BlizzCon 2009: The new Battle.net and WoW
by Michael Sacco 
Aug 21st 2009 at 9:30PM
The BlizzCon Battle.Net + Starcraft II panel revealed some interesting tidbits about how the new Battle.Net will communicate and interact with not only Starcraft II, but other current and future Blizzard games -- including WoW.
By adding someone to your BNet friends list, you can see when they're online in games that you play. This means that. for example, if your friend Alex Ziebart is playing SC2 and you're in WoW, you'll be able to see that he's online -- and even send him a message if you desire, a la Steam's community overlay.
But wait, there's more! If you and Alex are real-life friends, and approve each other as as much on BNet, you'll also be able to tell more detailed information at a glance on your WoW friends list, like what server Alex is currently playing on, or whether he's actually playing Diablo 3. A proposed feature is to let you log out of whatever game you're in and jump into whatever game Alex is playing and join him! The friends list will work very similarly in all of the BNet-ready games.
It sounds like a great improvement, and very XBox Live -- which I gather is the point.
BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ricohardt Aug 21st 2009 9:34PM
That'll definitely make leveling alts on servers where you don't know anyone a lot less painful.
Xretsim Aug 21st 2009 9:35PM
WoW keeps getting better and better...
"Frostmourne is a hunter's weapon"- Ghost Crawler
sgtrenderman Aug 22nd 2009 12:13PM
Wow.. um no. Its Shadowmourne, its a DK and Hunter. Its not the Frostmourne
DaveTMR Aug 21st 2009 9:36PM
i'm judging by the picture, your in-game friends will be below your bnet friends. what a twist!
Jademalo Aug 21st 2009 9:38PM
One thing that strikes me straight away is the ability to add friends that play on other servers.
Does this mean that you assign your BNet account a changeable name (Like steam) and log in with your email still, so that people dont show up as your email? Just you are obviously going to have multiple games linked to this..
I would really like that feature, pretty much giving BNet steam like functionality, which i personally think is a really good functionality thing =]
Rocky Aug 21st 2009 10:29PM
Rather them just release all the Blizz games on Steam and call it done. Steam > This by far. It's not even close.
Graham Aug 21st 2009 9:42PM
I was hoping they would do something like this. Sounds like a great idea!
Lovelylock Aug 21st 2009 9:46PM
What I'm wondering is if you have a Bnet friend that's in WoW on the opposite faction, would you be able to whisper them?
Lemons Aug 21st 2009 9:52PM
Wow...this is awesome...good luck getting through Diablo 3 uninterrupted...especially if you're your guild's main tank or healer :/
I mean seriously...does everything have to be so networked?
Sparks Aug 21st 2009 10:21PM
You could always turn it off.
Asgaroth Aug 21st 2009 10:45PM
Its bringing social networking into the gaming experience. Over the past couple of years, sites like Twitter / Facebook etc... has grown so tremendously that some way to incorporate the "social" experience into the game will ultimately enhance it. At this rate, I think the social network phenomena will only expand.
veil Aug 25th 2009 9:15AM
i think lemons has a valid concern...sometimes you just want to get away from the social aspect and hermit for a while (temporarily of course). im hoping you'll be able to set your privacy levels, online/offline status, etc as you would in say a normal chat program (gtalk, etc). otherwise it'll be pretty hard to get some me-time when i'm feeling cranky and anti-social (but still want to play the game)...
Rabidgun Aug 21st 2009 9:54PM
Sounds like another awesome change to come in catalysm. I can't wait for it.
The Chilli God Aug 21st 2009 9:55PM
I can't say how much I've wanted a feature like this to be available - something that tells me when friends are online on other servers / factions.
Yet another thing to look forward to for Cataclysm, and finally an actual reason for me to switch to a Battle.net account!
Hoaxs Aug 21st 2009 9:56PM
Hurray, i can roll Goblin Shammy on an RP server but still talk to my friends on my main server. Whats next, mail across servers?
Randomize Aug 21st 2009 9:56PM
It's great to finally see this, now I can talk to friends of mine that play on other servers, which is something I've wanted for a long time. Now I can talk to them without switching realms. But I also can understand Blizzard's strategy here, which is letting you play their different games but also keep in contact with your friends on the different games.
Domandred Aug 21st 2009 10:04PM
That would be sweet if could link to it via Pidgin or some other xplatform IM or IRC system. One thing I miss from EQ is being able to IRC into guild chat while I was at work.
Kenny Aug 21st 2009 10:15PM
What is WoW: Archimonde that you see in the picture?
Michael Sacco Aug 21st 2009 10:15PM
That signifies that your friend is in WoW, and playing on the Archimonde server.
heroman12121 Aug 21st 2009 10:29PM
Actually, SHADOWmourne is a hunter weapon.