14 DAY TRIAL // Developer Blizzard is adding a new Group feature for the Heart of the Swarm expansion for Starcraft 2 , which will be similar to the Clans that are already available in the game, albeit with a number of crucial differences.
Clans can only have a maximum of 20 members. But for Groups, all those interested can join up and while a player can belong to just one Clan, he can obtain membership in as many Groups as he wants.
The official description of the new feature says, “The Groups feature is a way for you to meet and interact with other StarCraft II players who share common interests. Accordingly, when you create a Group, you'll select a category that best describes the type of Group you are creating.”
The Groups that players create for Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm can be designated as either public or private and only the public ones can be searched and joined directly, without an invitation.
Blizzard plans to introduce the Group feature in the coming beta patch 2.0.2, after some solid testing of the feature.
For the beta stage, one character will only be able to own 2 Groups and join a maximum of 20.
The developer adds, “Currently, Clans and Groups are similar in functionality, so we anticipate that some people will use them interchangeably at first. Moving forward, our development focus on the Clans feature will be to add more competitive features, whereas Groups will remain geared around casual social interactions.”
Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm will be launched in March 2013 exclusively on the PC.
The game will introduce a new single-player campaign, which focuses on Kerrigan and on the Zerg. But Blizzard is also updating the multiplayer side of the game, adding new units and mechanics that will change how the community plays it.