Pants: Random thoughts about addons

centrum — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 01:10:53 GMT

Very interesting read, you should keep us updated on what s going on in the addon scene weekly :)

Pants: Random thoughts about addons

Jesamyn — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 01:10:52 GMT

I enjoyed reading this and agree with several points. I try a lot of your addons because I know from past experience that they'll be lightweight and well-designed. (And I sincerely hope you don't drop Sellfish, but understand if you do. It's your mod, after all!)

Pants: Random thoughts about addons

Flisher — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 01:10:51 GMT

Adding things a single person requires is bad, unless you're sure the general users of your addon will embrace the new feature (or you're that person :))

Keep in mind that out of 200,000 download, you will receive less than 200 feedback, and most will be negative when a bug occur. Trimming those leave about 100 new idea to put in an addon.

Soo the single person might represent 10k people :).

I'm out of the WoW coding scene but preparing for WAR arrival. Of course, code reuse is great, when the source used is good :)

Pants: Random thoughts about addons

Tuller — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 01:10:50 GMT

SellFish probably won't be dropped, but yes it is neglected. ItemPriceTooltip does approximately the same job, and is updated more frequently, but I like my algorithm better :)

Pants: Random thoughts about addons

Tuller — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 01:10:49 GMT

Yeah, it is important to remember that the majority of addon users won't post comments, and when they do, its usually when something breaks.

What I was trying to get at, though, is simply to try and avoid feature creep. Useful features should be added, of course, but only if you know the majority of your target audience will use them (and yes, this is vague, too :))

Pants: Random thoughts about addons

Immaterial — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 01:10:48 GMT

Very, very late comment (got here 'by accident' after reading your bongos 3 blog)- just wanted to say that it's good to see the whole 'ease of use' thing being promoted.

Often the most difficult part of building something (macro/add-on/web page/game, whatever) is making using your baby as intuitive as possible for others. Worth the effort though, otherwise you you'll just end up with a stillborn bright idea.

Oh- and never listen to randoms on teh internetz, which I guess makes this whole comment redundant :)

Pants: Random thoughts about addons

Tuller — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 01:10:47 GMT

"A stillborn bright idea", interesting phrase.

One thing I've also had to learn is that: "What is intuitive to you is probably not intuitive to anyone else"