New Real ID Party Feature Now Live, Remains Free
The Real ID Party feature is now officially live and remains free, hurray!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We’re happy to announce that the testing period for World of Warcraft's new Real ID Party system is now complete, and the feature is now officially live! We received a lot of great feedback from the community throughout the course of our testing, and we appreciate everyone taking the time to share their thoughts and experiences with us.

For those who haven't yet had a chance to try it out, the Real ID Party system allows players to invite Real ID friends of the same faction to a 5-player normal or Heroic dungeon, regardless of what realm their friends are on. This new feature makes it easier than ever for real-life friends to play together, and it's available to all World of Warcraft players at no additional charge -- all you need to do is have Real ID enabled.

To learn more about Real ID, visit the Real ID web page and read the FAQ.

For more information about how the Real ID Party system works, check out the FAQ below, updated with a couple new questions that came up during the testing period.

Q: How do I invite Real ID friends to a Real ID Party?
A: Inviting a Real ID friend to a Real ID Party is simple. Just open up your friends list to see which Real ID friends are online. Click on the “Plus” button to send an invitation to a Real ID friend to join your group. You can continue to add Real ID friends to your party until the group is complete. If you cannot complete the group with Real ID friends, you are free to join the Dungeon Finder to fill in the missing roles.

Q: Does a player need to have Real ID enabled to accept a Real ID group invite?
A: Yes, a player must have Real ID enabled, and both players must be Real ID friends to accept or initiate Real ID party invitations.

Q: Can a party leader invite a mix of Real ID friends, character-level friends, guildmates, or random players to the same party?
A: A party leader can invite any combination of Real ID friends from any realm, guildmates from the same realm, or other characters from the same realm to the same party. If the party leader isn’t able to fill up the entire party, the Dungeon Finder can fill in the missing roles.

Q: Can I invite someone who is not a Real ID friend?
A: You can only invite members to a party if they are on your Real ID friends list or if they are on the same realm as you are.

Q: Can I invite a friend of a Real ID friend?
A: No, you can only invite your own Real ID friends the party.

Q. Are you considering expanding the system to work with raids, Battlegrounds, Arenas, or to allow cross-faction play?
A: We're always looking into ways to improve features like this to make it more convenient for real-life friends to play together. However, we don't have any further announcements to share at this time.

Q: Will any future aspects of the Real ID Party system be premium-based?
A: It's always possible that we'll add features and functionality that could have a premium component, but we don't have any specific details to share at this time.
This article was originally published in forum thread: New Real ID Party Feature Now Live, Remains Free started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 144 Comments
  1. khh's Avatar
    make ones wonder why they stick with that "realm" model, i would had much more fun in wow if every time i meet someone else that plays too wasn't in another realm unable to play togetheris not like is impossible, GW1 was like that, many free mmos have servers divided in channels. not saying those were good implementations, but better than be isolated in your realm
  1. Verdris's Avatar
    Anyone think this was all a calculated PR move by Blizzard?
  1. Kaeleena's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Boubouille View Post
    Q: Will any future aspects of the Real ID Party system be premium-based?
    A: It's always possible that we'll add features and functionality that could have a premium component, but we don't have any specific details to share at this time.


    It was a trick all along for them to make players feel like they were giving them something included in the standard subscription that they could possibly charge for. Just wait. Now the deluge of premium features begins.
  1. CaptainClaw's Avatar
    Scyo summed it up pretty perfectly. I would like to add to that, Blizzard are no doubt feeling an amount of pressure with regards to Rift changing the way MMOs operate - the updates have been coming thick and fast, and services such as cross-realm transfers are completely free. Ironically, it's not the quality of gameplay in Rift that Blizzard are worried about, but how they are showing that selling an MMO isn't just about squeezing every last penny out of it's customers. Good will from the developers creates good will amongst the players (who would have thought that?).

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