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| -Battle.net |
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- http://www.battle.net/
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- Battle.net is an online gaming service provided
by Blizzard
Entertainment. Most all of their games can take advantage
of this service. This page covers the many features of battle.net
so that you may be a knowledgable end user.
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- What it is: Understanding the concepts.
- Battle.net has two different forms, the web
site and the game server. The first form is the web site.
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- The link at the top of this page goes to
the battle.net web site. The battle.net web site has related
news, forums for interacting with others, a gaming ladder, related
files, and tons of resources and info pertaining to games that
support the battle.net service. Anyone with internet access can
view the battle.net web site and access its many features. The
second form is the game server.
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- The battle.net game server can only be accessed
through a game that supports it. The game server has a graphical
interface similar to the web site. However, this graphical interface
is specific to the game you are playing; though the interface
for the battle.net game server looks different for each game
its basic functions are the same (click on some of the images
to see the different appearances of battle.net for different
games). Just like any other game server it acts as a traffic
moderator. Through the battle.net game server one can create
games, browse and join existing games, or chat with others who
are logged onto the battle.net service. It's basically an online
gaming community. On the battle.net game server you can play
any Blizzard games that support the service.
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- Battle.net accounts: Your identity on battle.net.
- To log into the battle.net game server you
need to have an account. If you don't already have an account
on battle.net you must create one upon logging in. You will be
able to choose a password for your account upon creating one.
Your battle.net account is your identity on battle.net. Whether
you're in a game or in a chat room, people will be able to identify
you by your account name.
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- It is
 important to not tell anyone your account
password. Your battle.net account password is only used for
logging into battle.net. Unfortunately, many people will
try to scam your password out of you as to gain access to your
account. This can make your playing experience a bad one. If
you click on the picture to the left you will notice a scam posted
by some one using the account B-Net-Colorizer. In the text the
scammer is telling you to type there is a battle.net command
that sends messages to the account named. If one were to type
in the instructed text, filling in their account name and password
where indicated, the person using the B-Net-Colorizer account
would be sent your login and password and would have access to
your account. Using the game Diablo 2 as an example, all a person
needs is your battle.net account name and password and they will
have access to all of the characters under that account including
their equipped items that you worked so hard to earn. Of course,
this example is only applicable to a game like Diablo 2 as it
is unique in its method of character storage (characters stored
on the battle.net servers). Other games like Starcraft don't
use continued characters like Diablo 2 and other RPGs. For these
other games the only implication of some one getting your account
name and pass is to impersonate you on battle.net.
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- Games: Creating and joining.
 This part is pretty self explanatory. To create a
game you click on the "Create" button. To join a game
you click on the "Join" button. When creating games
you will be able to customize the different options for the game
you are creating. When joining a game you will be given a list
of games that you can join. You may also specify the name and
password of a private game you wish to join.
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- Channels: How they work.
- Channels are where people get together to
chat, organize games, etc. Channels are identified by the channel
name. There are a few different types of battle.net channels.
To access battle.net channels you must click on the "Channel"
button.
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- When you click on the "Channel"
button you are given a list of channels that battle.net maintains.
These channels are always up and will always show up on the channel
list. These channels are open to everyone and cannot have a channel
moderator. The more populous of these channels are duplicated
by adding a number after the channel name. For example, there
is always a default channel that you will be put into upon logging
onto battle.net. This default channel might be "Default
Channel - 47". This means that there are at least 47 of
these default channels that battle.net is evenly putting people
into. In this way battle.net can control the number of people
in a channel so you don't get a chat fest where text is coming
up so fast you can't even read it.
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 The channels that don't show up on the main list are
ones that people have personally created. To create your own
channel just type a channel name into the appropriate field and
hit return. If that channel does not exist it will create one
and establish you as the channel moderator. Channel moderators
have the power to kick others from their channel. The first person
to enter a channel automatically becomes the moderator. Channel
moderators are identified by a nify icon or character beside
their name. For others to join your channel they must type in
the exact name of the channel. In this way the channel is private
since it does not show up in the main channel listing. There
are also channels called "clan channels". These channels
are obviously meant for clans. A clan channel is the same as
any other channel except that only one account can moderate it.
Moderators in clan channels are not established by who is first
in the channel, but rather by the name of the channel itself.
For example, a clan channel is named "clan blizzard".
For that channel the only account that can be moderator is "blizzard".
All other accounts that enter that channel, regardless of whether
they were first or not, will not be able to moderate. Clan channels
are ideal for clans since inter-clan disputes can lead to channel
wars where you try to gain mod status and kick the other clan
out of their channel.
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- Bots:
The outsiders.
- Bots are programs that can log into the battle.net
channels outside of an actual game. The purpose of bots are simply
to be able to partake in channel activities without being tied
into a game application. Bots can be used to chat in or to moderate
channels. One thing to be aware of is that, just like any other
end user, a bot must login to battle.net with a valid battle.net
account before being able to access channels. The battle.net
account you're using with the bot must be established through
a game that supports battle.net play. Once an account login and
password have been established a bot can use that account to
access battle.net. A bot may not have the same channel browsing
abilities as a normal end user. For this reason the operation
of a bot can depend more on battle.net commands that are typed
in versus using a GUI (graphical user interface). Read the "commands"
section below to learn more about battle.net commands.
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- Commands: The DOS prompt of battle.net.
- A complete listing of all available battle.net
commands can be found here.
A command is something you type into the text field of battle.net.
Commands can be used to do the same things as the battle.net
GUI (graphical user interface), and in some cases can do more.
Among the more commonly used commands are the
 following:
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- /w [account name] [message]
- Example = /w joebob hey, what's up?
- With this command you can send messages to
anyone on battle.net by using their account name. Click on the
image to the right to see an example of this command and what
its result is.
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- /whois [account name]
- Example = /whois joebob
- This command will give you information about
the account in question as well as their location (in a game,
in a channel, etc).
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- /join [channel name]
- Example = /join strategies channel
- This is an easy way to move from one channel
to another. This command is more useful for bots that don't have
the convenient graphical battle.net interface that the end user
does.
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- If you have questions about any of this please
ask them on the message board so others can benefit from the
information.
- Message Board
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