Okay, so I lost my game last week and when I got it back the Next day, I was showing a blank avatar and user name "Player".  apparently, one of the players on my "Friends" list saw this and deleted me as a Friend, then posted a comment about them being tired of people just joining their Friends list without their approval.  So a couple of questions came to mind:

1. I wasn't aware that you could just get on someone's list without sending them an invitation and them accepting it.  Is this Not correct?

2. what's the big deal about accepting a Player with a blank avatar and "Player" as his user name?  Can he gain access to your Bank account and drain it?  Or What?  Why should you not accept them as a Friend?

Help me understand what the Big Deal is, I've got one on my "Friends" list right now.  FWIW, I played for years and made it up to level 89 with NO Friends other that John on my "Friends" list and only  used the blank Avatar and "Player".  I didn't think it was an "issue".

Hello Rodknocker,

I have wondered about this as well

I think that in some cases people are just very very suspicious and afraid, in other cases people simply don't understand how this game in particular, and the Internet and their computer in general actually works.

No-one can invite themselves or move in to your friend list without you accepting.

And of course tt does not matter whether someone's player name is this or that.

Some people doesn't pay attention when they have one less friend, and they don't see a connection when "another" friend suddenly appears. All they see is that someone whose name they don't know is suddenly there. And that makes them afraid and angry, and no amount of explaining it to them will be accepted.

They must live their lives filled with fear for others.

In the beginning when I was new to this game it happened to me as well, but I started to pay attention not to the names of my friends but their friend codes.

Friend codes won't change unless BFG or EG restores someone's game, but if my understanding is correct those players' friend lists are not restored with them.

When you lost your game and you still have your old number then you will have back all all you friends as soon as you have reached level 6. I think this is the only possibility to join the old friends without invite them and they don't have to accept you. I had this problem a few years ago. I have changed my avator and my name from player to my former name before level 6. You are a friend of me and I have seen you with the name player and an avator at level 109 (?). Now you have changed the name to rodnocker1. Is this your game? I am playing as Jara.

The fear of this "unknown" friend with the name "Player" and possibly no avatar is that they will "steal" your game identity and everything associated with it. I believe it stems from what we call the "hijacking" of our games. This happened to me back in April of 2020 or 2019. However, in my case the "hijacker" had a name - Mom - and an avatar - I don't recall what it was. The thing is we started calling these occurrences "hijacking" but the other player isn't even aware anything happened. It's just a glitch. In my case, I opened my game one day and noticed something was wrong. I don't recall what I noticed first, but something was wrong. Then I noticed my name had been changed to "Mom" and my level wasn't nearly as high as it should be. I checked my game ID # and it was mine. I had all of my friends but everything else ... coins. diamonds, inventory, avatars, pets, achievements ... every bit of it was different. Somehow I had the correct ID and friends - which are stored on our devices - but everything else was from this player called "Mom". When this happened to others, some said they had accepted a new friend - very often with the name "Player" and no avatar. And I think that's one reason people are leery of having a friend named "Player" or one without a selected avatar. That wasn't my case ... I hadn't accepted any new friends nor had I been sent an invitation by "Mom" that I rejected. I just opened my game and there it was. It took me a while to understand this is really just a glitch, but eventually I started accepting invitations from others even if they hadn't changed their name or avatar ... even if they hadn't posted in the forum they were sending me an invitation. Afterall, not everyone who plays this game is in our forum. Many of the friends I have had the longest were unknown to me when I accepted their invitation years ago.

That's the best explanation that I have for that fear. It may not be right ... it may be different from what others think ... it's just my experience.

If you keep a list of friends and use it for gifting it's a lot easier to know who you've gifted by name rather than having to look at the number because you have a bunch of friends named Player.

I WISH Mariya had put me up to 109, LOL!

I told her I had been around 100 or 101 and she put me at 103 but yes, that is I.  I told Mariya that I appreciated all she'd done to get my game back and while I don't want anything I hadn't earned, I definitely would like to have what I did earn back.

Now, with that being said, I really can't complain because she got me back to where I wouldn't be starting over again, not to mention all of those that have lost there games before I lost mine and they are still waiting to get their games back, some even after months.

so now I'm wondering about the "Player" that I accepted here recently.  Player/ no avatar/ level 54/ ID 902834....y'all have me "skeered" now, LOL!

Hi there,

I had been one of the posters on the other thread.

First, I believe it is correct that no one can just add themselves to your Friend list.  I do have one friend who constantly changes their Player Name and I'm used to it, so I just make a note of that in pencil.  However, my Friend count doesn't change when they do that.

Regarding the Novice avatar, it depends on what you can "get from" that player.  I myself have one that is on level 117 with a novice avatar which hasn't changed in forever, but their private room is open to one of the usable event rooms so I know to keep them on my list but just not gift them (I keep detailed lists of inactive players vs. active players).  I also agree that someone a while ago posted that they had accepted a mysterious "Player" with a Novice avatar and their game crashed shortly after.  I guess they were thinking it might have to do with that player causing a bug in the game.

Many times (myself included) when a game is lost, whatever level and user name it gives me I put on there what my old name or # was and as soon as possible I changed it back to my regular Profile name.

So just my two cents. :)

Well, I didn't think there was a reason to not accept an Invitation when someone sends one, so I just accept them when I receive one.  I don't know of any way to "vet" someone that sends me an invite, other than to come on here and ask.  And I really never even considered it since this is just a game and it would seem kinda "Paranoid" to come on here and ask "does anyone know XXX?".  FWIW, no one on here actually knows me, yet they send me invitations....I COULD be "playing the Long Game"....(Not really, I'm NOT that smart or patient, LOL!). 

rodnocker12 said:

y'all have me "skeered" now, LOL!

I don't let those bother me. I know what happened was a glitch ... the same as when a year later I got the dreaded 'Save" error and went back to Level 1. Similar to what just happened to you.