Ever since battle.net "upgraded" from 1.0 to 2.0 the social aspect of blizzard games has reduced to a fraction of what I was used to.
Battle.net 1.0 and Social Dynamics
In Battle.net 1.0 people in a "GROUP" setting could chat with each other across all blizzard games
SC,Warcraft 2,Warcraft 3, Diablo, Diablo 2. If I played Diablo 1 I could still join a Chat Channel with people from all blizzard games and carry a conversation even if, for example, they played Warcraft 3.
Move along to Battle.net 2.0. What games have been incorporated into the new system? Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft and Diablo 3. One fundamental difference between Battle.net 1 and 2 and I feel the developers do not understand this, is we CANNOT, in a group setting talk with people from other games. All conversations are 1 on 1 thus isolating the community from eachother.
The expectations of Battle.net 2.0
People assumed Battle.net would be an upgrade from the previous service adding enhanced gaming and socialability across all Battle.net platforms in the future. When I first saw the demo of Battle.net 2.0 I assumed we would be able to form Channels with different people in all new blizzard games. I looked forward to chatting with my guild in WOW while logged into SC2. This was my expectation, an upgrade from the previous.
I figured , if people could join from all blizzard games and come together as a community, in a set location (Chat Channel), this would obviously have to be included in an
upgrade.
Eg. If I made a private channel friends from wow,SC2 and D3 could join and carry on a conversation, similar to a guild in WOW by comparison, only logged in on different platforms.
The Current State of Socialization in Battle.net 2.0
- Users can no longer talk, in a group setting, with others from different games
- Battle.net , at launch, included no Chat Channels thus inhibiting a community to thrive on release day. To go from a platform with such robust social elements to completely removing them, in favor of better match making, users no longer could compare themselves to others or see how others were enjoying the game. This gave the the community a sense of separation and isolation from each other.
- Users must always play online, developers encourage users to do so because "they want to bring the community together" more so then battle.net one(we are told this in numerious developer panels at blizzcon/interviews)
(lead designer of battle.net 2.0 discussing design philosophy and Pillers to reach)
Yet they remove standard socialization features? Something does not make sense here.
- Diablo 3 is lacking Private channels , to chat among your friends in a group setting
- The Chat box is very similar in design to AOL messenger (Battle.net 1 should have been upgraded in this regard with 2.0)
Diablo 3 Repeating the same mistakes as SC2
Right now, Diablo 3 is headed for success, unfortunately the game is lacking in very basic components that creates longevity. A thriving community. The game in its very basic form is about trading/loot and min/maxing your character and building the perfect skill set that defines YOU among a population.
Diablo 2 had it right when it incorporated the Avatar system into its design philosophy. It created a sense of community. It made you feel like your character actually held weight in a population.
It gave the game an MMO quality that so many seem to forget.
Think of WOW players, how they all hang out together in stormwind/orgrimmar. Chat Channels, whether private or public, with avatars, was very similar to hanging out in these mentioned Cities.
My experience in the D3 Beta, a social view
I log in, my character is taking up 3/4 of my screen. I join a game. I try to talk about the game but within seconds I am bombarded with Game text pushing my text out of the way. Almost like everything about this game is telling me. DO NOT SOCIALIZE , YOU CAN DO IT, BUT WE WILL MAKE IT THE MOST UNCOMFORTABLE EXPERIENCE IF YOU EVEN TRY.
This design bleeds into the currently implimented chat channels.
- The text is pure white , not seperated by different coloured text makign it very difficult to differentiate who is saying what.
- No flood control making it near impossible to carry on a conversation
- No ignore
- When the channel is being flooded with spammers users can no longer join a private channel to avoid it.
EVERYTHING ABOUT THE CURRENT CHAT TELLS ME WE DON'T WANT YOU TALKING TO EACH OTHER.
Anyway, I really hope blizzard cleans up there act in regards to inhibiting social community and going back to there roots ala Battle.net 1.0. Right now every new game blizzard pumps out feels very alone among millions of players.
I agree it is somewhat of a downgrade from the old version; however does it really impact your enjoyment? I think back and most of time I never made many friends from those channels I made friends from sites like this externally from the system. In the earlier days there weren’t as many sites and options to externally communicate with others now there are plenty. Chat with WoW buddies, honestly in a hack'n'slash game it hard to type and play at the same time, I just hanged out in vent and talked to other people. Most random people on chat channels I usually find aren't worth communicating with. I can agree with the lack of channel capability with friends as real ID is a piece of shit.
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Playing Diablo since 97. I know nothing and having nothing good to say, I be a troll.
100% agree here. They have severely damaged the amazing social aspect the old battle.net used to have and seem to either be unaware that anyone notices or they simply aren't interested us being social anymore. Either scenario is very bad and they need to address these issues or at least tell us where they plan on heading with their current design philosophy for battle.net 2.0
Seeing those level 90+ hardcore characters in channels with the red glow was awesome, seeing the first druid and assassin avatars when the expansion released was sweet, and the starcraft 2 medic and warcraft 3 avatars were all so simple yet added so much depth and enabled people from different games to interact with each other in a way that is nonexistant now. I hope Blizzard realizes this
I thought it was pretty cool that I could chat with peoples logged in SC, while I was playing Diablo 2 back then. My mind was blown! Didn't knew it was wide, and I could possible be in channel with those from WC and whatnot aswell.
It is a cool feature indeed, but it do not bother me that much. I know in World of Warcraft, you could invite 2 Real ID friends into a private chat aswell as you could create your own channel.
But I gotta say, the chat in Diablo 3 can be gone too fast because of combat text, which do not fit into it. Maybe a bigger chat box should help on the problem.
Why would you be watching the chat scrolling when your in combat? I fail to see the issue, once your done killing something scroll back and read it, it was no different than in game D2.
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Playing Diablo since 97. I know nothing and having nothing good to say, I be a troll.
Definitely agree here with the OP. There was so much hype and marketing about all their work with the BNet 2.0 rollout and, frankly, besides 1-to-1 cross-game built-in chat (why don't they just do an overlay like Steam?), there's nothing new or better.
Get ventrillo, its very cheap, usually free, and beats the hell out of typing.
I personally love ventrilo. The delay is noticeable to me and isn't as real time as some other irc chat system, but it's still great to use. I don't think I can play any games without it now. And I avoid typing as much as possible in game or try to get friends to get headsets.
I'm not sure what blizzard is up to, but with this and reducing co op to four, brings up some questions.
Quiz: Do you think Blizz will post about this or about the skills UI first? I guess neither lol.
doubtful.
Unfortunately its up to fansites to ask the tough questions about these issues at Fan summit meetings etc and not dance around important game aspects to invoke retribution from the developers.
honestly dont care about chatting when theres skype and ventrilo. Didn't have those back then so chatting was good but now its easier to just speak to friends rather than type. And all the other fluff is meh, i log in and go into game, not sure what you wanna do by sitting in a lobby
I must agree, chatting was a great feature of Bnet 1.0 and worked pretty well.
It was a great feeling to login and being able to discuss with thousands of people on the go and create group/games with them easily, all in the same interface.
Quiz: Do you think Blizz will post about this or about the skills UI first? I guess neither lol.
They have posted about it, and it wasn't good. Basically the "this is how it will be at launch, we will look into corrections later" which was the same said for SC2.
Right now, Diablo 3 is headed for success, unfortunately the game is lacking in very basic components that creates longevity. A thriving community.
Well, that is a little far fetched considering how large the community is without the game even being out. Otherwise it is hard not to agree with you.
I do agree to some extent. Some features are downgrades. Some are upgrades like the ability to talk to people in other games WHILE playing in 1.0 you couldn't do that unless they were in your particular game. The chat channels were cool but really.. unless you are one of the masses in WoW's trade channels giving Chuch Norris jokes you really aren't missing anything. In all their older games the friends I made were externally met via guilds websites and what not... It's been so long but I don't really remember the old games channels really being filled with quality people or conversation. It'd be nice if the option was there but really... Not missing out on a lot.
I play starcraft 2, and the fact that I cant go in a channel and find new people to play with really suck. I remember in warcraft 3 you could join all these channels and ask people to play with you, it was awesome. Why they took that out is fucking non-sense.
I have no idea how it is supposed to work with D3, but I hope there will be channels to join and chat with new people. How else can you make friends otherwise beside joining games with 3 people at a time... Get your shit straight blizz, you are making more and more mistakes.
When u log in it tells you how many users there are and how many are playing and basically 99% of ppl (40,000ish) were playing rather than sitting in lobby spamming this. No one freaking uses these public chat anymore. All it is now is done for advertising sites and selling crap or talking crap/spam. Internet back then wasn't filled with as much trolls as there are now.
When u log in it tells you how many users there are and how many are playing and basically 99% of ppl (40,000ish) were playing rather than sitting in lobby spamming this. No one freaking uses these public chat anymore. All it is now is done for advertising sites and selling crap or talking crap/spam. Internet back then wasn't filled with as much trolls as there are now.
i agree as well, everytime you logged in, all you had was a bunch of nonsensical advertising, oh and not to mention all the lvl 1 mules just sitting there in the chat channel.
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-U.S ARMY VETERAN-
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Battle.net 1.0 and Social Dynamics
The expectations of Battle.net 2.0
The Current State of Socialization in Battle.net 2.0
Diablo 3 Repeating the same mistakes as SC2
My experience in the D3 Beta, a social view
Seeing those level 90+ hardcore characters in channels with the red glow was awesome, seeing the first druid and assassin avatars when the expansion released was sweet, and the starcraft 2 medic and warcraft 3 avatars were all so simple yet added so much depth and enabled people from different games to interact with each other in a way that is nonexistant now. I hope Blizzard realizes this
Why would you be watching the chat scrolling when your in combat? I fail to see the issue, once your done killing something scroll back and read it, it was no different than in game D2.
A QUADRILLION MAGIC FIND is worthless if you can't kill shit!
I personally love ventrilo. The delay is noticeable to me and isn't as real time as some other irc chat system, but it's still great to use. I don't think I can play any games without it now. And I avoid typing as much as possible in game or try to get friends to get headsets.
I'm not sure what blizzard is up to, but with this and reducing co op to four, brings up some questions.
D3 Channel: OnetwoD3
doubtful.
Unfortunately its up to fansites to ask the tough questions about these issues at Fan summit meetings etc and not dance around important game aspects to invoke retribution from the developers.
These fansites are the voice of.... the fans.
It was a great feeling to login and being able to discuss with thousands of people on the go and create group/games with them easily, all in the same interface.
They have posted about it, and it wasn't good. Basically the "this is how it will be at launch, we will look into corrections later" which was the same said for SC2.
Lol the 3 posters before me have such creepy pics, then jiggly puff shows up before them haha.
D3 Channel: OnetwoD3
Battle.net Profile / Diablo Progress Profile
Yes, it's bad. No, I don't like it. Yes, I'm still buying the game.
They're at a point in time where it is far too late for them to change new Battle.net design.
I have no idea how it is supposed to work with D3, but I hope there will be channels to join and chat with new people. How else can you make friends otherwise beside joining games with 3 people at a time... Get your shit straight blizz, you are making more and more mistakes.