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Originally Posted by Digital_Utopia
In the case of MMOs, it's a little bit different obviously - as technically speaking, you really can't add anything to the game itself. However, finding out how stuff works definitely still applies, and, of course, addons/plugins are the closest thing to adding new stuff. While I haven't really looked into WoW addons, the general feeling I get, is that these libraries are mainly for making things easier for other authors. It's important to note that the major difference between WoW and LotRO when it comes to this, is that even core UI elements are done the same way as addons are in WoW. Obviously there are some functions/API that are off limits to addons; but generally speaking, players create their UI elements using the same methods that Blizzard does. With LotRO, the plugin system is a completely separate entity - with the client modified to communicate with this system. While this greatly reduces the chances of Exploits and botting, it also makes the system require more effort on part of the developer, and limits the power of plugins to only what's been added to that system.
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This is wrong. The functionality to track threat? Didn't exist. Someone went out, figured out here's how much threat each skill generates. They figured out anything that could modify that threat. Then they watched everything - what talents you have, what buffs you have, what equipment you've got on, what skills you used, and they guessed - here's how much threat you've generated on the target. And that was the threat meter.
And then later on? Blizzard figured out - oh, our players would like to know how much threat they've got on a mob. Let's add it into the API. And then those threat libraries got deprecated. But it was the players leading the way. They didn't wait for Blizzard to expose those game mechanics to the API. They just went out and wrote it in.