Beginning Lua with World of Warcraft Add-ons

This book capitalizes on the 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.

If you play World of Warcraft, chances are you know what Deadly Boss Mods is: it's the most widely downloaded modification available for World of Warcraft, considered required software for many professional raid guilds, and arguably the most popular modern video game mod in history.

Paul Emmerich, the author of Deadly Boss Mods, will take you from novice to elite with his approachable, up-to-date guide to building add-ons for the most popular video game in history. Using the powerful Lua scripting language and XML, you'll learn how to build and update powerful mods that can fundamentally remake your World of Warcraft experience and introduce you to the field of professional software development.

Beginning Lua with World of Warcraft Add-ons teaches you the essentials of Lua and XML using exciting code examples that you can run and apply immediately. You'll gain competence in Lua specifics like tables and metatables and the imperative nature of Lua as a scripting language. More advanced techniques like file persistence, error handling, and script debugging are made clear as you learn everything within the familiar, exciting context of making tools that work in Azeroth.

You'll not only learn all about the World of Warcraft application programming interface and programming, and gain coding skills that will make all your online friends think you're a coding god, but also gain hands-on Lua scripting experience that could translate into an exciting job in the video game industry!

Within a year, 8 million people (conservatively) will download Emmerich's add-on package and every single one will receive a precisely targeted, broadcast advertisement for the book. Conversion rates as low as 1% still yields a projected 80,000 RTD. Emmerich teaches practical Lua skills but the mods are a "lifestyle enhancement" commodity with salience to hobbyists and up-skilling professionals, a double appeal well suited to a down economy. The only competing title was published well prior to a major update to WoW's scripting language, written by a far less popular add-on author and had no cooperative marketing effort.

Autorentext
Paul Emmerich is one of the programmers behind Deadly Boss Mods, one of the most famous World of Warcraft add-ons ever, with over 8 million users worldwide. He started programming in 1998, and started programming in Lua when World of Warcraft was released in 2004. Since then he has also created a variety of other projects in Lua, including porting vintage games to Lua. He currently studies computer science at the Technische Universit t M nchen in Germany. As Tandanu, level 80 Priest and Chief Coder for the guild on Aegwynn, Paul enjoys winning raid encounters and adding to his HK count.

Inhalt
Getting Started.- Lua Basics.- Using the WoW API to Create a Hello, World Mod.- Working with Game Events.- Using XML and Frames.- Advanced Lua.- Using Advanced Lua to Extend the Texas Hold'em Poker Addon.- Building a Poker Game Client with Addon Communication.- Using the Combat Log to Build a Cooldown Monitor.- Using Libraries.- Working with Secure Templates.- Macros.- Tips, Tricks, and Optimization.- Other Uses for Lua.