14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Blizzard announces that it plans to add two new major social features for Diablo 3 via the new patch 2.0.1, called Clans and Communities, in order to prepare the experience for the Reaper of Souls expansion.
In an official blog post, the team explains that, “Clans are designed to provide players who share similar interests, gameplay schedules, or goals the ability to band together and form tight-knit groups. They're a great way to communicate with numerous friends at once, organize your play, and generally just keep in touch with those you game with the most.”
120 gamers can be part of one at the same time and each player can only choose to join one of the groups, which can be searched using code words.
Players will be able to find out important news, check out the Legendary items that members of their clans find and use and work together in order to complete certain sections of the game.
Blizzard adds, “Communities are designed to be a place where players can come together for any number of reasons, including playing the same class, frequenting the same fan sites, or living in the same geographical area. They're all about fostering relationships between like-minded people, with a keen focus on socialization.”
A player can be part of as many Diablo 3 communities as he wants and they are designed to be much more casual, focused on discussions and on social events rather than on planning in-game activities.
The studio wants Clans and Communities to make the experience of playing Reaper of Souls and the core Diablo 3 campaign feel more social.
Previously, the company also revealed that it was replacing the game launcher with Battle.net via patch 2.0.1 and that all players would have to go through a 15- to 60-minute game optimization process.