I had to call tech support do to an issue with my wow after the patch where my chat would not work. While on the phone the tech I was speaking to asked me list my addons to see if they were a problem, when I got to the Curse Client. The tech stopped me and asked me if I had to load any program with this addon, i.e. the Curse Client.

After I confirmed this, the Tech told me that the Curse Client is a violation of the WOW EULA. Infact he told me that ANY program you have to load prior to launching wow was a violation to the EULA, and if I continued to use this program, I risk having my account suspended and even terminated.

WTF? Was I talking to some ego tripping tech? I am pretty sure of this because of the popularity of the Curse Client.

Under their EULA, it states that any program that can change the world of warcraft experiance is a bannable offence, so even firefox is bannable, if they get mad enough.

Yup, think about it. 

They may not know exactly what program is running but they have to suspect everything becuase of all the people shadowboxing 6+ characters at once.  Or running hacks on another software.  Get wowmatrix to update your addons then you dont have to keep it running during the game play.

Unfortunately  he's right. if they wanted to be anal about it they could tell us to shut off firefox or something.  They dont care if they lose a few players, there will be more signing up in our places.

I'm gonna have to disagree with the "Firefox is bannable" statement.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Blizzard

WHEN RUNNING, THE GAME MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER'S RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY WITH THE GAME. AN "UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM" AS USED HEREIN SHALL BE DEFINED AS ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY "ADDON," "MOD," "HACK," "TRAINER," OR "CHEAT," THAT IN BLIZZARD'S SOLE DETERMINATION: (i) ENABLES OR FACILITATES CHEATING OF ANY TYPE; (ii) ALLOWS USERS TO MODIFY OR HACK THE GAME INTERFACE, ENVIRONMENT, AND/OR EXPERIENCE IN ANY WAY NOT EXPRESSLY AUTHORIZED BY BLIZZARD; OR (iii) INTERCEPTS, "MINES," OR OTHERWISE COLLECTS INFORMATION FROM OR THROUGH THE GAME. IN THE EVENT THAT THE GAME DETECTS AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM, THE GAME MAY (a) COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BACK TO BLIZZARD, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR ACCOUNT NAME, DETAILS ABOUT THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM DETECTED, AND THE TIME AND DATE THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM WAS DETECTED; AND/OR (b) EXERCISE ANY OR ALL OF ITS RIGHTS UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, WITH OR WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE TO THE USER.

Firefox is not an addon, mod, hack, trainer, or cheat, and neither does it facilitate cheating in any way, allow users to modify or hack the game interface, environment, or experience in any way not expressly authorized by Blizzard (considering Blizzard regularly advertises on sites like Thottbot and WoWHead I'm going to assume they're probably authorized), nor does it intercept/mine/collect data from the game.

Reading through that of course, Curse Client seems to fit the description though iirc lots of WoW database sites have external programs that do that and they haven't been banned so Blizzard doesn't seem to mind. I think the tech's response was just a generic kind of thing, without him knowing or caring what the Curse Client is or realizing how prevalent its use is.

Also, Blizzard has said before (I think) that multiboxing is fine, and to multibox you have to have some application or piece of hardware that sends keystrokes to all of the WoW windows. (Read www.wowwiki.com/multiboxing for more info).

I guess it could be though, so I'm not going to flat out say that it's completely legal. Maybe post on the official forums and wait for a blue.

I have been playing for a few years now and about 3 weeks after I installed the curse client I just had one of my 2 accounts banned.  I'm still waiting to hear back from blizzard for them to tell what program they detected that caused the problem, but I play the game straight up with a few popular addons and nothing more.  If I hear back definatively either way I'll try and post here again.

> Dataflake, your first problem was calling Blizzard when you had addons enabled. Yes, it is rhetoric, but the techs always, ALWAYS ask you to disable any addons first. The Curse client is not an addon, but it does "mine" data for their database. However, it does ONLY sends that data after you have exited out of Warcraft, and NOT during. The CC is not a hack program, any more than WowMatrix or the now defunct WowAceUpdater.

If your chat didn't work, then what you should have done was disable any chat related addons (or all addons, if you prefer) and try to duplicate the problem. If it still exists, then you know to call Blizzard. If the problem goes away, you know it is an addon. Addons are not supported by Blizzard from a technical point of view.

It is true that Blizzard telling you to disable all your addons is mind-numbingly repetitive, but it does tell you if the problem is theirs, or yours. If it is yours, then come here.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by myrroddin

> Dataflake, your first problem was calling Blizzard when you had addons enabled. Yes, it is rhetoric, but the techs always, ALWAYS ask you to disable any addons first. The Curse client is not an addon, but it does "mine" data for their database. However, it does ONLY sends that data after you have exited out of Warcraft, and NOT during. The CC is not a hack program, any more than WowMatrix or the now defunct WowAceUpdater.

If your chat didn't work, then what you should have done was disable any chat related addons (or all addons, if you prefer) and try to duplicate the problem. If it still exists, then you know to call Blizzard. If the problem goes away, you know it is an addon. Addons are not supported by Blizzard from a technical point of view.

It is true that Blizzard telling you to disable all your addons is mind-numbingly repetitive, but it does tell you if the problem is theirs, or yours. If it is yours, then come here.

I didn't mention that in the OP, but yes I tried that, turning off all addon's. The actual problem was resolved when I had to rename my WTF folder and another folder (its been a couple of months) to wtf-old, etc. Then when I reloaded WoW it rebuilt the WTF and another folder... ANYWAYS....

The post was WoW's view on addons. WHY ALLOW them, encourage them, just to tell us they are not allowed.

The are allowed, even encouraged, but there are some caveats. Remember two things before I list what an addon is not allowed to do. First, if you turn off and remove all addons, you will notice that there are Blizzard addons. Yes Blizzard makes addons, and they perform some UI functionality that doesn't need to be loaded every time you log in, but when you  do or access certain things, like the  Auction House. Yes the whole AH look and behaviour is an addon. Second, there is an official forum on the World of Warcraft boards dedicated to addons and UI modding. Official Blizzard employees post there, especially around a patch where they detail the programming changes.

What addons can't do: target anything, move a character, do anything automatically without the player clicking on a button or the mouse, access the internet except through the game, save any data to your hard drive other than saved variables, log your login/password, translate between Horde and Alliance, and collect information your client has never seen. I am sure there are other things addons can't do, but those are the major ones.

The Curse client, WowMatrix, and the defunct WowAceUpdater are not violations of Blizzard's TOS, as none of them have any impact on the game itself; they cannot create, destroy, move, alter, or otherwise affect the World of Warcraft game files. All they do is update and install addons, and maybe launch WoW. The Curse client and the Wowhead clients both "mine" data from addons they install, getting their information from the respective SavedVariables of those addons. They do not access those files while the game is running; if they did, then, and only then, would they be violating the TOS. But again, they don't. They wait for the game to completely exit, so there is no communication to the Blizzard servers.

Addons are completely legal, provided they don't break the above rules. Programs running in the background are legal, again, so long as they don't mine data about the game while it is running. Addons are just text, they contain no code that executes or runs anything, and thus cannot contain keyloggers.

A word of caution: if you download an "addon" that can be run like a program, meaning it works when WoW is not running, then it isn't an addon, and could be malware of some kind.

I hope this post finally puts this topic to rest.

>

What addons can't do: target anything, move a character, do anything automatically without the player clicking on a button or the mouse, access the internet except through the game, save any data to your hard drive other than saved variables, log your login/password, translate between Horde and Alliance, and collect information your client has never seen. I am sure there are other things addons can't do, but those are the major ones.

>

Actually addons CAN target something, mark mobs (DBM), or automatically change gear depending on situation  or state, or active buff or aura (Outfitter). It also can save or read data from files outside saved variables (some ah addons, MobMap), run or open wow data files (possible to API, but limited to WoW installation folder) , translate from Alliance common language to Horde orcish (othervise more difficult). But Blizz got last work if situation regarding EULA will rise.

Ummmmmm......... No, they do not translate between Alliance and Orcish. As far as I know. I remember seeing something somewhere (sorry, bad memory) about that being expressly forbidden. No cross-faction communication. Are there any cross-faction communication addons? If you are Horde, you can't even communicate with Alliance. Or vice-versa.

Also, why would you say your Curse Client loads anything in the WoW game? It installs addons, but doesn't load anything for the game.

In fact, cross faction chat addons break the TOU and thus can get your account suspended. The Curse Client, Minion, WowMatrix, etc... do not violate the TOU anymore than running Winamp in the background while playing.

i do not belive this, i have been using curse for over 3 months, and nothing has happend. i still want to know how to make gryphonheart reputations, though.

This thread has been necro'd. I will be locking it because it is months and months old. For the record, if the above discussions did not make this clear: the Curse Client and Minion do not impact the game in any way, shape, or form. All they are are addon installers. Addons themselves are perfectly legal, so long as they follow Blizzard's addon policy.

@ Wibbleee, start a new thread, or better yet, post a comment on the addon page, please. I am sure you will get help, but this was the wrong thread ;-)