The last login screen you'll ever need ... well, maybe.
Nearly a month ago, StarCraft fans were struck by a blow more disappointing then Brett Favre signing with the Vikings, and more devastating then Wall Street as of late. The only thing worse is a StarCraft fan from Green Bay trying to make a living as a stock broker.
OK, so maybe nothing in the video game world is comparable to the perplexing problems of America's economy – or to Favre's third un-retirement – but the delay of StarCraft II into the early part of 2010 was a huge deal for fans of the acclaimed RTS series. Blizzard Entertainment told its fans that the slow developmental progress of Battle.net 2.0 was holding up the release of its next big game. Well, at BlizzCon 09, I got a chance to see just what's so special about this Web application and why Blizzard is banking the future of its franchises on it.
Blizzard's goal for Battle.net 2.0 is to create an “always connected experience,” and in order to achieve that they are basically rebuilding the application from the ground up. Borrowing ideas from various social networking platforms, this new version of Battle.net will take everything PC gamers are familiar with in Steam, combine them with profile pages similar to those in Facebook, and throw in AOL Instant Messenger-style chatting. They even plan to add status updates to allow you to broadcast your mood, location, or gaming intentions to your entire list of friends – virtual or real life.
Much more, after the jump.
But, as I sat in Hall D next to a rowdy Blizzard fan known to some as Dustin Browder, none of the social networking aspects impressed me nearly as much as the micro transaction model that will allow map makers and modders to sell their creations on Battle.net. (See omgstarcraft.com's video interview for more on this)
“What we're doing for the mod community is awesome,” said lead game designer Browder immediately following the Battle.net discussion panel. “They have had such an unexpected impact in the past that we want to make sure that they can thrive in the future. I'm excited to see what they do with the map editor.”
All systems go
Click the gallery below to see full sized images
This is an example of your Battle.net dashboard and will serve as an entry point into anything you'd like to do in the world of Blizzard. From here you can read the latest Blizzard-related headlines, check out what's going on in the community, view your profile page, watch replays, check your achievements, or jump into a single or multiplayer game. It's also likely that this is where you can check the status of your Blizzard titles to make sure they have the most recent patches and are up-to-date. Battle.net, like Steam, will auto download (if you so choose) updates as soon as they are available, but it was unclear if there will be a system tray icon allowing you to remain connected 24/7.
Will you be my friend?
Here you can see how in game chatting will work in the new Battle.net. Again, anyone who is familiar with Steam or Xfire should feel right at home. Have you ever forgotten who someone is online? Well, Blizzard is allowing you to rename people's gamer tags and give them an alias you'll never forget again. It is important to note that, unlike Steam, Battle.net will not allow you to communicate with friends outside of Blizzard titles, only those playing the WarCraft, Diablo and StarCraft franchises.
“I can accumulate a lot of friends and I may not remember all of them,” said Browder in reference to his favorite feature of the new Battle.net; being able to give someone an alias. “I don't have to look at someone's achievement list to determine which games I may remember them from.”
In the second screen shot, you can see how chatting works outside of the game. In this example, Browder has changed his status and is letting everyone on his friends list know that he wants to play WoW later and is looking for others to join him. Much like Left 4 Dead, StarCraft II relies on lobbies in order to launch games. The built-in chat client will make organizing all-friends matches much easier then it was 11-years ago.
A match made in cyberspace
In addition to all of the benefits players will reap from the built-in chat client, forming “parties” will be a way for StarCraft II players to stay together across multiple matches during one sitting. In the past, once a game was finished, players were dumped back into a public lobby and had to re-unite for another match. Now, they will be dumped back into their party screen where they can then play each other again, or team up for a 2v2 against others without ever seeing a public lobby or list of matches.
...Shout, shout ... replays are a thing I can't do without
Recording games in StarCraft II will be as easy as a Zerg rush. Later you and friends can go back and re-watch them on Battle.net as shown above. Unfortunately shoutcasting (commentating during games) will not be supported at launch, but Blizzard has plans to include it in later releases in support of the e-Sports community.
Profile and you shall achieve
Your profile is where you can view your win/loss record and other important statistics which will determine which league you are put in. Leagues (platinum, gold, silver, bronze, etc.) are established in order to ensure fairer matchmaking. You will be ranked from 1 to 100 within your league and that rank will determine who you can play within your league. Thus, the elite players will play other elite players and n00bs will play n00bs, guaranteeing even, more fun matches that are less intimidating. The better you do, the higher you climb in your league, eventually climbing up and out into the next league.
Also viewable from your profile page is something new to all Blizzard titles with the launch of Battle.net 2.0 – achievements. Similar to how they work on Xbox Live, achievements are accumulated during both singleplayer and multiplayer matches and can also be viewed in game. While StarCraft II players need not be worried about this, WoW players should be excited to know that your achievements are profile specific and not character specific – meaning you won't need to re-earn them over and over again.
Rewards rule ... we hope
What will you get for your achievements? Well, one thing we definitely know about in StarCraft II is the ability to cash in achievement points to unlock various avatars, which can then be applied to your profile. I can't ultimately see how that's rewarding since avatars are meant to be original, but I'm sure Blizzard has other rewards up their sleeves.
SC2's got wings
I did get a chance to play the first few missions in StarCraft II at BlizzCon 09 and I have to say that the gameplay is fluid and the cinematics are stunning. Ultimately, StarCraft II fans should be grateful that Battle.net caused Wings of Liberty to be delayed because according to Browder, it gave the development team more time to go back and fix things they didn't like about the single player campaign.
“The solo play still needs a lot of work and we've been using this extra time to really invest in the solo play experience and I think it's really paying off for us. I'm really grateful for this delay in that respect, I think we would have gone with a much less polished experience on the campaign side without the delay.”
For more details on the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty singleplayer campaign, see omgstarcraft.com's preview.
