Guild Wars 2

In fact, even blocking people doesn’t work – they can still see when you’re online and where you are in the world.

It’s the reason why my friends list is restricted purely to people I know in real life. It’s also the reason why none of my characters are members of guilds – I’m male and I run four different characters (two male, two female – this is a game, not a dating service, people!) and play them depending on the mood I’m in. I don’t want to play character B and have people who know character A hassle me every five minutes. This was especially problematic in GW1 where I had all the expansions but most people on my friendslist only had Prophecies – In order to play the other campaigns, I had to use a different character, but people on my friendslist could see that I, under my username was online, not my character and so the whisper spam would start unless I logged in as “offline”.

What’s needed is a per-character friendslist, and one that requires both parties to accept friend requests rather than party A merely adding party B without party B’s knowledge.

A few months ago I actually had a stalker person on said friend’s list that had added me and I knew nothing about. I logged in and it was all “I remember you, do you remember me.” Trying to be civil I stated that I did until I got some more information and could figure out how I encountered this person in the game and if it was a mission or a dungeon.

Needless to say I never figured out that information and after a couple hours of being thoroughly creeped out by this person I decided to block them. I can still see them on that “Watcher List” though and it’s still a bit unnerving knowing that at a moment’s notice that person could just pop up and start doing the same thing, or that similar people could.

I would really like to see the friends list to be character specific, and like battlenet in WoW people have the option to add eachothers “tags” which allows them access to all characters.

Problem with this is that you would have to remove the option where you can see everyone’s tags simply by just hovering over their name in a chat. I want to stress that I understand why this is in the game and I understand why people want it, what I do not understand is the lack of options to turn features off. Sometimes it feels like it’s some kind of mechanic that’s trying to force people together.

I just wished that Arenanet in generally would understand that features they add that have no impact on the game itself would ideally need a toggle option. We do not all like the same things, little things like chat systems and even the event log on the top right side of the screen needs toggle options. I just cannot understand why there isn’t. Now obviously I understand that if they were to change the way the friendslist works they would have to rework it and hide the account names in guild panels, in chat panels. It would also affect the guilds in other ways such as mentioned earlier about the account names in the guild panel, also that characters would probably need inviting to guilds individually not account wide.

I am well aware that MMO’s are supposed to be social but forcing people together who do not both agree with the match-up is not right and that’s without even considering the stalkers.

When I look at my list of people who have me on their friends list, I do not know hardly any of them, nor do they speak to me, they’ve just opted to knowing where I am on what character at all times and I find that rather intrusive. What I do not think a lot of people understand that female gamers are hounded by certain kind of male gamers. My partner finds the current system very intrusive to her privacy. There’s simple solutions to this and as I said previously, I do not understand why it was never implanted as a choice instead of a forced feature. It’s not a matter of removing, it’s about choice.

i thought you need ‘mutual friendship’ to see others’ location, was i wrong?
in case of guild member seeing your location – you can choose to be in that guild or not.

and imo what you are talking about is culture related issue. i would not find it offensive if some stranger would repeatedly contact me ingame, well atleast as long as the content he/she is sending me is not offensive.

My partner finds the current system very intrusive to her privacy.

i consider game world to be public place, so not sure what privacy you mean here. if the said ‘stalker’ would start contacting you outside the game then i could see the problem.

but forcing people together

forcing how? you have to accept party/guild invites to be ‘together’. just because someone can see you are online doesn’t make you ‘together’.

i think you exaggerate stalkerish-“Watcher List” issue.
if somebody was really some mad ingame stalker, he/she could stalk you even if the friend list didn’t exist.

tl;dr;
what are you trying to say is that – you don’t have anonymous characters. and imo thats a good thing, whatever you do with your “character” all your “account” gets responsability/credit for it.

You completely ignored the point of having the option to opt out of it. i.e. a toggle option. Online friends are not like in real life friends. Just because I want to talk to them on one character, if I just want to log on and do my own thing without interruptions in an anonymous manner on a character I do not want them to know is mine, should be my right as the owner of my account. Just because you’re OK with everyone knowing all your characters does not mean everyone else wants it. Again all I’m asking for is an option to toggle it. Public place? Yes yes it is, it does however mean everyone that knows my main character should instantly know that I am the owner of my alternative character, ESPECIALLY since I have no option to decline their “friendship”.

Not sure how else I can explain the concept of not wanting people to automatically have access to all my characters and whether I am online or not. We live in a world where people want choices, not forced features that make some people happy and others not so much. It’s not that hard to apply a toggle feature. I don’t know how I can express it in a different way, Toggle feature does NOT cause ANYTHING bad what so ever.

If I do not want people to know about all my characters they shouldn’t. If I want people to know about my characters I will personally tell them, I do not want the game to tell them.

Saulius.8430:

i consider game world to be public place, so not sure what privacy you mean here. if the said ‘stalker’ would start contacting you outside the game then i could see the problem.

The real (outside) world is also a public place, that doesn’t mean it’s normal to have a tracking collar around your neck…

ANET, PLEASE merge this with
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/There-is-no-real-way-to-be-invisible-or-anonymous/first#post1766374

thanks

While i agree that having to accept a friendrequest would be nice, i disagree with the “if a person knows character A they shouldnt be able to know character B without me telling them”.

It would open up a whole new range of trolling. In your examples you are the person who wants to be able to switch characters to avoid stalkers, but lets turn the tables. You are being stalked by a person who knows your charactername and who has a dozen characters himself… They would be able to troll you to no end just because you would not be able to see that character A is character B and character C. Instead of having to block 1 person you now have to block several characternames and you still arent “safe”.

Same issue counts for guilds. Character A robs your guildbank and leaves the guild, 2 weeks later character B applies for membership, no-one knows its the same person. He gets accepted and robs the guildbank again..

These are just some issues that could arise if you follow the complete anonimity path.

Mordachai.1896:

While i agree that having to accept a friendrequest would be nice, i disagree with the “if a person knows character A they shouldnt be able to know character B without me telling them”.

It would open up a whole new range of trolling. In your examples you are the person who wants to be able to switch characters to avoid stalkers, but lets turn the tables. You are being stalked by a person who knows your charactername and who has a dozen characters himself… They would be able to troll you to no end just because you would not be able to see that character A is character B and character C. Instead of having to block 1 person you now have to block several characternames and you still arent “safe”.

Same issue counts for guilds. Character A robs your guildbank and leaves the guild, 2 weeks later character B applies for membership, no-one knows its the same person. He gets accepted and robs the guildbank again..

These are just some issues that could arise if you follow the complete anonimity path.

i got stalked on gw1 but could never report him because he was noy in the same map. i blocked him and would clear out my blocked list every six months or so (forgetting who the troll was) he would immediately start pming me again. So, you (mord) have an excellent point. I can imagine this person making multiple characters just to harass people.

Fully support this, ACHINGLY.

Not to sound too dramatic, but lo—I am one of those stupid individuals that placed a name that has the connotation of me having a set of breasts in real life. Merely posting with this personification of a female namesake has, in the past, given me unwanted attention. Of the bizarre kind. The internet is a feast for hungry souls that aren’t, in any respect, acceptable in real life. I would not permit anyone to know about me, as an individual, without my fullest consent first. It is a strange feature within GW2, one I do not understand. Why must you know all my characters, whenever I am logged on, and by doing so, without my permission?

This is the scary fact and whether you agree with it or not, it is SCARY.

Fact: By knowing the name “Ellie.1432” you, therefore, have full way to add me in-game, right now, and see any and all characters I am playing—without my consent. That, dear sirs and ladies, is a vile assault on my privacy rights.

I do not fathom the need to know this detail about how I play this game, for how long and why. Why do you need to know that? Why should I even offer it to you? With no option, no affection given to me by those that sit high on their thrones, making the decisions for this game, I will admit I find myself lacking confidence for it.

I have 23 followers and have no idea who any of them are. I’m curious as to why they’d add me, but it doesn’t matter in the long run. If someone is sending you obnoxious messages or otherwise somehow harassing you in-game, file a support ticket against that person and provide the details. People can’t hunt you down IRL unless you provide enough info for them to do that. Just putting a first name isn’t sufficient, even if it really is your real name.

btw I am female and am paranoid about privacy, but the friends list thing doesn’t bother me.

How lovely for you, gassy. Sadly, that is hardly the point. The fact anyone can see me on any of my characters, the second I log on, with no option to deny them or approve of their stalker-eye, is the point.

if someone is just friendly and talks to you, why do people always assume the worst? maybe it’s just someone who thought you were nice (in a dungeon run or whatever) and, as this in fact is an mmo, some people might assume you play it because you like the MM aspect of it as well? I’m not that social but if someone is I don’t assume they stalk me ;-)

or.. instead of blocking or whatever, you could just outright tell the person you have no interest in making new friends? I feel kinda bad for those people who genuinely just wanted to make a few new friends because none of their other friends play this game… I only block people I really don’t want to see anymore (griefers, bad players in speedruns who think they know everything best, idiots etc), so if I forget the nick I don’t accidentally group with them again.

Oranisagu.3706:

if someone is just friendly and talks to you, why do people always assume the worst? maybe it’s just someone who thought you were nice (in a dungeon run or whatever) and, as this in fact is an mmo, some people might assume you play it because you like the MM aspect of it as well? I’m not that social but if someone is I don’t assume they stalk me ;-)

or.. instead of blocking or whatever, you could just outright tell the person you have no interest in making new friends? I feel kinda bad for those people who genuinely just wanted to make a few new friends because none of their other friends play this game… I only block people I really don’t want to see anymore (griefers, bad players in speedruns who think they know everything best, idiots etc), so if I forget the nick I don’t accidentally group with them again.

That’s great, and I fully agree, but they can add me and I can accept said friend request. The feeling kinda needs to be mutual. I find it somewhat weird for someone to add you to their friends list and then never speak to you, they just, watch you log on. That is in fact creepy.
I have not spoken to 95% of the people that have me on their friend list.

If someone added me as a friend, I’d more than likely accept if I actually know who they were, which would in turn lead to a conversation, not just a random person adding you and sits silently watching you. I repeat, that’s weird. Let me accept your friend request, don’t force it on me.

I do think there needs to be some kind of “friend request” going on, so that the other side can accept it. I don’t want to be on someone’s following list, unknowing that they really didn’t want me to add them in the first place, and I do not like having people in my following list either. Although, I’m not sure I would want to have a different friends list for each character (that would probably get too confusing for me), I would like the option of going invisible BEFORE logging in.

The option of going into the game invisible is marvellous. And I do agree in respect to a “friend request” for approval or denial.

While you can request that your characters remain private, I am wondering how people knowing your characters is going to have a harmful effect on your gameplay? If I add your forum name to my friends list, I can see your characters, but what can I possibly do with that information? Nothing. If I started sending you malicious messages in-game or started stalking you while you played, you could report me and I’d be banned. Problem solved.

I am really trying to understand how knowing the characters associated with a player ID is a detrimental thing.

I do not want you to add me to your friendlist. I do not want you to see me on my characters. That is my own personal choice and my right to privacy.

I completely agree with this post. Privacy is most wanted, having random players adding you to their friends list without approval is not!

Just let the characters name show, not the player tag (xxxx.1234).

Using the “Y” + Invisible only work until you log off and then on again, wich is a fail because you need to log on to make yourself invisible again, there´s no logic in that!

Privacy, thank you!

Another issue is, why do i NEED to add people to my friends list just be able to party up with them, that in itself seems an insane way to set things up?

I now have 30 or so random people in my friends list just because i had to add them to a party etc…

Dante.1508:

Another issue is, why do i NEED to add people to my friends list just be able to party up with them, that in itself seems an insane way to set things up?

I now have 30 or so random people in my friends list just because i had to add them to a party etc…

Maybe this is new in recent updates (I’ve just come back from not playing for a bit), but I have never had to add players to my friends list to party up with them.

Ellie.1432:

I do not want you to add me to your friendlist. I do not want you to see me on my characters. That is my own personal choice and my right to privacy.

best to stay invisible then. or maybe try a solo game?

and please don’t mix up privacy with your fictional characters. privacy is in regard to your real persona and the protection of relevant information.
the only way where privacy comes into play is regarding your personal information (subscriber information like email, real name etc). someone following you ingame doesn’t magically get your real name or email address, the separation of your GW2 account and your real persona is still intact.

I understand what you want, but it’s not called privacy, this term is reserved for something else. so your right for privacy has nothing to do with the ingame friendlist.

the only way in which I agree is that blocked persons should not be able to see the online status (or character names) of someone they follow. this would allow everyone who doesn’t like having people follow them to just block them and stop whining.

Oranisagu.3706:

best to stay invisible then. or maybe try a solo game?

Nah, I’ll continue to play the game I’ve paid good money for and will continue to support threads like this that recommend proper privacy measures, like the ones other MMOs seem to have and this one doesn’t. Your strawman argument (go and play a single player game!) doesn’t hold up at all.

People have a right to not be followed/harassed/stalked because they decided to try out a new character, or, shock horror, wanted some time to themselves without their guildies/friends demanding their time 24/7.

We don’t all live our lives online via Facebook and Twitter (I don’t use either). Some of us expect to have control over our private lives, whether it be real life or through an online persona, and this extends to player characters too. If I want to go solo for while, then I should be able to. If I want to play a new build alone without interference, then I should be able to as well.

I agree that the stalking list aka people following you is pretty distasteful. I mean even if we played together, if I don’t want to keep in touch with someone why should he/she be able to track me down?
Mutual agreement on friend request should be the norm.

the problem lies with the stalkerish people not with the friends list.

I like that the friendslist is account wide and the features of following are usefull.

wouw.5837:

the problem lies with the stalkerish people not with the friends list.

Took too long for someone to finally say this. That being said, I do actually think the block system needs to be reworked. If you block someone, you should appear offline/invisible to them at all times.

I don’t see the harm in a stalker knowing all your character names and account name though. If they are not messaging you, what harm is it? They are basically glaring at their computer screen, unable to do anything. Does the fact that they know the information bother you that much? If so, don’t use personal names for information.

Or did I miss some part of the op where some form of acual harassment is happening?

I don’t really mind it that people that I didn’t add to my friendslist can see when I’m online. However I do think it’s annoying that people can see always see when I’m online, no matter what character.
Sometimes I just don’t feel like interacting with people, or just certain people. Now I realise there’s the ‘invisible’-mode. But there’s nothing to stop people that are on my fl from whispering me anyways, which will tell them the name of the character I am on.
Some people understand it when you tell them you just don’t feel like talking, other people will get offended, start whining, etc.

Added to that the fact that a guild can see if you’re representing them or not is kind of annoying. I’ve always liked to join multiple guilds and I feel restrained from doing so now. I understand the thing with people robbing the bank and such can be a problem otherwise. But why not make it so when someone joins a guild you can see their account name next to their character name? You’ll know when to kick someone soon enough that way.

There should be a way to accept or decline a friend invitation. Either that or they only add that character to your friends’ list rather than your entire account.

Frankly I see this as a breach of privacy and should be considered a serious bug/issue. Can you imagine this in every single MMO?

I retreat to another character to get away from other people in other MMOs, and it works. This friend system on the other hand does no such thing, and I prefer to have my own peace and quiet when the option is available.

Thankfully I only have my brother on my friends’ list, otherwise I would be inundated with spam, chatter, invites or anything else.

And as the OP said, if you’re female, you get unwanted attention, I’ve played enough MMOs and for long enough to know that most women that play them want their privacy, and in most MMOs they get it. But not here it seems.

my commenting got totally borked and the message was copy/pasted 4 times to this box

So.. uh… you people really think someone is interested in stalking you?

So.. uh… you people really think someone is interested in stalking you?I find it really weird that you’re blocking a guy with whom you have played earlier and he/she decided to add you to friends and wants to play with you again. Man, even I’ve gotten whispers from someone I don’t remember playing with, big deal. It doesn’t hurt anyone.

So.. uh… you people really think someone is interested in stalking you?I find it really weird that you’re blocking a guy with whom you have played earlier and he/she decided to add you to friends and wants to play with you again. Man, even I’ve gotten whispers from someone I don’t remember playing with, big deal. It doesn’t hurt anyone.^the actual message I was trying to type

… OK I give up, I have no idea what is going on. :I

Reack.8795:

And as the OP said, if you’re female, you get unwanted attention, I’ve played enough MMOs and for long enough to know that most women that play them want their privacy, and in most MMOs they get it. But not here it seems.

Most guilds in any MMO’s i dont see any extra “unwanted attention” towards females, yet if that really been a problem for you in the past, why did you tell in the first place, noone can force you to tell your gender

People already wanted ArenaNet to do something about it during Beta, yet they never even responded about it. I also like to go hidden sometimes just to not get bothered by random people. With the old Beta launcher this was actually possible, as it would let you set your ingame status before logging in. Still, the option to only appear online to friends has always been missing.

Reack.8795:

And as the OP said, if you’re female, you get unwanted attention, I’ve played enough MMOs and for long enough to know that most women that play them want their privacy…

Are you able to support this with facts or just your personal experience? Not trying to sound douchy, it’s an honest question.

GummiBear.2756:

Reack.8795:

And as the OP said, if you’re female, you get unwanted attention, I’ve played enough MMOs and for long enough to know that most women that play them want their privacy, and in most MMOs they get it. But not here it seems.

Most guilds in any MMO’s i dont see any extra “unwanted attention” towards females, yet if that really been a problem for you in the past, why did you tell in the first place, noone can force you to tell your gender

Because not every realised that our account name would be used in the way it is. Nor available for everyone. Those chosen a female nick name of their own cannot change it now for some weird unknown reason.

Am I the only person that assumes every feminine name is a guy, even if it’s something like Michelle Parker?

I just don’t understand why people cannot accept that some people don’t like it and some do, which means the best solution would be to be able to turn it On/Off.

MeveM.7913:

I just don’t understand why people cannot accept that some people don’t like it and some do, which means the best solution would be to be able to turn it On/Off.

It’s the same as why won’t Anet make right mouse button targeting toggleable option… they just don’t see (enough) reason to do it I guess.

-1
I really don’t care if anyone add me to his/ her list. I am not answering them anyway. I rarely read the chat so, who cares if they know if i am online or not.
Sometimes i just let the character in select screen which makes me appear online.
So what?

I just don’t understand why people cannot accept that some people are simply generalizing people on the basis of gender and blaming a system instead of the idiots harming others. You don’t like it, we get it. The "best solution” is to give people an option so that people that don’t like it can be happy. But over exaggerating the issue is not helping (not just you, but other posters are doing this).

Edit: People people people people

Individual characters being separate, up to and including guild and friends’ lists? What’s not to like? Also, completely invisible log-in as an option. Yes.

stale.9785:

Individual characters being separate, up to and including guild and friends’ lists? What’s not to like? Also, completely invisible log-in as an option. Yes.

you can put yourself offline in character select screen.
character based lists is one stupid idea from 99.9999% of MMOs. GW1 had it account bound, and no one got offended by it so let it be in here too
If you guys put your account name in a stupid way, it is not A-Nets fault, but your own.
When you made the account, they asked you to put a “display” name. What part of “Display” you didn’t understand? it was obvious for what reason it is made: to BE displayed.
Bare with it, wait till you can change it or just buy another account and put a name you wont feel embraced or too sensitive about

Ronah, for me at least, it’s not about the account name. (If you can infer anything about me as an individual from “Stale” that’s particularly accurate, I’d be surprised.)

It’s about an option that SHOULD have been in the game in the first place. Also, note that GW1 had the ability to select your status on the log-in screen. (This did come and go a few times throughout the history of the game, and I’ve not got GW1 installed on this box, so I can’t tell you if it’s there now.)

If you want all your alts to be part of the same guild, and share friends – have a check box for that. If you want to play each character separately from all your other’s, and the ties upon them (guilds/friend lists) let there be a checkbox for that.

Also, I understand the folks who want to have to validate a friend request. Personally, I don’t care – I’ve no clue who my “Followers” are, and if they want to group up with me, they can ask. Doesn’t mean other’s shouldn’t have that option.

Logging on invisibly, I would love to have as an option – but for it’s own sake, as an option that should exist, for those who want it.

It’s not just an issue of stalkers. I don’t need multiple guilds asking for my toons from other guilds to constantly rep. In other games, you can get a break by logging into another alt. GW2 doesn’t allow that option. Character based lists is a great idea.

Dustfinger.9510:

It’s not just an issue of stalkers. I don’t need multiple guilds asking for my toons from other guilds to constantly rep. In other games, you can get a break by logging into another alt. GW2 doesn’t allow that option. Character based lists is a great idea.

The multiple guilds issue has been discussed in more threads. They should have allowed only one guild per account like in GW1.
Character based guilds is another stupid idea from the other 99.9999% of MMOs.
To be loyal to a guild you need to be in it with all characters, other wise you are just a by-passer

Your character can be loyal to a guild if you want them to be, but I have to wonder how many people here view their characters as an in-game representation of their real selves?

I certainly don’t. My characters are merely puppets that I happen to have control over. Unless I’ve had a sex change recently, my female characters do not in any shape or form represent me at all. They are their own characters with their own personal stories. Likewise, the last time I checked, I wasn’t sprouting leaves, or resembled a ten foot tall hulk waving a ten-ton hammer about. Games for me are a way for me to escape the tedium of the real world, not an extension of it and as far as I’m concerned, this should extend to privacy as well.

GW1’s guild system annoyed me in that sense – membership being account-based meant that all my characters were automatically members of a guild even if I wanted one character to be completely guildless.

uknortherner.2670:

Your character can be loyal to a guild if you want them to be, but I have to wonder how many people here view their characters as an in-game representation of their real selves?

I certainly don’t. My characters are merely puppets that I happen to have control over. Unless I’ve had a sex change recently, my female characters do not in any shape or form represent me at all. They are their own characters with their own personal stories. Likewise, the last time I checked, I wasn’t sprouting leaves, or resembled a ten foot tall hulk waving a ten-ton hammer about. Games for me are a way for me to escape the tedium of the real world, not an extension of it and as far as I’m concerned, this should extend to privacy as well.

GW1’s guild system annoyed me in that sense – membership being account-based meant that all my characters were automatically members of a guild even if I wanted one character to be completely guildless.

So, what do you do with people with 10+ alts who want to be in the same guild with all of them/ Whisper someone every time to add your new character in? And then a guild with 100 names will only have only 10 people?

This is more annoying then just putting your self offline if you don’t want them to see you not representing

I have no problem whatsoever with people requesting to be able to hide their characters, but if ArenaNet asked me to put that on a priority list, I’d put it at the bottom. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not valid. I see no issue with people on both sides of the fence discussing it. Everyone’s opinion is valid.

As for guilds asking you to constantly represent, if I was in a guild and they insisted I always represent them, I’d know right away that’s the wrong guild for me.

Just don’t show the account name after that there isnt really anything else to complain about