Battle.net Appear Offline Function

**Beenie** · 2012-11-27, 12:48 AM

I remember the announcement that an "appear offline" function is to be implemented into Battle.net. See link below:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7315729

Is it coming with patch 5.1? I haven't heard anything else about it since the original announcement on 9/20/12. I'm not playing right now, and am admittedly out of the loop on a lot of things. I probably will play again when I graduate in December. This would be a welcome addition for me. I've been hoping to have this added since RealID came into being seeing that a lot of people who see "Away" or "Busy" statuses and just ignore it.

**Rinnegan** · 2012-11-28, 04:16 PM

did it come with 5.1?!? need the information now please

**parkerlynne** · 2012-11-28, 04:20 PM

I do not see that option on my screen in wow atm

**BeastmasterGuardian** · 2012-11-28, 04:23 PM

In the coming months, we're planning an update to Battle.net that will give you more control over your online presence when playing Blizzard games.

Sep 20, 2012 6:00 AM PDT

Unlikely that it came with the patch. Didn't see anything in the notes or in the Friends interface. Maybe for Christmas lol.

**Gurbz** · 2012-11-28, 04:31 PM

Probably related to the battle.net testing they are getting ready to do. It's coming, but we will probably have to wait a bit for it.

**smegdawg** · 2012-11-28, 04:32 PM

I don't even understand how this would work.

Oh Jim is not online on my friends list..but I just saw him hovering over the shrine on his mount. Screw you Jim!!

**Azhreia** · 2012-11-28, 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by smegdawg

I don't even understand how this would work.

Oh Jim is not online on my friends list..but I just saw him hovering over the shrine on his mount. Screw you Jim!!

You are of course aware that there are several blizzard games that use battle.net for communication ? Or that Jim could play an alt that you don't know, or on another server or whatever. Those are the cases that people want this feature for.

**Tziva** · 2012-11-28, 04:55 PM

It was supposed to be coming, but I don't know if 5.1 was the projected patch for implementation.

Originally Posted by smegdawg

I don't even understand how this would work.

Oh Jim is not online on my friends list..but I just saw him hovering over the shrine on his mount. Screw you Jim!!

It just is supposed to disable your visibility via RID/Battletag. You'll still be able to see people out in the world or in channels like /guild or private chat.

Presumably, if people really want to hide, they will play another game, or a secret alt or on another server. But I think in general it's just to give you some quiet time.

**smegdawg** · 2012-11-28, 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by Azhreia

You are of course aware that there are several blizzard games that use battle.net for communication ? Or that Jim could play an alt that you don't know, or on another server or whatever. Those are the cases that people want this feature for.

Eh, yeah I guess. I just have never really understood why people have used "offline" statuses to avoid interaction. Sure you are not interested in talking or playing with people on your friends list at the moment. But doesn't a quick "Busy" or "No, thanks" work just as well.

And if you are using the function purely to avoid people. Why are they on your real ID list to begin with.

But whatever, the feature is obviously not for someone with my mindset.

**BeastmasterGuardian** · 2012-11-28, 05:02 PM

This is why I don't put people on my friend's list or Real ID. Just another way to avoid someone I am "friends" with. Like Caller ID for cell phones. If I don't answer, am I screening or not there at all?

**Tziva** · 2012-11-28, 05:08 PM

Originally Posted by smegdawg

Eh, yeah I guess. I just have never really understood why people have used "offline" statuses to avoid interaction. Sure you are not interested in talking or playing with people on your friends list at the moment. But doesn't a quick "Busy" or "No, thanks" work just as well.

And if you are using the function purely to avoid people. Why are they on your real ID list to begin with.

I don't know that I would ever use the feature myself, but sometimes it can be time consuming to reply to a lot of whispers. If it was a matter of a quick "no thanks" that might be another issue but quite frequently they are not things that warrant yes/no answers. At the point where I'm typing, "this requires a longer reply and I'm in the middle of something, how about I send you a PM on the forums later?" to a bunch of people is long enough that I might as well just answer to begin with.

Putting up an AFK or DND flag can be worse, because then you have people leave you very long "messages" while you're "away."

That doesn't mean one doesn't want them on their RID list in general or that they always want to avoid social interaction, it just means that sometimes it's more convenient to eliminate some of the ways people can contact you since you're not in a position to respond.

**BeastmasterGuardian** · 2012-11-28, 05:10 PM

They do have addons that can autorespond to folks when you are otherwise "occupied".

**Danielm7** · 2012-11-28, 05:14 PM

Not really an issue for me since I only add people to my real ID that I'm actually friends with or family. I know some people add their whole guild then it becomes a problem but with only a handful of people on my list it works out pretty well.

**Tziva** · 2012-11-28, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by BeastmasterGuardian

They do have addons that can autorespond to folks when you are otherwise "occupied".

The existence of an addon is not a good reason not to implement a feature people want. Plenty of extremely useful features in WoW -- like exta action bars, quest tracking, auto-loot, threat, etc -- started off as addons.

Besides, one could make the same arguments against the addon as one could make against this feature.

**BeastmasterGuardian** · 2012-11-28, 05:41 PM

Originally Posted by Tziva

The existence of an addon is not a good reason not to implement a feature people want. Plenty of extremely useful features in WoW -- like exta action bars, quest tracking, auto-loot, threat, etc -- started off as addons.

Besides, one could make the same arguments against the addon as one could make against this feature.

Sorry, I lost track of what we were talking about. That entire explanatory felt like a figure 8

No offense. I was simply implying Addon's exist for people who are not happy with current ingame functions. So if you want to have a list of friends, and you socialize, but you might get busy with something, an addon like DBM (Deadly Boss Mod) tells the person whispering you that you are in battle and unable to come to the window. It's just a convenience. The new feature doesn't affect me one way or the other.

**Yau** · 2012-11-28, 05:47 PM

I tell my girlfriend that I have to leave her house early to get to bed early, then decide that I want to go home and relax in bed on the laptop for an hour. Rather than hear about how I should be sleeping and not on the computer, I just appear offline.

This happens more often than I'd care to admit to the wonderful woman in my life. Cmon already Blizzard!

**Dawon** · 2013-02-22, 03:38 PM

What happen with this one? I kinda want it badly to be able to just "slack around" when I don't feel like chatting and just want some grinding/farming-peace!

**Tziva** · 2013-02-22, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by Dawon

What happen with this one? I kinda want it badly to be able to just "slack around" when I don't feel like chatting and just want some grinding/farming-peace!

I think it's still on the table but no ETA.

**Glurp** · 2013-02-22, 05:16 PM

When I first came to WoW from Runescape many years ago I was always getting spam whispers for random guild invites and I asked my friend how to appear offline. I was amazed when he said you can't. Just seems like something that would be in from the start in an MMO.

**|Dexter|** · 2013-02-22, 11:16 PM

So anyone that is on the PTR can see of 5.2 got it FINALLY?

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