Battle.net

Battle.net is an online gaming service provided by Blizzard Entertainment responsible for hosting StarCraft multiplayer games and related services. It was launched in January of 1997 with the release of Blizzard's action-RPG – Diablo. Battle.net was the first online gaming service incorporated directly into the games that make use of it, in contrast to the external interfaces used by the other online services at the time. This feature, along with ease of account creations and the absence of member fees, caused Battle.net to become popular among gamers and became a major selling point for Diablo and subsequent Blizzard games.

Since the successful launch of Battle.net many companies have published online game services mimicking Blizzard's service package and the user interface.

Original Battle.net
With the release of StarCraft in 1998, usage of the Battle.net service increased significantly in comparison to Blizzard's previous games. Features such as ladder ranking and game filters were added to the service. Battle.net grew even larger after the release of the expansion pack StarCraft: Brood War. Concurrent player counts and games played reached the tens of thousands. This was especially evident in South Korea where StarCraft became a runaway hit and concurrent player counts on Battle.net would often be many times what they were in the United States.

StarCraft also brought with it a new copyright protection scheme using CD keys. Under Diablo, Battle.net would allow anyone who had a copy of the game to connect to the service. This allowed people who pirated the game to play on Battle.net. With StarCraft, only those players who had a valid CD key were allowed onto the service. A StarCraft CD key is a generated 13-digit number that could either be muted (unable to chat), voided (restricted to channel 'The Void'), banned (disabled usage), or usually working (no restrictions). In addition, only one person can be connected to Battle.net service using a specific CD key at a time. Every Blizzard game since StarCraft has required a unique, valid CD key to connect to Battle.net (excluding StarCraft: Brood War). With the release of the Gateway system in Brood War, two players can play at the same time, as long as they are on different gateways, though they cannot play in the same game, chat with each other, etc.

Battle.net 2.0
thumb|Battle.net preview with Greg Canessa.
 * A new version of battle.net launched on March 19, 2009. A preview page was opened in February 2010. The service became available for StarCraft II beta that month.


 * The project director of the new battle.net is Greg Canessa.


 * Jay Wilson said the new version of battle.net should come out with StarCraft II. Frank Pearce said they probably won't be able to implement all plans by the time StarCraft II launches, but they can add more features to battle.net "as we go".


 * Cross-region play will not be supported at first. Each geographical version of StarCraft II can only be used to play against other players in using the same version. A player could buy a different geographical version to play against people in another region (for instance, an American could buy a Korean version of StarCraft II to play with and against Koreans). Different versions cannot share the same account. Blizzard intends to make this available at some point, but must develop a way of communicating latency issues beforehand. Cross-regional play will become available without purchasing another full version of the game a few months after the release of StarCraft II.


 * LAN will not be supported. Greg Canessa had said that Blizzard is actively working on a LAN-like solution for battle.net, something which would require maintaining a connection to battle.net but still allowing a peer-to-peer connection. However, Blizzard later abandoned this approach.


 * The new battle.net is expected to support all new Blizzard games.


 * Battle.net can be used with an authenticator to protect the account. If a player has a WoW account, the same authenticator protects both.

Beta
The new battle.net offers a StarCraft II beta opt-in and as of May 6, 2009 the beta opt-in page has been updated. Beta candidates can download a program which will scan their system and determine if it's capable of dealing with StarCraft II beta. This new account is not compatible with StarCraft battle.net accounts or those of older games, but can be merged with World of Warcraft accounts. North American gamers could download a program to scan their system to determine if it qualified for the StarCraft II beta on May 6th, 2009. European gamers gained access to the new battle.net on May 27th, 2009.

When StarCraft II's beta started, beta key holders were able to enter their keys using their account management page.

Accounts and Character Profiles

 * A battle.net account is required to play StarCraft II. One of the first things a player does while installing StarCraft II is create a battle.net account. They will see the log-in screen before they play their first game, and can play as a "guest" for the campaign.


 * An account contains a single character, in order to ensure better matchmaking and player behavior. Character names will include three digits (a character code), only seen in UI screens, as an additional identifier.  Well, I'll be honest: I can't actually see the usefulness of such initiative and I don't see how it even fits this discussion.

These people are naming themselves "ESPORTS" to protest against:

- Lack of Chat Channels ... and we just announced that Chat Channels are going to be in the game a few months after release.

- No Cross-region play ... and we just announced that cross-region play is definitely in our plans.

- No Unique ID ... And we just announced that every combination of nickname + 3 digit code will be unique and you will be able to add friends by using this combination.

- You need to give out your email address ... Which is not the case anymore, as adding Nickname.007 will be enough.

I can understand the reasons behind such initiative, but I don't think that they chose the best method to explain their concerns, they will just end up sharing the same nickname with a different 3 digit code. I don't see how this will contribute to voice their concerns, let alone solve them.

We listen to the community, we don't listen to... flocks of nicknames. We need useful feedback, opinions, suggestions, concerns, questions and so on, ending up with hundreds of people sharing part of their identifier (aka only the nickname part) is not going to help at all. You all are more than welcome to post in these forums and share your concerns, I believe that we just addressed the main concerns that were brought up on these boards and we would like your feedback based on what we disclosed today.

This is the only way we're going to make Battle.net 2.0 better. Zhydaris. 2010-06-17. Core issues (post 43). Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2010-06-17.


 * Characters are intended to be "persistent" and have access to battle.net features such as chatting, achievements and unlockable system rewards. The character profile contains the win/loss record, rewards and friends list, which the player and friends have access to.


 * Blizzard intends for gamers to always be online, even when playing single-player.

Rewards

 * Players of StarCraft II and Diablo III will share "gamer achievements", adding up to a Blizzard Level, in a similar manner to the system in World of Warcraft. They are available in single-player, but only if the player is connected to the internet.
 * Achievements will grant rewards such as unlocking portraits. Some achievements (which require more work to acquire) also provide access to decals. Both will be viewable by other members of the community. Achievements and their rewards which are not available will be grayed out.

Game Types
Battle.net 2.0 will feature many StarCraft II game types. These include:


 * Practice League (features a slower gamespeed and anti-rush maps)
 * Co-op skirmish/Random teams
 * Co-op versus AI.
 * Custom games
 * Challenges

Competitive Arena

 * Blizzard Entertainment intends to create a competitive arena for gamers of all skill levels.


 * Battle.net features different s for higher-skilled players: bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond leagues. There is a Practice League for lower-skilled players.


 * The game features automated matchmaking, similar to Warcraft III. Players are assigned a skill level after 10 games. This is intended for higher-skilled gamers.
 * Over time, skill levels will be reevaluated. Teams will have a separate rating.


 * Battle.net 2.0 will support casual-friendly game types, such as the Practice League, challenges, custom games and co-op vs AI.

Community Tools

 * Players can form persistent "parties" which enter games together after one player invites others into the party.  Parties can engage in custom games as well as cooperative skirmishes. The parties will persist even after they finish games. Parties can participate in the league and ladder system, and will be placed into games by the automated matchmaking system.


 * Chatting will be in an instant-messenger format. This is available both inside and outside of games.


 * Voice-over-internet chat is available. However the audio will not be available in replays.


 * There will be a "report abuse" tool. There was one in the beta as of March 2010 but wasn't working properly then.


 * Characters can receive news, game and content updates, broadcasts and system notifications through battle.net.


 * Cross-game communication with WoW players will be available.


 * Facebook has been integrated with battle.net. Use of this system is optional.

Friends

 * Players can access their friends list, even when playing single-player.


 * Friends (except those using Real ID) are anonymous, knowing each other only through online identities. They can be manually added.

Real ID

 * Real ID is an optional layer of identity. It includes the name the player registered their account under and their email address. To use this feature, a player sends out invites to real-life family and friends' battle.net accounts (their email addresses). The other friend must accept before the relationship is accepted. If the recipient does not accept, the sender is not notified of this. At any point, a Real ID friend may be removed.


 * Real ID gives access to "Rich Presence". This gives additional information about what a friend is doing at the time, such as which game they're playing and which mode they're using.


 * Using Real ID, players can chat with friends who are playing another game (such as World of Warcraft).


 * Friends can send "broadcasts" to each other, which appears on their "Recent Broadcasts" feed.


 * Friends gain access to each others' friends lists, and can invite "friends of friends". Blizzard plans on an option preventing a user from appearing on a "friends of friends" list if they so choose.


 * Players will not have friends across regions, although Blizzard may address this later.

Custom Games

 * Battle.net lists all available maps.


 * The custom map UI lists maps by popularity, type, genre and map name. For instance, DoTA Allstars might be listed as "featured" popularity, pick heroes or random heroes type, and hero defense genre. However, the only way to search for a game is through popularity.


 * Players can be invited into custom games using the party system.


 * Players cannot give specific names to custom games. They are only organized by category and map name.


 * Players cannot host private games, which would enable them to exclude some of their friends while inviting others.


 * Map publishing allows people to host maps, even if they haven't downloaded a map yet.


 * There is no local hosting of multiplayer maps. A player can host only 5 multiplayer maps. There is a 20 MB global limit for the maps, and a 10 MB limit per individual map.

Other Features

 * Cloud storage
 * Saved single-player games can be accessed online. (You could play the campaign at home, then continue it elsewhere.)
 * If a player upgrades their computer, their character information will still be stored online and is accessible once StarCraft II is reinstalled.


 * A player can log into more than one game at a time (for instance, playing the StarCraft II campaign while waiting for a World of Warcraft raid).


 * Blizzard intends to make the new version of battle.net secure from hacks and cheats using lessons learned from World of Warcraft. For example, there will be a security token to add an extra layer of protection from account fraud, and the online platform will require a valid and unique CD key.


 * Battle.net 2.0 will fully support community-created mods even as they evolve. Some will be available for pay.


 * Some special maps will be available for sale in the marketplace.

Monetization
The new battle.net accounts will not have subscriptions or fees; this has been repeatedly directly confirmed by Blizzard Entertainment.

Following a BlizzCon Diablo III interview in which Activision Blizzard employee Julian Wilson mentioned "monetizing" battle.net, Rob Pardo clarified that only some extra features may carry a charge. "As mentioned before, players will be able to use Battle.net for free when they purchase the full version of StarCraft II. There have been no changes to this."

- Karune

"With Battle.Net we're definitely looking at possible different features that we might be able to do for additional money. We're not talking about Hellgate or anything like that. We're not going to tack things on. I think World of Warcraft is a great example to look at. We charge people if they want to switch servers or if they want name changes, things that aren't core to the game experience, they're really just optional things that some people want. It takes us some development work to do it, so it makes sense to charge for it. We would never do something like say to get the full game experience, you'll have to pay extra."

- Rob Pardo

Competition

 * Blizzard will add a Master and Grand Master League.


 * Blizzard will add tournament functionality in a post-release patch.

Communication

 * Blizzard plans on creating topic-based chat channels in a post-release patch; it was not be available on the launch date of Wings of Liberty. The old non-specific chat system will not return. The new chat is currently in Quality Assurance and is expected to launch in 2010.


 * "Groups" will become available in a post-launch patch or Heart of the Swarm. They can be used to create entities like map-making communities or a zerg strategy group where members can chat with each other.


 * A "Do Not Disturb" option, which will block incoming messages and toasts, is planned for the future.

Growth history
Blizzard claims "millions of active users" on Battle.net, and that they are the leaders of online gaming, noting that even Xbox Live doesn't even come close. By November 1997 they had 22 million games played, 1.25 million different users, and that they averaged 3,500 new users each day. By April 1999, it was reported that Battle.net had 2.3 million active users, and more than 50,000 concurrent users.

By September 2004, their active user count was up to nearly 12 million, spending more than 2.1 million hours online each day, and they had an average of 200,000 concurrent users, with a peak concurrent user count of 400,000. By 2009 it had 12 million subscribers, just over World of Warcraft's 11.5 million.

Supported Games
The following Blizzard games are currently supported on Battle.net:
 * StarCraft series: StarCraft • StarCraft: Brood War • StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
 * Warcraft series: Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition • Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos • Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne • World of Warcraft • World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade • World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
 * Diablo series: Diablo • Diablo II • Diablo II: Lord of Destruction

The following future Blizzard games will be supported on Battle.net:
 * StarCraft series: StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm • StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void
 * Warcraft series: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
 * Diablo series: Diablo III

The following older Blizzard games do not support Battle.net:
 * Warcraft series: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans • Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness • Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal
 * Diablo series: Diablo: Hellfire

Forums
On October 8th, 2008, Blizzard Entertainment opened the new battle.net forums. The StarCraft II forum is located here.

Community
A community of developers has arisen around the original Battle.net. Many unofficial clients are available for Battle.net, and most of the protocol used by Battle.net-enabled games has been reverse-engineered and published by volunteers. Several server emulator programs exist; the original one, bnetd, lost a lawsuit filed by Blizzard. Newer ones have appeared, such as PvPGN, a derivative project of the original bnetd.

Also, several communication tools have been made, like a "whisper" tool, so that a player could talk to their friends even if they were in a game.