fulfilled I'm getting nil values. This leads me to ask - is there some kind of pause between when you call SetPoint(), SetHeight(), SetWidth() and when you can call GetTop()?

Shortly after posting the inquiry, Blizzard spokesman Slouken dropped by to provide for advice: "Make sure that you're setting the frame's point to something that is already resolved. Otherwise it sounds like it should work, and you can post a minimal test case for people to look at."

Not exactly major news, but we imagine this discussion should provide pointers to other players planning to make their very own WoW AddOns. It's the weekend - time to brush up on the tutorials.

 

Most players on Blizzard's World of Warcraft use add-ons because of the added convenience it brings to the game. However, if you've become dependent on them like me (I personally love the DoTimer, LoadIT, and ChatMOD), then you'd better check if it's compatible with the 2.1 patch that's coming out.

Curse Gaming was cool enough to post a compatibility list for the add-ons (you can check this out via our read link below). After checking with the UI forum, we came to the same conclusion that the modifications to the existing add-ons shouldn't be as extensive as the previous patch. However, a lot can happen when it comes to development and implementation of add-ons, so don't be so certain that your current configuration will work once the new patch comes out.

So don't be caught with your pants down and check out the list immediately to see if your add-ons are known to work with the 2.1 patch. You should remember though that just because it's not posted doesn't mean it won't work, it just means that it hasn't been tested under the new patch.

  

Modding is a mostly thankless job. For every single letter of thanks you get, there are five or more complaints and bug reports begging for a response. This is also the case with modders in Blizzard's World of Warcraft, those intrepid programmers who infuse everyone's standard UI with some extra functionality, and it's also the cause of modding burnout amongst many of them.

Greg Tito has an excellent article up on the subject, talking about the lives behind modders and the things other people do to frustrate them out of doing the very thing that made them famous in the first place. For instance, Gello has had to deal with extremely hostile members of the community who turned the pastime into something terrifying altogether.

The tale starts simply enough, with a request for a German localization of Recap. After completing it, however, other members of the community wanted another of Gello's mods to undergo translation in French, something that Gello himself felt he wasn't going to get any benefit from. After stating that they'd be better served if they translated it themselves, the events turned ugly:

"When I stood by my position (probably not in the nicest terms), they continued in earnest. I got an email with an attachment I thought was safe and apparently it wasn't." The modern computer nightmare had come true for Gello. "I basically abandoned the email address, formatted my pc, ditched the mod and didn't look back."

Before you think about telling someone they suck at what they do, or simply have a ton of negativity you want to let out without any reason for doing so, think twice before doing it. There are people behind those mods you love or hate, and they deserve your respect too.