Appear Offline Inc

[degre]

Hell, was about time.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/7315730/

“Appear Offline” Option Coming Soon to Battle.net

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. Soon, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and Diablo III players will be able to select "Appear Offline" as one of their Battle.net social-status options (along with Available, Busy, and Away) for those times when they want to wander Azeroth by their lonesome, dominate the galaxy in radio silence, or slay demons in solitude. When you choose this option as your status, all of your Real ID friends, BattleTag friends, and character-level friends will see you as “Offline” in their friends list whenever you’re logged into a game.



The “Appear Offline” status option will be added to World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and Diablo III separately in future updates for each game. For Diablo III, we expect to add the feature in a patch after 1.0.5. For World of Warcraft and StarCraft II, we expect to add the option sometime after the release of each game’s upcoming expansion.



Thanks for your continued feedback, and we’ll share more information on the availability of this new feature in the months ahead.

[Nikachelle]

That's going to look shady when you're online in guild chat, but offline on real ID.

But yeah, about time they added it.

[Sagara]

"Ah, I got some guys I don't want to talk to right now. No biggie, you guys can see me, so it's all okay."

"What, that alt that left the guild? Nothing big, wanted to delete it for months."
*cough*

[Amirya]

That's going to look shady when you're online in guild chat, but offline on real ID.

But yeah, about time they added it.

I presume it's not so much about hiding from your guild as it is about hiding from those "friends" who want you to go run that instance with them for the 454987465487634879646879646587 time so they can get that piece of transmog gear - even though they can solo it.

I wonder how that's going to work for random peoples who aren't on RealID/Battletag/just on a friend list. Like if I wanted to go searching for Nika, is she still going to show as offline even with a /who Nikachelle

[bldavis]

im pretty sure it is only for realid/battletag

[Amirya]

So this is more about hiding from your different server friends than your same server friends?

Boo. I was looking forward to the chance to hide from you a particular mage and a particular hunter on the server (not in the guild).

[Zalaria]

"all of your Real ID friends, BattleTag friends, and character-level friends will see you as “Offline”"

It's for all friends, not just realid/battletag.

[Shoju]

That's going to look shady when you're online in guild chat, but offline on real ID.

But yeah, about time they added it.

What would be really awesome, is if it will keep that feature while you are swapping characters, or if you could choose before you log into a character. I loved Lurkers to death, and my RealID friends were... for the most part IRL Friends (except a few MTers / Lurkers), but I enjoyed having a character that I could level, and not be worried about someone finding out I had it, and coming to stalk me.

That happened, and a guildie got super mad because I ignored them when they created a DK on another server, to "play with me". I tried to explain that I had created that DK so that I could "play alone".

Who knew... it would end up being my main an expac and server hop or two later.

[Amirya]

"all of your Real ID friends, BattleTag friends, and character-level friends will see you as “Offline”"

It's for all friends, not just realid/battletag.

But is it for those who have each other on a friend list, or does it also work one way? (ie: AnyPwny has Amirya on his friend list, but Amirya doesn't have him on the friend list) I assume it works no matter what. But then it goes back to what about those who don't have 'em on a friend list, just randomly /who stalks. In my case, the mage and hunter in question both actually /who stalk me (by their own admission, I'm not on their friend list)

[Nikachelle]

That's going to look shady when you're online in guild chat, but offline on real ID.

But yeah, about time they added it.

I presume it's not so much about hiding from your guild as it is about hiding from those "friends" who want you to go run that instance with them for the 454987465487634879646879646587 time so they can get that piece of transmog gear - even though they can solo it.

I wonder how that's going to work for random peoples who aren't on RealID/Battletag/just on a friend list. Like if I wanted to go searching for Nika, is she still going to show as offline even with a /who Nikachelle

So what happens when you run past them in game? (Assuming they're real ID friends on the same server.) You going to whip out your cloak of invisibility? This whole premise seems ridiculous now. lol

[Amirya]

The cloak of invisibility is a legendary item, obtained only when you put a non-fatal smackdown on the people who designed the Theramore Fail scenario.

But yeah, that does seem kinda weird. I guess unless you're farming in some not-so-hotspot, or are on a different server, it may not offer much.

[Skye1013]

I don't know that I've ever had the issue of running into someone I know while farming. In the middle of SW when I'm afk by the bank? Sure, but rarely (if ever) out in the world when we weren't grouped.

[mavfin]

I think of this as more useful if I want to run off and play SC2 or D3 and not be seen by the WoW guildies, so they won't bother me to run something for/with them.

[halabar]

I actually want to appear offline to guild, but not RealID.. got a few annoying ones in the guild (some of them kids).

[jere]

I'll find this useful when I want to get on an unguilded alt and just play around without being able to be asked to run 50 instances. Sure, a really resourceful person could track me down after some research, but most people I know that this would apply to aren't really that type of person.