Project Lore: Five dudes. Four cameras. One World of Warcraft.

Ever since Blizzard announced that you could merge your World of Warcraft with your Battle.net account, we knew that some day they’d make the change manditory. And why, you ask? Battle.net has been a mainstay of Blizzard’s online community for years and it’s about to receive its biggest upgrade ever with the release of Starcraft 2.

The problem is that its services have always been kept separate. Starcraft players have never been able to communicate with Diablo 2 players, and the company hasn’t released a significant online game that makes use of the match-making system since then. WoW required something more robust than what B.net could offer at the time, but now the time is right. Battle.net 2.0 has taken all sorts of cues from Facebook, Xbox Live, and everything in-between. In short, it has out-grown everything that has come before it.

And it’s time for WoW to grow up, too. Not only is it beneficial to people who currently play the game, but it will be almost crucial for those who intend to play future releases alongside their favorite MMO.

Now we approach the zero hour. Blizzard warned us not even a month ago that we would have to merge our accounts by November 11, 2009 or else! Of course, there are two very good reasons for doing so if you haven’t made the jump yet:

• Chilly the Penguin — Who can say no to a free vanity pet? Though they’ve been threatening you with a specific date for the merger, they haven’t yet set one for when you will no longer be able to receive the pet, though it will likely be in the very near future.
• You get to continue playing World of Warcraft! — Of course, this is the most important of all. Unlike Chilly, Blizzard is keeping very strict with this one. Don’t merge your account by the end of today? Starting tomorrow (the 12th), you don’t get to log-in to WoW until you do.

The new Battle.net also sports some other neat features, like purchase tracking on the Blizzard store and the ability to input your games’ CD Keys so you always have a digital download available even if you lose your physical copies.

Now some people have expressed concern that having a single account for all your games makes it easier for you to get hacked (imagine having both your Diablo III and Warcraft character ganked, or worse!), but there’s no evidence as yet to support this idea. It would be foolish to assume that any system is out of the reach of a really dedicated hacker, but it’s be equally stupid to think that Blizzard isn’t going to ratchet up the security because there’s so much more at stake. If you’re truly concerned, you might as well go ahead and purchase an Authenticator (or just download the app if you have an iPhone).

Personally, I think Battle.net 2.0 is only going to make things better and more connected. I’ll be playing Starcraft 2 and Diablo III even when I’m tackling the latest raid content in Cataclysm, and I fully anticipate some people being tempted to drop WoW altogether when either of those games come out. The new community is going to keep everybody in the loop, and that makes me very happy.

You can create/merge your accounts here. Make sure to check the FAQ if you have any questions.

Have you merged your account yet, and how do you think Battle.net will affect your game-playing behavior in the future?

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Related Posts: Oswald Chilly Compels You to Use B.net!, Important: Battle.Net Account Mergers Required Soon, Battle.net Unites Blizzard Games, What You Didn’t Get For Christmas (But Probably Should Have Asked For), WoW Life Lesson #20 - Play It Safe,

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