Invisible mode for b.net and WoW

[darkwarrior42]

I have no objection to the feature. I am just biologically curious about why people have a hard time talking to supposed "friends" and explaining they're just running solo. It's obvious Blizz doesn't care and has no intention of implementing such a cloaking device. They want to ENCOURAGE interaction which is why the BNet ID spans all of the Blizz games.

You can encourage all you want, but you can't force it... and the lack of this feature means that I just don't use b.net chat or RID chat at all. Ever. Because I have no control over when people can talk to me, save by not being online or not adding anyone. If I could choose to go invisible and not have to deal with it sometimes, I'd use it more.

But the arrogant condescension with which you reference screening phone calls tells me that you're not likely to understand. I don't always answer my phone, nor am I arrogant or conceited enough to expect that those I call must always immediately answer and respond to me. They could be busy. They could be tired. Maybe they just don't want to talk to me at that moment in time, and if it's not urgent that's fine. Yes, they could pick up the phone and tell me that themselves.... but that defeats the entire point of them not wanting to talk to or deal with others, or being too busy to do so.

And b.net chat added the ability to add people by using their battle tags specifically because it's not just "friends" they want you to add. It's people you've played with that you might enjoy playing with again in the future... but just because you're a great healer or a great tank doesn't mean I want you pestering me every single time I'm on battle.net. Those few I know well enough to trust that they won't abuse the feature, I have on my real ID list. That amounts to two people, not including my wife, over the entire time I've played WoW since 2006.
(And actually, my guild just uses groupme for conversation, and that works out quite nicely.)

Keep in mind that while the game is an MMO, it also offers many styles of gameplay not found elsewhere. For instance, if there was a game that offered gameplay similar or identical to what WoW offered, that allowed 2-6 player co-op, I would likely not play WoW at all. I love RPGs, but for the most part your options are single-player or MMO, and my wife and I like playing together which means single-player doesn't cut it. (Divinity: Original Sin is a great game that came very close, but it's a very different style so not quite the same). So the fact that we choose to play an "MMO" doesn't mean we always want to talk.... and again, if I don't want to talk, that also means I don't want to explain to 20 different people that I don't want to talk. Each conversation may only take 30 seconds, but that still winds up being 10 minutes of conversation I didn't want to have in the first place.

[Xeraxis]

It's not about "true friends." - True friends aren't the problem. Guildies are the problem. You know, those parasitic assholes that we're forced to deal with despite not necessarily liking them? If you play a tank or healer and you have guildies in WoW that want to do some stupid alt run or whatever while you want to play HS/D3/SC2/level an alt, they give not one quarter of a fuck about your feelings. Confrontation doesn't help, that just leads to more bullshit drama.

It's a guild issue in general, not just my guild. I've yet to see a somewhat serious raid guild that doesn't have people like that. When I feel like playing an alt, or playing a Blizzard game that isn't WoW, I realize that I have guildies that I honestly do not like and there are and always have been in every guild I've been in since Vanilla been at least a handful of those people. Confront them? "OH MY GODDDDDDDDD We're your GUILDIES! You don't take the guild seriously enough because you won't help my 8th dumbass alt through content we've done a billion times instead of playing a game you're actually enjoying / playing with your RL friends / family! WTF!"

Friends and family understand not wanting to play WoW / Not wanting to swap from one game that you're enjoying to another game. Guildies though? They're ... frustrating.

So tell me again how your guild forces you to become RealID friends with everyone in the guild.

[Deleted]

I would honestly love to have an invisible option... I can actually relate to most if not almost all of the comments.
==People get bootyhurt by the busy sign or are all the more curious as to "why" you're busy. Often times they don't bother to read the "away" status or wonder if it's an act [even if you've just been on bnet for the past 14 hours straight]. I don't find friendship to be a problem, or even asking to be left alone (although quite a few people do get hurt by the mere hint of rejection), but sometimes I would just like to play alone/hidden without disturbances? If anything, at least let us have the option to be invisible to battle tag buddy's since they tend to be more for the acquaintances/guildies/oqueue buds/etc. ^^;;

[Bodom]

I play Diablo on a seperate account because of this. I love chatting and stuff in WoW but it doesn't really work for Diablo and I prefer to play it in peace and quiet with a few select friends only.

[-Superman-]

Refer to my above post which you called 'dramatic'. The irony gave me a laugh.

Telling someone to fuck off after being a dick is not "dramatic", it is responsive. You are being dramatic, not responsive. Learn the definition of Irony.

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What you haven't described however is a conversation that would occur between me and my brother-in-law that I don't necessarily like but I'm friends with because he's a bit of a drama queen and saying no would have resulted in a monstrous headache. Or a conversation between me and an idiot officer in my guild that thinks he takes priority over everything else going on in the world.

Then your problem is your own for CHOOSING to associate with those idiots. Want a drama free game? Ditch the drama queens. This is not rocket science. People seem SO AFRAID of any actual truth or confrontation. All you have to do is put them in their place ONE time, and they will back off.

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Because everyone is different. I have one friend who suffers from low self esteem and if you don't reply to him or say no, he takes it personally. Very personally. I've known him for 20 years. Yes let me unfriend him, that'll go over well. Yes you could say it's his issue, but part of being a friend is being sympathetic to each person's personality. But like everyone, there are time I'd like to play without feeling guilty for not playing with him.

You are not a therapist, and it sounds like your friend needs one. Low self-esteem and depression is completely treatable, but he needs to seek out the help. We can't save everyone, even when they need it the most. You should not feel guilty about not wanting to feel guilty.

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Obviously he's not a true friend to you and you should tell him "Fuck off" and unfriend him. Right?

Don't be obtuse.

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You can encourage all you want, but you can't force it... and the lack of this feature means that I just don't use b.net chat or RID chat at all. Ever. Because I have no control over when people can talk to me, save by not being online or not adding anyone. If I could choose to go invisible and not have to deal with it sometimes, I'd use it more.

But the arrogant condescension with which you reference screening phone calls tells me that you're not likely to understand. I don't always answer my phone, nor am I arrogant or conceited enough to expect that those I call must always immediately answer and respond to me. They could be busy. They could be tired. Maybe they just don't want to talk to me at that moment in time, and if it's not urgent that's fine. Yes, they could pick up the phone and tell me that themselves.... but that defeats the entire point of them not wanting to talk to or deal with others, or being too busy to do so.

And b.net chat added the ability to add people by using their battle tags specifically because it's not just "friends" they want you to add. It's people you've played with that you might enjoy playing with again in the future... but just because you're a great healer or a great tank doesn't mean I want you pestering me every single time I'm on battle.net. Those few I know well enough to trust that they won't abuse the feature, I have on my real ID list. That amounts to two people, not including my wife, over the entire time I've played WoW since 2006.
(And actually, my guild just uses groupme for conversation, and that works out quite nicely.)

Keep in mind that while the game is an MMO, it also offers many styles of gameplay not found elsewhere. For instance, if there was a game that offered gameplay similar or identical to what WoW offered, that allowed 2-6 player co-op, I would likely not play WoW at all. I love RPGs, but for the most part your options are single-player or MMO, and my wife and I like playing together which means single-player doesn't cut it. (Divinity: Original Sin is a great game that came very close, but it's a very different style so not quite the same). So the fact that we choose to play an "MMO" doesn't mean we always want to talk.... and again, if I don't want to talk, that also means I don't want to explain to 20 different people that I don't want to talk. Each conversation may only take 30 seconds, but that still winds up being 10 minutes of conversation I didn't want to have in the first place.

If you don't want to talk to someone on the phone, just don't talk to them. If you don't want to talk to someone online, just don't talk to them. I hope they do add this feature. Seems like a lot of people are more worried about upsetting people than just being honest. Speaks volumes really.

[Deleted]

I disagree totally. Yes there are people who Id like to "Hide" from but it's an MMO not Skype, steam, AIM, Yahoo etc. It's a game where other people do play, and while you shouldn't be forced to group with them to get tasks done, you shouldn't be able to hide from them. Don't add people to your RealID that you (not actually meaning you) feel the need to hide from. Further more if they are indeed your friends you should be able to tell them you are having a bad day and want left alone.

As an officer/raidleader/guildleader you'll have a lot of people on btag for functional reasons, not so much because they're your friends. Don't we all have at least one "friend" who keeps asking for help at least twice a day? Usually you don't mind them because they help you too, but sometimes you just wanna do archeology/fishing or play hearthstone/diablo/starcraft without getting bothered?

[Tharkkun]

You've ... "trained" your wife? WTF. Other than that statement, I think you have a fairly good idea about the kind of annoying twats I've been guilded with throughout all of WoW. I'm not entirely sure how effective your method of dealing with it is, but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.

More along the lines of always wanting to help people accomplish their goals and forgetting about doing the things that are fun for her. At some point you say no so you can have fun too. Those who won't respect that usually don't stay very long.

We had so much drama in Vanilla and BC that we put our foot down. We had an 18+ policy for all of WOTLK and that helped a lot as well. It takes effort but if you don't feed the drama it works.

[Stormspark]

I agree that there is absolutely ZERO reason to not have an invisible mode for bnet chat. It should have existed at the very beginning. Sometimes you just want to disconnect and have some alone time. And don't start with the BS about "it's an MMO". There is PLENTY of solo stuff to do in this game, you don't have to interact with other people 100% of the time.

[Deleted]

No invisible mode is the reason i cant tell my buddies from work that i am playing blizzard games too.
They are all playing HOTS right now and having huge fun. But i am playing wow aswell and i dont want them to see that i am playing wow till 1 o clock so they can tell that everyone that i was again playing wow till 1.

Where is the problem? I just want a cross game invisible option. i do not care if i am visible to players inside a certain game.
I want to hide my battle.net status so i cant be seen in the launcher. if someone logs in to wow and then can see me, okay.
I just dont want them to see me in battle.net.
And please dont tell me if they were real friends they would understand that i am playing what i want to. nobody understands that.

[Hauntlander]

I don't understand how people can argue over this. It'd be an OPTIONAL, simple feature that would help people in certain situations.

[TwistedSkull]

Still no Invisible mode for battlenet at gamescom....

[therealbowser]

My question is, why are people so against invisible mode? It amazes me how fanatically people bash this. I can't help but wonder if they dislike people disappearing on their friend lists and it bugs them personally because they want to stalk their friends at all times.

I've given up on this feature ever seeing the light of day, but I consider it an important feature and I'd use it if they ever did release it. I don't expect them to though.

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Wow, I guess I already posted here 10 months ago when this thread was active, I apparently forgot to check it for replies and missed my chance to tell that guy that my sarcasm went way over his head.

Nice necromancing, Akaihiryuu. You'd make a great death knight.

[Deleted]

This should have been in long ago and while they're at it they should add an option to make you invisible on the armoury too.

[Deleted]

Someone call the gravediggers!....

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they should add an option to make you invisible on the armoury too.

Why would you need that? if you dont want others to be able to see that you play the game dont play....

[MechaMoose]

this is already an option in skype and steam not sure why people are against it in wow

[Djuntas]

Wish I had so many online friends I would have a need for this...

I just dont try enough proboaly.

[goblingirl]

I have myself set permanently /Away in the battle.net client.

They have said that they ran into trouble implementing the hidden mode in battle.net, because every single battle.net enabled game has its own chat/status server and there were technical difficulties getting it all to work together. They could solve those technical difficulties, but they've been busy on higher priority projects.

It's not much of a problem for me this xpac because I chose not to Mythic raid and therefore I'm not in a guild with restrictive raid times. I use Openraid for N/H and have a very long friends list across many servers, and if somebody wants me and I'm online but I am busy doing something else or playing HoTS or whatever, they're cool when I say I can't come.

[Deleted]

Why would you need that? if you dont want others to be able to see that you play the game dont play....

If you don't care about your privacy you don't have to use it. Others might care.

[Reyzzz]

This should have been in long ago and while they're at it they should add an option to make you invisible on the armoury too.

The point of armory is that other people can access the information contained in there.

[idunnowatdo]

hmmm see something like this i dont imagine would work in wow because well say you set yourself to invisible and you go into the city, bam people can see you. Say you set yourself to invisible and you go out to a daily hub. "oh look there is XXXX" thats my 2 cents at least.