“Appear Offline” Option Coming Soon to Battle.net

“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.

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Comments (441)

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Fearfrost
Emerald Dream
Fearfrost
9/20/2012
a reason to actually use battle tags/realid. nice blizz!
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Eluneaurora
Cenarion Circle
Eluneaurora
9/20/2012
I can keep everyone happy, and still enjoy my PvE side career! /love Thank you endlessly for this one Blizzard. Feel free to swing by for a free beer.
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Addisoul
Vashj
Addisoul
9/20/2012
I'll be funny when you do this and still run into the people your trying to hide from while sitting in org.
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Thank goodness.
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Mcpewpew
Ravencrest
Mcpewpew
9/20/2012
I love you Blizz<3
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Gadjetzor
Kil'jaeden
Gadjetzor
9/20/2012
Best update ever, Now i can add co-worker :P
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Icechicken
Alexstrasza
Icechicken
9/20/2012
@Gadjetzor: why couldn't you add co-worker its just an in game name.
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Yoshida
Bladefist
Yoshida
9/20/2012
@Icechicken: He doesn't want them to see him playing WoW during the day he called in "sick".
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Eluneaurora
Cenarion Circle
Eluneaurora
9/20/2012
@Yoshida: I'd like to add that I love my co-workers, they can be very cool people, but some days I don't want to imagine work much less see anyone from there.
And you know, MoP comes out next week :P
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Akilleus
Burning Legion
Akilleus
9/20/2012
yay
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Javrius
Sisters of Elune
Javrius
9/20/2012
It's disappointing to see Blizzard change their stance on this, regardless of whether you like the feature or not. Either they've caved to pressure, and thus lack integrity, or they've decided their original reasoning behind not doing it wasn't good enough, and thus they should have done this a long time ago.
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Relbrez
Wyrmrest Accord
Relbrez
9/20/2012
@Javrius: Sounds like you would have been unhappy regardless. Oh well, you can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.
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Moonwind
Wyrmrest Accord
Moonwind
9/20/2012
@Javrius: So, Blizz can never change their mind once they put something in practice? They can never decide after some time that adding a new feature to their service might actually be good? I guess the only way for them to change their minds and save their "integrity", in your terms, is to do it immediately, which gives no chance for discussion or feedback. That's a little unreasonable. They're human, and if they decided to add this feature, it probably came after a lot of examining the facts and discussion and meetings that had to be put in the schedule between, you know, making a game.

If them adding a simple checkbox to RealID brings this emotion about in you, I wonder how you felt about things like the Remote AH becoming free or talent trees getting revamped. It should have always been free or we should have always done talents this way, right?
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Bomdanil
Scarlet Crusade
Bomdanil
9/20/2012
@Javrius: I think it's great that Blizzard can accept that sometimes their best intentions or reasoning behind a certain position isn't as good as they originally believed. It means that, even if unlikely, they may actually pay attention to the community at some point and fix an issue that they have.
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Garack
Wyrmrest Accord
Garack
9/20/2012
Something useful!
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Khaylon
Bleeding Hollow
Khaylon
9/20/2012
Sounds awesome, been wanting this for a long time! :3
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Ragebar
Antonidas
Ragebar
9/20/2012
finally now i can be able to play in peace
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Zerosum
Silver Hand
Zerosum
9/20/2012
I agree with others.. this feature really needs to apply to guild roster status otherwise it's potential is hugely reduced.
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Chance
Wyrmrest Accord
Chance
9/20/2012
@Zerosum: If they pattern it after the MMORPGs I've played with a similar function, it will include guild rosters. However, this is Blizzard, so who knows. Failing that, you may want to do what I do and create anonymous, unguilded alts to play during those antisocial times - you can always supply them from your mains, and leveling is fast enough now that getting such alts (even unguilded) to 90 won't be too bad.
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Velentina
Greymane
Velentina
9/20/2012
f@@king about time!
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Rivyr
Ner'zhul
Rivyr
9/20/2012
Will your guild be able to see you online?
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Katstin
Sargeras
Katstin
9/20/2012
I love you, for this... Not for your other fails; but for this.
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Girafetoe
Saurfang
Girafetoe
9/20/2012
wow blizzard is starting to realize that some people enjoy their privacy. btw, if we had this option before hand, i could've avoided some people who kept bugging me. can't believe it took this long for such an obvious feature.
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Raani
Wyrmrest Accord
Raani
9/20/2012
THANK YOU! This was the one thing keeping me from using my Battle Tag.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Chance
Wyrmrest Accord
Chance
9/20/2012
@Raani: I suspect that's why they're adding the feature - they've got the internal numbers, and I'm guessing there aren't as many people using Battletags as they'd hoped, due to the inability to exclude certain characters, or certain playtimes, from the system. I certainly haven't used Battletags (and haven't even added all my real-life friends and family to RealID) thanks to the lack of privacy options.
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Braellyn
The Venture Co
Braellyn
9/20/2012
To quote Tychus, "Hell...it's about time!"
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Chance
Wyrmrest Accord
Chance
9/20/2012
About bloody time! I might actually use Battletags, now that I have the OPTION not to appear on them with all characters all the time.
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Kessiaan
Stormrage
Kessiaan
9/20/2012
Hey, Blizzard does listen to us. Sometimes. Imagine that!
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Varu
Blackrock
Varu
9/20/2012
I am glad to see this will be added in the coming months. Sometimes, I want to play on ninja mode & be a hermit crab for the day. Busy status isn't really that great of a deterrent.

Also, let's admit it, sometimes your sick days consist of slurping soup & playing WoW in your bed -- and you don't want anyone bothering you about it.
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Astori
Frostmourne
Astori
9/20/2012
@Varu:
just sayin'
chatting in game requires much less brain activities than you playing the game.
if you're sick, get some sleep, not eye-restraining on game (wow)

unless you are calling sick, because your boss does not allow you to take leave on MoP release

just sayin'
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Alameda
Elune
Alameda
9/20/2012
If you a /who [toon name] will they be able to see you, even if you are marked offline?
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Darkcyn
Spirestone
Darkcyn
9/20/2012
i like pie they should totaly put pie in the game ohh wait there is pie in the game ima go get some pie but i might be offline doing it so you cant get my pie so back off my pie :P
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Darkcyn
Spirestone
Darkcyn
9/20/2012
@Darkcyn: ok ok fine ima be nice, who wants pie?
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Karllie
Thorium Brotherhood
Karllie
9/20/2012
oh dear ppl still QQ about CRZ.. maybe i should post world pvp pics from a low pop rp server.
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Lyviwel
Goldrinn
Lyviwel
9/20/2012
I think people should still be able to whisper you even if you're offline (or "appearing offline"), if there's some kind of emergency, or something like that.
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Chance
Wyrmrest Accord
Chance
9/20/2012
@Lyviwel: If it's a real-life emergency, my real-life friends have all my real-life, out-of-game contact information already and can get hold of me. If it's a WoW emergency (and what the heck would that be, anyway?), it really doesn't constitute an emergency, and I wouldn't want to be bothered if I were set as offline.
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Darkcyn
Spirestone
Darkcyn
9/20/2012
ROFLMFAO AT THIS COMMENT THREAD
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Steth
Ner'zhul
Steth
9/20/2012
This'll be just as complained as CRZ once this comes out.

Mark my words.
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Darkstryker
Spirestone
Darkstryker
9/20/2012
@Steth: i agree more reason for them to whine like pansies instead of listing the pros and cons and then leaving it alone u make a valid point steth
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Asche
Ragnaros
Asche
9/20/2012
about effin time! now remove czr and I'll buy Mop right away!