Hacking World of Warcraft (ExtremeTech) (Paperback)

by Daniel Gilbert (Author), James Whitehead II (Author)
Key Phrases: lua file, many addons, other addons, World of Warcraft, Command-Line Options Option Description, Addon List (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Get crafty! Veteran WoW player and creator of the most popular World of Warcraft add-on (Atlas) Dan Gilbert guides you through making your stay in the world of Azeroth more exciting. Whether you’re human, dwarf, elf, or orc, you’ll feast on numerous unique hacks such as combat, artwork and model, map, interface, loot, chat, raid, PvP, and more. You’ll also learn to create and use skins and themes, write your own macros, create add-ons, and work with frames and XML so that you can improve your experience with the hottest online game on the planet—planet Earth, that is.

From the Back Cover
Hack your way to the top.

World of Warcraft is your world. You are fearless. You are in command. And when you can command these awesome addons, macros, and customizations, you'll savor the heady brew of victory. From the masters who gave us Atlas and PerfectRaid/Clique, you'll learn how to gain an advantage in combat, write spell-casting macros, work with frames and XML, develop Lua scripts that work with the WoW API, and more.

Yeah, they're legal. But don't let that hold you back.

Addons, Macros and more.

Learn the secrets that unlock hidden treasures!

1. Evaluate your performance in battle with combat statistics.

2. Add instance maps and make notes on the World Map.

3. Rearrange everything onscreen and monitor your vitals with an HUD.

4. Make gold "playing " the Auction House.

5. Have whispers open in their own window like an IM client.

6. Overhaul your interface with pre-packaged compilations.

7. Create two fully functional addons from start to finish.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (June 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470110023
• ISBN-13: 978-0470110027
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,805 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

141 of 165 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not about "hacking", just an out-of-date catalog, September 9, 2007

By	Mike Blaszczak (Mercer Island, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm so disappointed in this title that I'm returning it to Amazon for a refund.

The book's title and description are misleading. The book isn't about "hacking" anything; it's just a catalog of popular add-ons to the game. After an introductory chapter about how add-ons and macros differ, how add-ons can be installed and managed, each add-on is described and reviewed. Unfortunately, the authors don't describe their criteria for deciding which add-ons to include.

Undoubtedly, the term "hacking" was included in the title to make the book appear sexier; the book is really about expanding WoW functionality using available add-ons, not "hacking" in any sense of the word. Perhaps more frustratingly, the authors don't explain why most of the described add-ons are useful. Sure, I can get an add-on that tallies the damage done to me by various monsters, and by myself to the monsters. But why do I Want that? How does the use of such an add-on, for example, help me have a more enjoyable or productive gameplay experience?

Point is, though, that finding add-ons online isn't hard at all. A book cataloging them is practically worthless, as it is out of date just as soon as it is printed. You're better off finding interesting add-ons by searching your favorite World of Warcraft forum and asking other players.

The book's treatment of writing add-ons is superficial at best. Since this book is not a programming tutorial, any reader who wants to write their own add-ons needs to have some software development background. And anyone with some software development background would be able to examine existing add ons to "borrow" code, or learn how to write add-ons by reading the product documentation.

47 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great guide for newer Warcraft players , June 6, 2007

By	hang10web (Midwest, United States) - See all my reviews

Ok, lets get something straight right off the bat. I am not a total newb when it comes to gaming, programming or tech. But I am new to WoW, and trust me its pretty overwhelming when you first get in.

This book is really good at 2 things:

1. Its a gentle introduction to the whole addon scene for players who either dont use them yet, or who use them only a little bit. It teaches readers how to find addons, how to install them, how to configure them, and how to use them. Addons are divided by their function: Combat, Maps, Loot, Chat, Raid, Class-Specific, Compilations and Misc and each one is covered the same way so thats nice. Can you find all these yourself by scouring the websites? Sure you can. But this book takes some of the pain out of figuring out which ones are best for the job, and how to use them. This is where the book shines in my opinion and is the bulk of the book.

2. It introduces you to the concepts of writing addons and macros in a way that most readers can follow. If you already have some experience in scripting with something like JavaScript or some actual programming experience this section makes more sense.

This book is not an in-depth guide to writing addons, or a complete guide to WoW programming. Addons are written in a language called Lua, but this book is not an in-depth guide to Lua either. If you are looking for that, then you should look elsewhere.

However the book does walk you through 2 examples, and if you can follow that you will probably want to look for something more to develop addons. Follow it up with a good Lua book, and learn about XML.

My only complaint about the book so far is the images are a little small, and I wish they were in color. Still, that doesnt ruin the book and you can still see what they are talking about.

All in all the book does a good job at what it's trying to do. So if you are newer to WoW or Addons this is a great guide. And even if you are already using some addons the book might point you to some new ones or even get you started writing your own.

46 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Review from Chris Davies, Creator of the AtlasLoot Addon, June 14, 2007

By	C. Webb - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you are seeing this book in a shop somewhere, pay close attention to the 'Whom this book is for' section in the introduction. It is not for the advanced user who is already creating mods or maintains a large library of addons for themselves. It is for the person who had a couple of addons, but wants to involve themselves further in the modding scene. It is for the user that has plenty of mods, but wants to know what some of the contents means so that they can start tinkering. It is for the person who e-mails people like Dan and myself saying 'Hi. I have downloaded your mod, what do I do now?'.

The book is of a fair length, enough to cover a lot of ground, but short enough to be to the point. It is laid out really well, with the first half more or less dedicated to various mods, what they do and where to get them and the second half dedicated to how to make addons, a simple example and a more complex secure frame example. There is also a really good section explaining the macro system implemented with the Burning Crusade in some depth.

The selection of mods in the first half is quite good, covering how to install and configure the most popular mods around as well as a few really handy mods that might not be so well known. Of particular interest to me and what really impressed me the most was how up-to-date the book was. For example, it deals with the issue in Patch 2.1 of error messages being hidden by default and how to re-enable them if you want to. It also describes what I believe to be the proper procedure for tracking down addon bugs and when and how to report them to the author concerned.

My only criticism I guess is that Chapter 15 probably could have been expanded a little bit. It wasn't immediately obvious early in the chapter (to me anyway, only ever having played a DPS class seriously) where the FocusFrame example mod was going, but once you get into the code a little it is an excellent example of the power of secure frames. The chapter covers quite a tricky area that a number of experience addon devs struggle with, and I think the explanation of the concepts is good. The fact that you come out of it with a non-trival, useful mod is a huge bonus.

In summary, the book is a great overview of the state of play with WoW addons. Most advanced users would know a lot of it already from their own tinkering or collection of mods, this book isn't really for you. For the mainstream WoW player though, it is excellent.

Reposted with permission.