Battlefield 3's Battlelog took notes from social media, Halo and COD

Battlefield 3 developer DICE looked at various social networks, along with Halo Waypoint and Call of Duty Elite, when formulating their plans for Battlelog.

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Battlefield 3 is very centered on the social networking Battlelog, so much so that the PC version relies on it. And while the service shares some passing similarities to the Autolog from EA's line of racing titles, DICE producer Patrick Loving says the team took cues from social networks and even their shooter competition.

"I looked at all social networks, from Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, to of course [Halo] Waypoint, [Call of Duty] Elite," Loving told Gamasutra. "We looked at everything. That's inspirational for me -- just finding out what other people do, and just sort of grabbing the good pieces out of it." He says they picked some of the common, popular elements to form the basis of Battlelog.

Meanwhile, setting up their own form of social network may help avoid some of the pitfalls from other games that have tried to integrate existing media tools in their games. "I don't think everyone would like to spam the Facebook feed with what they're doing in-game," he said. "But I think it fits perfectly into a branded social network such as Battlelog. So that was the key: people want to keep it within the Battlefield community. The friends you have on Facebook are probably not the same friends that you have on Battlelog."

As for the possibility of added features or integration into other EA shooters, Loving is very focused on the Battlefield 3 launch and iterating on it first. "I'm very happy with the features that we have, but of course we're going to keep adding stuff as we go along," he said. "I just want to see how people react to it, so that we can give the consumers what they want.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 20, 2011 12:15 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Battlefield 3's Battlelog took notes from social media, Halo and COD.

    Battlefield 3 developer DICE looked at various social networks, along with Halo Waypoint and Call of Duty Elite, when formulating their plans for Battlelog.

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      October 20, 2011 12:28 PM

      "I don't think everyone would like to spam the Facebook feed with what they're doing in-game," he said. "But I think it fits perfectly into a branded social network such as Battlelog. So that was the key: people want to keep it within the Battlefield community. The friends you have on Facebook are probably not the same friends that you have on Battlelog."

      Exactly. Loving gets it. I don't want all sorts of gaming shit spammed on my facebook wall.

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      October 20, 2011 12:33 PM

      Battlelog and the stupid rate of regenerating health are the two sole reasons that I will be skipping this title.

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        October 20, 2011 12:34 PM

        Just the fact that it exists or do you have a valid problem with it?

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          October 20, 2011 3:05 PM

          My problem is that I have to use a browser to launch a fucking game. My problem is that the devs were too fucking lazy and wanted to streamline shit so much that they can't even create a half decent in-game experience when it comes to stat tracking, friends, etc.

          My problem is that my browser isn't supported, and I'm not going to download and use another one just because of a GAME. A GAME that should be fully supported IN-GAME.

          And as for the regenerating health. If I can constantly put 15 bullets into someone from only 50 yards away, and they still won't die because their health is regenerating, even without a med kit = bad game.

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            October 20, 2011 3:14 PM

            It didn't seem that bad to me in the beta as far as regen health goes. The only way you could put 15 bullets into someone was if they popped out from a hill, you hit them once or twice and they hid for 10 seconds, rinse/repeat. Would take about 3 minutes to do that. Health doesnt regen instantly, it takes time to start coming back. Does it reduce the need for medics? Maybe? I'm not sure I see more or less medpaks than I did back in the BF2 days. Seems to me people still didn't drop the effing things.

            Either way, I can't think of a firefight I was in with a person where the outcome would have been different without health regen. Either way one of us was gona die.

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              October 20, 2011 3:45 PM

              Agreed, The regen was such that it was delayed before it began and then only slowly when it did, by that point your assailant is probably coming to knife you.

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              October 23, 2011 10:22 AM

              Yeah, health regen definitely wasn't out-of-line. The problem I ran into was that the hitboxes occasionally lied and I would be hitting players with no confirmation at times, and not hitting them with confirmation at other times. That was something that was specifically pointed out as being a problem with the earlier code the beta ran on and something that will have already been addressed in the gold version.

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            October 20, 2011 3:34 PM

            [deleted]

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            October 20, 2011 3:42 PM

            Is this 15 bullets over an hours time?

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            October 20, 2011 3:49 PM

            I actually prefer having the stat-tracking moved outside the game as it allows me to view it from a plethora of other locations using a multitude of devices without requiring the game.

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            October 20, 2011 8:52 PM

            You're on all kinds of crazy.

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            October 20, 2011 9:33 PM

            I still don't like regen health but it's a lot better in BF3 - takes a while before it starts regenerating. Also it doesn't take a lot of shooting to kill someone, they definitely reduced it from what it took in BC2 and a crapton less than it did in BF2/1942

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            October 21, 2011 5:59 AM

            It's not the game, it's your aim.

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            October 21, 2011 6:00 AM

            Doesn't seem to be a problem for anyone else shooting each other though Mr Elite

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            October 21, 2011 6:15 AM

            DICE has never made a good server browser. Does anyone in the world remember this? Battlelog is fantastic. What browser do you use that isn't supported? Opera? Go download Chrome and stop being an idiot.

            You not being able to kill someone does not = bad game. It = bad player.

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        October 20, 2011 12:59 PM

        I'm kind of puzzled by this. Battlelog is sweet. I mean you don't even have to look at it if you don't want to.

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        October 20, 2011 1:00 PM

        The regenerating health are actually slow enough for me so I dont really have problem with it. If they make it regenerate enough to not give me splotches and blurred images after a while but not regenerate the health to full, then its fine by me. Nothing is more annoying then being shot to almost death in the middle of nowhere, then find a medic that doesnt know (or have) how to give a medkit with my blurry views and bloot splotches.

        Battlelog, on the other hand, is a different kind of annoyances. I honestly do not want to 'share' my in-game achievement, stats with anyone and would like to keep it in game. If they want to make it optional, its fine. But this is mandatory for PC, and this just very annoying.

        Oh well, I already have it preordered from long ago for half the price. I'll just play and enjoy it, but I probably will try to use the Battlelog to the minimum (as in sharing stats and hooah-ing people).

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          October 20, 2011 1:21 PM

          You do know that your information for any previous BF game since BF2 has been available for anyone to view on www.battlefield.com.

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            October 20, 2011 2:19 PM

            yah Stats have been public for years

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            October 21, 2011 5:45 AM

            I think what I meant is that I dont need it to be part of how I launch the game, I guess. If they want to put it in the game (like in the menu), or in the website, I think that is fine. Maybe what I'm complaining is the server browser/filter is in the browser instead of in game.

            I just dont know how its going to work...If I play singleplayer and then choose to play multilplayer, do I alt-tab, or will it quit the game itself and launch the browser, and more loading after the map is loaded? The switching back and forth just feels a bit stiff, in my opinion.

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        October 20, 2011 1:25 PM

        Figure you're a typical FPP, and this is a post and run, but like others I'll bite.

        What don't you like about Battlelog? It's a phenomenal server browser, and likely has amazing qualities that you've overlooked:

        Background level loading
        Party formation / server joining
        Post Server URL to a forum for everyone else to easily join the server
        Amazing alt-tab support
        To start BF3 and auto join a specific server, all i do is open browser and select my bookmarked favorite server (origin / battlelog auto load in seconds and the level starts to load in the background).

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        October 20, 2011 1:51 PM

        Man I want to sling so many personal attacks right now.

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          October 20, 2011 2:19 PM

          Let those slings blaze baby let them blaze.

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        October 20, 2011 1:57 PM

        [deleted]

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        October 20, 2011 2:17 PM

        You'll show them!

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        October 20, 2011 3:32 PM

        Shit, I used to rather use All Seeing Eye for as many games as I could for MP instead of the in game browsers. It was awesome being able to find friends, favorite servers, and even stalk people. My friend and I stalked this one guy because he bitched at our domination with the Black Hawk in Desert Combat mod. ASE allowed us to track any game he was in and we would join the server to grief him. We killed him in the Black Hawk and he would say, "It's you guys again!" we eventually got him to rage quit DC mod.

        Battlelog reminded me a lot of ASE except in a format smart to facebook. I like that if at the last minute I don't want to play the game I can just close the browser tab. Also I don't have to start a game to look at stats and such. I can make it part of my normal Internet browsing experience.

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      October 20, 2011 12:51 PM

      I was actually planning on ending my EA/DICE boycott for this game (the demo was fairly good), but then I noticed that the browser app they install has some ridiculous end user license agreement that allows EA to collect all sorts of info about your computer and software (e.g. what programs you use, how often you use them, etc.).

      NO THANK YOU.

      I do my best not to install spyware on my computer, and I sure as hell am not paying for it.

      And the boycott continues...

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      October 20, 2011 1:20 PM

      Good thing we don't have to pay another $50 for battlelog.

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      October 20, 2011 2:15 PM

      http://i.imgur.com/vrVVz.jpg

      That's all I gotta say.

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        October 20, 2011 3:36 PM

        Sup?

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        October 20, 2011 8:44 PM

        Very true for me. I've moved all my work to another computer just to play BF3 without it snooping (it's true they can take photos of your workspace?)

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          October 20, 2011 9:59 PM

          No, they prefer to spy on you while you're sleeping!

          YOUR WEBCAM, UNPLUG IT NOW!

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          October 21, 2011 12:38 AM

          They can tap your microphone and camera, be sure to keep it unplugged from a computer with Origin installed. Your search history and cookies are not safe either. Thank god I use my phone for everything now, EA ain't getting no personal information from me.

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            October 21, 2011 3:52 AM

            Yeah because no one knows how to hack phones.

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            October 21, 2011 5:59 AM

            That's where you're mistaken. EA can download information from any phone within a 40 foot radius of an Origin-enabled computer system.

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        October 20, 2011 9:56 PM

        do you use steam?

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          October 24, 2011 1:34 PM

          Steam asks you before scanning, and tells you what information it is sending, FYI.

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        October 20, 2011 11:50 PM

        LOLLLLLLLL

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        October 21, 2011 3:58 AM

        [deleted]

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        October 21, 2011 5:46 AM

        well done

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        October 21, 2011 5:54 AM

        haha wow

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        October 21, 2011 6:13 AM

        Origin is the biggest threat to our liberty since the TSA started taking over highway security.

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      October 20, 2011 2:24 PM

      The typical gamer mentality of "WTF something is different, I dont like it!" definitely holds true here.
      Battlelog is fucking awesome though! I only put maybe 5ish hours into the Beta, but already was loving Battlelog

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      October 20, 2011 2:49 PM

      I didn't mind the website. The browser plug-in was complete shit. It would keep breaking for me and my friends where we couldn't make squads or squad join games.

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      October 20, 2011 3:00 PM

      O RLY?

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      October 20, 2011 3:00 PM

      [deleted]

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