Battle.net 2.0 BlizzCon '09 Panel

[Sixen]

Some of you may want to check it out.

Pretty interesting ideas.. They're completely removing the Channel system and making it IM-based.

[MyndFyre]

Sad day.

[Spht]

Looks great.  it's nice to see they're moving away from the legacy irc/channel design.  i rather make "friends" to play with in games rather than in a random channel somewhere.  i much prefer the changes they've made.  they said they're eventually going to update all the classic games for this new server infrastructure, so i guess it's safe to say channels won't be around much longer.

[MyndFyre]

Looks great.  it's nice to see they're moving away from the legacy irc/channel design.  i rather make "friends" to play with in games rather than in a random channel somewhere.  i much prefer the changes they've made.  they said they're eventually going to update all the classic games for this new server infrastructure, so i guess it's safe to say channels won't be around much longer.

I like the idea too, but it relies on in-game meeting of people which isn't exactly conducive if you're a good player.  I'm going to miss the old days of chatting with my clan (this was another clan.... by the time I met vL you all everyone did was idle ).  While a multi-user chat room can simulate that, how do you meet new people randomly?

[Mystical]

Looks great.  it's nice to see they're moving away from the legacy irc/channel design.  i rather make "friends" to play with in games rather than in a random channel somewhere.  i much prefer the changes they've made.  they said they're eventually going to update all the classic games for this new server infrastructure, so i guess it's safe to say channels won't be around much longer.

I like the idea too, but it relies on in-game meeting of people which isn't exactly conducive if you're a good player.  I'm going to miss the old days of chatting with my clan (this was another clan.... by the time I met vL you all everyone did was idle ).  While a multi-user chat room can simulate that, how do you meet new people randomly?

I'm going to miss the way it is now. I would have been nice if they just rather of updated it much more better rather then just moving to somthing like AIM, I already have aim!

I Like that they have voice chat with it now though, that woulda been pretty cool in its current stage besides teamspeak ect.

[Sixen]

Well, the IM-style is going to completely eliminate the entire "Channel Wars" thing we've got going on, therefore it will allow the Techs to focus on real issues instead of private channel disputes, etc, etc. Though, I can still see Bot Development going on. The point of a Bot is to allow the ease of communication without having to open up the client itself. That being said, a Bot would still be useful...

[Mystical]

Well, the IM-style is going to completely eliminate the entire "Channel Wars" thing we've got going on, therefore it will allow the Techs to focus on real issues instead of private channel disputes, etc, etc. Though, I can still see Bot Development going on. The point of a Bot is to allow the ease of communication without having to open up the client itself. That being said, a Bot would still be useful...

wouldn't that basicly mean bot development would be just building your own aim client but for bnet. :\

[MyndFyre]

Well, the IM-style is going to completely eliminate the entire "Channel Wars" thing we've got going on, therefore it will allow the Techs to focus on real issues instead of private channel disputes, etc, etc. Though, I can still see Bot Development going on. The point of a Bot is to allow the ease of communication without having to open up the client itself. That being said, a Bot would still be useful...

wouldn't that basicly mean bot development would be just building your own aim client but for bnet. :\

BAIM.

[Sixen]

Well, the IM-style is going to completely eliminate the entire "Channel Wars" thing we've got going on, therefore it will allow the Techs to focus on real issues instead of private channel disputes, etc, etc. Though, I can still see Bot Development going on. The point of a Bot is to allow the ease of communication without having to open up the client itself. That being said, a Bot would still be useful...

wouldn't that basicly mean bot development would be just building your own aim client but for bnet. :\

BAIM.

Exactly, .

[MyndFyre]

Exactly, .

Yeah.  I'm sad. 

[Sixen]

Exactly, .

Yeah.  I'm sad. 

Well, it's just a new era of Bot Development. If I were you, I wouldn't drop BN# or anything, it will still work for all of the Legacy Clients.

[Maged]

Which reminds me, has anyone started reverse engineering the BN2.0 Logon Sequence from WoW?

[Ringo]

I'm persionaly interpreting what blizzard have said so far, as "business as usual".
The IM chatting, sounds like it's just going to be an addition to the friend list/friend packet infrastructure, with maybe some wisper useage.
Keeping in mind, you could probly make a half arsed IM chat client for Bnet, now, useing existing server functionality.
I expect the client (Like diablo II) will not enter chat/send 0x0C when logging onto bnet, and give the option to "Enter Chat", but still beable to use friendlist/wisper/IM functions from that state.

The match making/market place stuff, sounds like its all being built off the back of warcraft III functionality, plus a few additions/extras :p

I still think the whole "BNET 2.0" thing, is blizzard bigging up/over rating what we can expect in the future. It sounds compariable to the upgrades/changes made with the introduction of Warcraft III, but maybe with alittle more thought about future games/compatibility.

I can't see the channel system going any where fast tbh -- When they talk about upgrading all of the legacy client's to "take advantage of the new Battle.net accounts and server infrastructure" i'm assumeing most of the upgrades/IM stuff they will be adding, will be accessable by all clients (like the friend list packets, clan packets(or used to be accessable via SC im sure) , etc)

Ofc, this is just my interpretation -- each for their own.
It's a shame blizzard don't go into technical details.

Aside, can somone upload a copy of that BN2.0.dll from WoW? id be interested to poke around with it, when I get some spare time

[Camel]

From the rumors/speculation I've seen, I'd have to agree with Ringo. It doesn't look like they're going to eliminate channels; they're just not adding them to SC2 right away.

[Sixen]

Which reminds me, has anyone started reverse engineering the BN2.0 Logon Sequence from WoW?

Aside, can somone upload a copy of that BN2.0.dll from WoW? id be interested to poke around with it, when I get some spare time

I started a thread about it about a year ago during the WotLK Beta when I first saw it. I'll upload the newest version of Battle.net.dll when I get home from school, i'll post an update here and i'll edit that thread when I uploaded the new version.