Battle.net 2.0 Threatens the Success of Diablo 3 – [Opinion]
Posted 5 March 2012 by Flux
Better?
Let me preface this by saying that the people who read my articles can attest that I’m quite positive when it comes to talking about Blizzard and their design choices. They are my favorite game developers by far, and I am a big fan of all of their games. This is not an Anti-Blizzard rant, or anything close to that. And also please note that this article is an opinion feature-article, and these are my personal opinions.
There is a fundamental problem with Battle.net 2.0, and it has existed since SC2. In fact, I am 100% convinced it played a huge part in SC2′s lack of longevity and lack of success amongst the community.
The lack of presence and “Ghost-town Effect” of 
Battle.net.
Like many others, my history with Blizzard games is very long, detailed and grateful. Grateful that Blizzard existed because their games have been the only ones that have been ridiculously fun, long-lasting and satisfying. I started with SC1. Than I played D2 for many years. I even played WC3 for a few years, and of course, WoW for many years.
Starcraft 2 was the first Blizzard game that I only played for 1 month. Not because it was too competitive, too difficult or not fun, but because the game had something missing in it. I would find myself only logging on to play a game or two, than logging off. A far cry from previous Blizzard games, where I would log on, chat to people, mess around, talk strategy, experiment, play games with friends and in the mix of that, play the game. Eventually, Starcraft 2 felt like every other non-Blizzard game – dead, finished and pointless to play.
Battle.net 2.0 turned SC2 in to a ghost town, and ruined one of the most social RTS games in history. As I write this article, on a Saturday afternoon, there are just 13,000 SC2 games being played right now, Worldwide. At this same time, there are 51,000 games being played in Diablo 2, an 11 year old game. SC2 has no community that compares to what have seen in past Blizzard games, (except for the e-sports community). Why? Because Battle.net 2.0 doesn’t have any kind of social features, and is built from the ground up to prevent communities from ever forming.
Before Battle.net 2.0, I didn’t log in just to play the game and log back off. I logged in because it was a part of my every-day entertainment schedule. It was what I did instead of watch TV or play other games. And it was the most satisfying piece of entertainment for me for the last decade. Battle.net 2.0 took away every single part of the Blizzard community, and became a means to an end for them, rather than an epic gaming platform that brought players together and was a social metropolis of entertainment, community and excellent games.
Click more for the rest of this article.
Blizzard have done something to Battle.net. Whether intentional design choice or just plain bad work and negligent design, Blizzard has turned Battle.net and its related games to ghost towns, where players come in, play for a bit, and jump back out. No longer is Battle.net the place you hang in, socialize in, idle in and keep open on your computer throughout the entire day, but rather an invisible platform that pushes you in to a quick game. Where your identity is invisible, and you don’t see anyone else. Where the community is non-existent, and your character doesn’t even have a presence save for a 4 player game.
Without avatars and proper chat channels, Diablo 3 will be a ghost town. It will feel like a dead game with no heart, no memories and no community. No presence, no individuality, no “hey check out my new Sword that I just found”, no random private messages from some guy who wants to ask you about your build, or your gear. No sense of achievement, no bragging rights, no talking to a bunch of strangers about Demon Hunter strategies. (A visual survey of the chat channels from all Blizzard titles.)
The people who know me and read my posts, articles etc know that overall, I’m very Blizzard-friendly. I agree with a lot of their controversial design decisions, and defend them quite commonly when the community makes negative statements about them that I don’t agree with.
And here I am. Telling you and any one from Blizzard that may be reading, that I 100% disagree with the design direction for the social aspects of Battle.net 2.0, and strongly feel that this game’s longevity and the enjoyment it provides is going to be significantly and negatively impacted by the decisions to not have proper chat channels, not have a real sense of presence in Battle.net (In Diablo 3′s case, avatars within these chat channels) and not have a more vibrant social feature set within Battle.net.
I am also not alone in this opinion. Take the time to read this excellent article on teamliquid. Also note that a recent poll suggested that the vast majority of players want proper chat channels and would feel like not having them would be detrimental to the game for them.
While it is completely unrealistic to expect any changes before the launch of Diablo 3, I, and hopefully many people in the community would like to appeal to Blizzard to please improve Battle.net 2.0′s chat channels, and avatars to a level that even Diablo 2 had, and to not repeat the same mistakes of Starcraft 2.
Finally, I would just like to say that the good news is that most of this can be corrected and achieved by making but a few simple, and easy modifications to the current Battle.net Diablo 3 system:
- Larger chat window that can be centered in the main screen or moved. Make “Show players” always on, rather than an option.
- Visual Avatars representing players in the channel. Preferably smallish actual models of their selected character. Similar to the model we see when we click on “View player” in the current Chat interface, except always showing. This will give players a sense of presence and feel like they are visible and part of the community, as well as show their character’s gear and look. This is ALREADY implemented in the game, but tucked away in the right-click menu!
- Option to Automatically enter X channel when logging on to Battle.net, and a general chat that allows space for at least 100 players per instance. (I can’t emphasize enough how much better and lively the game feels when you can see people talking in the lobby).
- The ability to make custom games, so you can for example, make a game called “Level 10 duels”, or simply meet with some folks that aren’t on your friends list for any particular reason or event.
This article can be discussed in our forums here. And on the Battle.net forums here.
Expertly written article. Thank you.
I for one, agree wholeheartedly with what you’re saying.
Part of D2′s interface design was that you could SEE who was online at the moment, you can see their gear and it made you feel like you’re not alone.
Blizzard’s 2.0 features only windows and ease of use buttons, but no personality, so to speak. I feel like it’s just me, and the game.
To be honest, I doubt they will change the chat interface. Unless there is some HUGE uprising and Blizzard just so happens to buy into it, we’re probably going to have to stick with what we got.
Either way, surely if it matters enough Blizzard will notice how detrimental this is to their games, and change for the better.
BATTLE NET 3.0 HERE WE COME?
So what you’re saying is that if D3 offers an option to make chat fullscreen and include animated avatars (like D2), all would be good? That feels like a somewhat minor thing to me, they could basically fix it by putting a fullscreen button on the chat window.
Is it right to bash the entire architecture for that or am I missing something?
I’m not bashing the entire architecture. I enjoy the new interface in it’s enhanced graphics and simplicity while retaining most of the original features of the older battle.net.
The new chat needs a little more than just visual avatars, but that would be a large step forward.
Visual avatars make a huge difference because it allows the community to socialize in ways text never could.
What they did for battle.net 2.0 wasn’t bad, but they missed an integral part of making the community, a community: presence.
(IMO) Actually Blizzard won’t change anything. They deliberately want Bnet2 lack community features and players feel themselves lonely so that WoW players don’t transfer into Bnet2 and return to WoW after a short time enjoying(?) Bnet2. Let’s talk some simple figures.
Monthly WoW Income:
10,000,000 subscribers x $15 = $150,000,000
How many Diablo3 copies are required to reach that number?
Answer: 2,500,000
Do you think all-time Diablo3 sales will make more money than what WoW makes in just 1 year?
Put yourself in the place of Blizzard. Would you accept WoW players quitting WoW and coming into Bnet2?
R U mad?
Your simple figures suck, because WoW doesn’t have 10 million $15 subscribers, as the chinese don’t pay a monthly fee.
d3 is definitely going to make good $$. Consider, wow has 11million players, let say d3 lucky to have 5million players, assuming 50% of players trade at least once a day, or even make it ezier on the economic of d3, 1 million trades per day, on the cash auction house, let say 10% fee on every single trade (roughly same as ebay). Assume average trade amount ~ 10$
1 million trades * 10 * 0.1 (10%)fee = 1 million$ / day x 30 = 30 million$/month
30x 12 = 360 million (I seriously don’t think blizzard spent 360 million on developing this game, so the returning rate is very high, without even counting the game price it self (59.95$), they will make profit with in very short amount of time)
Also, I agree, battle.net 2.0 sucks, absolutely 0 mmorpg feel.
Yea I agree and with Azzure too. It is a bit mystifying why they would make such a poor design decision, but even as gamers, you have to know they have blindspots so to speak. Part of the reason, I”m sure, is to combat the automatic bot spammers, but they’re basically throwing out the baby with the bathwater. And the reason they might not fully realize this is because they (the devs) already belong to a community and don’t need one to enjoy the game. They don’t see that a lot of players don’t belong to a community and will need to develop that part for themselves. I remember when I first played warcraft 2. It was fun, but nothing compared to how fun it was when I joined an irc channel devoted to it and a community of players played team games every night. You would never think of “wall-ins” or early grunt rushes, etc. without such an environment encouraging longevity of the game. Without that community, I doubt war2 would’ve lasted more than a month or two for me.
I think they’ve forgotten that, their roots. I don’t buy those conspiracy theories. But I think it’d take a big uprising of sorts for them to realize their mistake and make the change. Because even with such a poor design choice the game will still be pretty successful (at least compared to other developers) even if it fizzles out after a few months. That’d be a shame given its potential. Personally, I’d like to see WoW style chat interface. Remember those hundreds of players running around in Iron Forge? AHing, trading, or just talking/chilling. Even if to show off a cool new spell to people. I remember when I first got ice block and jumped up in front of the mailbox and cast it–freezing me in midair and people around me laughing cuz it was funny.
I miss that. I didn’t even mind people always asking me for conjured food/drinks as a mage because those things only made me feel like part of the community, even with complete strangers.
I share you’r opinion,.
As for sc2, when i logg in and join the battle.net i get’s a felling of lonelyness. I look thruw my friend list to see if someone is online and thats about it.
Sometimes i hang around the teamliquid channel but its not just what i am looking for. I miss the war3 battle.net when i bunch of countrymen where thrown in the same channel, it felt alive cus it was always something going on.
It was also nice to invite ppl to your channel when u met them in a random game etc. I know its possible to do the same in sc2 but it’s far from the same experiance. Hard to explain.
I think a lot of this is not being younger and having 10 friends with the exact same schedule as we do.
Although I do agree, that bnet 2.0 is very boring feeling. I miss the chats.
IMO, they are gone to get rid of advertising bots.
AND
SC2 lost momentum because its so hard to play. I’d like to see the SC1 stats vs SC2.
ALSO, SC1 was released during a time when RTS games were VERY POPULAR. C&C, WC, etc.
WE live in an age of halo and CoD. and WoW.. and.. all those other games that dont last very long.
Well written, and I completely agree.
The state of Battle.net 2.0 frightens me greatly.
Azzure is wrong like at least the half of D3 fans in this site including you.
I can’t deny new Battle.net has an effect on SC2′s failure, but battle.net and it’s limited social aspects are only minor problems. There are greater problems in SC2 like no-lan, poor story and cinematics, good but worse gameplay than the original’s.
SC2 was the fastest selling PC only RTS. Then sales are suddenly stopped. It couldn’t even reach 5 million yet.
We’ll experience this again with D3.
you’re so full of **** it’s not even funny.
first of all “poor story and cinematics”? are you stupid?
one) they’re great, two) what has that to do with mp?
“good but worse gameplay” – it’s basically the same.
No, storytelling and story in cinematics are ****. Just like the game’s actual story is ****. I’m talking about the failure of SC2 you imbecile, not just MP. Gameplay isn’t the same and it’s worse for lots of pros and that’s something to do with MP. Let’s not forget no-LAN also.
Did you honestly believe battle.net 2 and it’s limited social aspects alone could kill this game for many people? It’s a silly thought from a to z.
Skyrim example is enough for you. Use your brains next time.
Shortly, Azzure is wrong as always.
Umm none of the things your complaining about have ANY effect on Diablo 3, battlenet 2.0 most certainly has.
“I’m talking about the failure of SC2 you imbecile, not just MP”
Enough with the SC2 is a failure comments – what are you basing them on? Got any actual evidence?
Story is very good and cinematics are great as allways.
So, why isn’t permaximum flattened with the Banhammer already?
While I understand your concerns, I wanted to share a few thoughts. When I look back at the time I spent playing d2, I didn’t spend a lot of it in the chat channels. When I used the chat channels, it was simply to make trades. I spent a lot of time spamming trade channels and trying to get the best deals. I loved the economy aspect of the game. Everyone I met in d2 came from just chatting with people in random games. As long as people still chat/socialize while leveling/farming, I think d3 will have longevity. For example, I just started playing WoW again, and my server went from a medium/high pop server to a low pop ghost town. However, I’ve found a few fun people to group with and it has made me want to continue playing. I would be excited to see the changes you’ve suggested, and I hope that d3 will last for many years. For me, the longevity of a game always comes from the people you play with.
This.
I think its a clear design decision. They don’t want people socializing easily cause they think it will take a cut from their RMAH. If trading was possible through custom public games the “suits” might read that as a potential loss of revenue. Make the trading system cumbersome and hope that it drives them to the RMAH.
I know Im being very cynical but i feel game design from AAA devs is clearly heading into a “hollywood” phase – rather than true innovation and perfecting game play its more a case of appeal to the largest audience, don’t take risks and monetize through cosmetic items or DLC.
I don’t buy the RMAH as the explanation for Bliz removing good chat options from D3.
If anything, I’d argue the opposite. They should want us more involved, more engaged, spending more time online, looking more at other player’s gear, etc. You talk to people, you learn about new builds, you hear about awesome gear…. and that motivates you to play more, try more builds, and for some players that willl spur them to buy more gear.
So why are they doing it this way? That’s the real mystery. Note that the whole thing started with SC2, which Bliz wasn’t going to include chat with, at all. They repeatedly said we wouldn’t need chat, that their matchmaking system was superior. And now D3′s much the same; auto game joining, matchmaking, Arena system set up for all anonymous PuG battles rather than real 1v1 or friends on teams dueling, etc.
It’s clearly a design decision by Bilz, to remove as much human interaction as possible from B.net 0.2, and I find it inexplicable. Not only do I disagree with it, I can’t even come up with a reasonable explanation for why they’re doing it.
Imagine World of Warcraft without any chat channels at all except party, raid, and whisper.
Chatrooms are a very big part of Battle.net 1.0. When you compare it to 2.0, the latter is definitely a ghost town. You barely feel like you’re even playing a multiplayer game anymore.
I finally saw an explanation, in a bnet forum comment . It’s conspiracy theory type, but at least there’s some logic to it. Here goes:
Blizzard knows how important and powerful an online community is, as demonstrated by how many people keep playing WoW just because they have friends who play. Blizzard does not want to interrupt that, hence the lousy socialization tools in SC2 and D3. By this logic, we can next expect robust socializing options in Titan, along with a monthly fee.
Flux – I think you’d appreciate this: http://theflatearthsociety.org/cms/
Also if that is the case, why introduce cross game chat? Surely it’s more likely to draw players from WoW to try SC2/D3 than the other way around, just thinking about the numbers who play/will play each title?
Well it wasn’t my theory and I didn’t say it was bulletproof, but at least there was some explanatory value to it.
To offer a defense in the spirit of the theory, Blizzard wants all their WoW players to buy other Bliz games… they just want us to keep paying for WoW also. So they include cross game chat to promote their titles throughout B.net friends lists, but when a group gets into SC2 or D3, the find the socialization options suck, only a few of them can be in the same game at once, etc.
It’s not a substitute for the WoW guild chat 20 people in the same game type experience. Hence they keep their WoW subs going.
I wasn’t implying that it was your theory – and I see where you’re coming from, but I really can’t believe many people would pay a monthly sub, just to use guild chat, which is pretty crappy itself. Surely it’s much more likely they’d just quit WoW and use IRC?
On the topic on why Starcraft 2 failed in terms of longevity – I think that it had less to do with the chat channels and more to do with the story – or lack thereof. Science fiction is like heavy metal, it is an acquired taste that takes years of emersion to fully appreciate. Blizzard has had a tremendous influx of employees over the last decade, and judging on the simplistic and dissonant (as in the WoW looking Jim Raynor and the mostly realistic gameplay) story telling style of SC2, I suspect that not all of them fully comprehend the complexities of that genre. SC2 feels like it is marketed toward the mass audience, a fatal mistake in the Sci Fi world, as Sci Fi is a niche genre.
I believe that D3 will also suffer a similar fate. The game will be designed to appeal to a broad audience, losing the core of what made D2 and D1 great. I agree that the absence of the chat channels detracts from the multiplayer feel, but I firmly believe that if Blizzard continues making Jack of All Trades games, then their games will be masters of none.
I agree but I can’t wait for another major change…
I wish I could a disagree with you, but I dont
I also only played SC2 for about a month. I was really really really excited for battle.net 2.0, but then it just turned out to be nothing special. Just about the only feature it added that I really liked was the cross-game chat and friend list, but the lack of clan support and community really made it fall flat.
It’s odd because I don’t really care to actually use the general chat in any of the past blizzard games, but your article made me realize that even if I don’t use it, just being aware of it does make me feel like I’m in a large community.
Good opinion piece Azzure.
I’m in the same boat. I didn’t use the D2 or SC1 channels a lot, but just from seeing a minute of it while looking for a game, I had a good idea of what the community was like. What people thought was overpowered, what items people wanted, what classes/army they liked. I didn’t follow SC2 development at all and bought it more or less on a whim the day it came out. No chat, I have no idea how people feel about the launch. I join a few UMS games expecting people to be over the moon excited and happy that the sequel has finally been released. Except no one’s talking. Everyone seems to know what to do except for me. Pretty much everyone had gotten into the beta, so this wasn’t anything new or exciting for them. The launch day magic where everyone is super pumped and cheerful, and actually talking strategy without calling each other noob was completely absent.
You’re huge, Azzure. And Blizzard should listen.
don’t insult the man!
I just have to agree with you Azzure.
It’s “funny” because when you think of it, one would, apparently rightfully so, be quick to dismiss such trivial and non-critical feature of a game like the chat channels. When in reality, as you perfectly explained it via your own personnal experience many players could relate to, I’m sure, it is anything but secondary and not important.
It’s those little “details” that help a game’s longetivity greatly and make for truly memorable moments.
You know I find it funny but there is a significant amount of truth to the progression hes had with blizzard games, I was a young kid when I first played d1, sc1, and d2, and I grew up on them like a crack addict for years and years without ever thinking of stopping (Unfortunatly quiting d2 because someone hacked my main account and took 4 years worth of work, but I still go back and play atleast once a year or two) and when sc2 came out I was more excited than anyone I knew… and I don’t play it. I bought sc2, played it furiously for 2 months… and after just my one friend stopped playing (due to computer issues) I found myself without meaningful friendships and not wanting to play by myself so… I stopped. This article now helps me understand that maybe, just maybe if I had made a few meaningful online friends on sc2 I might still be playing it right now. I have it installed and I love sc, but im just not playing the game anymore. Now im just looking forward to playing other games on console that me and friends are going to play like street fighter x tekken and gears 3 etc, and I have been talking to them about getting diablo 3 and pcs and stuff but its tough to get people to just buy a pc so they can play diablo 3 with me. Now I think im going to get at most 3-4 friends with me on d3 (Which is good because thats the max per lobby, but its still nothing compared to how many friends I had with me in d2) and if that doesn’t work out… maybe it might end up just like sc2 and ill really want to play it but after a few months everyones just not going to be able to play or they will move on. I have hopes blizzard… they aren’t high but I just ask that you don’t let me down…
while I in principle agree with the concerns expressed by Azzure, I honestly find the comments about sc2 quite surprising. After playing for 6 months I had a long list of friends i made either thru sc2 itself of thru getting in touch with players who wanted to practice (teamliquid and other forums had these threads); and a lot of times whenever I lost and watched the replay and felt I could learn I asked the player if he’d consider practice play, and a lot of them did. also, i felt that the amount of retardation among that community was waaaay lower that d2.
Speaking of, perhaps my memory fails me but i don’t quite recall chat channels in d2 being the paradigm of meaningful communication etc. i do remember clearly, however an awful lack of general candor and explosion of vulgarization and the FU n00b attitude all over the place… again if you wanted to make friends, you could, and I did by reaching out, but the community was plagued by ego-half-retarded-single-minded, cheating individuals. that is at least my clearest memory of that, and of course it may be flawed…
I saw this post on the D3 forums, and a lot of the replies were negative. I have to agree with you completely. The chat system that D3 has is horrible, and they really need to take your opinions into consideration for Bnet. If not at release, then soon after!
Not surprised by the negative comments. The sheep have come to defend their shepard once again…Blizzard drones have no brain for themselves, all the void is filled with the words BLIZZARD IS PERFECT.
TEH SHEEPIEZ NOOOOO
I used to think Blizzard was perfect too, but then i took a Battle.net 2.0 to my Blizzard games
kidding aside, adding the always online restriction added to SC2′s downfall as well, gone are the days where we play with our buddies for hours on end without having problems about lag or network disconnections.
Another “SC2 is dead” comment – see my post on the next page