Flux
21-08-2008, 06:19
The issue was brought up to Jay Wilson in a new interview on Gamespy, and though he didn't reveal anything (we'll find out first from SC2's beta), it's worth debating.
GameSpy: World of Warcraft essentially evolved out of Diablo II in many ways, but by its very nature never required a Battle.net-style system to keep its communities connected. Can you speak about how you plan to implement Diablo III into the upcoming version of Battle.net?
Jay Wilson, Lead Designer: One thing you mentioned is [how WoW was an evolution of Diablo II]. One of the things that we have people comment on a lot is, they say, "Oh, you're doing that, just like World of Warcraft!" And we're like, "yeah, but they took all that stuff from Diablo." There is very much an evolution. We learn from every game. There's stuff we pull from StarCraft, and they pull from us as well. We tend to look at games in general that we think are good, and we just happen to like our own games as well.
In terms of Battle.net features, to answer your question... we're kind of waiting for a big unveiling to announce a lot of the new features. I don't want to steal their thunder by talking about those features, but what I can talk about is the intent behind them -- to create the best online experience that you will find in gaming, and really support the Blizzard community. We think we have the greatest community in the world. They're wonderful people, they're great gamers, and they really love the community. What we want is for it to be easier for them to be together. Easier for them to talk to one another, easier for them to play games together, easier for them to find each other, no matter what they're doing. That's really the core goal behind the new Battle.net.
GameSpy: Lots of games are doing the social networking thing -- a good example is Battlefield Heroes. Can we expect social networking functionality on that level in the new Battle.net?
Jay Wilson: Maybe!
I think it's fairly clear they're going to be adding more social networking elements to B.net 2.0. They've got the cross-game achievements coming soon, they've said there will be major forum upgrades and integration into their games, and they're going to be pushing for users to have one central account, which will boost your profile and reduce your anonymity. Most online scams and cheats and hacks come because there's no accountability -- if you've got your name and a credit card attached to your Battle.net account, I think it's safe to say you'll be a lot less eager to try out the new map hack or item duping program.
GameSpy: World of Warcraft essentially evolved out of Diablo II in many ways, but by its very nature never required a Battle.net-style system to keep its communities connected. Can you speak about how you plan to implement Diablo III into the upcoming version of Battle.net?
Jay Wilson, Lead Designer: One thing you mentioned is [how WoW was an evolution of Diablo II]. One of the things that we have people comment on a lot is, they say, "Oh, you're doing that, just like World of Warcraft!" And we're like, "yeah, but they took all that stuff from Diablo." There is very much an evolution. We learn from every game. There's stuff we pull from StarCraft, and they pull from us as well. We tend to look at games in general that we think are good, and we just happen to like our own games as well.
In terms of Battle.net features, to answer your question... we're kind of waiting for a big unveiling to announce a lot of the new features. I don't want to steal their thunder by talking about those features, but what I can talk about is the intent behind them -- to create the best online experience that you will find in gaming, and really support the Blizzard community. We think we have the greatest community in the world. They're wonderful people, they're great gamers, and they really love the community. What we want is for it to be easier for them to be together. Easier for them to talk to one another, easier for them to play games together, easier for them to find each other, no matter what they're doing. That's really the core goal behind the new Battle.net.
GameSpy: Lots of games are doing the social networking thing -- a good example is Battlefield Heroes. Can we expect social networking functionality on that level in the new Battle.net?
Jay Wilson: Maybe!
I think it's fairly clear they're going to be adding more social networking elements to B.net 2.0. They've got the cross-game achievements coming soon, they've said there will be major forum upgrades and integration into their games, and they're going to be pushing for users to have one central account, which will boost your profile and reduce your anonymity. Most online scams and cheats and hacks come because there's no accountability -- if you've got your name and a credit card attached to your Battle.net account, I think it's safe to say you'll be a lot less eager to try out the new map hack or item duping program.