A few days ago, a reader asked me a few questions about Diablo 3. Some of the questions asked were really good. A lot have been answered, in part, in other posts in the blog – but the answers are scattered here and there like leaves in a park. So I gave prepared some answers. Afterwards, I thought of others who might not see those questions and answers. They might miss out. So I decided I’d make this post to draw attention to the answers I gave. It’s very possible there are others reading asking themselves the same thing. Here is the post by Fizicks on my Contact Ray page:
Ray,
Just started reading your blog. I got into the gold auction house scene in WoW after getting bored with the game and made quite a few million gold. (now it just sits there) Anyway, this blog is right up my alley, so to speak. I’ve tried looking for these questions online, but maybe you can answer them faster? How will the community be split up? Diablo 2 had everyone in the same sort of chat room with the ability to make a new ‘game’ and a limit of 5-8? other players could join. Is this the same way? Or are we split into a WoW like server enviornment? I imagine Europe will be separate from US? The RMAH is accessed through a website and not the game? I’m also just getting into the youtube community and looking for people to fraps with. Or at the very least, people to play/guild with. Will you be starting a guild? What will your play times be? I doubt they will be anywhere close to mine. (EST time zone) Sorry for so many questions, maybe it will give you something to blog about. Love the blog, keep up the work.
FizicksParty chat, whisper, battle.net chat
- The Diablo 3 community (in game) doesn’t quite match the spirit of older Diablos (yet – it is a beta after all).
- Chatting is split between chat rooms you choose (pop up public chat window on right of menu screen) – you can only choose one – and a battle.net party/whisper section (left of menu screen)
- These chat rooms are broken down into classes, modes and traditional channels – like hardcore; trade; Barbarian; looking for group and so on.
- The battle.net/whisper/party/emote chat persists in game and out. Public chat does not.
- You can set up games and invite players to them (friending them first).
- Server wise – the beta has all players together. When Diablo 3 launches you’ll choose a region which you can chat and create characters and groups in.
- Regions will be similar to servers but for geographical areas and there’ll be no intermingling between these regions.
- You will be able to create characters and play on any region.
- Shared inventory (stash), auction hosues, artisans and gold balances will be separate but you can these in any region you play in.
- In contrast you will have only one RMAH per account (your home region)
- Hardcore has no RMAH at this time and your HC characters have separate gold balances, stashes, artisans and the like.
- The RMAH is currently accessed in game not through a separate battle.net browser window.
- Guilds are something that aren’t in yet. Blizzard have plans for them but there’s lots more to do before that.
- I’ll be playing predominantly EU times (EU region main) but will be hopping about and just experimenting with as many regions/playtimes/strategies as I can come launch!
Public chat room selection
I can be a night owl or early bird and am considering devoting time equivalent to a full time job to Diablo 3. It’s going to be that promising. When the game is live I’ll supply my battle.net ID to anyone who wants to get gaming/chatting when they catch me free online!
After all, the community that slays together, stays together…
Speaking of community, I myself have been thinking A LOT (not alot) recently about communities and regions … and when I think a lot about something I tend to start planning solutions… When I have news worth sharing, it’ll be mailed to subscribers/blogged! Have an awesome Friday!
Ray