J.W: "Hey guys we're removing part of the game that a lot of people were looking forward to. We'll probably add it after release some time (could be many months but we can't tell you how long we think it will be).
But guess what... the game is going to come out SOON-ER!!!!"
Everyone - "OMG HE SAID SOONER LOL WHO CARES ABOUT PVP. BEST NEWS EVER."
uhm... captain obvious? hell yea best news ever
notsureifserious.jpg
He didn't give us a release date. He didn't update us at all on the release window. Just more vague hand waving. There was nothing positive in that post at all. A major game system isn't going to be there at release (what happened to "when it's done" and "no one will remember if it's late, only if it's great?")
And yet people are treating this announcement like it's the best news we've had in months. I think people have finally gone stark raving mad from waiting so long for this game.
J.W: "Hey guys we're removing part of the game that a lot of people were looking forward to. We'll probably add it after release some time (could be many months but we can't tell you how long we think it will be).
But guess what... the game is going to come out SOON-ER!!!!"
Everyone - "OMG HE SAID SOONER LOL WHO CARES ABOUT PVP. BEST NEWS EVER."
people keep forgetting it is a beta and that they just recently started testing the public chat. give it time. have some patience. everything will be better, you just have to wait
The whole point of a beta test is for people to point out what isn't working and what needs to be fixed.
Chat channels aren't working. There needs to be an /ignore feature at the very least. The text needs to have more colors than just white so it can actually be readable. Large font and a large window needs to be an option. Those three changes would take chat channels from useless to usable and functional.
Beyond that, there are a bunch of other cosmetic and functional improvements people have already mentioned, but those three I mentioned are simple and really need to be taken care of before release.
Oh yeah, and what happened to "no one will remember if the game is late, only if it's great?"
Now it's "We don't want to spend time on that feature (which has been requested by hundreds of people in multiple capped out threads on the main page of the main official forum). We have to push the game out the door, lol. Oh and only a few people care about that anyway."
I think that this topic doesn't get enough love because of the vast range of players' ages with D3. I'm part of the old guy group (30+) who aren't against an old D2 style chat system but overall don't really care as long as the game is good. The mock-up chat system posted on these forums and on bnet forums would have been cool to see, but I wouldn't spend all my time there with limited time as it is.
In my opinion, the SC2 playerbase is younger, so a chat system is really important for them and that's why they are up in arms with disappointment.
People are disappointed about Bnet 0.2 because it's a huge step backwards compared to the social features in older Blizzard titles. The only improvement is the matchmaking system, which I admit is good in SC2 and it works well so far in the D3 beta.
But the lack of community features in SC2 made it feel empty and isolating. There was no way to make new friends while playing a game where millions of other people were playing at the same time.
Already in the D3 beta, people just rush rush rush rush kill kill kill kill in games and no one talks. There is very, very little socializing for an online only multiplayer title.
Also, I'm with you that I'm older now since D1 and D2 and I won't have as much time as I would like to play the game when it finally comes out. But I also don't have any friends in real life who are going to be playing D3. They're all into different hobbies, so I'll be essentially alone in the game. At least in D2, if I was alone, I could go into a lobby and see if anyone wanted to do a Act 1 normal walk or Trist runs or something. And I could help out newbs when I got to a higher level by rushing them or giving them items I didn't need. That sense of community is going right out the window with little Facebook style chat rooms. They are honestly impossible to look at for more than a minute or two without some serious eye strain. It's not typical Blizzard quality, and that's why I'm pissed.
Everyone saying "it can be fixed/patched later" - people said the SAME THING before SC2 was released. "Oh, don't worry, they'll patch in chat channels after release!" 7 months later, we got the same Facebook style chat we now have in D3.
I don't expect them to improve the chat channels at all after release. No way, it's not going to happen. We are now stuck with Facebook style, tiny font, all white text, no private channels, no row of characters showing off their gear, no re-sizing of the window, etc. etc. etc.
And people are defending this. In 2012. This is the chat we get. In an online only multiplayer game which millions of people are going to be buying. Ridiculous.
this is fantastic news! Game release is coming very very very soon.
How is this "fantastic news?"
They are ignoring all the outcry about "Battle.net 0.2" and saying that those people don't matter. They are saying that the fans who care about the community and longevity of D3 don't matter. Fuck that.
AND he didn't even say anything new about the release date. Just "homestretch" which we heard from Jay Wilson back in October! COME ON.
This pretty much confirms that they weren't going to put in chat channels at all until the community rose up and demanded them. These channels look like a rushed copy/paste job from SC2. Which is what people DIDN'T want. Ugh.
4 weeks from now, we'll get an "update" from Jay Wilson that will say something like "We're pushing hard, finalizing some major game systems, trimming out things that aren't working, and making the game as awesome as possible. We'll have and update for you involving runes and skills in the coming weeks. Stay tuned, this is the home stretch!"
Then silence for weeks.
Then a push back to Q3.
Then I'll be playing GW2 because Diablo 3 is never coming out.
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.
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.
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 wonder if Blizzard will respond to the people saying they really, really want chat channels? There was a maxed out thread on the official forums yesterday and today there's a 15 page thread which is still growing. There's also a maxed out thread on the SC2 forums about basically the same thing - lack of community funcionality in battle.net 2.0 - http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/3988232669
Can they ignore the fans forever?
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Thought it was a cool video, I haven't seen anyone post a video on multiboxing yet.
Must be difficult to pick up all the individualized loot, though.
notsureifserious.jpg
He didn't give us a release date. He didn't update us at all on the release window. Just more vague hand waving. There was nothing positive in that post at all. A major game system isn't going to be there at release (what happened to "when it's done" and "no one will remember if it's late, only if it's great?")
And yet people are treating this announcement like it's the best news we've had in months. I think people have finally gone stark raving mad from waiting so long for this game.
J.W: "Hey guys we're removing part of the game that a lot of people were looking forward to. We'll probably add it after release some time (could be many months but we can't tell you how long we think it will be).
But guess what... the game is going to come out SOON-ER!!!!"
Everyone - "OMG HE SAID SOONER LOL WHO CARES ABOUT PVP. BEST NEWS EVER."
The whole point of a beta test is for people to point out what isn't working and what needs to be fixed.
Chat channels aren't working. There needs to be an /ignore feature at the very least. The text needs to have more colors than just white so it can actually be readable. Large font and a large window needs to be an option. Those three changes would take chat channels from useless to usable and functional.
Beyond that, there are a bunch of other cosmetic and functional improvements people have already mentioned, but those three I mentioned are simple and really need to be taken care of before release.
Now it's "We don't want to spend time on that feature (which has been requested by hundreds of people in multiple capped out threads on the main page of the main official forum). We have to push the game out the door, lol. Oh and only a few people care about that anyway."
People are disappointed about Bnet 0.2 because it's a huge step backwards compared to the social features in older Blizzard titles. The only improvement is the matchmaking system, which I admit is good in SC2 and it works well so far in the D3 beta.
But the lack of community features in SC2 made it feel empty and isolating. There was no way to make new friends while playing a game where millions of other people were playing at the same time.
Already in the D3 beta, people just rush rush rush rush kill kill kill kill in games and no one talks. There is very, very little socializing for an online only multiplayer title.
Also, I'm with you that I'm older now since D1 and D2 and I won't have as much time as I would like to play the game when it finally comes out. But I also don't have any friends in real life who are going to be playing D3. They're all into different hobbies, so I'll be essentially alone in the game. At least in D2, if I was alone, I could go into a lobby and see if anyone wanted to do a Act 1 normal walk or Trist runs or something. And I could help out newbs when I got to a higher level by rushing them or giving them items I didn't need. That sense of community is going right out the window with little Facebook style chat rooms. They are honestly impossible to look at for more than a minute or two without some serious eye strain. It's not typical Blizzard quality, and that's why I'm pissed.
I don't expect them to improve the chat channels at all after release. No way, it's not going to happen. We are now stuck with Facebook style, tiny font, all white text, no private channels, no row of characters showing off their gear, no re-sizing of the window, etc. etc. etc.
And people are defending this. In 2012. This is the chat we get. In an online only multiplayer game which millions of people are going to be buying. Ridiculous.
How is this "fantastic news?"
They are ignoring all the outcry about "Battle.net 0.2" and saying that those people don't matter. They are saying that the fans who care about the community and longevity of D3 don't matter. Fuck that.
AND he didn't even say anything new about the release date. Just "homestretch" which we heard from Jay Wilson back in October! COME ON.
The old skill selection window was fine. You could see all the skills, no tabbing around, no confusing categories.
Then silence for weeks.
Then a push back to Q3.
Then I'll be playing GW2 because Diablo 3 is never coming out.
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.
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 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):
Can they ignore the fans forever?