Gabryell emailed the addon to Blizzard, and after only one day, he received a reply.
"Blizzard approved our addon." Gabryell shared the good news with his three roommates.
Carlos said in surprise, "So we can upload the addon to the WoW community forums for everyone to download and use?"
Gabryell said, "Yes, but there are conditions."
"What conditions?"
"Blizzard's position is that our addon can't include anything that disrupts game balance. In other words, it can't become a cheat. It can only provide support features that help players play more smoothly."
Gabryell continued, "Blizzard will provide us with quest, map, item, and other basic data so we can improve the addon. As for dungeons, we can only add data for dungeons players have already cleared. This is especially true for future raid instances. If no one has cleared them yet, our addon is not allowed to include their data."
That was perfectly reasonable. If no one had cleared a dungeon yet and Gabryell entered all the data into the addon, progression difficulty would drop dramatically. That would go against Blizzard's original intent in designing boss mechanics and strategies.
"Blizzard doesn't want to damage the competitive nature of raid progression. Once an instance has been fully cleared, Blizzard considers it no longer part of the race. At that point, helping ordinary players clear it improves player retention."
Blizzard was extremely shrewd. They knew that if ordinary players were stuck for too long, many would lose patience and quit the game.
"So when we progress through raid instances in the future, we'll have to rely on ourselves for the time being."
Gabryell said, "I believe we can rely on ourselves to get the first clears, then personally add the dungeon data afterward."
Without the addon's help, raid progression would become much harder. Gabryell did not want to rely on other guilds fully clearing raid instances before improving the addon's raid functions. He wanted to personally lead the raid to those first clears and improve the addon himself.
He was taking those first clears. Blizzard could not stop him. Even without addon alerts, he could still clear them with the experience from his previous life.
To him, vanilla raid instances were like an open book. There were no secrets at all. He knew every boss strategy inside and out. He did not need to be like other raids, wiping countless times, learning boss abilities bit by bit, and slowly figuring out the best way to fight each boss.
"Once Blizzard sends the data over, I'll improve it further."
Gabryell now had everything ready except the final push. "I believe the addon can officially launch in a few days."
Hugo said, "My brother has already found office space for us. Once we recruit staff, the company can start operating at any time."
Gabryell said, "Let me meet your brother when there's a chance."
Hugo said, "My brother wants to meet you too. He said whenever you're free, he can meet anytime."
Gabryell said, "No time like the present. Let's arrange it for tomorrow afternoon."
Hugo nodded. "Okay. I'll contact my brother right away."
Hugo took out his Nokia and called his brother. After talking for a while, he hung up and said to Gabryell, "My brother will come to the school tomorrow afternoon."
Carlos said, "The number of registered users on the WoW community forums is growing higher and higher. Our forum is about to become the main gathering place for players across the game."
Igor said, "With the WoW community forums promoting it, Vent downloads have exploded. More than a hundred guilds have already registered guild channels on Vent. I'll improve the follow-up features as quickly as possible and make our voice chat software irreplaceable for players."
Gabryell was very satisfied with the efficiency of his three friends. With their help, why worry that the company could not get on track and take off?
Gabryell raised his fist, and the other three followed.
"When friends have each other's backs, nothing can stop them."
After the pep talk, Gabryell returned to the game. Today's goal was to reach level 45, then take care of a few must-do quests, such as the Nifty Stopwatch quest chain in the Badlands. While he was at it, he would also pick up the Zul'Farrak quests. Once the others reached level 45, they would full clear ZF once, then move on to Maraudon.
"Level 40 already. Pretty fast."
Gabryell opened his friends list. Dreamshade was still online and already level 40.
Dreamshade did not reply. Without a doubt, it was his power leveler online again.
"I hit level 26."
Snowlily had logged in even earlier than Gabryell. She was already level 26.
She was now Fearless's second-most active Dwarf Priest. The most active one was BigHealsShortLegs, who was already level 32.
"I already gave Underworld Band to Desert. He paid me for it. I'll give you the money later so you can split it with everyone."
The Underworld Band Snowlily had won had been bought directly with real money by the wealthy DesertWanderer. She had not kept the money for herself. Instead, she planned to split it evenly among everyone who had participated at the time.
Gabryell said, "Hold onto it for now. Once everyone's online, I'll get them into Vent and we'll split it properly."
Some people were not online yet, so it was not the right time to divide the money.
Snowlily said, "Okay, I'll keep questing, then."
"Go. It would be best if you reach level 45 before the open beta ends, so you can join everyone for Zul'Farrak and Maraudon." Dwarf Priests were precious, and Gabryell hoped the guild's Dwarf Priests would level as high as possible.
"Gabryell, you're not going to keep AoE grinding?" Carlos asked when he saw Gabryell flying to Duskwood instead of the Wetlands.
From level 40 to 42, Gabryell did not plan to AoE grind. He intended to quest in Stranglethorn Vale and stop by the Gurubashi Arena to open the chest—not for the Arena Master trinket, but for the blue gear that could come from the chest.
"I'm going to Stranglethorn Vale to quest. Once you guys hit level 40, you can come to Stranglethorn and clear the quests too. Save the Tanaris quests for after launch."
Gabryell wanted to maximize his gains. Waiting until the game officially launched and the level cap opened to 60 before clearing the Tanaris quests was much more worthwhile than doing them now. Players who cleared out the Tanaris quests now would definitely regret it once level 60 opened.
"We can reach level 40 today. Come over when we do Scarlet Monastery Cathedral," Carlos said, remembering that Gabryell had told them to call him when they were going to run Cathedral.
"No problem. You guys hurry up and grind Scarlet Monastery for levels. Those two lovebirds are waiting for you."
Gabryell was very interested in killing World of Warcraft's first famous boss couple. Their reputation in the game was well known, after all. They were the first "lovebird" boss pair most players encountered.
He flew to Darkshire, mounted up, and immediately caused a commotion among the nearby players.
Gabryell had already gotten used to being stared at back in Stormwind, so he simply ignored the surrounding players and rode west along the main road. When he reached the three-way crossroads outside the ogre valley, he headed south.
After entering Stranglethorn Vale, he went straight to the right. The Alliance camp was there.
Stranglethorn Vale was another zone where Horde travel was more convenient than Alliance travel. The Alliance only had Darkshire far behind them, and gryphons could only fly to Booty Bay. The Horde, on the other hand, had Grom'gol Base Camp and could take the zeppelin from outside Orgrimmar directly there.
There were pros and cons. When Alliance players raided Orgrimmar, they often staged in Darkshire, cleared out Grom'gol Base Camp, then used the zeppelin to strike Orgrimmar directly. From there, they could take another zeppelin and continue the raid at Undercity.
Gabryell arrived at the small Alliance camp, picked up the quests, and began his questing career in Stranglethorn Vale.