[Bug??] Did /Whisper just get changed???

[Sameria]

There just needs to be an option to opt out per character. a simple check box in preferences should be enough to take care of it for the people that don't want it.

 

For the people that want it, it still needs to be tweaked a little.

[BearThing]

As someone who feels strongly about privacy issues, the fact that Bioware can take even a part of this system live BY MISTAKE is terribly disconcerting.

[Khalhazar]

since you promised to be working on quality of life improvements from now on (since the expansion has been released) anyway, why not do this?

 

*whispers hypnotically* chat log...

[LarryRow]

Hey everyone,

 

I will have more information as I have it.

 

-eric

 

Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department?

[Syas]

The example I thought of right away is: I'm on one of my alts. Someone asks a question in chat on Fleet. I, thinking I can help them with the answer, respond to the question in chat. Someone who has been watching to see if it's an alt of my Main whispers me about my response to the question in chat. I, having no idea that they actually whispered my Main character name, respond to the whisper,,,, Boom, they got me,,,, now they know it's my alt

 

I am not saying that it shouldn't be Opt-in, but I have to ask - is this a seriously concerning scenario to you? How many people would the above actually happen to? One? Two?

[WEIRDLITTLEBRO]

Hey everyone,

 

I apologize as this was not intended to be implemented, which is why we did not have a patch note for it. We can completely understand that there are some privacy concerns around this right now. If someone whispers you through your main while you are logged into an alt it will not actually show them the name of your alt unless you respond. We understand this will let them know that you are online, however, if you do not wish for them to know your alts named, simply do not respond to the whisper.

 

We will be working on fixing this in a future update, I will have more information as I have it.

 

-eric

 

Eric, please use this as an opportunity to implement a major quality of life feature. I understand the privacy issues, and I do thing that this is something that people should have to opt-in for, but please do not just go back to the status quo. Or if you do, do it with the assurance that this feature will be properly reimplemented quickly. Letting players opt-in for account-linked whispers would relieve a lot of frustration for people who are having difficulty finding their friends. And while it might not make much sense lore-wise for the two factions to communicate, the restriction on cross-faction communication creates a great deal of frustration for the player-base. Allowing Republic characters to use the Sith Pureblood and Chiss species was a decision that many players vocally opposed because it they interpreted it as lore-heresy. But you and the other people at Bioware went ahead with it as planned because you wanted to give the players a greater range of options when choosing how they want to experience the game. So please continue with the precedent you have set, and give players the choice to be able to communicate with their friends no matter what character or faction they are playing on.

[Chesty_Jake]

I just wanted to say for the record I love this "broken". Please keep it, if anything update it with an Opt out and work on improving it there after.

[vGaff]

Wait this is great feature. Why you want to remove it?

[ninjonxb]

I am hoping we get more details soon, or at least before it is "fixed".

 

I think based on Eric's wording (i could be completely wrong and just wishful thinking) that this shouldn't be live YET.

If this is the case the question is. Will they turn it off until it is complete or will they prioritize completing it before next patch?

 

For those that are wondering how something like this slipped through. It is easy.

Generally when you are programming something new. You are doing it in parts. Those parts can get individually tested by QA to make sure those parts work. Generally when this is done there is a flag which says wether or not it should actually run on production. But it still pushed to production because that part was tested.

 

I know at my company, we do this all the time. We are really good about throughly testing said feature, but sometimes (either because our DEV/QA environments are set up in a way that make it impossible or an oversight) don't test that on production it will be off.

[TUXs]

Eric, thanks for the reply. However, here's another case. X is the name I know, Y is an alt I suspect is them.

 

"Just don't reply" isn't a protection when autoafk messages are in game:

 

/tell X .

To [X]: .

Y is away from keyboard.

 

If "privacy" is such a concern, /ignore them. Problem solved.

[MorgothPl]

Can you please leave that change as a toggle? It's a great change... and I'd love to see something like RealLife Account like in WoW - when you make RL account friends with someone, he sees you whenever you are online, no matter on which alt. It would really help keeping track on friends

[Nerdcommando]

Hey everyone,

 

I apologize as this was not intended to be implemented, which is why we did not have a patch note for it. We can completely understand that there are some privacy concerns around this right now. If someone whispers you through your main while you are logged into an alt it will not actually show them the name of your alt unless you respond. We understand this will let them know that you are online, however, if you do not wish for them to know your alts named, simply do not respond to the whisper.

 

We will be working on fixing this in a future update, I will have more information as I have it.

 

-eric

 

Woot - account/legacy friends in the works!

[wainot-keel]

If "privacy" is such a concern, /ignore them. Problem solved.

 

Some people want to have alts outside guild and be left alone on ocassions. Are you really going to put the entire guild on ignore and keep that list updated at all times with that alt ?

[islander]

I'd like this to be a feature honestly. With some controls, of course.

[dscount]

LOVE it!

 

Makes life WAY easier if folks have multiple toons in multiple guilds.

[Radzkie]

I like the change. Wish it could stay and be toggled on and off. Edited April 25, 2013 by Radzkie

[TFIWYA]

I am not saying that it shouldn't be Opt-in, but I have to ask - is this a seriously concerning scenario to you? How many people would the above actually happen to? One? Two?

 

Since you asked nicely yes, it is a problem / concern to me. For me and anyone else who feels their characters are their business only. In my example that you questioned, the only person who knows they have nailed down your alts names is the person doing the whispering. The actual account holder (me in my example's case) has no idea that someone has gotten information about my account / characters without my knowledge / consent.

 

I fully understand this is not a major issue for a lot of folks, but please keep in mind, not everyone is the same. We are not made from a cookie cutter assembly line (yet)

 

I read the forums daily, follow the Dev Tracker page daily, but honestly, very seldom feel the need to voice an opinion about things. This would be one of those things that I felt I should not be the silent witness to.

 

Also, as I said in my first post, I do hope everyone gets something useful to use to their benefit for Guild / Friend purposes , just not something that allows someone to investigate into someone else's account / privacy.

 

Hope that answers your question on why it bothers me and maybe some others. I am not trying to argue anyone's point / counterpoint. I am simply giving my year and a half subscription the right to voice my feelings on this.

[TUXs]

Some people want to have alts outside guild and be left alone on ocassions. Are you really going to put the entire guild on ignore and keep that list updated at all times with that alt ?

 

Learn to say "no". Don't reply. Who cares if you are anti social on a toon you want to be anonymous on, why the hell should Bioware protect you when it's currently 100% in your hands?

[TUXs]

Since you asked nicely yes, it is a problem / concern to me. For me and anyone else who feels their characters are their business only. In my example that you questioned, the only person who knows they have nailed down your alts names is the person doing the whispering. The actual account holder (me in my example's case) has no idea that someone has gotten information about my account / characters without my knowledge / consent.

 

I fully understand this is not a major issue for a lot of folks, but please keep in mind, not everyone is the same. We are not made from a cookie cutter assembly line (yet)

 

I read the forums daily, follow the Dev Tracker page daily, but honestly, very seldom feel the need to voice an opinion about things. This would be one of those things that I felt I should not be the silent witness to.

 

Also, as I said in my first post, I do hope everyone gets something useful to use to their benefit for Guild / Friend purposes , just not something that allows someone to investigate into someone else's account / privacy.

 

Hope that answers your question on why it bothers me and maybe some others. I am not trying to argue anyone's point / counterpoint. I am simply giving my year and a half subscription the right to voice my feelings on this.

I'm not arguing your opinion on this, but maybe you can help me understand better...why do you care if someone knows you're on another toon that they don't know? Are you hiding something? That's what it sounds like to me...otherwise I don't see ANY reason that this is even an issue. Simply don't reply on your secret toon - why doesn't that work? Because you don't have the self control yourself??? I just don't get it...help me understand your position better.

[Vemtaz]

Learn to say "no". Don't reply. Who cares if you are anti social on a toon you want to be anonymous on, why the hell should Bioware protect you when it's currently 100% in your hands?

 

This DOES NOT work. If you are AFK, your current logged in character responds automatically.

 

I'm ok with this feature, but it needs some configuration options. Allow me to exclude certain characters (bank alts, etc..),

[ninjonxb]

Another problem I foresee. I am vocal in Warzones when I am dealing with idiots.

 

Sometimes I have heavy arguments with certain people in the Warzones. This leads to after the warzone me getting a whisper to continue the argument.

So instead of getting more angry and possibly get reported. I switch to another toon.

 

Yes I can ignore the new whisper but if I keep getting a message from the person I may get angry enough reading it that I respond without thinking.

 

Yes it is still my fault but more control (like many others have said) would be amazing.

[TFIWYA]

I'm not arguing your opinion on this, but maybe you can help me understand better...why do you care if someone knows you're on another toon that they don't know? Are you hiding something? That's what it sounds like to me...otherwise I don't see ANY reason that this is even an issue. Simply don't reply on your secret toon - why doesn't that work? Because you don't have the self control yourself??? I just don't get it...help me understand your position better.

 

Sure, I can try at least . Secret character is not exactly what I would call them. However, no, I am not hiding anything. I am what is called "Introvert" , meaning: I at times can play along with others, have a good time / fun in doing so. However, I enjoy my own solo time probably more.

 

This is why I don't want guild members or anyone else I meet along the way to know all my characters. If they know my Main in the guild, that's all they know. My alts are for those times when I am doing things for my account, dailies / weeklies / flashpoints etc.

 

On an alt, doing missions on some planet out there, I run into someone. we group up for a Heroic or whatever, that person adds me to their friends list. I have logged onto that character again days later, loading screen goes away, I'm now looking at my character and already have a whisper with something like "hey! where you been?"

 

Cool right? Well for someone who is trying to take a day off from guild stuff, not so cool. I logged onto said character because it was one of those days I wanted to do my own things.

 

I mean no disrespect to others who like things like this, cool, heck, awesome even! I'm just saying, I am calling this a game breaker for me, not for others, to each his / her own. I need my time to be nobody's guild mate / friend, and I need to know I can safely log onto one of my characters without being investigated by someone in guild or anyone else, that's really all there is to it.

[Arlon_Nabarlly]

Yes I can ignore the new whisper but if I keep getting a message from the person I may get angry enough reading it that I respond without thinking.

 

That is EXACTLY what /ignore is designed for.

[Chickensevil]

Wow, I knew some people were very particular about their privacy, but never seen it taken to this extreme in a video game. I can respect your wish for privacy, since generally I am the first one out front fighting for privacy AFK even though, I myself, dont really stay too private. I strongly believe everyone should be afforded whatever level of privacy they want (even if that means they live in the middle of nowhere off the grid if thats what they want), should be their right.

 

That being said, this bug is totally awesome for those who DO want to communicate more effectively and should be further tweaked to make this better. As others have said, make it opt-in/opt-out whichever makes people happiest, and then work to further improve on this.

[TUXs]

Sure, I can try at least . Secret character is not exactly what I would call them. However, no, I am not hiding anything. I am what is called "Introvert" , meaning: I at times can play along with others, have a good time / fun in doing so. However, I enjoy my own solo time probably more.

 

This is why I don't want guild members or anyone else I meet along the way to know all my characters. If they know my Main in the guild, that's all they know. My alts are for those times when I am doing things for my account, dailies / weeklies / flashpoints etc.

 

On an alt, doing missions on some planet out there, I run into someone. we group up for a Heroic or whatever, that person adds me to their friends list. I have logged onto that character again days later, loading screen goes away, I'm now looking at my character and already have a whisper with something like "hey! where you been?"

 

Cool right? Well for someone who is trying to take a day off from guild stuff, not so cool. I logged onto said character because it was one of those days I wanted to do my own things.

 

I mean no disrespect to others who like things like this, cool, heck, awesome even! I'm just saying, I am calling this a game breaker for me, not for others, to each his / her own. I need my time to be nobody's guild mate / friend, and I need to know I can safely log onto one of my characters without being investigated by someone in guild or anyone else, that's really all there is to it.

 

I can certainly understand, and relate to that, but I still feel that the option to do "your thing", is entirely in YOUR hands. I fully appreciate your position, I've been there myself, just dying for that 15min of doing "MY" thing, but I still feel that that option is available to you if you WANT it. You don't NEED to reply, if you get crap from someone, you can tell them you turn off ALL chat on some characters or simply explain that at times, you need YOUR space. Anyone who doesn't understand your position, isn't really your "friend". It's OK to take your own time...it really is. You don't need to feel guilty, nor do you need to "hide" from others. This isn't a "privacy" issue, it's people wanting Bioware to make it easy for them to ignore others...and that's not fair to Bioware (and trust me, I have very little sympathy for them atm).