Husky Video: The State of BNET 2.0

[n00bonicPlague]

I've noticed a serious lack of communication since the merger. The bnet forums has been ignored largely ever since WoW. Infact, the only blue posts I read daily are on the WoW forums. Multiple ones. I guess they know where the cash is at?

In regards to the forums, it's the fault of the individual community managers themselves. Karune was never all that active, and even Cydra only posted so often. Cavez posted a few times, but not all that often either. If you ever watched the DIII forums, Bashiok would post FAR more often than the three of them COMBINED. Communication through the SC2 forums sucked because the mods sucked. Trust me, I've been an SC2GDF member since its inception. I KNOW that place.

[Gifted]

Interesting fact regarding forum communication. Karune checked and replied in the forums once every 4 business days, almost like clockwork, for many months after the merger even. The days which seemed the most stressful to the community was when information was provided on a Friday... as the weekend was not a business/working day, that means that it was 6 days before a comment would come. The Bi-monthly FAQs were almost always 10 business days apart.

This all changed when things approached Blizzcon, roughly a month beforehand, when the average posts came to be about 6 days apart and limited as they had to hold back and build anticipation for it. After Blizzcon, things would be spotty for a few weeks as they let the public information settle in, and they would resume activities about 1-2 months later. This was a common pattern throughout beta as a whole. For that reason, it's safe to say that the opinion that communication was spotty.. was only due to the fact that weekends didn't count and the typical pattern shifted with events.

There were exceptions, but typically within a 1 day or so difference here and there.

[n00bonicPlague]

Eh, yeah, I guess I overstated the inactivity. It was a bit more like you described it. Still, the inconsistency and spottiness were frustrating. There'd be days when the posting rate from the blues was crazy through the roof, but then after that there'd be a deafening silence for long periods of time. I specifically remember this one Q&A Batch they did where Karune, Cydra, and Xordiah tag-teamed reponses within that thread at an insane rate — more so than I had EVAR seen. It made my editing-copying-pasting APM skyrocket on SC:L as I tried to get the responses into the thread. That day was incredible.

But then there were those whole weeks and months where we'd have NOTHING AT ALL. The blues addressed this saying that they didn't like posting unless the info was super-special, but we told them time after time that EVERY BIT OF INFO IS SUPER SPECIAL. It's like eating regular meals vs binging/fasting. You may get the same amount of food overall, but the latter will traumatize your body and your mind.

[pure.Wasted]

I think a lot of the issues with communication have to do not with the FREQUENCY of posts, but rather the CONTENT those posts were communicating.

Hearing "Yes Galaxy Editor CAN _____" for the umpteenth time in a row may have been great at the time (and I emphasize 'may'), but now that we look back on it, it would have done that whether we'd asked about it or not, whereas stuff like what Blizz is finally doing now with these Patch insights, where they share their thoughts behind design decisions... if they'd done THAT from the start, we'd have made a lot more headway.

[TheRabidDeer]

I've noticed a serious lack of communication since the merger. The bnet forums has been ignored largely ever since WoW. Infact, the only blue posts I read daily are on the WoW forums. Multiple ones. I guess they know where the cash is at?

WoW forums gets more communication because everybody that plays WoW is paying a monthly fee, it is also a very ongoing game with lots of changes every few months, so communication is much MUCH more important. Not to say that SC2 or D3 posts couldnt be more often, just stating the reasons on why the WoW forums have more regular posts.

My... thoughts... exactly.

I think its kinda dumb in Bnet 1 when I click on one thing and it turns out to be another. I think a good solution would be to subtitle the map name with a description yourself, but I do prefer the way custom games are made now. But I agree completely that Region lock can't be kept the way it is, and Blizzard needs to make LAN like alternatives for tournaments hosts - something I'm pretty sure will happen after launch.

I would prefer it if they had 2 different modes. A classic mode and a 2.0 mode. Classic mode being the old way where you can use a title and the new way where its just a list of different games. I just foresee an issue with maps in general with bnet 2.0 though. Right now it works OK, there are only like 50-100 maps MAYBE that are published and available for play. But, what happens when there are THOUSANDS of different maps? What about people that make a NEW map? They have no way to really spread it around since itll always be at the bottom of the list since its not popular yet.

In regards to the topic at hand... bnet 2.0 is in bad shape but SC2 is a fantastic game. I still see no reason why they cant revert SC2 to use the old bnet for a while until they fix all of the things in 2.0. Its pretty obvious that we are getting only a fraction of what even Blizzard wants bnet 2.0 to be at release, so we are getting an unfinished product. This in itself seems odd for Blizzard.

[n00bonicPlague]

I think a lot of the issues with communication have to do not with the FREQUENCY of posts, but rather the CONTENT those posts were communicating.

Hearing "Yes Galaxy Editor CAN _____" for the umpteenth time in a row may have been great at the time (and I emphasize 'may'), but now that we look back on it, it would have done that whether we'd asked about it or not, whereas stuff like what Blizz is finally doing now with these Patch insights, where they share their thoughts behind design decisions... if they'd done THAT from the start, we'd have made a lot more headway.

Definitely this too. Content was pretty sub-par for most posts. Spreading that out evenly over time would've been a good thing too.

[SaZun]

In regards to the topic at hand... bnet 2.0 is in bad shape but SC2 is a fantastic game. I still see no reason why they cant revert SC2 to use the old bnet for a while until they fix all of the things in 2.0. Its pretty obvious that we are getting only a fraction of what even Blizzard wants bnet 2.0 to be at release, so we are getting an unfinished product. This in itself seems odd for Blizzard.

I'm going to have to go with this one. I think SC2 its at a great position for its currenty balance pre launch for multiplayer. Not to mention single player looks insane.

Really I do feel like they were forced to push 2.0 out unfinished by Activision. Or maybe Blizzard itself decided that the pros outweighed the cons and figured we'd rather have the game while they continue to tweak 2.0.

[TWD]

In regards to the topic at hand... bnet 2.0 is in bad shape but SC2 is a fantastic game. I still see no reason why they cant revert SC2 to use the old bnet for a while until they fix all of the things in 2.0. Its pretty obvious that we are getting only a fraction of what even Blizzard wants bnet 2.0 to be at release, so we are getting an unfinished product. This in itself seems odd for Blizzard.

The problem with this is that battle.net is a lot more than just community features. The entire multiplayer code has been rebuilt from the ground up. The whole system functions differently. It would probably take longer to retool it for the old battle.net than it would to add these extra features.
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Live sex

[SaZun]

Reverting back to the old bnet would kill all of the matchmaking progression. Would be back to joining a game and seeing if you get stomped or you stomp him. So without practice partners your hard pressed to find competition.

mmmm shelled peanuts. the janitors are going to hate me today.

"that mother $%^& was eating peanuts again!"

[TheRabidDeer]

Reverting back to the old bnet would kill all of the matchmaking progression. Would be back to joining a game and seeing if you get stomped or you stomp him. So without practice partners your hard pressed to find competition.

mmmm shelled peanuts. the janitors are going to hate me today.

"that mother $%^& was eating peanuts again!"

Didnt war3 have a very similar matchmaking system?