Beginning Lua with World of Warcraft Add-ons

World of Warcraft is the most popular video game in the world, with more than 11.5 million active subscribers worldwide. Every single one of them is made aware of the availability of add-ons (or “mods”) and user interface customizability. Of that 11.5 million at a conservative estimate 8,106,256 users (not including downloads from Paul Emmerich’s own site) have downloaded Paul Emmerich’s add-on package, Deadly Boss Mods. Entire multi-million dollar games are less popular than Deadly Boss Mods, and the popularity and importance of Deadly Boss Mods to World of Warcraft play cannot be overstated; his add-ons are considered required downloads for serious World of Warcraft player-teams (“guilds”).

Beginning Lua with World of Warcraft Add-ons capitalizes on the strong interest of WoW players in modifying their game experiences by leveraging Paul Emmerich’s popularity to create interest in learning Lua and XML, and presents instruction on the basics of Lua grounded on real coding experience. Both WoW players, and those interested in learning Lua will be drawn by exercises carefully designed to match the reader’s developing skill level. WoW players seeking to maximize their game experience will find the “never-though-of-that” tools they need, while those interested in programming will discover a readable, solid didactic work that guides them through Lua in a fun and easy-to-implement context.