Project Lore

While focused primarily on its integration with StarCraft 2, the Battle.net panel revealed a number of service-based features that will also impact how we interact with our friends inside and outside of World of Warcraft. One of the key concepts of the new Battle.net is a universal account (called the Battle.net Real ID). If you've already merged your WoW account with the service, then you already have one of these, but you might be asking yourself what sort of advantages are offered by doing so. Currently, you can expect increased account security, as well as the ability to register your Blizzard games and download them at will from the internet, but the panel today revealed new aspects of Battle.net that will no doubt make the concept even more appealing. Having a Real ID (something that will likely become mandatory very soon) will allow you to chat with your friends cross- realm and cross-game. That's right, if your friends play on a different server or are even playing a completely different game, you will still be able to talk to them no matter what they are doing. Due to this new feature, you'll have to accept and send friend invites (a la Facebook) so that completely random people aren't sending you nasty messages. But it shows just how far ahead Blizzard is thinking. They know that when StarCraft 2 or Diablo III comes out, a lot of your WoW friends  might stop logging on for awhile. But through the cross-game chat system and "broadcast" feature, you can still ask them to fill in raid spots or ask who on your list might want to run some heroics. As WoW chat functions somewhat differently from those in other Blizzard games, it's not yet clear how certain restrictions will be handled, such as those relating to faction choice. Sadly, you likely won't be able to engage in Guild Chat just anywhere, although there are reports that there might be an iPhone app in the works allowing you to do just that. It also seems as though the achievement system will be consolidated under the new account structure. When you earn an achievement on one character, you've essentially earned it for all of your characters. No longer do you have to worry about trudging around Azeroth when you create an alt just to earn those pesky exploration achievements again. Once again, as the panel was focused primarily on StarCraft 2, it's unclear whether or not every new Battle.net feature will find its way into WarCraft, nor was a release date for the new service given. Launching with StarCraft, we may see its implementation before Cataclysm hits store shelves.

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