I use it because there's no ''away'' button . Back on the Ps3 , i used to abuse the ''away'' status , because i didn't wanna be bothered sometimes when i played a game . But I know some people that appear offline for a month or more - if you appear offline , what's your reason ?
@nomither6 okay, I never used it until recently... and my reason is I met a friend online and although he's harmless (& I feel bad for doing it), I find him very annoying.
I have one day off a week (well, I have Saturday and Sunday too... but they're normally taken up by adult responsibilities etc) when I have an 11-12 hour sesh and it is the one time in the week that is mine and no one else's. Well, this guy just wants to party up and chat all day, which totally distracts me from the game I'm playing etc. and it was really getting me down. So after a few weeks of my day-off being ruined I now appear offline on that day (if I can remember to do it).
People invite me to things that I don't want to be involved in, but just saying, "No, I'd rather play games on my own while I talk to my cat than play anything with you," could possibly hurt their feelings. I just avoid that by being wink wink offline all the time.
I'm with @johncalmc in that I'd use it to avoid hurting somebody's feelings, because it's nobody's fault that I'm a loner and yet some folks might take a "no thanks" personally. I keep forgetting that it's a thing I can do, though, so I usually end up having to apologise to folks after-the-fact (because I've deactivated all notifications, except for trophies, to preserve my in-game immersion, so it can sometimes be hours before I've noticed any incoming message or party invite).
Besides, if you try and do three things at once, you're not gonna do any of them properly. I've never understood how people can be in a group chat whilst playing a narrative-driven single player game. What happens if you trigger a cutscene whilst somebody's in your ear, talking about the weather?
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@lolwhatno well I appreciate the props dude… and I have no intention nor want to hurt anyone’s feelings but life is short and sometimes you have to do what’s right for you (as long as it isn’t egregious of course).
I used to do it when I was younger and played online a lot on the Xbox with people so I could play a single player game on my own. My friends used to want to just sit in a party chat when playing other games as well as when we went on CoD or something, which I hated. It's also why I didn't like the way Xbox handled appearing offline, showing as "Offline" rather than "Offline for x time" so people knew you were actually online just appearing offline.
Thankfully now we are all adults it's rare to even play online together, and I've just been honest and said I prefer playing Single Player stuff these days, so I don't have to anymore. But yeah, basically to avoid people is why I used to do it.
@colonelkilgore I totally get that. Fortunately I think by now everyone knows I'm not the guy you call unless you need something very specific 😅
In your situation I'd be "appearing offline" too
@NedStarksGhost yeah, I could definitely see a teenage-me doing something similar. Probably seemed hilarious at the time I'd imagine... thankfully I've matured (a bit) since then.
Anyway, I'm sure the guy you were avoiding got over it... sure there are some people with genuine mental-fragility but I like to think that most people can get over these things.
Similar to others it’s the whole ‘I just want to play by myself without being bothered today’ mentality. Better than outright telling people you’re lazy.
@RogerRoger You can mute people in party-chat . I've played single-player games in party chat before & yeah , it wasn't pleasant . even when i muted them , i felt no reason to still be in the party chat because i was focused on the game . If im in party-chat playing a single-player game , i wind up catching myself free-roaming in circles because i cant play and hold a conversation lol .
@nomither6 Yeah, I fear I'd constantly have everybody on mute, given the types of games I play. At which point I'd be asking myself why I'm in the chat in the first place!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger@nomither6 Same boat as you guys. I used to hate my friends wanting to party chat even when playing different games. It's like if you tried to concentrate on a Single Player Game when you have friends around your house... Doesn't make any sense, why would you have guests if you wanted to play a game on your own?
@NedStarksGhost ...or inviting guests over and starting a movie ten minutes before they arrive, yeah. I get that some games are somewhat mindless (no criticism) and that some folks can multitask better than I can, but I find it distractingly confusing, or confusingly distracting. I've only ever used party chat to co-ordinate multiplayer, or when friends have occasionally wanted to watch me play something.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
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Topic: What's the psychology of why people '' appear offline '' ?
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