Guild Wars 2

I am really surprised they haven’t made any adjustments to the “followers” list yet. The other forums I’ve seen discussing it have been closed.

I enjoy playing GW1 & GW2 alone or with 3-5 friends of mine that may be online. Every once in a while I’ll meet another player I enjoy chatting with and add them to friends.

What I can’t stand is being in a dungeon party then every day for the next 3 weeks getting a message “want to do ac? how about coe?”. Then there is the “how can i get ap!?”. And finally the “why don’t you respond to me?” messages from people I don’t even know.

I am sorry but why is there a “stalker list” in this game since launch and no one thought it was a bad idea? How can it be a good idea? If someone wants to “friend me” send me a message and ask my permission please to allow them to see/talk/whisper me. Personally I would like it if no one could whisper me unless they were in my party or same zone instance and no one should ever be able to see where I am, what I am doing, or any other statistics about me unless I allow it.

Earlier this year I quit playing for 3 months primarily because I’ve been burnt out not knowing what direction this game is heading but also because I was tired of having to login to a game where people were constantly bugging/trying to compete with me if I was not “offline” at which point my friends could not message me. Now I’ve recently started playing again and it is starting all over.

I don’t mind helping people. If you post in map chat you need something I’ll come find you if I’m free and no one else has addressed your issue. If someone has something legitimate you want to ask like “that armor is cool where did you get it?” I’ll answer, but I don’t want people messaging me, competing with me, or thinking that I have time to spend with them on a daily basis for whatever. Sorry but I enjoy playing alone, GW2 is nothing more than an extension of GW1 to me – not an MMO for socialization and leader board competition.

Please consider making adjustments to this system to allow for more privacy for your players. I’d begun adding all “followers” to the block list but that not only feels rude but there is/was a cap on the number of players I could block?! Something as simple as a “request to become a follower” or the ability to remove people from the followers list would be amazing….

I have no problem whatsoever with the followers list. About half my guild keeps me in followers list so they don’t have to look me up in the roster every time they wanna ask me something. If it works for them that’s fine by me.

People that annoy me get blocked, simple as that.

I’m pretty sure the follower system isn’t much different than most games though. I thought a lot of them were set up where you can add someone to your friends list and see when they are online, even if they haven’t added you back.

That said, I sympathize because I play this game in a similar way. An “appear offline” function would be nice for such needs and would probably solve your issue.

Never had a problem with it. Sure, enough people message me and ask questions, about going to x and y, this and that. But it’s not bothering me. It’s a MMO, I like the social aspect, and chatting with people doesn’t honestly bother me. If I’m busy, I just quickly write “busy” or something of that sorts depending on what I’m doing, e.g., if I’m soloing Lupi, I just write “lupi”. I don’t see the big deal. I can at any rate filter my chat to only show Party and Guild messages when I need the “silence”. I think the Follower list is a cool idea personally.

Hm, I play a lot, do fractals dungeons and wvw and stuff and play with pugs, never had the issue of random people adding me in that way. If you don’t want someone to bug you everyday and its a problem, bock its quite simple. I like the followers list because it means that some people that I’m not particularly close with, can add me if they want but I don’t have to add them. I only have my close friends in my friend list that I talk to a lot. If a message popped up asking for my permission or if I had to add them back it would just create awkward situations since I don’t want to add these people.

Dyne Tianjin.8605:

I am really surprised they haven’t made any adjustments to the “followers” list yet. The other forums I’ve seen discussing it have been closed.

I enjoy playing GW1 & GW2 alone or with 3-5 friends of mine that may be online. Every once in a while I’ll meet another player I enjoy chatting with and add them to friends.

What I can’t stand is being in a dungeon party then every day for the next 3 weeks getting a message “want to do ac? how about coe?”. Then there is the 5x /day minimum “how can i get ap!?”. And finally the “why don’t you respond to me?” messages from people I don’t even know.

I am sorry but why is there a “stalker list” in this game since launch and no one thought it was a bad idea? How can it be a good idea? If someone wants to “friend me” send me a message and ask my permission please to allow them to see/talk/whisper me. Personally I would like it if no one could whisper me unless they were in my party or same zone instance and no one should ever be able to see where I am, what I am doing, or any other statistics about me unless I allow it.

Earlier this year I quit playing for 3 months primarily because I’ve been burnt out not knowing what direction this game is heading but also because I was tired of having to login to a game where people were constantly bugging/trying to compete with me if I was not “offline” at which point my friends could not message me. Now I’ve recently started playing again and it is starting all over.

I don’t mind helping people. If you post in map chat you need something I’ll come find you if I’m free and no one else has addressed your issue. If someone has something legitimate you want to ask like “that armor is cool where did you get it?” I’ll answer, but I don’t want people messaging me, competing with me, or thinking that I have time to spend with them on a daily basis for whatever. Sorry but I enjoy playing alone, GW2 is nothing more than an extension of GW1 to me – not an MMO for socialization. If you are dying to a troll and a ranger runs by and saves your life just /wave – do not add to friends and ask for dungeons later please.

Please consider making adjustments to this system to allow for more privacy for your players. I’d begun adding all “followers” to the block list but that not only feels rude but there is/was a cap on the number of players I could block?! Something as simple as a “request to become a follower” or the ability to remove people from the followers list would be amazing….

I’ve never had that problem. Several people have added me but none really chats with me :/

I have a few people on my Followers list. None have whispered me. I feel flattered they have added me. ; )

If someone was irritating me, I would add them to my Block list, which is quite large from all the bots, nefarious spammers, etc. I’ve yet to run out of room. I can’t imagine how you have, but if you have, just delete some of them. /shrug

I’ve never had this problem either.

A few random people have added me to their friends list and I have no idea who they are (presumably people I did dungeons with) but they never send me messages.

I added a couple people back during world boss days before the fixed times came out. These were usually commanders that led the groups. So it was a good way to tell where they planned on starting that day. I didn’t really add them to be social with them but just to make the old boss days easier.

I have quite a few people following me and never sure why. Maybe I was nice to them at one time, or they messaged me for advice one time. Never really been messaged from any of them either after they add me.

I like the follower list. There are about 1000 people following me if I had to give a rough guess about it since there is no counter.

Labjax.2465:

An “appear offline” function would be nice for such needs and would probably solve your issue.

there is, next to your name in “Friends”, drop down list – invisible.
not sure how well it works though

Fishae.2503:

Labjax.2465:

An “appear offline” function would be nice for such needs and would probably solve your issue.

there is, next to your name in “Friends”, drop down list – invisible.
not sure how well it works though

Learn something new every day. Had no idea that was there. Good to know, thanks.

Gonna look into what it actually does.

Edit: From what I could find, looks like, “It shows you as offline, you cannot read guild chat and when people try to whisper you they will get the msg that you are offline (even though you can whisper them when invis).”

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1w1i82/sometimes_i_just_really_wish_i_could_login_and_be/cexsio6

So that may be just what you’re looking for, Dyne.

I’ve had a couple of my “best friends” (coughs) from the forums add me and when I notice I usually block them. Of course I’ve also made friends on the forums with people I chat with in game.

I can see where you’re coming from OP, but I don’t really mind it. I currently have about 75 people following me and don’t know most of them.

Stiofan.6720:

I also hate the followers/stalker list, I wish guild wars 2 was like other modern mmo games and had a friend request system. For me the real problem with it is when a troll or worse an actual stalker add’s you, then you have to either have them in your followers list or blocked list, They are forever linked to your account. Even if it was a real stalker and you had to get police involved etc arenanet will never unlink the accounts. I hope one of the future feature updates includes a full friend request system, But I would’t hold my breath.

I’m so glad it doesn’t have the typical system where you have to awkwardly ask if you want to be friends with someone or even more awkwardly accept requests you don’t really want, to not seem like a total jerk about it. If a troll follows you, you block them, just like you would’ve blocked them if they were trolling you without being on a follower list. If it was a real stalker, po-po’s and everything involved, you would likely do the same, and they would be on the blocked list regardless, I fail to see your reasoning here.

I do. I add those I’m interested in having on my friend’s list, and leave those I’m not on the follower’s list.

I’m so over the mutual request list, but that’s just me.

I personally don’t have alot of problems with the follower/stalker list, but just only with the things, that make it basically into a stalker list.

It show way too much information that nobody has to interest, unless I – repeat – I choose so to give these people my permission to be able to see where I am in the game by turning a follower into a friend after having been ASKED FIRST by the follower, if he/want can be my friend.
Thats the most normal thing that should happen first, but somehow Anet just dont want to understand this since 2 years, what is really sad…

A follower should not see:

• The Location of a Player (this should be Friend List only)
• If the player is actually online or not (this should be Friend List only)

However, basicalyl I’d be also absolutely ok with it, if anet would just completely removed this nonsensical useless pointless as senseless follower list, which does nothing good to the game at all.
A Friend/Block List is everything, that is needed.

I almost forgot about this list. Kind of weird to see several people from the forums on there.

Stiofan.6720:

Absconditus.6804:

Stiofan.6720:

I also hate the followers/stalker list, I wish guild wars 2 was like other modern mmo games and had a friend request system. For me the real problem with it is when a troll or worse an actual stalker add’s you, then you have to either have them in your followers list or blocked list, They are forever linked to your account. Even if it was a real stalker and you had to get police involved etc arenanet will never unlink the accounts. I hope one of the future feature updates includes a full friend request system, But I would’t hold my breath.

I’m so glad it doesn’t have the typical system where you have to awkwardly ask if you want to be friends with someone or even more awkwardly accept requests you don’t really want, to not seem like a total jerk about it. If a troll follows you, you block them, just like you would’ve blocked them if they were trolling you without being on a follower list. If it was a real stalker, po-po’s and everything involved, you would likely do the same, and they would be on the blocked list regardless, I fail to see your reasoning here.

I believe a friends list should only contain ‘mutual’ friends not a bunch of random strangers, stalkers, trolls and weirdo’s. I also believe I should have more control over my friends list ie. more privacy.

You said about having to awkwardly ask someone if they wanted to be friends before sending a friend request on mmo’s with a friend request system. Can I ask you something, What do you do in guild wars 2? Do you just wait until someone add’s you without your permission, then look at the followers list, see them and add them back, then you are friends? You really think that way is better?

It is awkward with the stale old system of asking for permission to friend someone that you enjoyed playing with for a whole day. My friends list also does contain only people I’ve mutually added or that I’ve at least let know I will add. My “friends”, or collection of players I’d like to play with again some time. The people in my Followers list are.. just that, people following my character(s). Why should that bother me? They could do that without a follower function too. In older games without such a nice new feature, I would still get whispers/tells whenever I was online. It’s not like that is different. Well besides them having a option to see if I am actually online and not needing to try whisper/tell throughout the day to see if I had gone online (I played a lot though, just like in GW2, chances were I was online).

In Guild Wars 2, I just say I’m going to add someone to my friends list if I enjoyed playing with them (and that is rarely after just one dungeon path run, it’d be more the people I’ve encountered more than once, or have done multiple things with throughout a day, or well, people I had a great conversation with as we were playing), or I may see they added me while we’re still in the group, so I add them back if I enjoyed playing with them. I like this much better over some permission system. There’s no awkwardness of asking for permission to add someone to your friend list, you just do it. I don’t need to feel like a jerk because I don’t accept the requests. If they wish to follow me, great, they can follow me. They are categorized into their own Follower section of my lists, I never need to look at it if I don’t want to. I really do not see the problem here.

What are they going to do? Stalk you into the dungeon? Figure out exactly where you are in World vs. World? Hunt you down in the PvE maps? Or.. Lyssa save us.. could they… potentially, oh no, let it not be so.. could they… whisper us?! The horror! If they’re being trolls, you can block them. If they aren’t, then what does it matter? Not everyone that follows you are necessarily trolls, stalkers or weirdos. They’re just normal people wanting to follow you, for whatever reason that may be. Maybe they look up to you, or they otherwise think you’re a great player. Maybe they find you funny, or maybe they just want to see how fast you’re progressing with your Achievement Points, because you’re awesome at that. They enjoyed playing with you that one time, and would love to play with you again. Perhaps you’re great at playing the harp, and they want to spot when you’re in Divinity’s Reach playing it next time, so they can come listen. Whatever. It’s a video game, you’re hidden behind your avatar.

I added many people to the friend list just because they had interesting item which about I wanted to ask more. Most often I did not ask. I also have added many who organize Tequatl events, so that I may contact to them if I have a question. Things like that.

So, there should be different lists. Or a list with tags and comment fields. I suggested a comment field month ago so that I would know why I have added a person to the list.

AnniMira.2506:

I added many people to the friend list just because they had interesting item which about I wanted to ask more. Most often I did not ask. I also have added many who organize Tequatl events, so that I may contact to them if I have a question. Things like that.

So, there should be different lists. Or a list with tags and comment fields. I suggested a comment field month ago so that I would know why I have added a person to the list.

You can tag each person with a comment. I have various such as events I do with different people or if they are commanders of various things/guilds.
I don’t understand the stalking fear. You can report for abuse and it is easy for anet to check chat logs. You can block everyone if you want and never get a whisper from them.

I should be able to see who have blocked me so that I don’t accidentally revive or offer portal to them Perhaps they should not interact with me at all, nor render in my screen. Just to be on safe side, I stop reviving and helping from now on

Considering how I don’t behave badly, I yesterday tried to whisper and ask about the jumping thing of some sort, in return I got message that player is offline. How unlikely it is to meet someone in middle of nowhere that has blocked me. The metaserver tries to place friends to the same map, but what about blocked players?

I checked that the player is not in my friend list, but what happens if a player in my friend list blocks me because that player dislikes “stalkers”? The player vanishes from my friend list?

Yep, the portal should check the block status and not teleport players who have blocked me.

AnniMira.2506:

Yep, the portal should check the block status and not teleport players who have blocked me.

:)

AnniMira.2506:

[….]
I checked that the player is not in my friend list, but what happens if a player in my friend list blocks me because that player dislikes “stalkers”? The player vanishes from my friend list?

As i know u will just c him ofline all the time even if u stand right infront of him.

Or the person was playing while using ‘Offline’ status? I use it quite often.

I mean if u have someone in your friend list and that person have u in block list then u will c him as “Offline” even if s/he dont use that status and just normaly online for everyone else.

“I’m behind your curtains, watching you sleep”

Vayne.8563:

I’ve had a couple of my “best friends” (coughs) from the forums add me and when I notice I usually block them. Of course I’ve also made friends on the forums with people I chat with in game.

I can see where you’re coming from OP, but I don’t really mind it. I currently have about 75 people following me and don’t know most of them.

(puts on a trenchcoat, sunglasses and a beat up fedora) Hi Vayne! (sneaks off to the bushes again.)

I have a few thousand people following me from EOTM and I never had the issue described above. The worst thing that happened – mistells.

Just a headsup for a topic starter: there is a feature called block list. Just block any person who bugs you – he will never see you online or send you any messages in game. Easy enough

I honestly think you just overreacting

If someone is annoying you, ask them to stop. If they continue, block them. If someone is harassing you, report them. If you’re really upset that people can tell whether you’re online, then log in as Invisible.

The Friends list, in its current form, is much more useful than it would be if there had to be some sort of Offer/Acceptance thing.

The block list has a size limit. It also ends up with you being spammed by guildies and 2nd accounts asking “why did you block xx?” I understand a large majority of the population loves being able to say “look at my 1000 followers! I must be so cool!” but why couldn’t the rest of us at least have the option to remove ourselves from others friends lists / remove them from our followers list or get the simple option to accept/decline a friend request – as if that is any more awkward than blocking people.

Lol. People use the block function? I personally use follow people and then add why I shouldnt be with them as their nickname. With block I may accidentally join their group/ dungeon run/ sexy underwear party. With follow you can tell who, why, and bail.

That being said I have had maybe 3 whispers ever from my followers list. I could probably do with cleaning out my block list from all the gold spammers I blocked. Its been atleast a year for most of the “people aka gold spammers” in my block list.

Also nice condescension

“look at my 1000 followers! I must be so cool!”

Go ahead and say you didnt mean it that way. (???)

Actually on thinking about it. The request has been for “remove them from our followers list” not stop them from following us. I actually like and fully support that. When I follow someone they dont need to know I am following them. I suggest give 2 lists

1. Friends
2. Following
3. Block as it stands.

Dyne Tianjin.8605:

but why couldn’t the rest of us at least have the option to remove ourselves from others friends lists / remove them from our followers list or get the simple option to accept/decline a friend request – as if that is any more awkward than blocking people.

You can’t stop someone from writing down your account name.

No you can’t stop someone from writing down your account name. But if you have 200 people online/offline on your friends list and I removed myself what are the chances you would ever even notice that I wasn’t one of the “offline” names anymore. And if you were to keep re-adding and conversations became a problem for me I would have all the more reason to file a report.

The followers list is only beneficial.

That list empowers you to know who had added you as a friend. It only has benefits for the person being followed, as you can easily block followers you feel shouldn’t be following you.

The followers list itself isn’t the cause of the OP’s problem.

The OP actually has a problem with people being able to add him to their friend list without his/her permission.

The OP having issue with this makes no sense to me given the context of the genre this game is. And I would highly recommend against such a change, as promoting Interpersonal communication is important to building communities, which is ultimately what MMO’s are made up of.

Dyne Tianjin.8605:

No you can’t stop someone from writing down your account name. But if you have 200 people online/offline on your friends list and I removed myself what are the chances you would ever even notice that I wasn’t one of the “offline” names anymore. And if you were to keep re-adding and conversations became a problem for me I would have all the more reason to file a report.

You aren’t helping yourself. If you’re trying to play while having very isolated communication, posting that you have a problem with this on the forums is not the best move to make. Forums are advertising yourself, which is exactly what you are saying you don’t want to do.

People seeing you post this on the forums could very well be a lot of the ones messaging you and trolling you. Forum goers are often bored and or disgruntled after all.

Also filing a report about people talking to you innocently will do what? They won’t know you filed a report, do you really think ANet would take action on them in some way if they’re innocently talking to you?

Then what if people know you’re filing a report somehow? You file a report and people know, when you do that to the wrong people, who have influence over multiple people or even multiple accounts you could very well get trolled.

Your best move is putting up with the limited messages you get, and just telling people you’re not interested in doing whatever they ask to do.

Be honest here, Dyne, you’re not getting hundreds of whispers from hundreds of players each and every day. You’re getting a bare few whispers out of the potential hundreds of players that is actually following you. I swear, some MMO players are the most anti-social people within gaming. They hate map/say chat, they can’t stand whispers and if someone dares to write in a language other than theirs, they throw a tantrum because they can’t understand. It’s a game, who’s stalking you? Nobody, unless you go around telling everyone who you are in real life, knows who you are. Why is it different blocking someone over saying no to a friend request? “Why did you not accept x friend request?”, your same scenarios applies perfectly fine there.—You’re making such a huge deal out of a good system. As if you’re some amazing person most of us should care about. We don’t. You’re just a player, the same way you don’t give two cents about me running around. Stop thinking you’re stalker-worthy.

No I do not get hundreds of whispers but I do get daily whispers and multiple whispers per day and I find them annoying.

I do find chats in the game annoying. This is not the point of this post.

The point is the option of privacy without being outright rude, which I can very well be but some players may not wish to be. The block list has limits and people circumvent it. The ability to control the followers list could be a more subtle solution. The removal of the list altogether wouldn’t bother me in the least.

My follower’s list is my trophy from trolling queensdale. They would add me to see If the train was gona be out of service for extended periods.

OK here is a tip—time to man up, stop acting the victim and stand your ground!

People are pretty quick on the uptake, if you tell them not to chat to you because your busy, in a polite manner, they usually respond well.

As for people being a nuisance, the block function is there for a purpose—use it! (doesn’t have to even be a permanent block, sometimes people need space to cool down).

As for this little gem:-

And if you were to keep re-adding and conversations became a problem for me I would have all the more reason to file a report.

I would be very, very careful of filing malicious reports because, you were having a bad day, without solid justification. It may well end bad for yourself!

Having said all that, I am curious as to the disparity with what you have written. Judging from the vitriol , I am amazed at your followers.

Changing the way the friends list works is simply not going to happen. The friends list is nothing more that a list of people who you have taken interest in. There’s no reason why you should be able to modify their list.

If anything, another friends list should be added so that you can simply write a personal note about someone without showing up as a follower. I have no interesting in friending/following that person, but I might want to keep a note about them. The note could also be displayed instead of their title.

If someone on my followers list is being annoying, they do not get any special treatment. I treat them exactly as I treat someone being annoying out of the blue. block.

I PUG dungeons often. I have a Followers list filled with people whom I don’t know and have never talked to outside of the one time we did a dungeon, Tequatl, Wurm, or something like that together. But I rarely, if ever, get whispers from those people. The times I have gotten whispers I respond if I want to, and I ignore if I want to. That’s the end of it.

Ignore the people you don’t want to talk to. Block the people who don’t take the hint.

As an aside, if your block list gets to the point where it’s full, then something is off.

What’s the limit on the block list?

Having to accept friend requests would be way more annoying. Imagine having to explain to people why you didn’t accept them as a friend. I’ll bet you’d want the followers list back pretty quick.

Lamir.6702:

What’s the limit on the block list?

500 maybe?

Even at my most irritable I’ve never gotten over 20 or so. Even those get unblocked after a while, unless they were exceptionally annoying/disgusting. I figure the odds of running into the same person, who is again being moderately annoying, is petty low.

If you have a problem with those players, the block list is there. It’s not too hard to completely ignore someone in this game.

i personally liked the fact that i can add someone to my friend list. when i’m bored, i’d go to one of the starting areas and add people that are low level or doesn’t have a guild tag. if their AP is between 10-100, i then asked them if they need any help getting started. of course, i will remove them from my friend list once i’m finish helping them, but some of them ended up add me in their friend list anyway.

I must admit that from time to time I’ll just randomly add people who were helpful or friendly in a dungeon or fractal, who I had an interesting conversation with, or who I particularly liked the armor/weapon/color combination of to my friends list.

Sometimes people invite me to do stuff out of the blue and don’t even remember who I am, I just happen to be someone online and on their friend or followers list.

Usually when they ask I’ll come along for whatever it is though so I guess it’s beneficial anyway.

It’s not like people can do anything by having you on a list or knowing your location because of that list. They can’t steal your kills or nodes, break your events or otherwise grief you and anything they can do via PM they could do via map or local chat to the same effect. So I gotta say I don’t really understand the logic of this complaint. If people are messaging you and you are busy and don’t want to talk, then just say so.

Generally if somebody starts speaking to me and I don’t know them, or they creep me out, I have a tendency to block them. At least then continuation through a friend or anything else could be considered harassment.