Reminder: Each day we're holding a giveaway for StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Beta keys! Check the end of the post to see how you can get your key and if you won from yesterday's giveaway!
Jay Wilson Interview at the Spike Video Game Awards
Jay Wilson gave a brief interview at the Spike Video Game Awards. Here it is:
Community Commentary: Evolve Your Hero with Diablo Stats
This week's Community Commentary is about the hero progression site DiabloStats! Check the blue post below for more information.
This week's Community Commentary shout-out goes to Diablo Stats, which is an interactive hero progression site created by Rek currently in beta testing.
The goal of Diablo Stats is to track hero progression over time and make item comparisons easier with built-in damage and effective hit point (EHP) calculators. It's a great way to see how your heroes' stats change and progress over time, and Rek would really enjoy if other players jumped in and offered feedback so that he can further refine his project.
You can get started by visiting Diablo Stats and typing in your BattleTag into the "Add or Search" box on the top right. From there, it should generate a page for your account for you to dive into and compare with other players.
So make sure to check out Rek's great new site, and take a few moments to leave feedback so that he can take it to the next level. You can do this by leaving a comment in his original thread over on Reddit, the thread he created on our forums, or you can drop a comment below!
Captcha System for Bot Prevention?
This is indeed a concern we have with CAPTCHA systems, which is that they can feel very intrusive and annoying for legitimate players.
If CAPTCHA means no boters the then im fine with it even there is every 30 minutes some checkpoint.
Yep, I know many would not mind this at all (chosing the lesser evil and all that), but there are people who would be very annoyed by a CAPTCHA system like the one suggested here.
Bear in mind Vaneras the CAPTCHA only need appear at all if the client/servers detect activity that may be botting. And a legitimate player detected in this way, that has answered the CAPTCHA a few times, will have the time between CAPTCHA's massively increased.
So once running it will be something like, excluding the botters: 90% of players will never see a CAPTCHA 10% of players, who trigger the bot match pattern, will very quickly have it reduced down to say once every 2 days or even more.
Thanks for the feedback though.
Sure, a CAPTCHA system combined with other detection systems would be an improvement, in that legitimate players would be less likely to be bothered by it. If we were ever to implement a CAPTCHA system, this type of approach would likely be considered :-) (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
What More Does a Community Manager Do?
This is rather off-topic, but I will answer it anyway as this is a question I get fairly often.
As a CM I am often privy to information regarding the development of the game, but I do not know everything of course as I am not a developer. Some of the things I know I am unable to share right now as said things are still eligible to change.
The developers get player questions and feedback from us all the time, but it is not always that they are able to answer said questions and feedback because they have not yet decided on the best way of doing so. The processes for everything the developers do are all very iterative, and this means that things can change dramatically before they reach certainty. Once the developers have made their decision on something though, that is when we can give you information and be sure that it is the correct information.
Basically what I am trying to say is that the right answer to a question one day may be wrong answer the day after, so we prefer not to give answers until we are certain that they are the right ones. I can assure you that when I do have info to "answer advanced stuff concerning the game", I will share that info with you right away. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Don't Report Bots as a Real Life Threat
I don’t know the details around this particular situation, but this information is a little incomplete, so I will provide some more info to help clarify.
Reporting a player for any infraction (including botting) is fine, but it should be done through proper channels. The best place to report a player for botting or other exploitative behavior is through our online web form, and you can find more information about that here: http://us.battle.net...pic/6246615165. However, reporting players in a public place should be avoided since it can result in a forum suspension. Similarly, the Report > Real-Life Threat in-game option should only be used for situations in which another player has threatened violence or harm that is not directly related to the game world, or if he/she has released real life information about other players or Blizzard employees. Abusing this report system can lead to an account action, so we strongly suggest that you please use it appropriately. You might want to review our online harassment for more details: https://us.battle.ne...assment-policy. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Deck the Hells (With Lots of Free Stuff!)
Blizzard has given away Diablo fansites lots of stuff to give away! Check the post below to see what will be included in said giveaways! Stay tuned to Diablofans to check what we will be offering!
Every year around this time, just as the holiday season reaches its zenith, the community team begins its annual tradition of preparing for the road ahead (pending apocalypses be damned). But as we began to schedule our meetings for brainstorming what kind of cool projects and promotions we wanted to do for 2013, we realized...we had absolutely no where to hold department gatherings anymore. We'd run out of meeting rooms!
Our mission became clear. The primary objective? Empty out the office we'd been using as storage space and turn it into the finest meetin' room this side of Sanctuary. The bonus objective? Discover what treasure lurked in its depths and present the bounty to as many worthy companions as possible.
(Note: Cat not included.)
So, under the pallid glare of fluorescents (and to the tune of The A Team theme song), we destroyed that office's defenses, looting everything its box-ridden corpse had to offer. To our delight, after carefully cataloguing our spoils -- and checking the lists twice -- we identified the following rare items:
Signed Diablo III Collector's Editions (over 30!)
Mini Tyrael statues (over 40!)
Books of Cain
Diablo III pins
Diablo II action figures
Some Battle.net Authenticators featuring everyone's favorite Prime Evil
We decided the best recipients of all this sweet stuff would be you, our mighty community, and picked a few awesome allies to help us distribute the goods:
We're letting these sites set the terms for how and when everything's given away, so be sure to tune in to their front pages (or video streams) for possible holiday swag sightings. We can't wait to see what kind of epic contests, challenges, or raffles they might have in store!
No Bashioks were harmed in the capturing of these photos.
Good luck to everyone who participates in the giveaways, and a big thank you to our Diablo III fan sites who've not only helped us reclaim precious meeting space, but also provided a wealth of support, coverage, and cause for conversation in this year of our Lord (of Terror), 2012.
Heart of the Swarm Beta Key Giveaway
Diablofans has some keys to give away for the beta test of Heart of the Swarm! We will be giving away 2 keys every day (Monday - Friday) for the next two weeks. The rules are simple: post a comment relevant to the news in the comment section below. As long as it's on topic, you've entered.
RULES
Your post needs to be relevant to the news!
You may post and reply as much as you like, but it will only count once!
You can enter every day!
A reply to another user (as long as it is on topic with the news) counts.
Posting with multiple accounts will get you removed from the giveaway, so don't be naughty!
You have until the next news post to reply to this post!
Winners will be announced the following day.
Yesterday's winners: Xerawolf and Auditorgr. Congratulations!
I very much disagree with the captcha suggestion, those things are annoying enough when signing up for websites to have to deal with them in my games. Like I've said before, while bots have a definite impact on the economy, they do not directly impact my game, and I would hate to see changes put in place that would hinder my experience simply to combat a problem that doesn't seem to affect me much.
Implement user-created chat channels where the creator of the channel can ban other people. Thankfully there aren't endless supplies of bots out there (unlike WoW where it's mainly from hacked accounts). Especially with the recent ban waves. Yay!
The problem with CAPTCHA is even bots can overcome them. They implemented CAPTCHAs in Asian MMOs and bots are still able to get around them. It's just an endless game of cat and mouse sadly =\
Also, DiabloProgress > DiabloStats
DStats has wrong numbers on my sheet & it looks pretty but doesn't give all the necessary stats I'm trying to see. I'll stick to DProgress unless Rev steps his DStats game up (ironically I don't like the site cuz it's missing stats).
We've asked for a CAPTCHA ever since botting became a problem in Diablo 2. Not to be a cynic but I doubt we will ever see Blizzard utilize one in game. Besides I don't really think a CAPTCHA system will be all that effective. Sure it will slow them down but they will then just get a guy to type in the CAPTCHAs when he sees them. You can't stop criminals, you can only slow them down.
A much better solution to this problem is as Overneathe suggested...
Implement user-created chat channels where the creator of the channel can ban other people.
Also implement custom games with host/vote kicking/banning. Hell, even just a regular old vote kick system in match making would help a lot!
Entering a captcha has become a normal step on the internet, from creating accounts to downloading anything. I would not be against such a system if it worked and didn't pop up mid battle. But i agree with the blue, if such a system was implemented a lot of people would revolt quickly against it.
I'm not sure a CAPTCHA thing is the best idea. I suppose if you entered correct phrases making it pop less might help the annoyance level. Just not sold on that idea.
I'd rather they do banwaves every week and not with 2 month delays instead of captcha. The last wave was extremely effective but they can still bot 24/7 for the whole month or two before the next wave comes.
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Wise ElderJay Wilson Interview at the Spike Video Game Awards
Jay Wilson gave a brief interview at the Spike Video Game Awards. Here it is:
http://youtu.be/-erD-U1LGJc
Community Commentary: Evolve Your Hero with Diablo Stats
This week's Community Commentary is about the hero progression site DiabloStats! Check the blue post below for more information.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The goal of Diablo Stats is to track hero progression over time and make item comparisons easier with built-in damage and effective hit point (EHP) calculators. It's a great way to see how your heroes' stats change and progress over time, and Rek would really enjoy if other players jumped in and offered feedback so that he can further refine his project.
You can get started by visiting Diablo Stats and typing in your BattleTag into the "Add or Search" box on the top right. From there, it should generate a page for your account for you to dive into and compare with other players.
So make sure to check out Rek's great new site, and take a few moments to leave feedback so that he can take it to the next level. You can do this by leaving a comment in his original thread over on Reddit, the thread he created on our forums, or you can drop a comment below!
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
This is indeed a concern we have with CAPTCHA systems, which is that they can feel very intrusive and annoying for legitimate players.
If CAPTCHA means no boters the then im fine with it even there is every 30 minutes some checkpoint.
Yep, I know many would not mind this at all (chosing the lesser evil and all that), but there are people who would be very annoyed by a CAPTCHA system like the one suggested here.
Bear in mind Vaneras the CAPTCHA only need appear at all if the client/servers detect activity that may be botting. And a legitimate player detected in this way, that has answered the CAPTCHA a few times, will have the time between CAPTCHA's massively increased.
So once running it will be something like, excluding the botters:
90% of players will never see a CAPTCHA
10% of players, who trigger the bot match pattern, will very quickly have it reduced down to say once every 2 days or even more.
Thanks for the feedback though.
Sure, a CAPTCHA system combined with other detection systems would be an improvement, in that legitimate players would be less likely to be bothered by it. If we were ever to implement a CAPTCHA system, this type of approach would likely be considered :-) (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
What More Does a Community Manager Do?
This is rather off-topic, but I will answer it anyway as this is a question I get fairly often.
As a CM I am often privy to information regarding the development of the game, but I do not know everything of course as I am not a developer. Some of the things I know I am unable to share right now as said things are still eligible to change.
The developers get player questions and feedback from us all the time, but it is not always that they are able to answer said questions and feedback because they have not yet decided on the best way of doing so. The processes for everything the developers do are all very iterative, and this means that things can change dramatically before they reach certainty. Once the developers have made their decision on something though, that is when we can give you information and be sure that it is the correct information.
Basically what I am trying to say is that the right answer to a question one day may be wrong answer the day after, so we prefer not to give answers until we are certain that they are the right ones. I can assure you that when I do have info to "answer advanced stuff concerning the game", I will share that info with you right away. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Don't Report Bots as a Real Life Threat
I don’t know the details around this particular situation, but this information is a little incomplete, so I will provide some more info to help clarify.
Reporting a player for any infraction (including botting) is fine, but it should be done through proper channels. The best place to report a player for botting or other exploitative behavior is through our online web form, and you can find more information about that here: http://us.battle.net...pic/6246615165. However, reporting players in a public place should be avoided since it can result in a forum suspension. Similarly, the Report > Real-Life Threat in-game option should only be used for situations in which another player has threatened violence or harm that is not directly related to the game world, or if he/she has released real life information about other players or Blizzard employees. Abusing this report system can lead to an account action, so we strongly suggest that you please use it appropriately. You might want to review our online harassment for more details: https://us.battle.ne...assment-policy. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Deck the Hells (With Lots of Free Stuff!)
Blizzard has given away Diablo fansites lots of stuff to give away! Check the post below to see what will be included in said giveaways! Stay tuned to Diablofans to check what we will be offering!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Every year around this time, just as the holiday season reaches its zenith, the community team begins its annual tradition of preparing for the road ahead (pending apocalypses be damned). But as we began to schedule our meetings for brainstorming what kind of cool projects and promotions we wanted to do for 2013, we realized...we had absolutely no where to hold department gatherings anymore. We'd run out of meeting rooms!
Our mission became clear. The primary objective? Empty out the office we'd been using as storage space and turn it into the finest meetin' room this side of Sanctuary. The bonus objective? Discover what treasure lurked in its depths and present the bounty to as many worthy companions as possible.
So, under the pallid glare of fluorescents (and to the tune of The A Team theme song), we destroyed that office's defenses, looting everything its box-ridden corpse had to offer. To our delight, after carefully cataloguing our spoils -- and checking the lists twice -- we identified the following rare items:
We decided the best recipients of all this sweet stuff would be you, our mighty community, and picked a few awesome allies to help us distribute the goods:
- Diablo Fans
- /r/Diablo
- Diablo IncGamers
- D3DB
- D3Sanc
- Diablo Expressions
- Diablo Sanctuary
- Kripparrian
We're letting these sites set the terms for how and when everything's given away, so be sure to tune in to their front pages (or video streams) for possible holiday swag sightings. We can't wait to see what kind of epic contests, challenges, or raffles they might have in store!Good luck to everyone who participates in the giveaways, and a big thank you to our Diablo III fan sites who've not only helped us reclaim precious meeting space, but also provided a wealth of support, coverage, and cause for conversation in this year of our Lord (of Terror), 2012.
P.S. Here's a sweet digital painting of a barbarian in a Santa suit. Why? Because beards.
Heart of the Swarm Beta Key Giveaway
Diablofans has some keys to give away for the beta test of Heart of the Swarm! We will be giving away 2 keys every day (Monday - Friday) for the next two weeks. The rules are simple: post a comment relevant to the news in the comment section below. As long as it's on topic, you've entered.
RULES
- Your post needs to be relevant to the news!
- You may post and reply as much as you like, but it will only count once!
- You can enter every day!
- A reply to another user (as long as it is on topic with the news) counts.
- Posting with multiple accounts will get you removed from the giveaway, so don't be naughty!
- You have until the next news post to reply to this post!
- Winners will be announced the following day.
Yesterday's winners: Xerawolf and Auditorgr. Congratulations!Ha. Bagstone.
P.S. Heart of the swarm looks sexy~
I want some Diablo 2 action figures
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Wise ElderImplement user-created chat channels where the creator of the channel can ban other people. Thankfully there aren't endless supplies of bots out there (unlike WoW where it's mainly from hacked accounts). Especially with the recent ban waves. Yay!
Ha. Bagstone.
Blizzard giving away a bunch of cool stuff is always neat, and, of course, HotS beta keys would be sweet!
Adding CAPTCHA will get rid of some bots, though not all. Dunno why they don't try adding it, annoyance aside.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9HrmtoU7nY
Also, DiabloProgress > DiabloStats
DStats has wrong numbers on my sheet & it looks pretty but doesn't give all the necessary stats I'm trying to see. I'll stick to DProgress unless Rev steps his DStats game up (ironically I don't like the site cuz it's missing stats).
Diablo III Skill Proc Coefficients:
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/77837-skill-proc-coefficients-complete-list/
A much better solution to this problem is as Overneathe suggested...
Also implement custom games with host/vote kicking/banning. Hell, even just a regular old vote kick system in match making would help a lot!
Also, HI, JAY.