WoW installation question

That's normal for WoW.

DoctorPeppers said:

Hey guys i know this is a noob question but thats ok with me considering i havnt even been using OS X for a week. Anyways, I started installing WoW last night and i used the Lich King Disc to get majority of the data installed instead of downloading it all. I selected the location as follows MacHD>Applications. But in my Applications folder there is the entire WoW folder instead of just the shortcut like it is for other Applications. Like instead of just the "WoW" icon its the whole folder. So I was wondering if this is normal or not since all my other applications show just the icon and their data folder are elsewhere.
Thanks for any help.

Click to expand...

Those "icons" in the Applications folder your refer to are actually "folders" themselves. They are called Packages and contain all of the applications' data, except for preferences, which are stored in your user's Library folder.

Right-click on any such app icon and select "Show Package Contents" to see for yourself

I suspect it was an intentional decision by Blizzard to expose the internals of WoW as a folder to make it simpler for users to grope around in the directory contents.

Since you've got to place files inside there in order to install addons, and WoW will be saving logs, screenshots, movies and other stuff in there as well it makes sense to make it as straightforward for people as possible. Having to right-click and "view package contents" would just be impossibly complicated for some people and Blizzard would have to handle those support calls and emails.

I like seeing apps as icons, too, but in this case I can see why they did it the way they did.

eXan said:

Those "icons" in the Applications folder your refer to are actually "folders" themselves. They are called Packages and contain all of the applications' data, except for preferences, which are stored in your user's Library folder.

Right-click on any such app icon and select "Show Package Contents" to see for yourself

Click to expand...

Sometimes there are program support documents (like saved games) in the Home>Documents folder, the Home>Library>Application Support folder, and/or the Home>Library>Preferences folder. But most of it just sits in the individual program's folder and as mentioned above, it may be hidden in a "package". Whenever you see just an icon with no little arrow indicating it's an alias, right click on it and see if it will offer to show it's contents.