Chat channel
Chat Channels were a big part of the Battle.net experience for Diablo 1 and Diablo 2. They will return to Battle.net in Diablo III, but only in private channel form; ones that players can create and use for themselves, their friends, or their guild. There are no plans for public, open chat channels in Diablo III.
The Battle.net Friends List provides some utility as a chat client, but it's designed to keep in touch with players you already know; not as a way to meet new people online.
Due to the absence of public chat channels, many Diablo 3 players use other methods, such as player match-up forums, or the live IRC chat run by fansite Diablo.IncGamers.com.
Chat Channels for Diablo III
Blizzard intended to phase chat channels out of B.net with their newer games, starting with Starcraft 2. They did not include chat channels in the design, and resisted adding them until continuous player requests wore them down. Chat channels were not supported during the beta or upon launch in July, but by October 2010 they were said to be well under development, and were finally implemented into Starcraft 2's Battle.net experience about six months after the game's release. [1]
There were no chat channels available during the Diablo III beta, but Bashiok confirmed that non-public chat channels were still a planned feature for the game in February 2012.[2]
Better Alternatives
The D3 Team has often spoken about their desire for better match making and game-finding options than were present in Diablo II. The Friends List and various quest-grouping game creation options take steps towards that goal, though the systems remain under development during the beta test.
- See the Multiplayer article for more details about game creation and player interaction via Battle.net
The developers want more and easier mutiplayer gaming in Diablo 3 and they have repeatedly mentioned their desire to create quick and easy (even automated) games that group like-level characters. Diablo III Game Director Jay Wilson spoke on this from Blizzcon 2009. [3]
- IGN: ...have you figured out anything you're planning on doing, with the exception of things like, obviously, easier ways of setting up co-op lobbies or creating panels so that everybody can immediately jump in and start up exactly where they left off?
- Jay Wilson: We're not quite at that stage. [Talking about B.net D3 features.] Some of our big hooks are really good matchmaking, there was some poor matchmaking in Diablo 2, it was kind of esoteric and hard to use. We want a platform that puts you right next to someone else who's into the same thing as you, at the same level. We want you to be able to open up that friends list and say, oh, my friend Steve's killing Diablo, join! And you're right there next to them. We want players to be able to play together very, very easily. That's going to be a lot of work.
- ...It's not in the game, so this is not a promise, but I can tell you that my desire for that is that you just be able to hit Escape, menu comes up, and you can say, I want to redo what we just did. I want to replay this part of the game, restart my game essentially, with all the same people. And I just get a confirmation thing, hey, you want to? If they say yes, we go, and if they say no, they stay in that same game.
- Somewhere a programmer's heart exploded, but that's our intent, that you shouldn't have to have this really convoluted way to replay content. One of the other things that we'd really like to focus on is, that the endgame not actually force you…well, it doesn't force you, it's your choice, but not make the most advantageous way to play be to do the same thing over and over again.
