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Blizzard Entertainment formally announced its plans for Battle.net 2.0 at BlizzCon 2009 along with the features the company hopes to include at and after the release of StarCraft II, which will be the first game to run the updated service. The service will remain free and integrate with World of WarCraft and future Blizzard games.
The major features of note and their purposes:
- A "Real ID" system, tying CD-keys to specific accounts. This is being done to prevent "smurfing" where skilled players create new accounts to play against less experienced players in the matchmaking system.
- A tiered ladder system, with levels of play for multiple skill levels. Players will be placed into different tiers on the ladder after playing enough games for the system to determine his or her skill level. Ladder seasons will play out for each tier, making ladder play applicable for all players, not just for skilled gamers.
- Custom game publishing and filtering. Want to play something other than Defense of the Ancients? StarCraft II will allow map makers to "publish" their maps to a database, giving them control over their work and allowing users to search and download maps without having to join games. Premium maps can be offered for a cost with some of the revenue going to the author(s).
The first two planned features are major for keeping players that would otherwise grow tired of losing online. Blizzard's Rob Pardo explained during the presentation of B.net 2.0 that the goal with the tier system is to give every player the chance at winning 50 percent of their games by matching them up with opponents of similar skill levels. Combined with the Real ID system to prevent smurfing, this should ensure that the competition is fair and yields worthwhile games for every player. WarCraft III's auto-matchmaking system was actually fairly good at finding matches, but was plagued by smurfing.
In addition to these online changes, Blizzard will also be putting things like challenges into the offline game to try and encourage players to learn the skills that they need to step into online play. Lead designer Dustin Browder explains this in my recent interview:
"We’re trying to get you into the multiplayer in some other ways. We’re encouraging you to take some baby steps. So, you’ve played the solo play. Okay, play some against the AI - hey look, there’s some achievements for that. You know, maybe you should try to get some of those. You know, maybe you should try this casual league. There’s no rushing on these maps, by the way, we’ve blocked everything off and made these maps just really no fun for the hardcore guys, but really fun for you, right, because you’re scared of being rushed."
How many of you have gone back in an attempt to play an older RTS game only to find out the remaining community is far more skilled than anything you could compete with? You have to remember that there will be a lot of players of all skill levels getting StarCraft II. The challenge for Blizzard is getting these players online and competing with other players. The game will still support eSports and pro-level play, but Blizzard seems to be on the right track in facilitating an enjoyable multiplayer experience for all players.
With that being said, there's the looming question about when the StarCraft II beta will launch. At BlizzCon, Mike Morhaime was confident that the beta would launch in 2009. I have been lucky enough to have played StarCraft II on three occasions over the past three months: the multiplayer event in late June, the single-player event in July, and just this past weekend at BlizzCon 2009. In each session, I played the multiplayer game extensively, though my play was limited to AI skirmishes at the single-player event. After each event, I was left with the following impression of the multiplayer component: "This is ready for beta."
Now, I've been told by Dustin Browder that there is still a lot of optimization work to be done on the game so it will run on a wide spectrum of PCs, but I believe that is the last obstacle on StarCraft II's side of the matter. The rest of the work lies on Battle.net 2.0. I don't expect Blizzard to fit all of the features it is hoping to launch the game with in the beta, but I'm finding myself believing Mike Morhaime. I think the beta will be released in 2009.
Are you looking forward to StarCraft II? Are you getting it for the single player only or will you be jumping online and playing multiplayer?
Comments
Displaying 1–17 of 17
worldnick
"Blizzard's Rob Pardo explained during the presentation of B.net 2.0 that the goal with the tier system is to give every player the chance at winning 50 percent of their games by matching them up with opponents of similar skill levels. "
And like Warcraft III that will mean that you may never get much more or less than 50 percent wins. Everyone stays even all the time and that is why people 'smurf.' You feel like you are making no progress even after years of playing. What is the point if you can never show off or drive your sports car around town. It just gets boring. I think the keeping everyone at 50 percent all the time idea is really bad.
Evimaki
EPIC game maybe? Probably? Will be? Already is, and I like all the changes to the b-net they are gonna include, only one thing I don't like, I have a younger sibling, and I don't want him to fudge up my w/l ratio, limit of 2 or 3 b-net 2.0 profiles for each disc? As for the single player, I agree with busshort66, it was incredibly well written, and fairly easy to follow. I can't wait for this game and to see what happens next in the Starcraft universe.
SPOILER ALERT!!! (in a way)
What will they do for the surprise at the end of Brood War? I'd like to see them included as well.
NexusFenrir
I'm getting the game cause sc1 owned, and its gonna be a nice rts as always, blizz does a wonderful job always and well as i am a huge mmo player in wow, its nice to take a break from time to time to play other things :D. tho i am hoping the beta comes out soon and i can be apart of it
outrage
That RealID thing is bull. Smurfing is annoying but doesn't happen that much. RealID is just an anti-piracy feature.
Bnet2 does not replace LAN, its an alternative. Rob Pardo is just way too slick.
koolboricua
i just want to play it already, i will also say that i wish they will come out with another Warcraft game, i loved warcraft and i still play it, single mode
maruhan2
If there is one problem with the matching making system, that would be the lack of new maps. In starcraft 1, new maps for competitions were made, but in warcraft 3 they were not becuz a third-party developer cannot upload the maps for matches. I hope they try to fix that problem
Able
I would like to see better Tied Accounts and i wish they would use it in WOW to hopefully track down the gold spammers and ban them a little faster then what they are doing now.
Also i like multiplayer games where ppl are playing on more of an equal footing, it will be down to who has the cool tactics to beat the other guy.
capthavic
I'm looking forward to it but it's like waiting for your birthday/x-mas only you aren't sure when it will be.
Griffith4100
Singleplayer has it's joys, while Multipayer is where its at for me. I doubt I'll touch single player for the first week of release. And while I do think Blizzard is taking forever with this game, I was very surprised all the good changes that were showed at Blizzcon (model, stats, editor, battle.net). I thought the game was almost done too, lol. On a serious note, I WANT LAN!
TylerOdd
Well to answer you question Brian I'll be picking it up for both experiences. I love the story, but also enjoy the multiplayer. Now in the original Starcraft I sucked terribly. I remember I would get killed off then watch the replay just to learn how to play better, just so next round I would at least be harder to kill off.
infamouscole15
Why is battlenet the focus for a game when lots of players want to see what happenes in the events of the single player campain? In my opinion i think that if it wasnt for this hole battlenet 2.0 thing starcraft 2 would be out ALOT sooner!
Raverenz51
I am very excited. Blizzard is my favorite game developer, for the simple fact that they have never made a game that was bad to me, and they last forever.
busshort66
I'm getting it for the single player first and formost because the story in sc1 and brood wars were so good and well written i just have to see where this story is gonna go next. But I am looking forward to the online play cause I like playing online but when I played SC1 it was already a few years after release and I just got murder every time in like 2 Min.
dwmatteson
"Blizzard Entertainment formerly announced its plans for Battle.net 2.0 at BlizzCon 2009"
Formally maybe?
KevinJames23
I'm not liking Battle.net 2.0. There was nothing wrong with just good 'ol games lists, ala Starcraft. Matchmaking and tiered systems just adds too much unnecessary complication to finding a group of players and playing the game. Starcraft put the players in control, which was great. Starcraft II, with all of this B.net. 2.0 stuff puts Blizzard in control, which stinks. Players should have the power, not the developers, when it comes to actually playing the game.
Not a fan of "tied accounts" - I like being able to restart every once in a while. Plus, name changes are often refreshing and fun.
Not a fan of published UMS games where people charge money. This system is going to be abused and will only serve to divide the community because nobody in their right mind wants to pay for a freaking map after already shelling out money for the full game, particularly when all the custom maps do is take the game that they paid for and change some of the rules. Either custom maps will be pirated, or people will just make (probably worse) mocks of paid maps and distribute them freely. All in the while this will divide the few who pay from those who do not creating a less lasting game than the original SC.
A games filter sounds nice, I guess.. but Starcraft has *never* had a problem with this like WC3, and hopefully it shouldn't for SCII either. I play SC to this day still and there's *always* a variety of UMS games to choose from.
Tharobiiceii
it'll be nice to finally play multiplayer and not get completely crushed.. EVERY time. lol.
Masquerade
It's unfortunate that Blizzard's other franchise suffered from neglect for so long because of WoW. I may pick this up just so I can play Custom Games and experience all the things people can do with the new editor/tech.
Displaying 1–17 of 17
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