New Details For Battle.net 2.0

The folks over at DIII.net combed through information from Blizzard employees about the revamped Battle.net that is slated to debut with Starcraft II. New features will include Achievements for various old and new Blizzard games, improved communication and community features, and better replay and spectating functionality.

Comments

Will they fix the security issues?

[felipekk]

Currently, Warcraft III requires your password to be 3 characters long and is case insensitive (clod). Hopefully the newer version will include some revamped security...

(I've only tested this with Warcraft III, not sure about other games).

Why do people write this stuff?

[nobodyman]

From the article (emphasis mine):

As Blizzard is learning from WoW when it comes to server infrastructure where they are battling hackers and exploiters, the new Battle.net will be built on programming that prevent any form of hacking or cheating.

I hope this is zealotry on behalf of the fansite rather than Blizzard developers actually claiming (with a straight face) that Diablo III will be unhackable. Diablo III will be hacked, in the same way that every Blizzard game has been hacked, in the same way that virtually every retail game on the market has been hacked. The true test will be how vigilant Blizzard is in policing this sort of thing, how quickly they can patch compromised releases, their ability to prevent cheaters from poisoning the community at-large.

Re:Why do people write this stuff?

[kesuki]

your solution although it sounds simple, is also simple to break. CRCs are very short, are easily tampered with (through hacked system drivers etc) and so on...

but have you ever tried to connect to battle net with a no cd crack for a bliz title? sadly the b.net connection is refused, because to do no CD you need to remove software from the exe, that is easily checked for on connection to blizzard controlled servers.

various cheats are often easily detected, although network sniffing based attacks on battle.net will never be fixable via any reasonable method (does everyone have the bandwidth, and CPU for a game to use 128 bit encryption on every single packet, when some 1,000 packets per second can be generated in a multiplayer game?)

the type of data sent along the lan does include data (such as click locations) that would make a network sniff based undetectable map hack. the best part is all the data needed to generate such a sniffing tool is easily written by comparing network sniff data vs 'saved replay' data. along with a little hex editing, and basically rewriting the entire network stack of the game engine through reverse engineering..

the plus side, is that once written, it doesn't need to be rewritten unless the main game changes how it parses data packets, and you can write nice USB usb drivers that allow keyboard and mouse movements from a 'irc bot' to be sent to a 'clean' unhacked PC running the game client... although certain keyboard/mouse commands are intentionally written buggy to make human bot distinction easy, and they could possibly intentionally create buggy packet formation that would screw up a bot, but not even be seen by a human...

anyways, anything you can think of can be countered. there is no security.

Re:It's like a dance!

[mcbridematt]

I look forward to the PvPGN folks setting Diablo III free.

Re:The most important feature...

[HeronBlademaster]

I hope you mean 800x600. Or do you play with your monitor sideways?

Seriously though, I've always been confused why they don't issue a quick patch to Diablo II to let us play it at a higher resolution. I can't think it would take very many changes...

Re:It's like a dance!

[billcopc]

Entering a 20-character key once, that's fine.

Having to authenticate to a remote server every time you want to play, and being locked out of your game if either your connection or the servers' goes down, is a wholly different beast.

And as others have mentioned, LAN gaming should not involve remote authentication. In fact, a lot of LAN parties don't even have net access, especially if they're renting the venue, or sometimes you just don't feel like dicking with your iptables for a bunch of greasy IRC buddies who are likely to surf kiddie/horse/goatse pr0n.

Moderation is fighting words and libel/slander.

[Anonymous Coward]

HeronBlademaster,

I didn't call anyone or even would label you a troll. I hear you easily because none have painted you.

Who labeled that post as troll you think? If Slashdot was an open system, then it would actually display the moderations with the userID of the moderator. You speak of such an occurence of 'news' from a corporation that was never part of the "freedom of speech" clause. What entitled you ever to be a champertain or to hear the skirmish of someone that you aren't party with? That's not gospel on the tube you feed your eyes from, it's Your programming; to be more diametrically aware to your surroundings to the adjusted socially-comparative behavioral negation between Obamma and McCain. Why didn't you hear of the 1,000 other candidates that you didn't know about, that are more qualified than Paris Hilton?

I've been hitting the books on this, and I posted enough website URL's to entice discussion, yet am labeled "troll" by an anonymous administrator wanting to push the thought aside. Here is how I see Vivendi/MTV's Blizzard Inc:
  (1)the 3 main/original developers have left the company, and are not on the corporate payroll, and evidence was they were not comfortable with what the company has become yet by non-compete clause can't speak their actual thoughts or will be sued.
  (2)every title feels like its Warcraft3 with improvements and image/environmental changes.
  (3)as all likeness to U.S., is evincing a service economy that will draw usability into a post-purchase fee that will never end.
  (4)the receipt from the store clerk doesn't represent the implication of Vivendi/MTV's Blizzard license that somehow forces the end-user to grant permission to Blizzard to administer the console computer through termination of accounting, exposure to lawsuits derived by use, non-payment of a service fee places an inferior use on the title and product independent of their domain, etc.
  (5)sporting events recognized throughout the world...that bleed into public exhibitions that are prohibited by same license agreement yet waived upon passage of large sums of cash.

Blizzard has become a double standard. I'm satanic and look at how lame their representation of satan has somehow made its way into their lame Diablo title. People actually pay for this libel? Do you see me mis-representing the Catholic church as though they were a bunch of godly, god-fearing/loving people that don't intend any illwill or germ warfare on their neighbors? I just want to worship satan without a bunch of canibals dressing in Christian, Catholic, and Budhist clothing looking to devoure all that my kind have built up in universality.