Battle.net 2.0 Has Arrived!

[XGhozt 410]

Battle.net 2.0 Has Arrived!

 

The World of WarCraft sites as well as Battle.net had a brief downtime period yesterday and when it reappeared later, WoW redirected to Battle.net, which featured a new design, and now encourages players to merge their WoW accounts with one single Battle.net account.

 

This isn't a surprise, as the Wrath of the Lich King License Agreement already mentioned this would happen, but the fact that it happened now so shortly after the beta page was re-done, could mean they are preparing for signups to the next beta: StarCraft II!

 

In the meantime, you can upgrade your WoW-account to a Battle.net account, and they also merge any Blizzard Account you might have added in the past.

 

The idea with the new launch of Battle.net is that a player can register all his keys in once location, and use one account for all things Blizzard. Much of this service was previously available at the Blizzard Account, but it only included games other than World of WarCraft. This is also the first step of merging all of Blizzard games, and we will most likely see the WoW forums move over to Battle.net as well. Blizzard want all their game fans to come together under a single roof and share one single community.

 

All the WoW-stuff you might have (such as an authenticator) will be associated with the Battle.net account, and the new account will be used for all logins. If you had multiple accounts, you will log in with the blizzard account, and then choose which of the WoW accounts you want to log in to.

 

Interesting to note here is that they refer to the forums and the old Battle.net website as "classic Battle.net" on the new flashy front image! They are obviously not counted as "upgraded" yet, and will receive a face lift!

 

Improved Battle.net In-Game Functionality Any quote from Blizzard clearly states that while they won't talk much about Battle.net 2.0, we will be blown away or be very impressed. It's a given that all current features for Battle.net will be included - and improved! Blizzard has said they have learned a lot from WoW on infrastructure, and features from WoW will definitely also be seen.

 

So Battlenet 2.0 WILL feature:

• Excellent Ping
  
• Channels and Chat in-game
  
• Ladders and Rankings, secured against cheating.
  
• Extended stats, with possibility to see who D/C etc (source)
  
• AMM-type Matchmaking
  
• Avatars, Images and Icons to represent yourself
  
• Diablo III Hardcore mode
  
• Friends/Ignore Lists with advanced management (see accounts below)
  
• Clan Support
  
• Automated Tournaments
  

As an example, Diablo III players will possibly deal with all their trading directly by whispers in the new network. With this in mind, we can expect many simple and useful features directly in the system.

 

 

Achievements

Just like in WoW, Achievements will be added to Diablo III and StarCraft II. Achievements such as "Win 100 StarCraft II games", or "Level your character to 100" are the new way of playing online and will be recorded on Account basis. Blizzard have explained that all games' Achievements will give a score that stacks to give you a "Blizzard level". Whether these features will be available only for new games, or all Blizzard's Battle.net games is unknown but it seems likely they will only be available in new releases. A preview of this system can be found in World of WarCraft, where testing is now commencing in the Wrath of the Lich King Beta.

 

Besides being entertaining, the purpose is also to bring people in to the multiplayer game, as the Achievements will only be available online where they can be checked against cheating. It should be more fun online, even solo. Trading and co-op is just a bonus, and Jay Wilson has even said that Diablo III won't even contain any other networking functionality besides Battle.net.

 

 

In-Game Voice Chat

Especially mentioned for StarCraft II, but also a very likely feature in other games is VoIP (Voice over IP) or "Voice Chat". The technology is already implemented in WoW, and has been promised as an example of what will come with Battle.net. It probably won't replace Ventrilo/TeamSpeak for the active gamers, but a great new way to chat for those who don't wish to use a third party program.

 

 

Hack-Free

As Blizzard is learning from WoW when it comes to server infrastructure where they are battling hackers and exploiters, the new Battle.net will be built on programming that prevent any form of hacking or cheating. Taking several lessons from WoW in that regard, "duping" in Diablo III will be come impossible. Chris Sigaty promised me that they will ensure security as best we can, to keep it fair for all players. The Blizzard Accounts will also encourage people to be more responsible online.

 

 

"eSport Support"

We don't have the details on what this means exactly; there will be support for eSports and those features will probably be available for custom tournaments or ladders as well. IPTV and broadcasted matches are likely features, but only StarCraft II is currently confirmed to have eSport support, with new and advanced replay mode, tournaments, leagues and spectator mode. Diablo III eSports are not unlikely, but we'll see more when PvP combat is revealed. Either way, the eSports team would be in charge of it.

 

 

Visit Battle.net 2.0

 

Source(s): Starcraftwire

[Speedskater 167]

fucking sex

[Kenshyn 638]

Whatever, just give me Diablo III.

[Zar 696]

Whatever, just give me StarCraft 2!

[TheRing 43]

As Blizzard is learning from WoW when it comes to server infrastructure where they are battling hackers and exploiters, the new Battle.net will be built on programming that prevent any form of hacking or cheating

Hackers ftw! :starwars:

[Speedskater 167]

Now they care about hackers?

[HG-Bounder-X 121]

I find that to be a lie -.-

I don't think it's possible to make hacking undetectable...

They're just giving out false hope, hoping to get honest gamers to play and to get Hacker to buy it just to prove them wrong :o

 

Underhanded sons of bitches >:o

[Speedskater 167]

I'd love to see a nuke anywhere the first day it comes out XD.

[TheRing 43]

That would be funny as hell xD

[Speedskater 167]

I could only imagine :o

[Zar 696]

There are going to be so many holes in the code for programmers to exploit we will probably see some pretty awesome hacks when those games are released (if anyone works on them).

[Suteki 114]

There are going to be so many holes in the code for programmers to exploit we will probably see some pretty awesome hacks when those games are released (if anyone works on them).

 

I see the opposite, and the ones that are discovered will cost $$

[XGhozt 410]

We should start building up a starcraft 2 hack fund. And we'll post it on the website, and then we give it all to the first developer who makes the first sc2 hack and gives it to all the people who donated to the sc2 hack fund. :P

[Unseen 14]

We should start building up a starcraft 2 hack fund. And we'll post it on the website, and then we give it all to the first developer who makes the first sc2 hack and gives it to all the people who donated to the sc2 hack fund. :P

 

 

I will support this.

[ViperSRT3g 224]

Well, they've finally created their rumored Battle.net 2.0... Couldn't have been at a better time ^^

[Speedskater 167]

I'd support that as well, If we get SC2 hacks then I won't have a problem, and depending on the hack I'd pay some money :P