World Of Warcraft, StarCraft 2, Diablo 3 Players Can Avoid Stalkers Soon

Soon Blizzard will be making a much-needed change to the chat system in their games. Players will be able to make themselves seem off-line even when playing.

World of Warcraft, Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2 support cross-game, cross-server chat. Players can add each other to their friends' list based on their e-mail addresses (Real ID) or BattleTag. The feature first went live with the launch of Battle.net 2.0 in 2010.

Battle.net chat previously allowed you to set your status as Available, Busy, or Away. The latter two options never stopped particularly annoying players from messaging you non-stop, though. By choosing the "Appear Offline" option, you'll show up as "Offline" to friends even though you're playing.

This might seem like a small feature but it's certainly desirable. It's perfect for eliminating distractions during a World of Warcraft raid or maintaining concentration in Diablo 3's Inferno mode. Sometimes a warlock just needs some solitude, am I right?

This feature will be included in D3's Patch 1.0.5, which is currently being tested on the PTR. WoW will receive it sometime after Mists of Pandaria's launch tomorrow. Blizzard's holding off on implementing it in StarCraft 2 until the Heart of the Swarm expansion. Swarm is in beta now and expected to launch by the end of the year.