As many are aware b.net 2.0 will not have chat channels Private or Public at release. It took blizzard almost 1 year to impliment a bare bones private chat system for SC2.
Blizzard has been leading the community on to expect chat channels for release ( a feature that shouldnt even require a community to express the need for regardless)
Observe the follow Q&A with Jay Wilson Answering a question on chat channels
Notice something? Yah, chat lobby. What do we have now? wow style chat that allows you to communicate only with 3 others in game. No private OR public chat.
Community will suffer in the long run
This needs to be the focus of debate for the community imo. What is the point of obtaining awesome gear or earning incredable achieves if no one can see your accomplishments without effort. Are we going to be limited to a "search" functionality to see someones hard earned gear? NO, right now we are limited to seeing the accomplishments of others on your friends lists or people you join a game with. Not very epic.
I have never felt so alone in an online game like I do in D3, thats not the entire truth, SC2 gave me the same feeling before fan outcry brought in chat channels. Right now there is no community in the beta , users join a game, barely say anything and rush to the next boss. I feel like I have been turned into a farmer for blizzards RMAH since blizzard sees communication as evil and is forcing me to do the following,
Log in ---> Join game ---> item find ---> leave game ---> post item ---> rinse repeat.
I dont see any communication or any point to the whole magic find grind without a community. Why use that epic Windforce bow you found if no one is even going to know you have it? Diablo 2 chat interface was superior for showing off epic characters.
Censorship is wrong, let the community decide how they want to play the game
All I ever hear from blizzard is Chat channels encourage bots and spammers, well the game is rated mature. People can decide if they want to be isolated from ad's, or you can maybe, I dont know... moderate?
No one is forcing people to join public channels and no one is forcing you to use a private channel, but people are social by nature and without a way to communicate to mass groups of people, this game will become nothing like the game it should/could have been, and the community will not grow without the use of OUTSIDE websites. This going against Blizzard's so called "positive gaming experience."
You can be happy with Battle.net 2.0 the way it is, or you can voice your opinions/concerns BEFORE the game is shipped. Do you want an online single player game or an online MULTIPLAYER game?
The ball is in your court, express your concerns and make them known.
I also feel this video is misleading and another video needs to be made addressing LACK OF chat channels of any form.
Dude the same people that made WoW are working on D3 now what did you expect, the recipe is simple:
Log in ---> Join game ---> item find ---> leave game ---> post item ---> rinse repeat
Your thinking too much your not a good customer
Lol, im thinking to much there for im not a good customer? I guess this pretty much sums up the mentality of blizzard now and there relation to the fans.
I agree that showing off gear to others in the community is the whole point of continuing to improve your gear (play) - I'll grant you that.
I also feel frustrated at the lack of 'kinship' in the beta - I'll grant you that too.
But (and this is my opinion only) the lack of kinship feeling in the D3 beta so far isn't to do with the fact that I can only chat to the team I fall into a random game with in one window.
It's more the calibre of player. I'll rarely get answers to my questions or suggestions to try for the (pain in the ass) resurrection beta achievement.
I'm reminded of randomly grouped warcraft hc cross-realm runs especially in LK.
I think what I'll do (because I don't see how Blizzard can fix this alone) is be less 'secret' about being friendly with players. If I like someone I'll invite them to be my b.net pal. Then from these names I'll find my 'random' players when my 'real friends' aren't available.
Basically I think the onus is on me here. Not Blizzard.
I have to completely agree. I've joined a total of 3 beta games over the last few months where people were talking. I can't get an answer out of almost anybody.
There's still going to be whispers, and a lobby for your group. Would it be cool to have a giant D2 style lobby to just BS in ? Sure, but Blizzard has stated how the bad outweighs the good with that feature. I'll have to side on Blizzard here, I can remember the times on one hand I was actually able to trade with somebody using that. More to the point, all I saw were spam bots (no level requ for the lobby lol).
I'll have to be like Businesstime; Just be more friendly. I can't rely on others to be like that =D
I agree that showing off gear to others in the community is the whole point of continuing to improve your gear (play) - I'll grant you that.
I also feel frustrated at the lack of 'kinship' in the beta - I'll grant you that too.
But (and this is my opinion only) the lack of kinship feeling in the D3 beta so far isn't to do with the fact that I can only chat to the team I fall into a random game with in one window.
It's more the calibre of player. I'll rarely get answers to my questions or suggestions to try for the (pain in the ass) resurrection beta achievement.
I'm reminded of randomly grouped warcraft hc cross-realm runs especially in LK.
I think what I'll do (because I don't see how Blizzard can fix this alone) is be less 'secret' about being friendly with players. If I like someone I'll invite them to be my b.net pal. Then from these names I'll find my 'random' players when my 'real friends' aren't available.
Basically I think the onus is on me here. Not Blizzard.
I have to completely agree. I've joined a total of 3 beta games over the last few months where people were talking. I can't get an answer out of almost anybody.
There's still going to be whispers, and a lobby for your group. Would it be cool to have a giant D2 style lobby to just BS in ? Sure, but Blizzard has stated how the bad outweighs the good with that feature. I'll have to side on Blizzard here, I can remember the times on one hand I was actually able to trade with somebody using that. More to the point, all I saw were spam bots (no level requ for the lobby lol).
I'll have to be like Businesstime; Just be more friendly. I can't rely on others to be like that =D
you realize there are no private chat channels either , right?
I agree that showing off gear to others in the community is the whole point of continuing to improve your gear (play) - I'll grant you that.
I also feel frustrated at the lack of 'kinship' in the beta - I'll grant you that too.
But (and this is my opinion only) the lack of kinship feeling in the D3 beta so far isn't to do with the fact that I can only chat to the team I fall into a random game with in one window.
It's more the calibre of player. I'll rarely get answers to my questions or suggestions to try for the (pain in the ass) resurrection beta achievement.
I'm reminded of randomly grouped warcraft hc cross-realm runs especially in LK.
I think what I'll do (because I don't see how Blizzard can fix this alone) is be less 'secret' about being friendly with players. If I like someone I'll invite them to be my b.net pal. Then from these names I'll find my 'random' players when my 'real friends' aren't available.
Basically I think the onus is on me here. Not Blizzard.
I have to completely agree. I've joined a total of 3 beta games over the last few months where people were talking. I can't get an answer out of almost anybody.
There's still going to be whispers, and a lobby for your group. Would it be cool to have a giant D2 style lobby to just BS in ? Sure, but Blizzard has stated how the bad outweighs the good with that feature. I'll have to side on Blizzard here, I can remember the times on one hand I was actually able to trade with somebody using that. More to the point, all I saw were spam bots (no level requ for the lobby lol).
I'll have to be like Businesstime; Just be more friendly. I can't rely on others to be like that =D
you realize there are no private chat channels either , right?
a place where bots have no effect what so ever.
Well, actually there ARE 'private chat channels' (IE group talk), you just need to be in a group with those people.
I agree that showing off gear to others in the community is the whole point of continuing to improve your gear (play) - I'll grant you that.
I also feel frustrated at the lack of 'kinship' in the beta - I'll grant you that too.
But (and this is my opinion only) the lack of kinship feeling in the D3 beta so far isn't to do with the fact that I can only chat to the team I fall into a random game with in one window.
It's more the calibre of player. I'll rarely get answers to my questions or suggestions to try for the (pain in the ass) resurrection beta achievement.
I'm reminded of randomly grouped warcraft hc cross-realm runs especially in LK.
I think what I'll do (because I don't see how Blizzard can fix this alone) is be less 'secret' about being friendly with players. If I like someone I'll invite them to be my b.net pal. Then from these names I'll find my 'random' players when my 'real friends' aren't available.
Basically I think the onus is on me here. Not Blizzard.
I have to completely agree. I've joined a total of 3 beta games over the last few months where people were talking. I can't get an answer out of almost anybody.
There's still going to be whispers, and a lobby for your group. Would it be cool to have a giant D2 style lobby to just BS in ? Sure, but Blizzard has stated how the bad outweighs the good with that feature. I'll have to side on Blizzard here, I can remember the times on one hand I was actually able to trade with somebody using that. More to the point, all I saw were spam bots (no level requ for the lobby lol).
I'll have to be like Businesstime; Just be more friendly. I can't rely on others to be like that =D
you realize there are no private chat channels either , right?
a place where bots have no effect what so ever.
Well, actually there ARE 'private chat channels' (IE group talk), you just need to be in a group with those people.
Wrong. That is Group chat with 3 other people. MAX.
If you think chatting with 3 other people at once constitutes a chat channel then you my friend are misinformed.
I agree that showing off gear to others in the community is the whole point of continuing to improve your gear (play) - I'll grant you that.
I also feel frustrated at the lack of 'kinship' in the beta - I'll grant you that too.
But (and this is my opinion only) the lack of kinship feeling in the D3 beta so far isn't to do with the fact that I can only chat to the team I fall into a random game with in one window.
It's more the calibre of player. I'll rarely get answers to my questions or suggestions to try for the (pain in the ass) resurrection beta achievement.
I'm reminded of randomly grouped warcraft hc cross-realm runs especially in LK.
I think what I'll do (because I don't see how Blizzard can fix this alone) is be less 'secret' about being friendly with players. If I like someone I'll invite them to be my b.net pal. Then from these names I'll find my 'random' players when my 'real friends' aren't available.
Basically I think the onus is on me here. Not Blizzard.
I have to completely agree. I've joined a total of 3 beta games over the last few months where people were talking. I can't get an answer out of almost anybody.
There's still going to be whispers, and a lobby for your group. Would it be cool to have a giant D2 style lobby to just BS in ? Sure, but Blizzard has stated how the bad outweighs the good with that feature. I'll have to side on Blizzard here, I can remember the times on one hand I was actually able to trade with somebody using that. More to the point, all I saw were spam bots (no level requ for the lobby lol).
I'll have to be like Businesstime; Just be more friendly. I can't rely on others to be like that =D
you realize there are no private chat channels either , right?
a place where bots have no effect what so ever.
Well, actually there ARE 'private chat channels' (IE group talk), you just need to be in a group with those people.
Wrong. That is Group chat with 3 other people. MAX.
If you think chatting with 3 other people at once constitutes a chat channel then you my friend are misinformed.
Technically, yes. it's a channel. Where we chat. Thus, chat channel. There's no need for more than 4 people at once, because that's game size. Past that is just for fun, and isn't necessary.
You got me, what was I thinking? Wanting a place to talk with more then 3 other people.... In fact, I think we should just limit everything in society to 3-4 people. If I go to a bar, there should only be 3 people. If I go to a coffee shop , there should only be 3 people. Lets just accept everything blizzard does and not question anything.
You sir are in the minority. There are pages of posts on teamliquid,b.net forums etc, about this very topic and the majority want to talk with more then 3 people at a time.
I agree with you guys. The only thing I want from D2 is its chat system, minus the bots. If you had the avatars at the bottom with profile links, it would be a bit more popular. There needs to be a way to socialize on a larger scale.
100% agree with the OP. And there are tons of people asking Blizzard to do something about the lack of community features in bnet 2.0. Two maxed out threads in the past two days on the D3 forums. A maxed out thread on the SC2 forums a few days ago. This post - http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=308482 - on Team Liquid pointing out the lack of community features in SC2 and how it has ruined the game for a lot of people. Many are saying they don't play anymore and won't buy the expansions because the game feels lifeless and empty.
I really feel this is the #1, top issue that Blizzard needs to address. There needs to be an thriving, in-game community for D3 to succeed in the long run. Sure, it will sell like hotcakes when it launches. But what about 6 months, a year, or two years after launch?
For me, it boils down to longevity. Yes, I will still buy D3. I'll play it for a couple months or so. Maybe use the RMAH, maybe not. With no community-building tools at all on bnet 2.0, I'll lose interest long before any expansions come out, and not purchase them. I'll move on to a game that has the tools to build community -- it was the people that kept me playing D2 for so many years, and SWG was as broken as a MMO could possibly be, but I played that until they pulled the plug. Because of the community.
Contrast this with D2 (battlenet 1.0) -- which I still play from time to time. I enter chat, and through all the spam I still see players in the chat channels. They have short discussions, make games together, run bosses and trade. They help newbs and newb-agains. They interact. Today! In a game that's OVER 10 years old! Before the spammers took over it was even better, but even with that major annoyance there are still people in bnet chat, 24/7.
Trying to get players to interact in D3 beta has been a lost cause, and I don't see that changing for launch without proper tools. How am I to find people to run with when there's no way to chat, or even communicate the purpose of games I create? I buy single-player games and play them once or twice. I get addicted to games that sprout communities. Those are the games that become more than the sum of their pixels.
I think Bash's responce was concerning an open chat lobby like in D2. I don't see anything stating that there won't be other forms of char channels.
Official Blizzard Quote:
I have a question about friends and chat in D3. Is it possible to add someone to a friends list? Also, is there a global chat?
Yes there's multiple different types of friends lists. Global chat like you want to spam all your friends? no.
Maybe you find this troubling? I don't know, it looks to me as a default feature for chatting with all of your friends. That doesn't mean you can't make a separate channel and then invite all your friends in it.
I think there's a bit of misunderstanding going on.
Edit: I encourage you to bring this up to the official forums for futher confirmation and because twitter sucks.
The whole issue is that there won't be a chat lobby with open channels for everyone to join. There won't be a general chat, a barbarian chat, a trade chat, a pvp chat, etc. There won't be a line of characters at the bottoms showing their names, titles, gear, levels, etc. When you log on and none of your IRL friends are online, you're all alone. And for a lot of us, we don't have any IRL friends who are going to be playing D3. I know for myself, I have like 3 friends who are somewhat PC gamers and all of them have given up on D3 and won't be getting it.
If Blizzard doesn't add some sort of community support beyond a friends list, I really fear for the longevity of the game.
I'm in the beta, and I can tell you right now, the social dimension of D3 is non-existent. It feels exatly like bot runs. Nobody talks, and that is because there is no viable chat platform.. it's not simply because of the calibre of player. You get about 5 lines of text, which is constantly flooded with gameplay related information, so you very often miss people's chat.
Even more importantly, you can only be so far away from the action before you won't see any exp or loot. That means, the person who runs the fastest thru content FORCES everyone to follow closely or they miss out. That means, 1 person can ruin the social experience for the other 3, and there's almost always 1 that does.
I have played over 50 games. 48 of those experiences have been carbon copies of this: Join, 1 person grabs SK quest, takes the waypoint and starts killing. You hardly have time to say "Hello." A few people are always left behind. From there it's rush rush rush, everyone splits up going down different hallways, one person will find the stairs and NOT tell you, suddenly you'll be notified that the encounter with SK is starting, and you get ported there.
You are automatically put into games (there is no option to create, OR manually search for games, so you can't give your games titles like "slow casual run for exp and fun" etc). I mean, I don't care if people wanna blaze through content. That's fine for them. But right now, the ONLY way I can find people who play like I do is enduring countless awful rush games that aren't fun, OR meeting people on battle.net forums.
It's not just that there isn't a chat interface. There is NO SOCIAL COMMUNICATION PLATFORM WHATSOEVER. Just one tiny button in the lower right hand corner that, when you click it, shows you have 0 friends.
I've played with over 200 people, and I have 2 friends, one of which I met on the battle.net forums.
This needs to be fixed, or D3 will not be a game that lasts. You think the reason D2 lasted so long was because of how much people LOVED baal runs? No, they loved getting gear and sharing their experiences after earning it through the mind-numbing baal grind.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
-Thomas Jefferson
I think I'll start building 'like minded strangers' lists in advance.
Add me, my Battletag is Bootes#1787
That goes for anyone here who enjoys being able to hang out, chat it up, floss your new gear, and generally be SOCIAL in-game, on top of playing hard and grinding out loot.
If that sounds like the kind of player you'd like in your friends list, add me as a friend. D3 is amazingly fun, even in beta. Until Blizzard gets us the social platform we need, I'm gonna do like Businesstime and pre-populate my friends list.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
-Thomas Jefferson
I don´t care about any chat support whatsoever ( in channel form) simply because if you look at D2 right now you will know why.
4 players max in a private-chat is fine with me, but i'm probably not gonna use it except for item linking ... will do all the talking on my own hosted TS3 or Ventrilo server.
Voice support was a big fail in WoW , because most ppl used Ts3/Ventrilo/mumble/skype anyway, which had superior sound quality compared to the in-game one.
My opinion about SC2 is the same for this , sure chat is handy .. but i don't type anything in-game but gl hf and gg anyway...
For the rest... teamspeak/ventrilo.
I'm sure people will scream for a global chat channel... but whine about it when it's loaded with bots spamming 24/7.
With the amount of children playing ( with children i mean the extremely poor english talking , not knowing what they're doing beside pressing some buttons ), i'm not gonna bother with public games and such, they are a waste of time.
And that's the reason i'm only gonna play with friends.
Just my 2 cents
If you don't want to use the chat channels in D2, you don't have to. It's as simple as that and it could be just as simple in D3. You could be as antisocial as you want.
By the way, if you're worried that D3 chat channels are going to be full of spam (not likely since each CD-key only gets one account as opposed to D2 where you could make unlimited accounts with 1 key), then you should also be worried about spam bots entering your games and spamming you right in the game chat.
Playing the beta and loving it!! But I do have to agree with some of my fellow posters in that the public games severly lack interaction with fellow players. I've leveled ten chars (avatars I guess is the new way to express that but 10 years ago we called them chars lol) to level 13 and played at least 100 games or more and didn't have even one conversation with someone. Now I'm obviously as much at fault for that as my fellow players since I didn't make any effort to chat either but honestly after so many bot-like runs you just sort of accept it which is sad. Maybe we are all afraid or nervous to actually start chatting with complete strangers lol.
Anyway, I own up to the fact I'm just as guilty as anyone else about not trying to be social and I think this weekend I'll make an effort to change that, but having a large Public Chat area would definitely help because you might see someone mentioning something you relate to or are into which makes it easier to join in on a conversation. A shy player could just sort of hang out for awhile and get a feel for everything and when they see something they feel comfortable commenting on, they can jump in. I met some of the coolest people ever in the old D2 chat rooms that I would probably not have formed a friendship with had we relied solely on chatting in a game. There were many times when I would log onto bnet just to hang out and catch up with people and didn't even bother playing. As I get older I better understand the old saying "You can never go home again," basically meaning that things change and aren't the same as you remember them, and I completely get that but at the same time I can't help be wish for something similar to what we had back then.
Nostalgia can be a cruel mistress. It's always fun to look back at things in our life that we remember as being fun or happy or innocent and how those things make us feel young again or bring warm smiles to our heart and then you start to realize that as much as you want those things again, they probably aren't coming back which makes the happy feelings almost bittersweet. Ok, sorry for the nostalgic tangent lol. Personally I'd love to see public chat return and if that means bots also then so be it. I think if Blizzard were to take anything away from what many of us are wishing/asking for, it's that the social aspect kept many of us coming back and logging in for a longer period of time then we would have without that social aspect.
Blizzard has been leading the community on to expect chat channels for release ( a feature that shouldnt even require a community to express the need for regardless)
Observe the follow Q&A with Jay Wilson Answering a question on chat channels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_pQkdn0eVw&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLBF1573E1B6627B20
Fast forward to 05:00 min in for the question/answer.
Fan site summit and misleading info, observe the following pic from the fansite summet for d3
http://www.gamingsur...-battle-net.jpg
Notice something? Yah, chat lobby. What do we have now? wow style chat that allows you to communicate only with 3 others in game. No private OR public chat.
Community will suffer in the long run
This needs to be the focus of debate for the community imo. What is the point of obtaining awesome gear or earning incredable achieves if no one can see your accomplishments without effort. Are we going to be limited to a "search" functionality to see someones hard earned gear? NO, right now we are limited to seeing the accomplishments of others on your friends lists or people you join a game with. Not very epic.
I have never felt so alone in an online game like I do in D3, thats not the entire truth, SC2 gave me the same feeling before fan outcry brought in chat channels. Right now there is no community in the beta , users join a game, barely say anything and rush to the next boss. I feel like I have been turned into a farmer for blizzards RMAH since blizzard sees communication as evil and is forcing me to do the following,
Log in ---> Join game ---> item find ---> leave game ---> post item ---> rinse repeat.
I dont see any communication or any point to the whole magic find grind without a community. Why use that epic Windforce bow you found if no one is even going to know you have it? Diablo 2 chat interface was superior for showing off epic characters.
Censorship is wrong, let the community decide how they want to play the game
All I ever hear from blizzard is Chat channels encourage bots and spammers, well the game is rated mature. People can decide if they want to be isolated from ad's, or you can maybe, I dont know... moderate?
No one is forcing people to join public channels and no one is forcing you to use a private channel, but people are social by nature and without a way to communicate to mass groups of people, this game will become nothing like the game it should/could have been, and the community will not grow without the use of OUTSIDE websites. This going against Blizzard's so called "positive gaming experience."
You can be happy with Battle.net 2.0 the way it is, or you can voice your opinions/concerns BEFORE the game is shipped. Do you want an online single player game or an online MULTIPLAYER game?
The ball is in your court, express your concerns and make them known.
I also feel this video is misleading and another video needs to be made addressing LACK OF chat channels of any form.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoK_Z5YIUk0&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL5C2F514ECED855CA
i
/wave
Lol, im thinking to much there for im not a good customer? I guess this pretty much sums up the mentality of blizzard now and there relation to the fans.
I have to completely agree. I've joined a total of 3 beta games over the last few months where people were talking. I can't get an answer out of almost anybody.
There's still going to be whispers, and a lobby for your group. Would it be cool to have a giant D2 style lobby to just BS in ? Sure, but Blizzard has stated how the bad outweighs the good with that feature. I'll have to side on Blizzard here, I can remember the times on one hand I was actually able to trade with somebody using that. More to the point, all I saw were spam bots (no level requ for the lobby lol).
I'll have to be like Businesstime; Just be more friendly. I can't rely on others to be like that =D
you realize there are no private chat channels either , right?
a place where bots have no effect what so ever.
Well, actually there ARE 'private chat channels' (IE group talk), you just need to be in a group with those people.
Wrong. That is Group chat with 3 other people. MAX.
If you think chatting with 3 other people at once constitutes a chat channel then you my friend are misinformed.
Technically, yes. it's a channel. Where we chat. Thus, chat channel. There's no need for more than 4 people at once, because that's game size. Past that is just for fun, and isn't necessary.
You sir are in the minority. There are pages of posts on teamliquid,b.net forums etc, about this very topic and the majority want to talk with more then 3 people at a time.
Battle.net Profile / Diablo Progress Profile
I really feel this is the #1, top issue that Blizzard needs to address. There needs to be an thriving, in-game community for D3 to succeed in the long run. Sure, it will sell like hotcakes when it launches. But what about 6 months, a year, or two years after launch?
This guy's post on the official D3 forums sums it up for me (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4015344357?page=11#213):
The whole issue is that there won't be a chat lobby with open channels for everyone to join. There won't be a general chat, a barbarian chat, a trade chat, a pvp chat, etc. There won't be a line of characters at the bottoms showing their names, titles, gear, levels, etc. When you log on and none of your IRL friends are online, you're all alone. And for a lot of us, we don't have any IRL friends who are going to be playing D3. I know for myself, I have like 3 friends who are somewhat PC gamers and all of them have given up on D3 and won't be getting it.
If Blizzard doesn't add some sort of community support beyond a friends list, I really fear for the longevity of the game.
Even more importantly, you can only be so far away from the action before you won't see any exp or loot. That means, the person who runs the fastest thru content FORCES everyone to follow closely or they miss out. That means, 1 person can ruin the social experience for the other 3, and there's almost always 1 that does.
I have played over 50 games. 48 of those experiences have been carbon copies of this: Join, 1 person grabs SK quest, takes the waypoint and starts killing. You hardly have time to say "Hello." A few people are always left behind. From there it's rush rush rush, everyone splits up going down different hallways, one person will find the stairs and NOT tell you, suddenly you'll be notified that the encounter with SK is starting, and you get ported there.
You are automatically put into games (there is no option to create, OR manually search for games, so you can't give your games titles like "slow casual run for exp and fun" etc). I mean, I don't care if people wanna blaze through content. That's fine for them. But right now, the ONLY way I can find people who play like I do is enduring countless awful rush games that aren't fun, OR meeting people on battle.net forums.
It's not just that there isn't a chat interface. There is NO SOCIAL COMMUNICATION PLATFORM WHATSOEVER. Just one tiny button in the lower right hand corner that, when you click it, shows you have 0 friends.
I've played with over 200 people, and I have 2 friends, one of which I met on the battle.net forums.
This needs to be fixed, or D3 will not be a game that lasts. You think the reason D2 lasted so long was because of how much people LOVED baal runs? No, they loved getting gear and sharing their experiences after earning it through the mind-numbing baal grind.
-Thomas Jefferson
Add me, my Battletag is Bootes#1787
That goes for anyone here who enjoys being able to hang out, chat it up, floss your new gear, and generally be SOCIAL in-game, on top of playing hard and grinding out loot.
If that sounds like the kind of player you'd like in your friends list, add me as a friend. D3 is amazingly fun, even in beta. Until Blizzard gets us the social platform we need, I'm gonna do like Businesstime and pre-populate my friends list.
-Thomas Jefferson
If you don't want to use the chat channels in D2, you don't have to. It's as simple as that and it could be just as simple in D3. You could be as antisocial as you want.
By the way, if you're worried that D3 chat channels are going to be full of spam (not likely since each CD-key only gets one account as opposed to D2 where you could make unlimited accounts with 1 key), then you should also be worried about spam bots entering your games and spamming you right in the game chat.
Anyway, I own up to the fact I'm just as guilty as anyone else about not trying to be social and I think this weekend I'll make an effort to change that, but having a large Public Chat area would definitely help because you might see someone mentioning something you relate to or are into which makes it easier to join in on a conversation. A shy player could just sort of hang out for awhile and get a feel for everything and when they see something they feel comfortable commenting on, they can jump in. I met some of the coolest people ever in the old D2 chat rooms that I would probably not have formed a friendship with had we relied solely on chatting in a game. There were many times when I would log onto bnet just to hang out and catch up with people and didn't even bother playing. As I get older I better understand the old saying "You can never go home again," basically meaning that things change and aren't the same as you remember them, and I completely get that but at the same time I can't help be wish for something similar to what we had back then.
Nostalgia can be a cruel mistress. It's always fun to look back at things in our life that we remember as being fun or happy or innocent and how those things make us feel young again or bring warm smiles to our heart and then you start to realize that as much as you want those things again, they probably aren't coming back which makes the happy feelings almost bittersweet. Ok, sorry for the nostalgic tangent lol. Personally I'd love to see public chat return and if that means bots also then so be it. I think if Blizzard were to take anything away from what many of us are wishing/asking for, it's that the social aspect kept many of us coming back and logging in for a longer period of time then we would have without that social aspect.
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