on May 27, 2011
Many players feel that Blizzard's Real ID system should have an "appear offline" option. However, community manager Bashiok feels that giving players the option to appear offline undermines the usefulness of the Real ID system.
He is certainly entitled to his opinion, but his response to the matter is void of any type of empathy or understanding of communities and social behavior.
The second you can turn off your presence is the second everyone does it, and then it's a weird situation where you appear offline but you're secretly looking at everyone else who has themselves as online, but then they find out and start offline snooping.
We encourage that Real ID only be used with people you know in real life, friends, family, co-workers, school mates, etc. and for that reason it shouldn't need to be a secret if you're on your computer or not.
Also, when one of my Real ID friends asks me to run a raid or fill in a spot and I don't feel like it, I say no. I realize that may not be a situation that's reasonable for everyone at all times. I also don't agree to be Real ID friends with everyone I know in real life in just the same way I don't agree to allow my Grandma to be friends with me on Facebook (for fear of her seeing pictures of me at parties, etc.).
Anyway, all that said, our Real ID feature set is constantly moving and so I wouldn't hazard to say that things like a 'hidden' option will never exist, but it's fairly opposite to the intent of the system, and like I said before, can create some really bizarre social behavior that undermines the usefulness of it.
So, why am I so upset? Well lets take a look. In the first paragraph he basically states that they don't want to implement the feature because everyone will use it. And that people will act like creepy stalkers and stay offline and snoop for when you're online. Which of course wouldn't happen because according to him, everyone would be offline anyways. However, as #222 in the threat he replied to, I'm not sure he read a single post by any of the members of the community he is suppose to manage. They all agreed that if you choose to not use the Real ID system for a bit, that they would be fine with having it disabled and not being able to see which of their friends are online either.
Next up he says you should only add your friends, family, co-workers, and school mates, which again shows a complete lack of understanding about the topic, as the people requesting the feature want to specifically appear offline to friends, family, co-workers, and school mates. When it comes to Real ID a lot of people don't feel like they have a choice to NOT add these people. Many players are afraid they might offend or hurt the feelings of associates when they say they don't want to be Real ID friends. How many people actually say, "Sorry, I don't want to add you to my Real ID list because sometimes I want alone-time and you might bother me" as an acceptable answer to a request for friendship? Not everyone can be as cold-hearted as Bashiok who won't even be friends with his Grandmother.
Everyone needs some time alone, or some time to escape and just spend some time on themselves. Most WoW players use this time to go play low-level alts on different servers. They pick alts and different servers because they don't want to be bothered, they don't want to talk to anyone. Maybe they just want to stab things with a dagger while they watch a movie or something? However, with Real ID this is no longer an option, because you can never have an alt that you play on another server, you can never just play the game and be by yourself for a time.
This is a needed feature of the game. I can think of at least a hundred reasons this feature could be useful, and all of them will fit into Bashiok's recommendation of only adding Real ID friends, family, co-workers, and school mates.
What if your sick and you call in and take the day off of work? A lot of the time when I'm sick I cannot function in a dungeon or raid, but I can still feel a bit better by farming herbs, or leveling a low level toon. However, with co-workers on your list you cannot do this, because they might think you aren't sick at all! What if it's your time-of-the-month and you don't feel like talking to anyone? Should you have to explain to everyone on your friends list one at a time that you don't want to talk to them? Should you broadcast to the entire world that you feel like crap? This won't work, because people will just ask you "What''s wrong?", "Are you okay?", "Did something happen?", etc.. And those are frustrating questions when you just want to be left alone! What if you want to play Starcraft with your buddies for the night, and not help your g/f get a new pony mount? Sure it may be a bit selfish to do so, but you have the right. Your g/f may even understand that you need some "you-time" and give you the break. But unless your in a long-term relationship it may be awkward to have to ask for it. If you can appear offline then no problem! And if you get caught its not really an issue either, because its always easier to ask for forgiveness then for permission.I'll try to keep my examples short to not bore-you-to-death, but I'm sure you get the point. In all the above situations, two possible outcomes to occur. Either people don't use the Real ID system at all, which of course undermines it far more then an offline button would, or they go play another game which undermines the value of World of Warcraft as a game to the player base. Either option isn't a good one for Blizzard, so I am having a hard time understanding their position on this matter. Why is the Community Manager so disconnected from the community he is managing? Is the lack of an "appear offline" option Blizzard's way of encouraging players to pay for a second account just to be "anon" when they feel like it?
What do you guys think?
Original Forum Thread: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2588318891?page=1
Bashiok's Reply: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2588318891?page=12#222