WoW Classic Hardcore players debate the legitimacy of a pay-for-play addon

Addons are essential for almost all World of Warcraft players. But in WoW Classic Hardcore, it’s arguable that certain addons are must-haves if you’re going to stand any chance at surviving all the way to level 60. 

One addon, though, is getting WoW players’ attention as it’s introduced a paid model for the majority of its content. The addon, called “RestedXP,” is a leveling addon that gives players a step-by-step guide on how to level from one to 60 in the new game mode—but only the first 20 levels of the guide are free to use. Everything after that point is hidden behind a paywall. 

In a thread posted to the Classic WoW subreddit yesterday, players are debating the legitimacy of RestedXP, as well as whether or not Blizzard should go out of its way to shut down the paid service. 

The WoW terms of service clearly say that all addons must be free to use. According to the official Blizzard terms of service, the policy on pay-for-play addons is written as follows: 

• “‘Premium’ versions of Applications offering additional for-pay features are not permitted, nor can players be charged money to download an Application, charged for services related to the Application, or otherwise be required to offer some form of monetary compensation to download or access an Application when those features use the Blizzard Developer APIs.”

With that in mind, there’s an obvious case to be made against RestedXP. Although the addon itself is free to download, the leveling guides that are sold on the developer’s site cost about $25 on average, with a dual-faction leveling guide for Hardcore WoW clocking in at $30. The company sells a bundle of guides for both factions across all WoW Classic eras for a total of $85. 

Related: The 10 best addons for WoW Classic Hardcore

RestedXP, despite its paywall, is an extremely efficient and popular addon, with many players developing an affinity for it. If Blizzard was to shut it down, the move would likely have a more negative impact on the players who use and enjoy it than the developers who made it. According to WoW addons database Curseforge, RestedXP has over 3.7 million downloads since it launched in October 2021. 

“Problem is enforcing the ToS means a lawsuit with zero benefit to Blizzard,” one commenter named terabyte06 said. “Easily 90 percent or more of people using this addon never spent a dime on the guides. It’s probably easier to get the guides for free than it is to type in your credit card info on their site, so ultimately it’s a non-issue with an expensive solution that’d be terrible for PR.”

Although RestedXP does have a paywall behind it, many WoW players sneakily admitted in the discussion thread that the addon is easy to pirate, and the majority of the players using it probably don’t even pay for its services to begin with. Considering the popularity of the addon, as well as the pickle that Blizzard would put itself in with both the community and the addon’s creators if the company went to war with it, it’s likely that RestedXP is here to stay, despite the fact that it pretty blatantly breaks the WoW terms of service.