I use and love WoWMatrix. I love the “one click” updating of all my mods. I love that I don’t have to configure it in any way – it just works. It spotted all my installed mods, and needed no “fussing with”. I use it to search for new mods – after all, I’d rather have mods that update through WoWMatrix than not. There are only a very few mods that I update manually, and that’s because I don’t want to live without them, and they don’t update through WoWMatrix. It’s fair to say that I only internittantly check for updates of those mods.

So this morning I downloaded the Curse and WoWInterface updaters. I haven’t had much time to play with them yet, but my first impressions are that I will not find them as easy to use as WoWMatrix. And quite frankly, the fact that I will now have to use three different programs to update my UI mods, when up until yesterday I just used one, is a real inconvenience.

Both are limited by only providing updates for the Addons that they host. This means that there are a number of addons that they can’t identify when they initially scan your Addons folder, and both required some manual intervention from me to confirm which addons they should be able to update. To add to the confusion, there are some mods I have installed which are available on both sites, so I think I’ll need to go through and decide which site does the updates. To add even further to the confusion, the WoWInterface updater download page states that the product is no longer being updated, and a new one is being developed, and a quick search on the WoWInterface forums finds people being advised to use the Curse installer instead until the new one is ready, on the grounds that most mods on WoWI are also available on Curse! So why do I need both?

I think my best bet from here is to backup my existing addons, and remove them all. I’ll then use the Curse or WoWInterface updaters to re-install each one that I need. As there’s a new patch out I’ll drop down to the bare minimum that I need to survive for a short time, and gradually re-introduce the others. According to WoWMatrix I currently run 143 addons, so this might take some time! As long as I can get Clique working, I’ll be happy

I am concerned that both Curse and WoWInterface are talking about introducing a “Premium” service to use their updaters. I don’t want to be forced to pay to use a service that is a less pleasant user experience than the free WoWMatrix. I have read the arguments on both sides, and I sympathise with Curse and WoWInterface, but at the end of the day I want an easy to use product that works without intervention, and only WoWMatrix has delivered that so far.

Why can’t Curse and WoWInterface come together to provide a rival to WoWMatrix that people will use because it is better, not because they feel forced to? Not to produce two products, both of which do less than half the job, but one single product that works as easily as WoWMatrix. That is the true spirit of competition.

I am prepared to pay for products and services that I find useful. I paid for the full Carbonite before Blizzard changed the rules on UI mod authors not being allowed to charge for premium content. I have sent donations to UI mod writers of those mods I find useful. I would pay for a single product to update all my WoW addons easily as well. But I wouldn’t pay for either the Curse updater or the WoWInterface updater in their current state.