Blizzard's not been 'backtracking' on its combat addon plans for World of Warcraft, says game director Ion Hazzikostas: 'This was always the intent, to swing the pendulum to the other end and then creep it back'

World of Warcraft's finally pulled the trigger on its combat-based UI mods, also called addons—something that's had such a large impact on the game that I (as a writer duty-bound to provide context) am having a hard time laying out the situation without simply repeating myself.

But it's a tectonic shift in how the game is designed and played. Players have been used to comprehensive and game-warpingly powerful combat addons for over 20 years at this point, so of course it's kicking up a fuss.