How the heck do you send a friend request to your opponent?

[BobbyRunout]

I sometimes have a good match and want to send a friend request to my opponent. But whenever I try to do this through the in-match add friend modal in the desktop client, it tells me it can't find the opponent's name. Is it because I also need to know their special secret number that I'm not supposed to know unless I already know them IRL, because WoTC doesn't want to get sued for enabling grooming on their platform?

[Berserkr]

You have to have their #number as well I believe
I'm glad it's not wide open friend requests allowed, this is a pain in the arse on Facebook with bots sending you friend requests just because you comment on a sports teams page or something, it would definitely get out of hand if wide open here on Arena

[BobbyRunout]

Originally posted by Berserkr:

You have to have their #number as well I believe
I'm glad it's not wide open friend requests allowed, this is a pain in the arse on Facebook with bots sending you friend requests just because you comment on a sports teams page or something, it would definitely get out of hand if wide open here on Arena

I hear you, that can definitely get annoying, but I wish there was some kind of middle ground where you could, I dunno.....let's say you could click a button that said "allow my current opponent to send me a friend request", and if both players clicked it, then it would notify both. but if only one clicked it, nothing would happen. so if both people opted in without any prompting from the other, you could become friends.

I dunno, just spitballing... just wish the social aspect was a bit stronger. Even on Chess.com you can send people friend requests and it doesn't get too bad...I don't think? I don't get too many spam requests on there, anyway, and I play a fair amount.

[Shawn]

You can't see it directly in the game client, but funnily enough, the ID is exposed in the player log.

You first have to enable the detailed logs by going to Settings > Account > Detailed Logs (Plugin Support)

During or after a match with a player you want to add, open your player log with any text editor. It's located at %USERNAME%\AppData\LocalLow\Wizards Of The Coast\MTGA\player.log (if you literally copy and paste this, it should open instantly)

Press CRTL + F and look for the username of your opponent, the #XXXX should be right next to it.

As an extra note, the log gets wiped every time you open the game, but you can find your previous game session on Player-prev.log instead.

[Nuggs]

you do indeed need their in game name and # and number to add them. And its not for anti grooming reasons lmao its for toxicity reasons.

MTGA is already toxic enough with people roping or alt F4ing their games when they know they lost rather than just conceding and with emote spaming.

Imagine if everyone you played against on ranked could just send you a friend request? Do you know how many people would do that to you because you beat them in a ranked game just to spam you with ♥♥♥♥ talk? probably over half the player base would lol.

look at something like heros of the storm that had open chat where you could just find a player you played with or against you got mad at, spam them ♥♥♥♥ talk and then block them so they cant respond. imagine constantly being on the recieving end of people like that.

thats why you cant add people you play against with out their name and digits and its kind of a nice feature lol

[Winter Wolf]

Originally posted by PussNuggets:

you do indeed need their in game name and # and number to add them. And its not for anti grooming reasons lmao its for toxicity reasons.

MTGA is already toxic enough with people roping or alt F4ing their games when they know they lost rather than just conceding and with emote spaming.

Imagine if everyone you played against on ranked could just send you a friend request? Do you know how many people would do that to you because you beat them in a ranked game just to spam you with ♥♥♥♥ talk? probably over half the player base would lol.

look at something like heros of the storm that had open chat where you could just find a player you played with or against you got mad at, spam them ♥♥♥♥ talk and then block them so they cant respond. imagine constantly being on the recieving end of people like that.

thats why you cant add people you play against with out their name and digits and its kind of a nice feature lol

Heya PussNuggets, welcome to the forums. I noticed you commented a bunch today and haven't seen you around before, so figured I'd say "hello" on the thread I have a response to.
That response: I disagree that many people would spam you with friend requests just to throw salt or be toxic. I think there would be some of that certainly, since we have children (both literal and metaphorical) playing the game. However, like anywhere with a decent chat system, this is usually preventable with an option to turn off invites if you are bothered by them or concerned about hate. MTGO, the most fully defined digital version of the game current available, has its share of bullies, haters and people who have no social awareness to speak of. But on there I've maybe blocked 25 people in the last 22 or so years.

In fact I have made more than a few lifelong friends on MTGO since its inception **because** there was a working chat system (albeit seriously crippled since WOTC made v4 in 2014). I have met so many friendly and interesting folks on MTGO that it saddens me that most have jumped ship from the game because of various decisions WOTC made that undermined the casual magic online community. I have high hopes for Daybreak.

MTGO's example might not entirely fit here because Arena isn't really ever going to have a fully implemented chat system. But Eternal, another game that's been around since 2017 or so has a decent Personal Message/buddy system similar to Arena's with the difference that you can invite the last person you played to be your friend. The change would not be that difficult to implement and the number of wiseacres on Eternal during its peak were quite plentiful but no one ever bothered me or anyone I knew who played the game via the buddy/chat system.

Emoting and roping are just culturally different than giving someone an actual piece of your mind. Of course there will be that one person that proves the exception.

[theDemolisher13]

Originally posted by Shawn:

You can't see it directly in the game client, but funnily enough, the ID is exposed in the player log.

You first have to enable the detailed logs by going to Settings > Account > Detailed Logs (Plugin Support)

During or after a match with a player you want to add, open your player log with any text editor. It's located at %USERNAME%\AppData\LocalLow\Wizards Of The Coast\MTGA\player.log (if you literally copy and paste this, it should open instantly)

Press CRTL + F and look for the username of your opponent, the #XXXX should be right next to it.

As an extra note, the log gets wiped every time you open the game, but you can find your previous game session on Player-prev.log instead.

This method no longer works

[Shawn]

Originally posted by theDemolisher13:

This method no longer works

I noticed it 2 days ago lmao, they finally obfuscated it

[theDemolisher13]

Originally posted by Shawn:

Originally posted by theDemolisher13:

This method no longer works

I noticed it 2 days ago lmao, they finally obfuscated it

Well this sucks what's the point of MTG without the G? They should seriously just make chat/open friend request optional/opt into that way people can't complain if they run into toxic people or not.

[Shawn]

Originally posted by theDemolisher13:

Well this sucks what's the point of MTG without the G? They should seriously just make chat/open friend request optional/opt into that way people can't complain if they run into toxic people or not.

It's really sad, everything seems to be catered towards younger people who get offended by everything and can't take a little bit of heat online. The mute/block button exists for a reason, if people would know how to use it, we wouldn't have these problems...

When I said I noticed it 2 days ago, I was playing a braindead junk combo deck in timeless and noticed my opponent playing literally the same core idea but with different cards. We were having a blast with the emotes so I wanted to try my luck adding them by checking the ID in the log. But to my surprise, it wasn't there anymore. I just wanted to have a laugh with my opponent dammit

[Mattou]

Wizard doesn't allow to add the opponent like a friend only for a good reason. In fact, if they do that, their automatic matchmarking which grant always the perfect deck counter of your won't works...This would make it impossible to have a 50% win ratio, and that would be unbearable for Wizard.

Real & only issue of this game is automatic matchmarking without allowing any friends interaction. You like the deck of the opponent ? You want to play again with him ? NO FORBIDDEN... never see it in another game...

[theDemolisher13]

Originally posted by Mattou:

Wizard doesn't allow to add the opponent like a friend only for a good reason. In fact, if they do that, their automatic matchmarking which grant always the perfect deck counter of your won't works...This would make it impossible to have a 50% win ratio, and that would be unbearable for Wizard.

Real & only issue of this game is automatic matchmarking without allowing any friends interaction. You like the deck of the opponent ? You want to play again with him ? NO FORBIDDEN... never see it in another game...

If their matchmaking is that fragile why don't they spend 1 update cycle to fix it to improve the health of the game rather then pumping more steroids into a dying horse? Like what Day Break Games did to Planetside 2. Fostering a community always out ways extends the life of any game massively. Also 50% win/lost ratio? Mate I don't know what you're talking about there I have a 90% lost ratio XD. Though that's usually my own fault for not having anything to deal with spell or infinity base combo decks.

[Berserkr]

You really think people want random friend requests from people they don't know? Personally I think it would get too out of hand, people send blind group invites, blind guild invites in mmos way too much this would definitely get abused

[theDemolisher13]

Originally posted by Berserkr:

You really think people want random friend requests from people they don't know? Personally I think it would get too out of hand, people send blind group invites, blind guild invites in mmos way too much this would definitely get abused

As an introvert that struggles to make the first move yes I want the blind request. Also again just have it be opt into else it's auto declined by default. That way if you don't want them then you don't have to deal with them. But people need to be more social as we're all getting too isolated in our boxes.

[Berserkr]

Originally posted by theDemolisher13:

As an introvert that struggles to make the first move yes I want the blind request. Also again just have it be opt into else it's auto declined by default. That way if you don't want them then you don't have to deal with them. But people need to be more social as we're all getting too isolated in our boxes.

As long as there's an option to auto deny or something
I'm happy being under my rock and in my bubble alone

[Alice Izuragi]

Originally posted by Shawn:

You can't see it directly in the game client, but funnily enough, the ID is exposed in the player log.

You first have to enable the detailed logs by going to Settings > Account > Detailed Logs (Plugin Support)

During or after a match with a player you want to add, open your player log with any text editor. It's located at %USERNAME%\AppData\LocalLow\Wizards Of The Coast\MTGA\player.log (if you literally copy and paste this, it should open instantly)

Press CRTL + F and look for the username of your opponent, the #XXXX should be right next to it.

As an extra note, the log gets wiped every time you open the game, but you can find your previous game session on Player-prev.log instead.

this no longer works it seems. i looked through the logs and it doesnt give the 4 numbers