A:  We haven't set an exact schedule, but we are working on both Necromancer and Barbarian pages as well as getting some up to date .avi footage for unreleased character classes. We will also be putting up the E3 trailer in the next few days for both PC and Mac platforms. I wish I could give you exact dates, but we are currently working on finishing up the Zerg guide for Starcraft/Brood War and the Blizzard.com redesign, so dates are up in the air right now.

A:  As we have done with all of our previous titles, the Battle.net beta for Diablo II will be international in scope. Since we will be testing a broader range of services and infrastructure, it is important that we hold our beta test in as wide an area as possible. In regards to the release of the game, we always strive to release the international versions within days of the U.S. version. We will continue to do our best to ensure that the entire world gets the game as close to simultaneously as possible.

A:  Players have three possible Relationship Settings with all other players in the game -- Neutral (the default for all when starting a game), Friendly, and Hostile. The settings are made in the Player's Overlay screen. This system accomplishes two things; (1) it makes it easier to work with others in a party, and (2) it requires Hostile players to declare their intent to harm other characters. Here is how the settings work:

Neutral: Most attacks won't target the players with this setting. If one tries to target a particular Neutral player, the target will be a nearby monster instead. Area effect and indirect spells (like Firewall or Weaken) will effect all players in range of the effect.

Friendly: When players are Friendly towards each other, they are considered a "party" and will split experience points and be able to loot the dead bodies of other party members. An icon of each party member is displayed on the top left of the screen with a HP bar. They also show up on each other's automap.

Hostile: All attacks will target players with this setting. If one player chooses to be Hostile towards another player, the second player is automatically set to be Hostile to the first. Hostile is always a mutual setting so that players can immediately respond to attacks from other characters. The names of Hostile players will probably appear in red text when the character is highlighted to denote them as Hostile.

We are currently debating what will happen when players kill each other. Our train of thought now has characters NOT dropping anything of value when they are killed, regardless of the relationship setting. Characters that have been PK'ed with the Hostile setting will probably drop a token of some kind (much like the ear in Diablo).

A:  Monsters will slowly spawn to replace slain creatures in areas such as the vast wilderness expanses, as time passes. This repopulating can be affected by specific locations or items which greatly increases the amount of monsters in a specific area. An example of this would be a Bloodhawk nest. The nest spawns Bloodhawks at a specified rate which is much quicker than usual, and will continue to generate them until the nest is destroyed. Specific monster types may also be tied directly to these "generators" so that if they are destroyed, that monster type will no longer inhabit that area.

A:  The areas of resistance in Diablo II are Fire, Cold, Lightning, Poison and Magic. These are areas in which both characters and monsters can attain resistances. This means that not only will there be more variations within the classes of monsters (Fire resistant Fallen, cold resistant Fallen, etc.), but monsters will also have many more types of special attacks they can wield against players. This should lead to some very interesting interactions between specialized characters in multiplayer games as well as specific strategies and tactics as the resistances and immunities of each type of creature is learned.

A:  All of this is very up in the air at this point. We have a lot of goals, not the least of which is getting the game out, so we do not have a clearly defined list of game types created as of yet. As far as arena games go, the answer is basically the same -- we want to do them, we intend to do them, but the exact feature set is still undetermined.

A:  Most of what we have planned has already been said about the plans for Guild Halls, but I can summarize them here again. Guild Halls are intended to be places where members of a Clan can gather together, store items and community treasure and set up ways to identify members of their Clan on Battle.net. Clan leaders will be able to purchase deeds to halls. At that time they can name the hall, select a 2 color scheme, and an identifying pattern, as well as a three letter acronym for their clan to be shown next to member's names in the Battle.net chat rooms. They can also enter the character names of those who are in their guild at this time (although they will be able to do this at any time).

A:  Gems are also worth money, but everything is centered around the "Gold Standard" in Diablo II, meaning that while gems hold an intrinsic value, you do need to sell them and thus convert them to gold if you are going to buy something with them. Additionally, gems may have magical properties that can be transferred to items that have the "socketable" advantage. An example would be if a player has a socketable short sword with 2 slots, he can place two gems into the sword and create a magic item of his own. If he found a Fire Ruby and a Diamond of Lightning, his weapon would do extra fire and lightning damage -- depending on the quality and power of the gem, of course. Also, it is important to know that once a gem is set within an item, it cannot be removed.

A:  Convert allows us to introduce reagents in the world of Diablo II. There will be items you find in the game (such as Zombie Eyes) that can be magically converted into potions or elixirs that can in turn be used by the character. The reason that this becomes a very powerful game mechanic is that we would then have the ability to combine created potions and elixirs with other converted items to make even more powerful goods, should we choose to do so. There will be a wide range of reagents that can be converted, so this skill should prove to be not only useful, but very interesting and exciting to use throughout the course of the game.

We are spending vast amounts of resources to ensure that our new client/server model for Battle.net will be as secure and redundant as possible. Don't forget, we play over Battle.net too, and if I lose my 25th level Paladin, SOMEBODY is going to be in big trouble ;)."