Battle.net Friends List

Q u o t e:
Alright. You guys know how much a pita it is when you find out that your good friends play WoW on a different server. I say that we should be allowed to have friends from other realms, that way, real life friends could enjoy the game on a different level. I think that it would be a nice addition, providing the inter-realm interaction rules still apply (trading, etc.).

This is exactly what we are working on implementing with Battle.net and real-life friends. You'll be able to add friends at the Battle.net account level and talk to them while in-game whether they're on the opposing faction, a different realm, or another Blizzard game entirely. This is coming prior to Cataclysm.

Q u o t e:


This is awesome! I have some RL friends who play Horde and I mostly play Alliance. It will be nice to be able to talk to them in game! :)

I trust you can expect to see additional details about how this system will work within World of Warcraft in the near future. ;)

Q u o t e:
Please tell me that people will not be able to "friend" me without my consent. I don't care to be tracked across servers and factions except by a couple people I know IRL.

This is correct. No one outside of your faction on your realm will be able to communicate with you unless you accept their friend request, or they accept yours. You will still have your normal World of Warcraft Friends list, but we'll be adding in the ability to have Battle.net players on your Friends list as well. The characters on your Friends list will allow the same communication functionality which exists today. It's only when you've confirmed someone as a Battle.net friend that you can take advantage of the additional communication features.

We'll get more into that soon, but it's safe to say in advance that you shouldn't accept a Battle.net friend request from anyone you don't know, similar to Facebook or other social networking media.

Edit: I'm going to change the title slightly and move this to the General Discussion forum just so there's no confusion about whether or not this is a feature coming in Cataclysm.

Q u o t e:

Along those lines, will it be possible to un-friend people from this list? Just because I accepted them as a friend at one point doesn't mean I'm interested in giving them info on me for the rest of my time with Blizzard. ;)

Definitely.

Q u o t e:
I'll probably have to wait until then for an answer, but just in case: Does the Battle.net communication methods include private chat rooms with several friends at once? (And, even more specifically, persistent ones that will be autojoined upon logging in?)

Private chat rooms are something to consider for the future of the system. Initially you will be able to invite up to five friends into a conversation.

Q u o t e:
Please add the option to ignore someone's entire Battle.net account as well. I for one am sick and tired of ignore listing someone only to get bombarded with "f**k u" tells from 5-10 level 1 alts.

That this isn't already in the game at this point is mindboggling.

We would like to do this in the future, but it likely won't be ready at release. You can block a Battle.net account, but that won't block all characters on that account's World of Warcraft license from messaging you. It's a technical limitation between the two systems which we'd like to overcome in time.

We know there are a lot of questions about the functionality of this new system and are preparing much more information to present you with soon. :)