Robert Bridenbecker, Blizzard’s VP of online technology, has taken the time to provide some revealing details as well as answer a short Q&A in a session hosted in Samsung City Hyatt Hotel. The original articles have been released in Korean, and are available here and here. A kind soul has posted the full translation on Battle.net’s forums soon after the articles went live.

According to the information released today, Battle.net 2.0 will immensely improve community features. It will create a better competitive environment that players can enjoy and also will make changes to ladder and league.

Also, Blizzard is currently setting the new battle.net release date to around April and here are the scheduled contents:

• Achievements
• Community related contents
• Player’s detailed connection info
• Player’s detailed game history
• Friend’s friend invite contents

It’ll be surprising to see features like Achievements go live during the beta, mainly because of the huge sign that states “Disabled for Beta” on that part of Battle.net’s interface. More detailed game histories and the ability to see information about your opponents and allies will also be welcomed features.

The most controversial decision reported about in the Q&A is the confirmation of the lack of chat channels – the heart and soul of Battle.net. This is how many gamers have met their allies and rivals on the gaming service throughout the years, starting new friendships and gaining arch-enemies. It’s the way the team behind this blog originally met 12 years ago! Unsurprisingly, many have already expressed their disappointment with this change and are urging Blizzard to reconsider.

Instead of the normal chat features, Blizzard will implement something more akin to the popular social sites flooding the Internet nowadays:

Especially about friend’s friend related contents, blizzard will implement in battle.net 2.0 as the main community system. According to blizzard, the new battle.net 2.0 system with friend’s friend invite will enable users to be more active in the community.

This is similar to facebook and twitter with micro-blogs and blizzard is also following this trend. Blizzard also states that since battle.net 2.0 does not have open chat channels, they will have to shoot for an even better community system as the ultimate goal.

Gamers are not Twitter social-media type simpletons. Most do not need another Facebook to interact with the people they already know. Chats and Forums are the natural habitats of gamers, and Blizzard is taking away the ability to randomly meet people to chat, play and discuss the game with. Despite the fact that this is in line with most recent gaming platforms, we, among many others, would love to see Blizzard reconsider the removal of chat channels.

The update, which is due in April, will not include the following:

Single Player Contents

• There are contents that will be locked at the beginning and will only be unlocked as you clear specific objectives. When you unlock these contents, you will be given some awards.
• Unlocking achievements will give players decals(distinct patterns) or portrait pictures.

Result screen revamp

• Currently, when you finish a match, you only see scores but the revampt will include all the details.

The more anticipated contents such as professional leagues and use-map marketplace will be included in future updates after release and will include watching replays of the players in professional league. Also, the players in pro-league will be able to advertise his career history and others.

The Q&A session spans 7 questions in total:

Q : There are currently hacks out there for single player and multiplayer is in danger too. Are you guys working on more security measures?

A : Hacking is something that we did not want to see. It is very unfortunate. The current hacked clients may contain virus and we would like to encourage our users to avoid downloading them. In the case of multiplayer, we will be working to make sure that it is not hacked but since you will be able to play any multiplayer without battle.net, I think the system is pretty secure from hacking.

Q : Will the April content release include 3v3 or 4v4?

A : 3v3 and 4v4 team plays will not be released in April but will be in the official release.

Q : Is there plans to release public chat channels? Also, if you do release it, how will you fight against spams and profanity?
A : Battle.net 2.0 will not support open chat channels. We will take actions to the reported spams, profanity and rude behaviors with the new Report Player functionality.

Q : Then, how will clan system work? If there is no open chat channel, then wouldn’t that impede clan system?

A : We will be announcing clan system at (after?) release so we cannot discuss that right now.

Apparently, there is a distinct, separate clan system planned, which will not depend on open chat channels and is not limited to the social features that have been implemented or announced up until now.

Q : Unlike Warcraft 3 battle.net, will you be able to see your rankings and match history in the website?

A : Of course. Just like WoW armory, you will be able to see those in the new battle.net community site. You can expect some great things since it will be a whole new innovative web service.

Q : Even if you divide realm servers by continents, if you look at Asia, there are many different spoken languages. Will you provide real-time translation system?

A : We have no plans to support realtime translation system right now but we are looking into it and considering it.

Q : The currentl battle.net supported games include Starcraft 1, Diablo, Warcraft 3. Will you keep supporting this? Are you concerned about merging them with battle.net 2.0?

A : The current battle.net will continue being supported. I would like to see it being supported continuously and we are discussing how we will go about. The merging details have not been completely decided in terms of technical aspect so it is hard to answer that. We will be discussing that later.

In case you have forgotten (it’s been a while!), Battle.net was launched with the release of Diablo in 1997, 13 years ago. It is a live platform that serves Diablo, Diablo 2, StarCraft, WarCraft 2, WarCraft 3, and all the expansions of the aforementioned games. Adjusting the platform across so many games would require a huge amount of patching, and it’s not suprising Blizzard has not declared its official stance on the issue.

A significantly more lengthy interview was given by Dustin Browder to VG247, going into the gory details of the expectations and numbers emerging from StarCraft 2’s beta testing. Many of the things Dustin mentions, like the possibility of adding and removing units, have been talked about extensively in the latest Blizzcast, but there’s certainly some meat in this one.

Here are some interesting excerpts from the interview:

Dustin Browder: So far, the beta numbers we’ve been looking at have been very, very positive. We’re close to a 50 percent win ratio for almost every race. What we’re really doing right now is waiting to see, as the community learns more, to see if something changes in the meta-game that causes this not to be the case. And, of course, we’re still dealing with issues of unit diversity, particularly on the Zerg side.

What level of concurrency to you want to get to before the end of the beta?

Dustin Browder: I think we want to maintain about 10,000. It’s sort of our goal, and we’ve just about hit that at this point. I can see we’re at 9,000-something right now, and 10,000 is the goal.

The number of online players has certainly been growing steadily as Blizzard sends out more and more keys.

While some StarCraft 2 Beta testers have been hacking at the world’s fastest RTS for 12 years, a significant portion of the gamers are… noobs that are overwhelmed by StarCraft’s ruthless pace and macro-oriented mechanics.

Dustin Browder: We’re seeing two types of players. We’re seeing the hardcore who’ve been with us for the past 12 years, who are just totally loving it and having a great time. We’re seeing newer players get into the beta and struggling a bit with the speed, with the rushes, with the style of gameplay we’re presenting them with. We’ve seen a lot of feedback from the newer players saying, ‘Oh my God, this is really rough. What the hell are you guys doing?’

Are you seeing clicks-per-minute generally increase as you run the beta over time?

Dustin Browder: I’m sorry, I’m able to see it on a game-by-game basis; I’m not able to see it globally. But that’s a great question, and certainly a stat we’d love to have. We have a ton of stats right now, and we’re having a trouble getting at them a little bit. There’s a large volume of data that our business intelligence guys are working very hard to give us access to. What I have access to now is fairly limited. I have access to maps, I have access to win-loss by race and by skill, I have access to certain unit stats, but no, I don’t have access to action-per-minute on a global scale. I’m not able to see it increasing as we go. I imagine that it would.

Some more interesting quotes:

• Our internal stats show us that Terrans are down in 1v1 versus Protoss and Zerg, and our internal stats also show us that Terran-Terran teams are also taking a hit in almost every match-up. This we believe to be largely because of map design. The Terrans lack some of the mobility to come rescue their allies in the early game…
• We’re going to change the maps a little bit and see if we get different results, but the Terrans being down is something we’ve started to address and we’re going to continue to address in the coming weeks.
• In addition, we view Battle.net this time around a little more as we do WoW. We hope to be doing constant content development going forward…
• There are also going to be some changes to how we do match-making. I know this for sure. But I’m not exactly sure of everything that’s going to happen. We develop these features and some of them will make the content patch, and some of them will not.

The SC2Blog team has been having a blast playing the beta over the last two weeks, raking in hundreds of games as well as watching many high-level replays, video commentaries and live streams. After gaining some insight into the workings of the game as it is currently played, we have decided to present you with a few of the commonly used strategies in mid to high level of play for all three races. Since there’s a lot to say, we’ll separate the races into three posts, the first of which is dedicated to StarCraft 2’s psionic, photosynthesizing, warp (ab)using Protoss.

Chronozeal

This strategy dominated the early days of the beta and can still be seen quite often. It is simple to execute, fast to achieve and quite devastating – especially before the Chrono Boost nerf, the 10 point reduction in Zealot shields, and the 30% increase in Gateway build time made it a little less quick and easy. This strategy involves quickly getting 3 gates up while building one assimilator for gas. While constantly pumping out Zealots and Chrono Boosting the gates, a large group of them could be amassed rather quickly. The attack is best timed with the completion of Charge research, which greatly enhances the effectiveness of Zealots. Not only does it become impossible to dance around them, they also surround enemies very quickly since the added distance already attacking Zealots add is negated by the superspeed. The toughness and relatively high attack damage of Zealots make this one of the first winning strategies for the Protoss in the StarCraft 2 beta. Evolutions of this strategy involve adding a Sentry or two, helping the Zealots take less damage from ranged attacks or trapping enemies with the Force Field ability.

Counters:

• Well-defended choke points
• Mass Roach
• Marine and Marauder balls with a couple of Hellions for flavor

Quick Colossus

After players began exploring the game some more, many have found the awesome power of the Colossus to be too good to pass up in just about every match. Soon enough, Protoss players understood that the Colossus literally wipes the floor with just about any ground unit, and so, many now rush to get one out as soon as possible. The most common strategy involves getting a Zealot wall to be used as fodder along with a handful of Stalkers and Sentries, with the Colossus laying back and lasering everything in sight with its huge, sweeping beams of scorching death. The upgrade found in the Robotic Bay is a critical one, increasing the Colossus’ range of attack from 6 to 9. Most players seem to understand that despite its cost (200/200), this upgrade is more important than getting a second Colossus out. Indeed, upgraded Colossi are a mainstay unit for the Protoss: not only are they easy to use effectively, but with a little micro, positioning the Colossus so that the the beams inflict maximum damage or dancing with it up and down cliffs is extremely rewarding.

Counters:

• Immortals, Void Rays
• Banshees, Vikings, carefully handled Marauders with EMP support in the early game
• All Zerg air units

Void rush

The Void Ray is a very unique unit with a distinct Protoss feel. Few tier 2 units in the game can inflict so much damage in such little time, and so it did not take long for Protoss players to abuse the potential of this unit. Requiring only the Cybernetic Core as a prerequisite and the Stargate to manufacture, the first 200/150 Void Ray can be brought to the field very quickly – especially with some help from Chrono Boost. Protoss players would quickly block off the entrance to their base, hopefully prohibiting the enemy from knowing what they’re up to, and then send 2-4 Void Rays to attack their unsuspecting enemy right inside their home.

The usual harassment at this point of the game focuses on the mineral line, but Void Ray rushers do not compromise for such petty means and go straight for the Town Hall. Players who lack any sort of anti-air will lose immediately, while others who can defend will spend the next few minutes losing various units and buildings to hit and run attacks while the Protoss player solidifies his economy and expands. Players who wish to use this strategy must make sure they possess the ability to micromanage these attention-requiring units, which are quite slow and not heavily armored, while also taking the time to take care of their economy and production.

Counters:

• Stalkers with Sentry (Sentries are light and, with Guardian Shield, take little damage from Void Rays)
• Mid-sized Marine groups
• Hydralisks

Dark Templar harassment

Still alive for the most part, and as effective as ever, or more so – now that Overlords are not detectors anymore. StarCraft 2’s Warp-in mechanic allows Dark Templars to be summoned directly to expansions, proxy pylons and to the occasional Warp Prism, hitting where detection is lacking and where the dark ones are least expected. Players lacking detection or an observant eye on the battlefield will take heavy damage before stopping the sneaky, hard-hitting Templar.

Mothership

Before Yo Mommaship got so fat, it was quite the unit to aspire to and get out to the field as soon as possible. Not only did its devastating Vortex ability cost 75 energy units, allowing it to be cast in every battle easily – it was also a fighting beast itself. With 400/400 hp/shields, a powerful, rapid attack that could take down workers (sans SCVs) and Marines in a single shot, a base armor of two, and an insta Town Portal button, the Mothership was often seen patrolling the skies all by itself, looking for prey. What was the risk?

Later in the game, the Mothership carried the entire Protoss army (or just cruised around with an air force) under its cloaking veil, vortexing everything in its path and destroying the remnants. Fortunately for the enemies of the Protoss, the wide range of nerfs to the Mothership have reduced it to something resembling more of a powerful Arbiter than anything else.

Counters:

• Sucked into a Vortex

What is the standard?

If one could point out a “solid” strategy, which does not either over-commit the player to a certain route nor expose him to a hard counter, it would be the standard Gateway/Robotics build.

Zealots, Stalkers and Sentries are all availiable practically from the very beginning, and Immortals coupled with Observers provide the early-mid game Protoss player with enough tools to deal with most normal threats. Healthy scouting and pressure that can be applied via the early attainable army would often counter most cheese tactics and allow the Protoss player to force an end to the game right away or comfortably segue into late-game play.

… and the first StarCraft 2 meme was born. It all started with the recent StarCraft 2 beta patch, which, along with the previous patch, hit the Mothership with a massive nerf. Its movement, price, build time, food cost, abilities, shields and hit points have all been affected.

Mothership

• The build time for this unit has increased from 120 to 160.
• The food cost of this unit has increased from 6 to 8.
• The number of shots fired by this unit has decreased from 8 to 6.
• The shield of this unit has decreased from 400 to 350.
• The health of this unit has decreased from 400 to 350.
• The acceleration of this unit has decreased from 1.3125 to 0.3125.
• The deceleration of this unit has increased from 0 to 1.

Then, something epic happened.

A “Yo Mommaship” Battle.net thread appeared, and it delivered. Multiple Blizzard employees have made their contributions to the thread, along with tens of other posters. To spare you from sifting through all the pages of the thread, we’ve compiled the best Yo Mommaship jokes in one Massive (Armored, Psionic) list:

1. Yo Mommaship so fat her food cost has increased from 6 to 8.
2. Yo Mommaship’s so trashy she doesn’t attack Roaches.
3. Yo Mommaship’s so fat she made Jim Raynor say “That’s no moon!”
4. Yo Mommaship so lazy that it takes her almost 3 minutes to be instantly teleported.
5. Yo Mommaship so dumb she forgot to fire two of her guns.  (see patch notes!)
6. Yo Mommaship such a floozy, she took 10 marines in her vortex and still had energy left.
7. Yo Mommaship’s so fat when she sits around the base, she sits AROUND the base.
8. Yo Mommaship so dumb when I said “we require more minerals” she took a Centrum.
9. Yo Mommaship so fat that when she uses Mass Recall, your units are still where you left them.
10. Yo Mommaship so fat, you must construct additional pylons. Always.
11. Yo Mommaship so fat she burns all her energy by turning around.
12. Yo Mommaship so fat she tried to cloak herself but it tore.
13. Yo Mammaship so fat, it takes 3 orbital scans to see all of her.
14. Yo Mammaship so ugly, she blinds detectors.
15. Yo Mommaship so dumb she thinks that the Ghost Academy is where Casper lives.
16. Yo Mommaship is so fat, the map can only hold one per player.
17. Yo Mommahip so fat she hit wormhole transit and got stuck on both sides.
18. Yo Mommaship so fat, Blizzard had to nerf her TWICE, just to fit her through the door.
19. Yo Mommaship so fat, she takes up the entire control group.
20. Yo Mommaship so fat she thought feedback was takeout. (Avarius)
21. Yo Mommaship so fat she needs shields just to keep it tucked in.
22. Yo Mommaship so fat her rear-end is considered a high-yield vespene geyser.
23. Yo Mommaship so fat when she delayed the release of beta 3 weeks because they had to upload her.
24. You Mommaship so fat, she takes food from all players in the game.
25. Yo Mommaship so dumb, she takes financial advice from Infestors.

Blizzard has delivered. Thousands of people have already downloaded and installed the StarCraft 2 Beta, the Battle.net 2.0 platform is online and fully operational (where it counts), maps are downloaded swiftly, and finding a match takes seconds.

In general, the beta seems to be going very smoothly. Many players already populate the various leagues, the interface is smooth and quite intuitive, and is, amazingly, integrated into every part of the game in a very unobtrusive and efficient way. Some complaints about unused space have been made, but where it matters – inside the game – it functions beautifully.

Ten Blizzard maps have been made available, all in either 1v1 or 2v2 sizes, on a variety of tilesets:

• Blistering Sands
• Desert Oasis
• Scrap Station
• Steppes of War
• Kulas Ravine
• Lost Temple
• Metropolis
• Twilight Fortress
• Shakruras Plateau

Some maps come in two flavors – novice and normal. Novice type maps have a slightly modified topography and provide players with conditions conducive to less eventful early games.

Battle.net’s post-match screen includes a very informative tab that provides a clear summary of each players’ build orders, directly compared to each other. This second-by-second view provides a great insight into the first crucial minutes of the game and will help players understand where exactly they might have gone wrong without taking the time to go over the replay.

Next on today’s agenda, we’ve compiled a short list of changes to the game we haven’t heard about before the beta began:

• When a Protoss player has one or more Warpgates, hitting “W” will select all of them, making warping units to the field a button-click away at all times.
• Lurkers are no longer a part of the game. The unit is completely gone.
• The Protoss macro mechanic has been replaced. Instead of the periodic Probe mining bonus, the Nexus now has “Chrono Boost“, a 25-energy ability that the Nexus can use on ANY building, including those of allies, to increase the speed of unit production and research. Extremely useful in all situations, from the beginning of the game (build Probes faster) to the end (Build Mothership faster).
• Speaking of the Mothership, its “Black Hole” ability now functions as a souped-up Stasis Field, sucking up all units around the area of effect and keeping them trapped in another dimension for a short period before spitting them all out when it dissipates. Use with a well-timed Nuke for bonus points.
• Mentioned just a couple of days before the beta, Banelings can now again be used as underground mines, detonating while burrowed. However, the favorite strategy with Banelings is currently “get a lot of them and roll into the enemy base”.
• There is NO chat on battle.net besides that with your friends and the “parties” you form with them. No regional or global channels like in StarCraft 1, and no chat gem either.
• The Battlecruiser no longer has different abilities to choose from. Instead, only the Yamato Cannon is available after being researched at the Fusion Core.

• When a player losses all his main structures (Command Center, Hatchery, Nexus), all his units and structures are revealed to the enemy. This measure was implemented to prevent players from abusing the players who just beat them by playing Pylon hide-and-seek. However, it is already raising some concern about end-case situations (stalemates, players still having enough money, etc). The SC2Blog recommends turning this feature off in tournaments and other high-level competitions.

If you’re having a hard time letting go of your recently acquired StarCraft 2 Beta, you can now enjoy its theme music even when doing what you should have been doing instead of playing:
Terran theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcghLSIpZlM
Zerg theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ivYHY8V-XA
Protoss theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuh96ogWoAc
Menu theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVNyU-BF9wg

For players who are not in the beta and are eager for some action, here are some new high-definition gameplay videos. If you’re looking for more, stay tuned and keep an eye over our Facebook page – it will periodically be updated with noteworthy live streams, as they occur.