Appear Offline Feature for Battle.net App

[Oracle]

It is now roughly four years ago that blizzard announced the "Appear Offline" feature coming to the battle.net app. Unfortunately this seems to have been buried and left under the Soon™ category, this I believe is due to lack of support and really it's a necessary feature.

In March 2014 (almost two years after first announcement of the feature) @CM_Lore posted on twitter talking about technical problems encountered when developing the feature and so it was thrown on the back burners for now (Soon™).

With the launch of Overwatch the demand for the Appear Offline function has certainly gone up as I am sure we all have that one (maybe more) friend you enjoy playing other games with and is all round a good guy but clearly FPS games are just not their forte but you end up with that inevitable "Join Game" button causing more pain than what its worth.

It has been questioned many times over the years whether this function will even get implemented. We, the community need to give Blizzard a clear indication that it has strong support and we want this feature ASAP.

https://www.change.org/p/blizzard-en...e-net-petition

[lonely zergling]

Just tell your "friends" that you want to play alone.

[Wildtree]

wrong forum....

You wanna be in the WOW section.

[Oracle]

wrong forum....

You wanna be in the WOW section.

Actually it's not isolated to WoW as it is across all blizzard games. However I think it may actually be better suited for the "Video Games Discussion" forum now that I look into further categories.

[Tailswipe]

I would like an offline feature for "that guy" that always plays DVA no matter what.

[Rorixis]

The technology just...

It just seems like one of those things that will never happen. There is a few work arounds but they don't work with the newer games.

[Derpleton]

If Blizzard took the time to implement an offline feature it would probably cost us a raid tier

[Oracle]

If Blizzard took the time to implement an offline feature it would probably cost us a raid tier

No, the results would just be something similar to ToGC... LOL

EDIT: On a serious note the WoW Dev team obviously doesn't work on the battle.net app

[Templar 331]

If you're more worried about winning a game than having fun with your friends then you've got your priorities mixed up.

And if you're not having fun with them to start with, why are they your friends to begin with?

[Deleted]

Its quite a big oversight from Blizzard developers. All chat apps have such feature.

BNet is not just another chat app. Its an app that people start it not only when they want to chat, but also when they want to play games, including when they want to play games alone in peace without being bothered by anyone.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

I wouldn't say it has "strong" support. If Blizzard says it can't be done, oh well.

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If you're more worried about winning a game than having fun with your friends then you've got your priorities mixed up.

And if you're not having fun with them to start with, why are they your friends to begin with?

Great question...

[Oracle]

I wouldn't say it has "strong" support. If Blizzard says it can't be done, oh well.

That is just a matter of opinion as there is no real evidence to show otherwise, however we have had a lot of forum posts asking for it since ~2010 and with the implementation of Patch 6.2.4 port blocking is no longer a viable option so it poses a greater problem now than it ever did.

If you're more worried about winning a game than having fun with your friends then you've got your priorities mixed up.

And if you're not having fun with them to start with, why are they your friends to begin with?

It is not as cut and dry as that...

As I have already stated there are a select few that play overwatch for example that just aren't the greatest FPS players and so when playing seriously and preparing for ranked play it becomes frustrating.

[yoma]

Well, since this thread is a direct copy-pasta of this one, http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...visible/page13, I'll say it again here I suppose.

"Wow, some pretty butt-hurt people in this thread. What does it matter to anyone if someone has the option to be invisible to b.net for a while? Their characters are still in the game world and able to be interacted with. Literally, please tell me how you are affected. I'm curious."

[The Kao]

Well frankly.

People demand this for along time now. The "technical limitation" argument doesn't hold water for millisecond. By now it should be obvious that Blizzard simply doesn't want to implement that feature, and will stay adamant about this. That's how it is. It's not going to happen. Once they made their rules they don't listen to complaints, even less if the issue is pressed by "the community".

[Noradin]

I would really apreciate it since I sometimes need to keep my computer running while I'm not sitting in from of it, just to come back to messages asking why I'm ignoring people again. Just because my pc is running does not mean I, personally, am online and logging on and off every time is a hassle I'd rather avoid.
If it proclaims myself "afk" people automatically assume I'm just around the corner somewhere, able to come back online any time.

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With the launch of Overwatch the demand for the Appear Offline function has certainly gone up as I am sure we all have that one (maybe more) friend you enjoy playing other games with and is all round a good guy but clearly FPS games are just not their forte but you end up with that inevitable "Join Game" button causing more pain than what its worth.

That one annoys me, too.

[Oracle]

Well frankly.

People demand this for along time now. The "technical limitation" argument doesn't hold water for millisecond. By now it should be obvious that Blizzard simply doesn't want to implement that feature, and will stay adamant about this. That's how it is. It's not going to happen. Once they made their rules they don't listen to complaints, even less if the issue is pressed by "the community".

Then the question remains... why is this still available for view on their website: https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/731...enet-9-20-2012

[apples]

Then the question remains... why is this still available for view on their website: https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/731...enet-9-20-2012

because they forgot about it and dont care enough to remove it

[Templar 331]

It is not as cut and dry as that...

As I have already stated there are a select few that play overwatch for example that just aren't the greatest FPS players and so when playing seriously and preparing for ranked play it becomes frustrating.

I'm not familiar with Overwatch's rank system, but do you get anything out of it that's worth more than playing with your friends?

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

That is just a matter of opinion as there is no real evidence to show otherwise, however we have had a lot of forum posts asking for it since ~2010 and with the implementation of Patch 6.2.4 port blocking is no longer a viable option so it poses a greater problem now than it ever did.

...You made the claim. So you need to show that it has "strong support" and define exactly what "strong support" means.

[Mystrome]

I'm not familiar with Overwatch's rank system, but do you get anything out of it that's worth more than playing with your friends?

Not really... You get 20% more XP when playing with friends. Haven't done the math, but my guess is winning without friends awards you roughly the same XP as losing with them.

Fairly safe to say, the difference is small enough to not be the main reason not wanting to play with someone on your friends list.

If the 'appear offline' feature was implemented I would probably (on occasion) use it, but it isn't a big deal.

Some people just need to learn how to say "I'm just messing around by myself, don't really feel like grouping up right now." Anyone who takes offense to that probably shouldn't be on your friends list in the first place.