Project Lore

If you're reading this, or you play World of Warcraft, there's a good chance you're a big fan of Starcraft, as well. And if you've kept up at all with the upcoming sequel, you might know that the primary thing rumored to be holding up its release is the lagging development of Blizzard's next-generation online service, Battle.net 2.0.

Several pieces of evidence are pointing to the idea that the game (and, subesequently, the service) will finally be going into beta soon, which means that it is all that much closer to being implemented in our beloved MMORPG.

This being the future of the company's online service, it may be a good idea to start familiarizing yourself with its purported features. The website can be found here, but I'll list some of the primary tenets below (do keep in mind that never every single one will apply to WoW, at least not right now):

• The "Always-Connected Experience:" This is Blizzard's term for 2.0's presence. Battle.net always seemed like a separate option for gamers before, but now it will be fully integrated into the structure of future titles.
• Competitive Arena For Everyone: Starcraft 2's online modes are primarily competitive, but I would expect to see WoW's PvP elements eventually take advantage of Battle.net's matchmaking properties and stat-tracking to make Arena and Battleground matches run more smoothly.
• Connecting The Blizzard Community: As previewed at BlizzCon, Battle.net 2.0 will support the ability to easily converse with friends cross-game. Main tank in the middle of a campaign mission in Starcraft 2? Send him a notice that you need him for a raid as soon as he's finished! Or you can just chat with your friends no matter what Blizzard game they're currently playing.
• Mods And Community-Created Content: This is less of an issue for WoW players, as Blizzard doesn't allow people to unfairly modify the game, but it would be interesting if we eventually saw an officially-sanctioned add-on browser -- approved by Blizzard, and hopefully free from malicious viruses.

Some other bits of evidence leading to the upcoming beta? The extended Battle.net maintenance, the fact that the Starcraft 2 beta forums appeared briefly several days ago (before being taken down just as quickly), and information that has come out of this past week's Conference Call.

Certainly seems like something is up and, as someone who's been sitting on a beta key for quite some time now, I couldn't be more excited! How about you?