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This article is about the player trends of ) on Battle.net . ''DIABLO II'' ON BATTLE.NET The ''Diablo II'' section of (East and West), one in Europe , and three in Asia . Each realm is comprised of several servers, and allows for two different methods of connecting: there is the closed realm, where all character data is stored on the Battle.net servers, and there is the open realm where all player data is stored on the player's computer. There are generally many more cheats on the open realm because character data can be altered locally. Players can create unlimited accounts with a maximum of eight characters per account, though only one character can be played at a time (if a CD-key is registered and in use by one player it cannot be used simultaneously by someone else). Up to eight players are allowed in each "game", each of which is basically identical to single-player Diablo II worlds, except that other players may join. As there are different games for different purposes, there are different channels for players to enter and use to chat. From dueling channels to trading channels, players can meet up with others to talk, arrange duels, trade, etc. Characters can only be played within a game. If a character isn't played for a span of 3 months it gets automatically deleted by Battle.net. Blizzard Entertainment only has 6 official Diablo II/D2X Battle.net multiplayer gaming servers:
However, many unofficial (though regarded by some as ''illegal'') servers for D2X were created, in China , Japan , and other countries. These are based on the same server interface (e.g. IMPK.NET). But one advantage of these servers was that many people who knew their IP addresses can play online in a 'closed Battle.net' (also known as ''private servers'' or ''Player-Versus-Player Game Networks, PvPGN '') with others; despite the fact that they lack 'CD keys' (which means Pirated or downloaded copies of D2X can still be played online; this however is also true with the normal game installation. You can play online with people by using the normal "Multiplayer" option or using Kali.net tunneling, which in addition, offers Battle.net like features such as chatting and "meeting" rooms for people). The ''Diablo II'' section of Battle.net consists of a global online community made up of tens of thousands of people who connect to six primary realms across the globe, two in the United States , East and West, one in Europe and three in Asia . Each realm is comprised of several servers. Each realm has two ways to connect: there is the closed realm, where all your character data is stored on the battle.net servers making it difficult to cheat, and there is the open realm where you play with your off-line (single player, LAN or TCP/IP) characters. There are generally many more cheats on the open realm due to its nature – the characters used on the realm exist on the player's local hard drive. Game Styles Players may create characters to play with in the ''softcore'', ''hardcore'', ''softcore ladder'' and ''hardcore ladder'' modes. If played softcore, the user's character can be resurrected if it dies. In hardcore, no such option exists. Ladder characters are ranked on the ladder. The non-ladder and ladder characters can't play with each other, and therefore have two completely different virtual economies. When a ''ladder season'' ends, ladder characters are transformed into non-ladder characters, and to keep playing on the ladder, new ladder characters need to be made. This is made both to keep the ladder clean from hacked items, and to give the players a reason to fight for the top spots. Many players move onto ''hardcore'' mode once they tire of ''softcore'' mode. The only difference in gameplay between the ''hardcore'' and ''softcore'' modes is that, in hardcore, once a character has died, he may not be resurrected, and thus, his character is rendered unusable. This obviously makes the gameplay more challenging. Some other differences are that hardcore character names are listed in red in the lobby, and there is a ''hardcore ladder'' separate from non-hardcore. There are some notable behavioral differences between hardcore and softcore players. Hardcore players are much more conservative in their gameplay, rarely taking any risks at all. Hardcore players are far more likely to cooperate in teams to achieve a goal such as gaining Experience or completing a quest. There is a common belief that in hardcore mode, the percentage of good items versus bad items found is higher, but those with more authority reject this belief. PKing, or ''player killing'', is a more popular or important Sport in hardcore play, because those involved have much more to lose if they die. To some, a successful PK in hardcore is more important and/or exciting than in softcore, because of death's heavy repercussions. Also, if the loser of the fight has not checked off "loot corpse" under the winner's name prior to fighting, the winner may take whatever equipment the loser was wearing when they died. ''Rushing'' happens when a well developed character allied with one or more low-level ones quickly completes multiple quests or even acts, which results in the weaker characters gaining a massive amount of experience, as well as completing quests they could not complete by themselves. While ''rushing'' started out as random acts of charity, many players now charge a Fee of valuable items or gems in exchange for this service. ''Magic-find'', or MF characters (usually Barbarians ), are characters created and used for the sole purpose of finding rare items for other characters to wield. To achieve this purpose, specific skills are developed, specific monsters are slain over and over, and the MF character's gear consists entirely of items which increase the chance of finding a magic item. Battle.net Sociology It is also an interesting study in sociology, as social groups organize to adventure together, usually based on geographical region, language, character affiliation/preferences, playing style and other considerations. Many players form Clans to defend themselves from Player Killer s (or PKs). There is also a significant economy associated with ''Diablo II'', because the most powerful magic items are rare, and are often traded. Interestingly this trading occurs both in-game and in the real world. Certain "unique" items used to sell on EBay for upwards of 500 US dollars. See Emergent Gameplay . Battle.net Slang See Also: Diablospeak Many people on battlenet or ''bnet'' utilize some elements of Leetspeak . Some terms that appear only in ''Diablo II'' are abbreviations of item names, like "cgmboe" for ''Cruel Grand Matron Bow of Evisceration'', or the description of certain builds of characters like ''Javazon'' for an Amazon which uses Javelins as her main weapon, a ''Bowadin'' for a Paladin who shoots a bow or crossbow, or ''barb'' instead of Barbarian. Battle.net Player versus Player (PvP) PvP is another widely played feature of the game. Players can join into parties and declare hostility to each other. PvP has become a competition like a sport, with leagues, special rules, a big community and even rivalry between the leagues. The two largest leagues are ''Duellliga'' and ''Art of War''. Battle.net Exploits '' Diablo '', ever since the first version, has been plagued with cheats on the ''closed'' and ''open'' battle.net realms. These cheats give the players unfair advantages or the abilities to remove other players from the games by crashing their computers. The most notorious cheats have always been dupes. A Dupe is a cheat or exploit of the game that creates exact copies of an item. These copies are then traded and/or sold for the profit of the cheaters. Maphacks One popular type of a hack, that can also be found in games like '' Warcraft III '', is a Maphack . This hack allows the user to see the entire game map and all the monsters. This sort of hack gives the player an advantage because they show where to find the monsters and which monsters to avoid, and also because they allow the player to quickly find a path to his destination. The most widely used maphacks are Mousepad's MH at http://www.mousepad-d2.com/ and Netter's EasyPlay at http://www.gamemunchers.net With this class of hacks, the effect is only on the client side and doesn't harm the servers. Blizzard has had to struggle to prevent maphacks from being used on the realm. They are notoriously hard to identify and only detectable if the maphack software itself is buggy or if Blizzard scans the clients' memory for the hack. Actually, after patch 1.11, Blizzard has introduced a new anti-hack software (referred to informally as "Warden") which scans the servers for any DLL injections, which most old hacks required. This rendered hacks such as mouspad's maphack and Netter's Easyplay useless, because they can now be traced. Chesthack The "Chesthack" exploit was a powerful exploit publically released around April 2002 , it allowed players to close chests in the game which contain items. Upon opening them again, new items would be generated. Blizzard Entertainment quickly fixed this exploit and Banned all accounts that were caught in affected games. This sparked outrage among the player community, as many innocent players were banned. Bots Bot programs allow the user to completely automate their game play. They are primarily used for magic finding (finding better randomly generated items). This gives their users a clear advantage because their computer is playing around the clock, collecting the best items in the game with little input from the user.
Scamming Scamming is probably the most widely tried type of hack, and its success is based on how well a player can fool another. A player creates a game with a name that would entice other players to join. The perpetrator then tries to convince the players to download a program, which he has disguised as a duping program (a program that makes exact copies of items). If the player being scammed is gullible enough, he/she will download the program and run it while still in the game. Generally the program is an Autoit script which opens Diablo II and drops all of their items on the ground, and then closes the game and shuts down the player's computer. This leaves the scammer enough time to pick through and take whichever items he/she wishes and leave before the other player can return. This type of program has not only been done in Autoit, but in VB.NET and its predecessor Visual Basic , as well utilizing API calls to manipulate the keyboard and mouse. This type of cheat is still tried often, but generally doesn't work anymore because the Diablo II community has become very familiar with it due to overuse, and knows to avoid it. There are other forms of scamming that do not involve convincing someone to download a program. One such example is to convince another player to drop an item of value on the ground and in return they will get another item, but instead the dropped item is simply picked up by the scammer. While trading, a scammer shows someone an item that is the same color and shape of a highly demanded unique or set item. The other player then accepts without checking to see if it is correct item. There have also been scams that convince someone to reveal his or her account password, thereby giving the scammer complete access to the person's account. Anti-hack Measures Blizzard has a strong anti-cheat stance. They've always aggressively pursued hack programs that are designed to attack their systems. These typically have been dupe programs, because they exploit bugs and flaws in the game's software. These dupe programs, when publicly available, have at times brought the online gaming servers to near collapse. So Blizzard has aggressively patched and fixed many of these exploits as soon as they became aware of them. With bots, Blizzard has taken a more direct approach. Since their first appearance on the realm, Blizzard has banned over 200,000 Battle.net accounts that have been associated with bots. The first of these mass bannings took place on April 1 , 2003 . With Patch 1.10, Blizzard has adopted a still more direct course to detect hacks. They have added special code into the game itself that can detect these cheats in memory and report back to battle.net. Blizzard has also implemented a system to detect and delete the "bugged" and "hacked" items from the realms (in the form of the nicely mysterious, artifact-munching "rust storm"). The post-1.10 ''Diablo II'' realms are much cleaner than the realms have been in years, with less duped and hacked items around. The users also have the option to play on the ladder which is a totally clean Economy separate from the old corrupted realms, and is kept so by the periodic wipes. ''DIABLO II'' OFF BATTLE.NET ATMA ATMA (A Tenshi Muling Application) is a program created by "Hakai_no_Tenshi" that allows for those not using Battle.net to "mule," or move items across characters. Originally, items were muled via another player hosting a TCP/IP game (which uses single-player characters). Later, character trainers (programs designed for editing a character) were used to mule alone. Another common practice was to use an edited file that allowed for one computer to both host and join a TCP/IP game. Item trading ''Diablo II'' and its expansion pack have spawned a myriad of different online shops and stores for items. The phenomenon of users buying items with physical or virtual money (''e-currency'') has increased within the last year or so. The creation of the 'Ladder' program on ''Diablo II'''s Softcore and Hardcore modes has given birth to this "item craze". Most legitimate players frown upon the practice of selling virtual items for real money, especially hacked or bugged items, but Blizzard themselves do not seem to take much action against them, other than the occasional mass banning of Battle.net accounts of players using illegal items or other hacks. Most stores are accessed through EBay , but independent ones have even created legitimate, aesthetically pleasing, and robust trade store sites. There are many trade sites out there. However, be aware that many of these are far from reputable, employing bots to farm items for sale or to spam their site in channels, duping and hacking items, or even having spyware/keyloggers or worse in their site's scripting. In addition to stores, both reputable and otherwise, there are guilds, fansites, non-game altering third-party software sites, and helpful sites with item listings and skill/character build ideas. One thing after the 1.10 patch release, was the massive bot use for advertising such sites which sold items, usually filling the screen with messages and then quickly leaving the game (to repeat the process again in another game and so on), with appearances of at least 1 bot per game. |
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