We haven’t mentioned it much, but it was described in some detail by earlier posts on this site.
What is it? The new, revamped Battle.Net.
How does it work? Pretty damn well, actually. And, not surprisingly, it works really damn well at the multiplayer end of things.
After going through a series of “placement” matches, the StarCraft II multiplayer panel (via Battle.net) told us that we belonged in the “copper” ladder of competition. Since it would make sense that these things go, copper, silver, gold, platinum, we’re not sure there’s a ladder below us. Wood, perhaps? Or cotton?
Whatever it is, we hope we don’t get kicked down there. We hear those people suck at StarCraft.
But regardless of the metal our ladder is made out of, it was neat way of introducing it. The system gave us a number of “practice” matches that had no bearing, just so we could get a grip on the game. It’s possible to skip these matches, but in the interests of science, we figured we should be thorough. These practices were followed by ten placements, and now here we are.
So far, we fluctuate between 25th and 10th spot, which is fine. The system seems robust enough, tracking wins/losses, and handing out bonus points and what appears to be “rested” points as well. All we can think of is “rested XP” in WoW when we look at that, but we’re not really sure how it compares. Regardless, it seems beneficial.
In total, the system is pretty seamless. Matches are found quickly and easily, and despite the “quantity over quality” mantra Blizz is currently using, we’ve only once or twice been completely overmatched. In addition, the multiplayer menu gives you a great deal of information about your character or “handle” that you create.
The process with that is different than the original StarCraft in that you pick a name, then follow it up with a period and another name. The idea is that your “first” name will be the one seen by your friends and enemies most often, and your “second” name will only come into play when someone else of the same first name comes trotting on by. While this allows everyone to have the name they want, namey.namerson is just an odd way to set out your characters identity. Blizzard is clearly trying to give the whole experience a slightly more RPG feel, which is a welcome change. We’re not sure it’s been entirely successful thus far, however.
Another interesting idea not yet live on all Battle.Net compatible games but coming soon is the concept of RealID. The hope by Blizzard is that you’re going to enter your actual information – for example your real name – that you can then share with friends. When we loaded up the Beta for the first time, our information was already entered, likely culled from our Battle.Net account.
This is something that makes us uncomfortable, in the same way we’re uncomfortable with Blizzard’s searchable WoW database that gives any character access to information about your character’s gear, statistics, and even what achievements you’ve competed recently. For $15 a month, it’s always seemed to us that information sharing of that level should be left up to the customer, not the company, and the ReadID feels similar. Anonymity is one of the great equalizers of the Internet, and one of the reasons so many douchebags show up to mouth off on every topic they can think of. It’s a double-pronged Ethernet cable.
In conjunction with this RealID concept is the idea that if any of your Real friends log in to StarCraft II or Diablo III while you’re playing WoW, you’ll have an ability to communicate, cross-game, and decide if you’d like to group up – be it in the dusty streets of Orgrimmar or the backward end of some dusty planet, defending it from the Zerg.
This is a great concept, but again our concern lies in the amount of information Blizzard wants to give out about players and wants players to give out about themselves.
Overall, Battle.Net, just like StarCraft II itself, feels far more like a late Beta than an early one. Small gripes abound with the system, but it still works better than most matchmaking servers which exist on currently released and purchasable games.
It’s hard to argue with success. And you shouldn’t, probably, because Success.Blizzard probably knows where you live.
