Appearing offline (but not really): Friends can still see when you're on

General Discussion
1

so… a problem with the “appear offline” feature is that my friends can still see that I’m playing.

  • People can go in their friends list, right click my name, and see ‘join game’ ‘spectate’ ‘request invite to group’ and those other stuff.
  • They can also see you if you are in a custom game, and the lobby appears in green even if you’re offline.
  • When you’ve already been offline and open overwatch, it turns into “offline for 1 minute,” so they can still see when I’ve gone online.

I have anxiety disorders and I hate being confronted about people as to why I’m offline and them asking me why I’m avoiding people. Mostly it’s just because I want to be alone or I just want to talk to one person but other people keep trying to join (I’m afraid of sounding rude by denying them joining so I usually just go offline). But they can still see me when I’m online and they still ask me if they can join and ask me if i could play.

It’s not a very huge issue (I’m pretty sure this is just a me issue lol), but it’s one I hope could be addressed in the future.

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2

Understandable. I have my settings the same way, but it’s only because I prefer to soloQ. Funnily enough, I haven’t had someone drop in on my QP games (I don’t join custom games).

If they ask, just be polite about it and “No thank you” them. If they persist, then just go on with what you will. If they won’t respect your choice to be by yourself, then that shows how much of a friend they really are.

At least, this is what I think :confused:

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Hey, don’t downplay it. Anxiety is life-altering, and the offline feature is a godsend to people with it. Sucks that all those little problems still persist. >.<

I know you probably don’t want to spend the money, but I actually bought a second “secret” account just to play alone. Maybe if you have the funds, you could do that to bypass the issue. :slight_smile:

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I totally understand what you mean. I have the same settings on for myself.
It’s not that I hate playing with friends but, I hate when they just go in and join or spectate me y’know? It makes me very nervous and gets me playing badly because it was so out of the blue and I wasn’t prepared, so now knowing that they’re watching me, it gets me anxious.

And yea, sometimes I just don’t feel like talking with people (my friends always want to talk…) or I just wanna play alone.

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This feature has been requested for years. And I mean years, it started in the wow community when battlenet was a thing and overwatch didnt even exist.

Time shows that they dont give a damn about implmenting such a feature. Apologies for being harsh about it, but people like yourself need to know thats its never going to happen.

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This is my 1st time posting a comment. Blizzard can we please fully appear offline?? I would like to hide from people while playing (mainly bcuz they are bad) but I cant as they can see “join game” when I am playing. Thanks!

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I do understand how this would help a lot of liars and people that have 2 or 3 close friends and always tell them that they are “the only friend they have” and they are “the best friend they have”. Yet they tell it to all of them.

I had a friend that did this often she would rather lie and say “oh i’m not feeling good” or “i’m just going to sleep now” then tell these other so called friends of hers that she simply doesn’t want to play with them at the moment.

So yeah this feature would come in handy for some people… sadly enough it’s no big deal to lie these days it seems… so sad…

Why not just tell whoever it is that you dont want to talk to, that your busy with something or that you want to just chill by yourself or even with your “other best friend”…

So many misleading, attention craving, whiny, hypocrites out there…

I had to deal with some people trying to track me down and its so easy to handle. You tell them that your playing with someone else right now and if you feel like its none of their businues , say that you are simply busy.

Just remember how it is when you really need to talk to a good friend. Be sure to keep that in mind because you never know if they might truly need you. Even if its just for 10 minutes, you can always make some time for true friends.

It sucks when you are always there for someone and then when you need them, they hide offline cause of “stress”. So sad…

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I know this is old, but I was looking for reasons as to why when I select to appear offline minutes later while playing I appear online. Sometimes I just prefer to hear the sounds of the game and not toxic people talk. Although you can always mute them, it also helps when your usual group starts grouping up with that one player who’s either trash or just plain toxic but for some reason a couple of those in the group like to play with this individual. To avoid that mess I think it would be best to just ghost and play. Why is that even an option if you can’t really ghost?

1 Like
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I absolutely second this.

Sometimes I just wanna play ALONE, not thinking about anything, not talking or listening to tilted friends. Sometimes I just want my OW fix while I enjoy a blunt or a coffee. I do need those moments of peace. If I can’t disconnect from people I get anxious.

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I appear offline occasionally and from my experience that issue seems to be fixed. As in, you will stay offline when you start the game and friends can’t see “spectate”, “join game” etc when they right click your profile.

I really am/was certain that it’s no issue anymore.

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I see this post is from 2018 is it still like that?
and if you are ofline does your sr update on your profile?

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Old post but stills shows in game even if you showing offline. Annoying…

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this sucks. thx tho :heart:

15

So my korean egamergirl friend knows I’m ghosting her :upside_down_face:

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I’m surprised this hasn’t been fixed yet

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sadly my secret ow girlfriend knows

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18

i swear we need a forum witch hunter to stop these resurrections.

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We need witcher to make a cameo in one of the archives events and sass the hell out of ow heros

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7 MONTHS LATER

3 MONTHS LATER

1 YEAR LATER

1 YEAR LATER

Dammit you necro’s are out in full force.

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21

Is this still a thing? I remember this from years ago

1 Like