World of Warcraft testing Real ID Party

By Robert Purchese Published 15 July, 2011

Group with friends from any server.

Blizzard is testing a new Real ID Party feature in World of Warcraft.

It lets you invite Battle.net friends who use Real ID to your five-person WOW dungeon group - regardless of the realm/server they play on. You can all play together at the click of a button. But you must all belong to the same faction, either Horde or Alliance.

Real ID Party only works with five-person normal or Heroic dungeon groups. Friends on other servers must use the Real ID Battle.net feature for Real ID Party to work. You can only invite your Real ID friends, not friends of friends. Groups can contain Real ID friends and normal players from your server.

Blizzard hasn't decided how long Real ID Party testing will last.

A Real ID Party FAQ on the World of Warcraft website explains the finer points.

Real ID is an opt-in feature on Battle.net that lets you display and share your real identity with other users. This allows you to keep track of your friends across games even chat to them while they're playing StarCraft II and you're playing World of Warcraft, for example.

A Real ID FAQ offers a more in-depth explanation.

World of Warcraft recently welcome patch 4.2 and the return of Ragnaros.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (15) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • LazyDan #1 10 months ago

    Finally, that was a major gripe of mine when I last played. Might make the annual Warcraft urge as the nights crawl in and less goes on over winter a bit more tempting.

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #2 10 months ago

    It sounds like a really nifty feature. I wonder if, if successful, Real ID Party could expand to raiding.

  • Nephirion #3 10 months ago

    Most peoples " Real " world friends would do not play wow, I have no statistics to prove it, but I have a hunch this is prob the case.

  • mumblyjoe #4 10 months ago

    Wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be a premium service

  • MrFlump #5 10 months ago

    This was intended to be flagged as a premium service tied into the Mobile Auction House and Guild Chat service. If they do indeed charge a premium for this its wrong given that they aren't addressing the other issues such as faction balances on most of the servers.

  • TheDudesRug #6 10 months ago

    What have real world friends got to do with it?

    Anyway, sounds like a desirable feature if it were to remain free.

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #7 10 months ago

    I'd keep it free to promote the Real ID service.

    Not sure why Blizzard hasn't phoned to offer me a job. Oh well I'll keep waiting.

  • Daeltaja #8 10 months ago

    Wouldn't you be playing on the same server as your friends, anyway?

  • butler` #9 10 months ago

    It's incredibly important for them to keep it free. The potential affect on active subscriptions and retention could be substantial.

    Hell, everyone being on different servers is probably my main grip with modern-day WoW, and one of the big reason I no longer play it.

  • Zozzilla #10 10 months ago

    This is a great idea if everyone can use it without paying extra for it. It's a shame that most of my friends play Alliance and I play Horde...

  • Sar #11 10 months ago

    This is a feature that they intend to charge a premium for once it's done it's 3-4 week testing "phase".

    Frankly they can stick charges like this up their collective arses if they think I'll be paying extra for something that should be a part of the game as standard. Actiblizz already charges for the likes of server transfers whereas Rift doesn't. Rift server transfers are instant and free.

    I used to be subscribed to the remote function, but cancelled it when they announced this. If they keep going down this road I'll be cancelling my subscription completely and go off and play something else like BF3 or aforementioned Rift.

  • Flipper79 #12 10 months ago

    Great idea if it's free, next to pointless if it's chargeable (especially subscription based) since it'd rely on 2 - 5 people being willing to pay for the service. Mind you, in most cases, if you were wanting to only group with certain of your friends, especially if this was extended to raids, wouldn't it make more sense to either start fresh on a new server, or migrate realms if it's only 1 or 2 individuals? I know that's not always practical or possible for everyone, but if this is to be a chargeable service, for alot of people it still wouldn't represent the best option.

  • Arsecake_Baker #13 10 months ago

    It's completely pointless!

    My "real world" friends play and guess what? we all play on the same servers! Plus we all know each others names in rl something we play WoW to escape from, we don't need reminding that the paladin "Arthur Smith" is online! (if you get my drift)

    There has to be an ulterior motive for Blizz to keep pushing this.

  • Rack #14 10 months ago

    I wish they wouldn't ransom features like this, games have got so damned corporate lately.

  • Stratix #15 10 months ago

    "There has to be an ulterior motive for Blizz to keep pushing this. "

    Yeah, there is, not everybody is like you.

    I have friends dotted all over different WoW servers. This feature would be great for me, but I wouldn't pay extra for it.