Blizzard: "No plans for chatrooms, crossrealm play" - Page…

On May 31 2010 09:07 Myst- wrote:
I found this on the Diablo 3 forums, regarding SC2/D3 and Battle.Net 2.0:

Bashiok:

"There will be chat rooms, they're just not making launch. Probably.

So Frank was out for interviews in EU it seems (?) and said something to the effect of "no chat rooms" but there would be chat for guilds and groups. Which is more or less what was said before. That it would be more about getting people into focused discussions instead of just having free for all chat systems. In any case, I don't know a lot about it. Personally, chat rooms are soooooo 2002."

Source: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25171927052

On May 31 2010 09:09 Archerofaiur wrote:



As FrozenArbiter said, Guild chat rooms are not chat channels.




Example: They can charge you money to set up a guild which has as part of it a chat room. Great right?

On May 31 2010 09:14 Myst- wrote:
There seems to be a disconnect between Blizzard, and the community. I mean seriously, they seem to be completely blind to what the community really wants, and what Blizzard thinks we want

On May 31 2010 09:16 Half wrote:


Props.

This is what it is. It's a disconnect, a error in translation, a failure to correlate values. It isn't scheme to make you pay for clans.

On May 31 2010 09:07 Myst- wrote:
I found this on the Diablo 3 forums, regarding SC2/D3 and Battle.Net 2.0:

Bashiok:

"There will be chat rooms, they're just not making launch. Probably.

So Frank was out for interviews in EU it seems (?) and said something to the effect of "no chat rooms" but there would be chat for guilds and groups. Which is more or less what was said before. That it would be more about getting people into focused discussions instead of just having free for all chat systems. In any case, I don't know a lot about it. Personally, chat rooms are soooooo 2002."

Source: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25171927052

On May 31 2010 09:22 TheYango wrote:

The problem is that private chat rooms don't help new members of the community discover it. People who already know their way around the SC1 community already have friends playing the game, or can jump on TL IRC. New players who don't have friends who play yet, and don't know about TL or other communities have no way of doing that. Private groups really don't help the situation there.

The absence of chat channels and cross-realm play is really leaving a sour taste in my mouth, particularly considering how vehemently Blizzard has been defending their removal with rather paltry justifications. For a company that I love and think the world of, even so far back as its Silicon & Synapse days with TLV, this is very distressing to say the least.

In this day and age, when technology is bridging previously insurmountable distances with extraordinary ease and when Blizzard's OWN products have embraced the fact and have been at the forefront of creating and encouraging cross-border friendships and communities; how can they all of a sudden leave the legacy of their past labours completely in the dark? It just seems...unpalatable of the great company we've come to respect.

Diablo and Diablo 2, Starcraft and the entire Warcraft franchise (particularly the indomitable World of Warcraft)...these games are all STILL popular today, despite some being decades-old, because of the enormous communities that have sprouted and thrived from them. These communities were defined by two major blessings:

1) The existence of a product-supported communication network available to all who have purchased the game and which exists within the game environment; and

2) The ability for flourishing world-wide communities (be they guild-based or channel-based such as TOURNAMENTS) to specify which server their member-base and constituents will play on. Emphasis on world-wide explained: the PRIMARY appeal of the internet is that it has created a neighbourhood of people located across the oceans.


One that cannot now be gratuitously divided.


So, when you are considering the opportunity cost of removing such a huge asset to Blizzard's reputation, goodwill and brand-loyalty, what possible silver bullet can justify filling the value lost by the absence of both these fundamental components to Blizzard's successful past offerings?

Lag-free play?
Does that really appear to be an issue in light of the past successes of the abovenamed franchises? And in consideration of the extraordinary response that Battle.Net 2.0's current iteration has evoked in the competitive scene-- that most concerned with latency issues? I can guarantee you, players from Australia who have developed lasting communities and friendships with their US counter-parts (in Blizzard's own games no less!) have no problem with latency, and every problem with being able to communicate and interact with a like-minded populace.

Spammers?
Another cited justification which beggers belief. Has Blizzard actually thrown in the white towel on the spamming issue and admitted it does not have the competence or resources to deal with spammers? I cannot believe their solution to spamming is to remove chat rooms entirely. It seems extraordinarily disproportionate with the harm to punish its entire FAITHFUL support base for the discretions of a few.

That's not a solution, that's cowardice and completely unbecoming of an industry-leader.

It seems the Blizzard of today certainly has a lot to answer for if it actually values the love and support of the community that it enjoyed in the past. Because fragmenting the community (particularly one as tight and devoted as the Starcraft community) and starving it of the vital networking that is the lifeblood of modern internet will not see Starcraft II into the next 10 years as it did SC1.


And my greatest fear is that this may well be Blizzard's intention all along.