No chat channels is unacceptable

[Luso]

Q : Is there plans to release public chat channels? Also, if you do release it, how will you fight against spams and profanity?
A : Battle.net 2.0 will not support open chat channels. We will take actions to the reported spams, profanity and rude behaviors with the new Report Player functionality.


Seriously? Is it that difficult to duplicate either warcraft 3's chat functionality or IRC-like channels? I can't even begin to fathom why blizzard would intentionally take steps backward in the functionality of their game. There is not a single reason why open chat channels shouldn't be supported.

We're gamers blizzard, this is not facebook. Don't fix something that isn't broken.

[Eloderung]

Agreed. No open chat channels will kill a lot of the feel of battle.net.

This isn't facebook.

[Deseo]

calm down sir, this is the beginning of beta if you recall

[Lagorathia]

definitely agreed. i thought we just didn't have chat channels for the beta, i wasn't aware there weren't going to be channels on bnet at all. that's messed up.

[Soli]

+1, this is a very bad idea and I would hope that should be clear to 'the blues' if they actually pay any attention to feedback. Virtually no one seems to agree with this apparent idea that spammers and bots were so annoying we don't want *chat functionality* anymore... Personally, I like the IM-style /msging system, but if there are no "open" chat channels, assuming there's some sort of 'guild chat' for whatever clan system they implement, sounds like joining a big clan will be pretty much optional for those of us who enjoy occasionally socialising while playing our multiplayer games... Sigh. I hope this is just a misleading translation or something :\

[Ignorance]

I think we should have permanent group chat channels that are accessible in and out of the game.
No autojoining Starcraft 2 #15 though. That's pretty pointless. Maybe a newb channel would be nice, though. That way, newbs can arrange to play against each other and meet each other online.

[Kinaesthesia]

calm down sir, this is the beginning of beta if you recall

Blizzard has already stated there would be no open chat channels.

[Volsky]

Why blizzard...



WHY?

[Vox]

Bnet facebook 2.0 will not translate well with most gamers, I'm going to call it now.

[Eloderung]

B.net 2.0 needs a lot of work.

Blahblahblah whispers: gl!

Me: Oh, I have a whisper!

*searches for tab*
*finds tab among ten others*
*opens tab*

*reads blahblahblah's whisper*

*closes IM tab*

/sigh

because Facebook chat is SUCH a great model for in-game whispers...

WTB battle.net 1.0 back. B.net 2.0 needs a chat prompt, all of the old b.net 1.0 functionality, and chat channels back. B.net 2.0 sucks.

[Traison]

Open chat adds so much to the social aspect of the game. You win a big or very close game, you wanna go brag about it or just tell someone, where better than in a public space where people will critic you, congratulate you, of course flame you, but its something that seems required in a massive online RTS. Of course there is many other reasons why open chat is better than closed, im sure 99% of us can tolerate spam >.>

[Deseo]

oh, my bad but im sure they'll have clan chat support one way or the other

[Toridas]

There is not a single reason why open chat channels shouldn't be supported.

We're gamers blizzard, this is not facebook.

There is no a single reason why chat channels should be supported.
We're gamers blizzard, this isn't IRC.

[Joey]

Can I have a source link for that quote?

And if this is true I must attest. Some of the coolest cats that I've ever met (and I still game with) I meet through these random channels. :|

[Zaq]

There is no a single reason why chat channels should be supported.
We're gamers blizzard, this isn't IRC.

You're embarassing yourself.

[Eloderung]

There is no a single reason why chat channels should be supported.
We're gamers blizzard, this isn't IRC.

Most players are not antisocial like certain people on these forums.

That is why chat channels should be supported.

[Kinaesthesia]

You're embarassing yourself.

QFT

Also: Blizzard's Bnet 2.0 engineers really need the 'If it's not broken don't fix it' mentality.

[Lagorathia]

well and just because a lot of people don't use it, it shouldn't be supported? why should your non use of a feature invalidate someone elses use. don't be a moron.

[Wingless]

No chat channels = a step down i cant believe they pushed SC2 back for this Bnet2.0 stinker.

[Darkavatar]

i totally agree with this thread. I definitely feel like i am alone playing starcraft 2 and i feel like there is no way for me to make any new in game friends. completely and totally agree

[Raxus]

Maybe I'm mistaken but I believe I read somewhere that the chat channels will be under the currently disabled "social" tab in battle net.

[Zolthar]

I also agree that having no chat channels is a bit disappointing for a 2010 Blizzard game...

Blizzard high quality standard?

[Wingless]

What if it turns out that channels are on the way and that dude who said they arent just trolled us all ><.

[Lagorathia]

Maybe I'm mistaken but I believe I read somewhere that the chat channels will be under the currently disabled "social" tab in battle net.

i thought so too. but if this q and a is true, well wtf.

[Joey]

On the way I hope doesn't mean now. Servers are back up.


In other news...


I still want to see the source of this quote. Without it it's useless.

[Wingless]

Oh and ya googled it teamliquid has this same thread seems at some bnet2.0 panel; they said no channels cause they have something bigger planned. this sucks bring channels back.

[Eloderung]

On the way I hope doesn't mean now. Servers are back up.


In other news...


I still want to see the source of this quote. Without it it's useless.

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=23425588844&sid=5000

Source is listed here.

[Bogo]

Oh and ya googled it teamliquid has this same thread seems at some bnet2.0 panel; they said no channels cause they have something bigger planned. this sucks bring channels back.

How can you have something bigger than chat channels? It's either chat, or it isn't...

[Joey]

Damn you divine.justice, damn you and your perseverance

[Tornare]

Maybe I'm mistaken but I believe I read somewhere that the chat channels will be under the currently disabled "social" tab in battle net.

nope. there is actually a post somewhere where they flat out stay it. Let me see if i can find it and post it

edit: i cannot actually find the post i read. Maybe that is a good sign.

[Pwn]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but where is the community? My attempts at befriending people have been futile so far. Unless something happens, I don't picture myself talking to anyone but real life friends in the future when the game is released. Many of which may not even be playing SC2.

How do clans form? How do they even chat together? Random conversation can be pretty informative and entertaining. Instead of going onto a forum where what I say might not even be acknowledged, I could chat with people in real time. That could be especially helpful if I'm trying to get advice with gameplay strategies, or even feedback on a map/mod I'm making.

Wasn't the goal of Battle.net 2.0 to bring the community together, which is apparently the whole reason for not having LAN functionality? The "always connected experience"? I hardly feel connected. I feel like I'm alone until I'm playing a ladder match, which even then there's hardly any social interaction. My opponent isn't going to really have a conversation with me, the most I'll get out of him is "GLHF".

Even after the match, I could add him as a friend and I can whisper him. But in general they don't really have a reason to do anything with me, especially if I lose the game. I've tried to help someone that was fairly new at RTSs and after teaching him some basics I never really heard from him again.


Surely if there are no public channels then we can create private ones. There's no way clans can communicate together through whispers and 4-man parties. There comes another problem, though. How would people have their clan grow? There's nowhere to really talk with people and have them join. Unless someone plays some ladder matches and asks people if they want to join or something after the match, or during a custom game or something. Those don't seem like very good mediums, though.

Perhaps I'm alone here, but whispering people you just matched against feels kind of invasive. Maybe it's due to my first impressions with people I've whispered, but I don't exactly feel comfortable whispering people after matches, and no one has ever whispered me first. If I didn't go beyond to try to simply make a friend in the game, then I would definitely have never chatted with anyone. Actually, I never really had too much of a chat anyway. The most I've had for a conversation was me teaching basics about the game.



I was very certain Blizzard would know how to make the game socially friendly, seeing previous Battle.net games and especially World of Warcraft. Having no public chat channels? That's a step in the opposite direction.

Maybe not the best analogy, but imagine if World of Warcraft had no public channels. You would have to meet each person personally and whisper them, unless you already knew them and invited them to a party, assuming they're not busy. Then at the most you could chat with 5 people (in SC2, 4). No guild chat, no general or trade chat.

Is it much different with StarCraft 2? I understand it's not an MMO, but games like this should be just as social as an MMO. There's no way I can chat with anyone unless I meet them personally (for instance through the matchmaking system) and whisper them. I can easily chat with people I know in real life, but that's not Blizzard's community, that's my personal community. I wouldn't even be able to talk to them all in the same conversation with a limit of 4 people in a party (being the largest form of communication in the game at this point). There's 2500 people online in SC2 at the moment? I've had a small conversation with at most 5, all of whom I have had to contact personally after only knowing them by some random matching with that person? Playing against someone shows absolutely nothing about that person, especially that the both of us are concentrating more on the actual game than having a conversation with each other even though it's perfectly possible. All my opponent can know from me is that I've lost to him or won to him, and that says very little and brings absolutely no incentive to become friends in any way. That doesn't seem right to me at all. It's far from a community, and I would not call it a community.


Battle.net's social networking and communication capabilities will be some of the service's biggest new features.So at this point, we have the ability to whisper, like every other online Blizzard game. Except we get nice windows to organize it all a bit better. Then we have Real ID which allows me to chat with people I know in real life across games. So for this 'community', the 'improvements' are to simply limit us to whispering and getting in a party with 4 people we have to have previously met somehow, organizing chat windows so party chat and all my whispers are separated, and the ability to chat with people from my personal community who play WoW or SC2.

I am not saying that the chat windows aren't nice, I think

[Pwn]

[Continued]

... they're great. But that is hardly a significant improvement. I could see that easily implemented in WoW or even older B.net games, for instance. Stripping public channels completely seems near pointless, except for dispersing the community and making friends hard to do.


I was certain Blizzard simply had not implemented chat channels yet, but if it's true that Blizzard flat-out said it will not be, it has become the single largest problem, and perhaps the only (significant, not-bug-or-balance-related) problem with this game and the "improved" Battle.net.


I know I'm not the only one who feels a lack of sense of community while playing this game. I've I did not know subconsciously that I was playing against real people when I play this game, it would feel like I was offline playing single player against really well done AI.

[Toridas]

You know what most games don't have? Chat channels. And they do fine with community.

[Luso]

Spot on pwn.cloud.

Feeds and IM windows is not efficient communication for real-time gameplay. People need to be able to form social clusters easily, and they need a launching pad to do so. "Cost" is an asinine excuse, cost didn't stop blizzard from revolutionizing games with battle.net in the first place. Now it feels like we're devolutionizing.

[Eloderung]

You know what most games don't have? Chat channels. And they do fine with community.

Really? Name some successful online communities that do not have chat channels.

World of Warcraft, all previous blizzard games, all the big MMOs have chat channels, and they're the most successful online communities.

Are you talking about some trashy console game?

[Toridas]

Really? Name some successful online communities that do not have chat channels.


Counter-Strike, Call of Duty series, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Dawn of War series, Quake series, Battlefield series

pretty much every game that is non-battle.net, really. chat channels are pretty rare in games

[Luso]

funny how a lot of hardcore people playing those games used IRC in the neglect of supported chat channels.

[Zasz]

I have to jump on the bandwagon here and wonder why Blizzard would intentionally remove such a core feature of Battle.net. To be perfectly honest, the open chats on WC3 were cesspools of spammers and 8 year old kids, but that would have been fixed in SC2 (except for the kids) by only being able to have one account per cd key, etc.

While I never really participated in open chat, clan chat was another matter entirely, and there was something welcoming about logging on to whatever flame war was going on in the open chat.

I just can't see the reason behind removing them...

[Eloderung]

Counter-Strike, Call of Duty series, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Company of Heroes, Dawn of War series, Quake series, Battlefield series

So fps, fps, fps, fps, fps, fps, fps, fps, fps, fps, fps?

I wonder what those games have in common.

Tell me, what sort of user-created content is available in those games? What sort of strategy is involved for half of those? Most of those games aren't even that popular, or never were, and could never have the multi-million person community Blizzard games have.

[Toridas]

So fps, fps, fps, fps, fps, fps, fps, fps, fps, fps, fps?

I wonder what those games have in common.

Tell me, what sort of user-created content is available in those games? What sort of strategy is involved for half of those? Most of those games aren't even that popular, or never were, and could never have the multi-million person community Blizzard games have.

I thought we were talking about community, what does genre, user content, or strategy have anything to do with anything

[Pwn]

Originally posted by Toridas.naradak

Counter-Strike, Call of Duty series, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Dawn of War series, Quake series, Battlefield series

Those are hardly communities. At least, if people are going to organize communities for those games, it must be done mostly or completely out of game, which may be a direction SC2 will head in. Similar to SC2 in it's current state, you're practically playing with/against random people you probably won't chat with except for your real life friends that are playing with you (if applicable). Like I've said, that's hardly the game's community, but rather your personal community.

StarCraft 2, unlike those games, has a purpose for a community as well. Simply having a nice group of people to play ladder is a reason, let alone the ability to create custom games.

[Kinaesthesia]

I thought we were talking about community, what does genre, user content, or strategy have anything to do with anything

Community: People advertising for clans. Advertising for newly-created custom maps. People asking for specific help testing a certain feature. Asking questions and asking for help. Making random friends. The list goes on and on.

Genre: The RTS (this ties in with Strategy) genre requires much more actual 'planning' obviously than the FPS genre. You need to plan things out with team members, and pre-game strategy is very important. Teams in games such as Counter-Strike rely on connections of friends to actually create any sort of clan or team, plus they have player-owned servers that allow for more communication. And after they do find a team, ventrilo is a must and IRC/skype/any other group conversation service is required as well.

User Content: Goes back into community. People make custom maps. The fastest way to advertise them / ask for beta testers? Through open channels.

Really, just stop posting. You're still embarrassing yourself.

[Lagorathia]

also, starcraft games include 2 - 8 people in them. 8 people is considered like the minimum in an fps. games are just larger in fpses and the socializing takes place in-game. with rts games, the socializing does NOT happen in game because the pool of people in the game just isn't as large. the chat has always seemed pretty integral to me, even if i didn't use it most of the time.

[Pat]

This is looking worse and worse

Bnet 2.0 seems to have less features then bnet 1.0
The features it does have are improved though

If toss keeps getting nerfed and theres no in game community i will not buy this game
I was really looking forward to sc2


Someone listed a bunch of games that have no chat rooms but still have a community

Those games have servers, servers that you can join to play with the same people, or new people that join the server
Those servers act as the chat channel

SC2 is just 1 game to another with random people
People never talk in SC2 games because there is no down time, no time to rest
Where in the games you listed you might be dead and waiting to spawn
If no one talks in games there will never be any new friends made
The chat channels of bnet 1.0 act as that rest time, the down time where people talk and make friends

Without chat channels this almost feels like a single player game

[Darand]

I wish people would quit complaining about the missing chat channels. They are in the currently disabled social tab.

I am pretty sure there is a post somewhere on these forums by Nethera confirming it. I'm going to see if I can find it.

[Kinaesthesia]

I wish people would quit complaining about the missing chat channels. They are in the currently disabled social tab.

I am pretty sure there is a post somewhere on these forums by Nethera confirming it. I'm going to see if I can find it.

Read the (second?) page of this thread, follow the source, and you'll see why open channels are NOT in the disabled social tab.

[Mortis]

It's rare that the majority of our beta community actually agrees on one thing.

I could go into a long explanation of why we need chat channels but several folks before me have already done so.

Suffice to say, please give us our chat channels back.

[Darand]

Read the (second?) page of this thread, follow the source, and you'll see why open channels are NOT in the disabled social tab.

NOOOOO! Wow, thats very suprising I always thought open chat channels were the primary feature of battle.net without them what's the point.

[Nightmare]

100% of the in game "communication" between players in an FPS is just 12 year olds screaming "@@**ING @%!%!! LOLOLOL" and "Your mother" insults into the microphone about 500 times a minute.

[Lagorathia]

why should your non use of a feature invalidate someone elses use.

i don't know how i can make this more clear. it's useless to you. can you accept the fact that to the LARGE MAJORITY it is not useless.

[Passislisk]

I just want to get in and sign this petition, chat channels are an integral part of what I enjoy about Bnet, especially clan channels in WC3 and stuff, also having a channel to hang out in to find people who like the same custom game as you etc. It should definitely be in Bnet 2.0, no questions about it.

[Wingless]

Heres how it is. SC2 will have channels. If blizzard doesnt provide them with bnet2.0 people just wont use bnet2.0 for anything but actually playing the game. Everyone better get familiar with irc commands again.

[Serpico]

calm down sir, this is the beginning of beta if you recall

the game wont change a bit besides fixing bugs/balancing.

[Resolve]

Agreed. Really sad they would even consider taking them out.

[Omegaman]

No.... This is horrible. The open chat gave so much community to battle.net

[Serpico]

There is no a single reason why chat channels should be supported.
We're gamers blizzard, this isn't IRC.

gamers like to be social? Good lord, are you LOOKING for excuses to make for blizzard? We're supposed to be honest and offer criticism to make the game better.

[Raxus]

Well I have no idea what the source of this interview is but maybe it's valid. Either way he said no public chat channels, doesn't necessarily mean there will be NO chat channels. I don't know about you guys but most of the "public" channels in b.net in my experience were people trying to sell me diablo or wow gold. Most of the people I met in both games was from actually playing the game.

[Serpico]

Well I have no idea what the source of this interview is but maybe it's valid. Either way he said no public chat channels, doesn't necessarily mean there will be NO chat channels. I don't know about you guys but most of the "public" channels in b.net in my experience were people trying to sell me diablo or wow gold. Most of the people I met in both games was from actually playing the game.

It would be nice if they came out and said you could have private channels for clans/friends etc...

[Nightmare]

I don't know about you guys but most of the "public" channels in b.net in my experience were people trying to sell me diablo or wow gold.

Didn't used to be that way.

[Eloderung]

Well I have no idea what the source of this interview is but maybe it's valid. Either way he said no public chat channels, doesn't necessarily mean there will be NO chat channels. I don't know about you guys but most of the "public" channels in b.net in my experience were people trying to sell me diablo or wow gold. Most of the people I met in both games was from actually playing the game.

There are already private channels in the game (open a conversation with someone, click add to conversation).

How useful are those to you?

[Divine]

Well I have no idea what the source of this interview is but maybe it's valid. Either way he said no public chat channels, doesn't necessarily mean there will be NO chat channels. I don't know about you guys but most of the "public" channels in b.net in my experience were people trying to sell me diablo or wow gold. Most of the people I met in both games was from actually playing the game.

:( I stated my source at the top

from http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=23425588844&sid=5000

Korean time: March 4th, 11:00 Q&A session hosted in Samsung city Hyatt Hotel with VP of Online Technology in Blizzard Robert Bridenbecker attending

Full Korean Article from http://sc2.ygosu.com/news/?idx=2896
Q&A Korean: http://sc2.ygosu.com/news/?s_cate=&s_cate2=&search=&searcht=&page=1&idx=2897&newwindow=&s_gameno=0



It would be nice if they came out and said you could have private channels for clans/friends etc...

someone asked in Q&A and the VP just said he can't talk about it... it almost seems as tho all this community issues are not yet finalized... hence not released

[Serpico]

:( I stated my source at the top

from http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=23425588844&sid=5000





someone asked in Q&A and the VP just said he can't talk about it... it almost seems as tho all this community issues are not yet finalized... hence not released

it seems like such an easy thing to implement. I dont get what all the behind closed doors stuff is about.

[Dreuel]

it seems like such an easy thing to implement. I dont get what all the behind closed doors stuff is about.

Unless they're looking at some chat solution based on friend networks, in which case there might be real questions about how well it *would* work based on, say, connectedness data collected from beta friends lists.

[Seronic]

I'll never make friend anymore. I can't exactly play a 1v1, or a 2v2, then after the game message the guy like "Hey buddy lets be best friends on here!". Doesn't worth that way. I actually met all my friends back in what, 98? on the battle.net chat channels. Been gaming with them ever since.


SC, D2, WC3, WoW. And we will continue doing it in sc2 and beyond.... We will have no problem chatting with each other with the functions of battle.net 2.0, but how can we meet new people?


I really hope blizzard has a way of communication that they will come out with that will blow our minds. Maybe "clans" will have their own channels, you can app to them via social tab, if accepted, boom new friends.

Lol. Who knows. Be smart blizz :<

[Michael]

I thought Blizzard wanted to give us the always connected feeling. When I joined this new B.net 2.0 I feel less connected because I have no one to talk too.

I told all my friends today that there a huge possibility of no chat channels in b.net 2.0 and they all was like "wtf?!" and almost reconsider buying the game.

[Skysec]

One of the first things I noticed when playing bnet was the chat channel and how there was a lot of banter going on in those channels, the same with d2 and wc3. w/o these it feels like there's no point to being on bnet. There is literally no community w/o having chat, its just me and my friends list. Right now I get on sc2 and it feels so lonely, even if my friends are online, a lot of the time they're in a game and they can't talk.

[Toridas]

Teams in games such as Counter-Strike rely on connections of friends to actually create any sort of clan or team, plus they have player-owned servers that allow for more communication. And after they do find a team, ventrilo is a must and IRC/skype/any other group conversation service is required as well.


What? You mean they can do all this WITHOUT CHAT CHANNELS? GASP!

[Raz]

Hmm guys...

I am pretty sure they said it would be in. It's in the Social tab on the top left which is disabled for this phase of the beta.

Just give it time...

[Wingless]

Originally posted by Toridas.naradak

What? You mean they can do all this WITHOUT CHAT CHANNELS? GASP!

Lol did you just promote not using the new social bnet sc2 got delayed for as your social aspect of this game.

Edit: and how does anyone know if theres channels in the disabled social tab you cant even see it. If blizzard said no channels thats much firmer info then maybe they are in that social tab we cant see.

[Toridas]

I'm promoting the fact that supported chat isn't necessary to form gaming communities, as anyone who has ever played a game outside of blizzard's franchises would be able to tell you.

[Luso]

I'm promoting the fact that supported chat isn't necessary to form gaming communities, as anyone who has ever played a game outside of blizzard's franchises would be able to tell you.

It's not necessary, but it's a huge advantage to blizzard's games to have integrated support for them. It's faster and easier. It makes the game better. It's not like supporting open chat channels is a difficult feat for blizzard, so there isn't any reason to not include them.

[Joneleth]

There is not a single reason why chat channels should be supported.
We're gamers Blizzard, this isn't IRC.

[Spork]

Having open chat channels is an ABSOLUTE NECESSITY. I personally like having a place where I can just chill and talk with people after a few games. The War3 channels were great. I really hope they aren't making sweeping changes just because a few idiots invaded channels with bots, because no matter what you do you wont get rid of them. Take wow for example, with all the changes they have made, gold company's still openly sell gold in general chat and whisper players :|

[Joneleth]

Having open chat channels is an ABSOLUTE NECESSITY.Only for the vocal minority. None of the rest of the over 500 views on this thread gives an SCV about chat.

We're here to play StarCraft. I suggest that you cease your QQ here and start getting better at the game itself instead.

[Joeorange]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but where is the community? My attempts at befriending people have been futile so far. Unless something happens, I don't picture myself talking to anyone but real life friends in the future when the game is released. Many of which may not even be playing SC2.

How do clans form? How do they even chat together? Random conversation can be pretty informative and entertaining. Instead of going onto a forum where what I say might not even be acknowledged, I could chat with people in real time. That could be especially helpful if I'm trying to get advice with gameplay strategies, or even feedback on a map/mod I'm making.

Wasn't the goal of Battle.net 2.0 to bring the community together, which is apparently the whole reason for not having LAN functionality? The "always connected experience"? I hardly feel connected. I feel like I'm alone until I'm playing a ladder match, which even then there's hardly any social interaction. My opponent isn't going to really have a conversation with me, the most I'll get out of him is "GLHF".

Even after the match, I could add him as a friend and I can whisper him. But in general they don't really have a reason to do anything with me, especially if I lose the game. I've tried to help someone that was fairly new at RTSs and after teaching him some basics I never really heard from him again.


Surely if there are no public channels then we can create private ones. There's no way clans can communicate together through whispers and 4-man parties. There comes another problem, though. How would people have their clan grow? There's nowhere to really talk with people and have them join. Unless someone plays some ladder matches and asks people if they want to join or something after the match, or during a custom game or something. Those don't seem like very good mediums, though.

Perhaps I'm alone here, but whispering people you just matched against feels kind of invasive. Maybe it's due to my first impressions with people I've whispered, but I don't exactly feel comfortable whispering people after matches, and no one has ever whispered me first. If I didn't go beyond to try to simply make a friend in the game, then I would definitely have never chatted with anyone. Actually, I never really had too much of a chat anyway. The most I've had for a conversation was me teaching basics about the game.



I was very certain Blizzard would know how to make the game socially friendly, seeing previous Battle.net games and especially World of Warcraft. Having no public chat channels? That's a step in the opposite direction.

Maybe not the best analogy, but imagine if World of Warcraft had no public channels. You would have to meet each person personally and whisper them, unless you already knew them and invited them to a party, assuming they're not busy. Then at the most you could chat with 5 people (in SC2, 4). No guild chat, no general or trade chat.

Is it much different with StarCraft 2? I understand it's not an MMO, but games like this should be just as social as an MMO. There's no way I can chat with anyone unless I meet them personally (for instance through the matchmaking system) and whisper them. I can easily chat with people I know in real life, but that's not Blizzard's community, that's my personal community. I wouldn't even be able to talk to them all in the same conversation with a limit of 4 people in a party (being the largest form of communication in the game at this point). There's 2500 people online in SC2 at the moment? I've had a small conversation with at most 5, all of whom I have had to contact personally after only knowing them by some random matching with that person? Playing against someone shows absolutely nothing about that person, especially that the both of us are concentrating more on the actual game than having a conversation with each other even though it's perfectly possible. All my opponent can know from me is that I've lost to him or won to him, and that says very little and brings absolutely no incentive to become friends in any way. That doesn't seem right to me at all. It's far from a community, and I would not call it a community.


So at this point, we have the ability to whisper, like every other online Blizzard game. Except we get nice windows to organize it all a bit better. Then we have Real ID which allows me to chat with people I know in real life across games. So for this 'community', the 'improvements' are to simply limit us to whispering and getting in a party with 4 people we have to have previously met somehow, organizing chat windows so party chat and all my whispers are separated, and the ability to chat with people from my personal community who play WoW or SC2.

I am not saying that the chat windows aren't nice, I think

You should make this it's own thread. Seriously. I feel the same way, and I really think these issues need

[Frame]

Stop the QQ, continue testing the game. Channels will be implemented.
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=23425767873&postId=234232812915&sid=3000#13

[Luso]

Stop the QQ, continue testing the game. Channels will be implemented.
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=23425767873&postId=234232812915&sid=3000#13

yeah a "guess" post from a diablo CM on 3/3 is really reassuring in light of the QA with an actual developer on 3/4 /roll eyes

[Corruption]

They said no PUBLIC chat channels, that doesn't mean there won't be any at all. Plus they haven't really finalized what Battle.net 2.0 will be exactly like when the game is released, at this point its all open for change.

[Riken]

They said no PUBLIC chat channels, that doesn't mean there won't be any at all. Plus they haven't really finalized what Battle.net 2.0 will be exactly like when the game is released, at this point its all open for change.

Lol, we know we already have PRIVATE chats (IM's)..


Blizz needs to rethink this, no public chats? I mean come on...

[Corruption]

Well I said chat channels, not private chat.

[Kraal]

They said no PUBLIC chat channels, that doesn't mean there won't be any at all. Plus they haven't really finalized what Battle.net 2.0 will be exactly like when the game is released, at this point its all open for change.
That's the point, PUBLIC chat channels is what we're asking for. And now is the time to express opinions on what features are needed, not when it's about to ship.

[Thebigtuna]

Public chat channels on the old battle.net were absolutely worthless. Nothing but walls of spam and trash. They made barrens chat look like a haven of intelligent discourse.

We don't need public chat channels as long as there are private chat channels with the other social features on the new battle.net.

[Drayen]

Public chat channels on the old battle.net were absolutely worthless. Nothing but walls of spam and trash. They made barrens chat look like a haven of intelligent discourse.

We don't need public chat channels as long as there are private chat channels with the other social features on the new battle.net.

speak for yourself, i spent a lot of time in wc3 chatting nights away with friends

[Thebigtuna]

speak for yourself, i spent a lot of time in wc3 chatting nights away with friends

Which is easily accomplished in private chat channels, which will more than likely be added

[Kraal]

Public chat channels on the old battle.net were absolutely worthless. Nothing but walls of spam and trash. They made barrens chat look like a haven of intelligent discourse.

We don't need public chat channels as long as there are private chat channels with the other social features on the new battle.net.
I used to hang out on Bnet 1.0 quite a bit back in the day, in public channels. I met quite a few people there who I then played with and made friends with.

The bottom line is that it is not a revolutionary or complex feature to add, nor is it significantly demanding on a server (text chat, even massive, spammy text chat is a drop in the bucket in terms of network transfer or server requirements). There is NO excuse to not have it present for those who want to use it (which looks like quite a few). And if you don't want to join the public channels you don't have to.

[Wingless]

Public chat is a must. Its how I met 90% of the people I played SC1 with. I dont care how bad it is its fun.

[Joneleth]

game isnt what i wanted blah blah bnet doesnt have chat system it makes me sad in the pants because i cant talk trash to the scrub i just 4 pooled.

[Resolve]

Public chat is a must. Its how I met 90% of the people I played SC1 with. I dont care how bad it is its fun.

Chat allows for more things to be happening within the community. 1v1 callouts are so fun. "I'm better than anyone in this room, 1v1 anyone?" stuff like that. I will miss chat rooms if they decide to leave them out, and i feel that the community will be worse because of it.

[Sunshine]

I agree with the op.

[Thecapn]

Chat channels. I need them!

[Bloodluster]

Chat channels are a must-have.

[Noid]

Agree with OP, chat channels are a must. Without them, it will not feel like b.net. However, in the mean time, and if they decide to ignore the community, IRC is an option.

IMO the beta community should be using IRC anyway. Find some friends for AT games, chit-chat about the game, whatever.

The channel #SC2 exists on gamesurge, but I'm not sure who owns it. Another channel could be taken though if no one steps forward to claim it.

[Octo]

As a new player in Warcraft 3, the random chat channels is where I sought help and learned about replays, cool strategies and other helpful things. Made tons of friends and had some really great games.

It makes me sad to see this might not be possible for new players in Starcraft 2. I hope they reconsider...

[Ilmari]

Stop being afraid of change.

[Deuceandbuke]

unacceptable.

[Astator]

Agreed. No open chat channels will kill a lot of the feel of battle.net.

There is basically no convenient way to become friend with somebody unless you already know him from another game or unless you are a Blizzard employee... I have not created or joined a single party or made a single friend after around 200 games played.

[Corruption]

Agree with OP, chat channels are a must. Without them, it will not feel like b.net. However, in the mean time, and if they decide to ignore the community, IRC is an option.

IMO the beta community should be using IRC anyway. Find some friends for AT games, chit-chat about the game, whatever.

The channel #SC2 exists on gamesurge, but I'm not sure who owns it. Another channel could be taken though if no one steps forward to claim it.



I already stated there WILL BE private chat channels... same thing as an OP.

[Khanzure]

reply #100 for public chat channels.

go go go

[Harro]

We need some chat channels up in this, stat.

[Vengeance]

I'm more worried about the realID crap.

Battle.net accounts with World of Warcraft accounts attached.

Do I really want to give my account name out to someone who I met on the internet?

[Andross]

I don't care too much about public channels, but I would really miss private channels.

[Calnos]

I'm more worried about the realID crap.

Battle.net accounts with World of Warcraft accounts attached.

Do I really want to give my account name out to someone who I met on the internet?

The idea is you don't give your account email to random people you met on the internet, but your "real life" friends.

I have 2 real life friends that played the first StarCraft with me -_-

[Irenicus]

how do we form clans and find people to play custom games with LOL wtf

[Colrath]

I'm more worried about the realID crap.

Battle.net accounts with World of Warcraft accounts attached.

Do I really want to give my account name out to someone who I met on the internet?

Then don't. Problem solved, just simply add his as a regular friend.

Also, does anyone else see irony in all of this? "#100"

Sounds like a chat channel to me.

[Essentia]

First the ridiculous chat filter, now no public chat channels...... Blizz is too concerned about "profanity." Uhh this is the internet, what do you expect. I hope they put public chat channels in Bnet 2.0

If you dont wanna expose yourself to profanity dont go into the public chat channels, simple as that. But at least give us the choice to talk in public channels. I actually met a few friends in the public channels on war3.

[Colrath]

First the ridiculous chat filter, now no public chat channels...... Blizz is too concerned about "profanity." Uhh this is the internet, what do you expect. I hope they put public chat channels in Bnet 2.0

If you dont wanna expose yourself to profanity dont go into the public chat channels, simple as that. But at least give us the choice to talk in public channels. I actually met a few friends in the public channels on war3.

Right now...

You're talking..

In a public channel...

For everyone to see...

Rather than worry about lame IRC chats, where is our SCarmory.com and why can't I click on forum portraits to get a link to their armory profile where I can add them as a friend and all that jazz.

[Legato]

BNet 2.0 chatting reminds me of the way newer RTS games go about it. The problem with that is that Bnet 1.0 was always superior to them. Please bring back chat channels.

[Zeroping]

I love how the chat channels are gone!! There was nothing ever meaningful being said anyways. 99% of it was just little kids cussing each other out or spamming.

It's a beautiful thing to have no chat channels and the auto-match making.

Now if they would just tighten up the match searches, we'd be golden.

Blizzard - please don't add them in!! Thanks

[Leviathan]

Being a community-oriented person, not having chat channels with very negatively impact my gaming experience. Not being able to meet people in-game and make friends outside of matches (which I prefer not to talk in at all) could kill the game for me. Not even sure if I'm interested in buying it without chat.

[Johncover]

Game feels too empty. Need channels so a community can form.

[Minos]

meh, who cares. Chat channels are just used for spamming and finding clever ways to trick people to give account info away nowadays. SC, and diablo chat channels are almost all ghost towns nowadays.

[Dafurz]

private channels are at least necessary... this makes me sad...

[Nick]

We do have plans for chat channels. Specifically, we want to organize chat channels around users' interests so you know what types of conversations you are going to get into when you join a channel. This feature is not something that will be in for beta. Currently we plan to do this feature in a patch after the game launches.

Source: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=23767157319&sid=3000