Thread: How to see an anonymous players gear/stats

Have you ever wanted to see what someones gear setup or stats were but got the annoying anonymous message when you try to inspect them?

Well now you can get it quickly using the iphone application "LOTRO Herald"

All you need to do is type in the users name and server and it will display their gear/stats/crafting abilities all without being blocked by the anonymous setting.

I wont post a link to the app but if you want it just go to the app store and type LOTRO Herald.

Hope this helps!

I foresee many complaints to Apple to have the app removed from their store...

--W. H. Heydt

Old Used Programmer

...and it seems a little dodgy.

But I'm a suspicious bugger.

LOTRO Herald is a respectable application that has been around for a long time. It relies on information that Turbine freely makes available at all times through its data APIs.

The same information is available on myLOTRO and in character signatures.

myLOTRO can be set to be anonymous as well. So you can't get the information.

Of course, if someone actually is anonymous, why would any busy body care what their gear is?

Originally Posted by Lohi

myLOTRO can be set to be anonymous as well. So you can't get the information.

Of course, if someone actually is anonymous, why would any busy body care what their gear is?

Actually, the only thing myLOTRO's anonymous setting does is to "hide" the connection between a character's name and the community site (forum) name associated with that subscription. All the data on the characters are still available, they just can't quite as easily be linked to a forum name.

Edit: Here's a link to the forum thread explaining the gory technical details behind this, and why Turbine says it's "working as intended."

Confirmed I can still access my friends character information with the myLotro setting on private in LOTRO Herald.

How about respecting the wishes of the player in question to NOT be inspected ? If you don't like that, don't invite them to your groups.

Plain and simple.

Originally Posted by blipp

How about respecting the wishes of the player in question to NOT be inspected ? If you don't like that, don't invite them to your groups.

Plain and simple.

^^^

Pretty much says it all.

Originally Posted by blipp

How about respecting the wishes of the player in question to NOT be inspected ?

LOL, really? You're trying to look at the virtual stats of an avatar in a video game. You're not trying to peep into someones basement window through the shutters.

If this Herald uses the usual way of getting info on anonymous, it is neither breaking any EULAs nor going against the letter or the spirit of the "social network" (or whatever Turbine calls the system) and thus is completely legal. Turbine has explained it is WAI.

Can get the same thing via my my.lotro...


http://my.lotro.com/home/character/servername/charactername


Right now it appears that info is not updating though. My level 53 mini is still showing level 50.

Originally Posted by Skigorn

Can get the same thing via my my.lotro...


http://my.lotro.com/home/character/s.../charactername

Thanks for this link, an even easier way to see it!

Appreciate it.

Originally Posted by blipp

How about respecting the wishes of the player in question to NOT be inspected ? If you don't like that, don't invite them to your groups.

Plain and simple.

Tell that to Turbine. As already mentioned, they allow you to see chars on MyLotro anyway regardless of your option in game or on the forums.

Originally Posted by opurt

LOL, really? You're trying to look at the virtual stats of an avatar in a video game. You're not trying to peep into someones basement window through the shutters.

Same principle. Decency in game is not that much different in RL. jerks in game are more than likely be jerks in RL too; only difference is they try to hide it harder in RL.

Originally Posted by popkorn

Thanks for this link, an even easier way to see it!

Appreciate it.

Oh you're too fast! I changed it so that it didn't parse the link.

Originally Posted by Skigorn

Can get the same thing via my my.lotro...


http://my.lotro.com/home/character/s.../charactername


Right now it appears that info is not updating though. My level 53 mini is still showing level 50.

Or just type in a name in the search box at the top of this screen and choose "Characters" from the drop-down list.

Edit: The myLOTRO updates have been temporarily suspended due to the migration of former Codemasters customers to Turbine. Updates should resume in a few weeks when everything has been tested and is working correctly.

This is not a new thing people

LotRO Herald is actually linked to from the Media->iPhone section on this very site.

I think that's about all I'm going to say on the subject - because anything else I could add to the history of the data feed, or non-iPhone related alternatives, would seem strangely self-serving.

Originally Posted by opurt

LOL, really? You're trying to look at the virtual stats of an avatar in a video game. You're not trying to peep into someones basement window through the shutters.

Actually it's the same with the only difference being a matter of degree. The sense of entitlement people have these days is simply appalling.

I used to run all of my characters anonymous until I saw the "new, cool, tool" that linked information on my kinship website. I'm sure the app(lication) this "discovered" uses that same technique.

Originally Posted by Vhivi

Actually it's the same with the only difference being a matter of degree. The sense of entitlement people have these days is simply appalling.

I used to run all of my characters anonymous until I saw the "new, cool, tool" that linked information on my kinship website. I'm sure the app(lication) this "discovered" uses that same technique.

A matter of many, many degrees.
1.This is not illegal in the game or in RL. Peeping in someones basement window is.
2.This is not really creepy or sexual in any way.
3.This info is freely available and Turbine wishes it to be this way apparently.

This feels like an episode of The Big Bang Theory, with people feeling violated at someone seeing their avatars gear/stats when they don't wish it. If it was not cool Turbine would remove the functionality.

If people don't want me to know what that cosmetic outfit is made of or what traitline they're running for an instance, then hey, whatever.

But one has to wonder why they need to keep such things private, not as though it'd make an iota of difference to them if others knew it. The basement analogy is fair. To know what's in one's basement is hardly the same as what imaginary items and traits an imaginary character is using in an imaginary world.

The majority of characters I see running around with that silly anon tag on are healers, and turn it on to avoid begging requests.

Originally Posted by blipp

How about respecting the wishes of the player in question to NOT be inspected ? If you don't like that, don't invite them to your groups.

Plain and simple.

Exactly. I used to go anon because I got annoyed with people trying to tell me how to play their way. I actually had some guy flip out on me over in-game voice and then boot me from a PUG that was doing a DEED run in Moria. It's pathetic how nosy some people are. MYOB.

Here my thing about anonymous players. They boast on how good there gear is and such. Yet you can't see what they have.

Originally Posted by Celt_Ainvar

Here my thing about SOME anonymous players. They boast on how good there gear is and such. Yet you can't see what they have.

FTFY.

words1234

Originally Posted by Ayrolen

FTFY.

words1234

Oh sure - blanket statements are rarely true, but here's the problem. If some people are using the system to be stuck-up jerks, and the "can't be inspected" anonymous feature was created to prevent stuck up jerks from harassing others - then to me that just negates the entire purpose of that aspect of the anonymous feature.

I mean, it's just unfair to block something, under the pretense that it's to prevent harassment, when there are valid and completely acceptable uses for it. Especially when the fact that you can block something, allows other people the ability to use it to their advantage to harass others.

Whatever the app is, however you can gain this info anyway on mylotro, if people are anon, it's probably for a reason, at least respect their privacy. Or an even more novel approach, which hey we used to do when gosh you couldn't see what anyone wore, except as their avatar actually wore it... why not simply ask what you'd like to know about? Used to have actual conversations ingame started by "hey where did you get that cool armor/tunic/what have you".

that's my old grumpy take on it.

Originally Posted by GoldenusG

The majority of characters I see running around with that silly anon tag on are healers, and turn it on to avoid begging requests.

Exactly.


TenCharSystemEnforcedLoquacity .

Originally Posted by Vilost

Whatever the app is, however you can gain this info anyway on mylotro, if people are anon, it's probably for a reason, at least respect their privacy. Or an even more novel approach, which hey we used to do when gosh you couldn't see what anyone wore, except as their avatar actually wore it... why not simply ask what you'd like to know about? Used to have actual conversations ingame started by "hey where did you get that cool armor/tunic/what have you".

that's my old grumpy take on it.

To be perfectly honest, my "old grumpy" take on it, is that's the reason there's an "inspect" option in the first place - so people can find out what I'm wearing, and I don't have to worry about being bothered by them. Or, I don't have to worry about bothering others, as I can simply check what they're wearing, and look it up myself.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate talking to people - I just would prefer actual conversation without it having to start off about gear. Chances are, if someone asked me about my cosmetics - a google/lorebook search would probably give them more information on how or where to get it than I could.

Originally Posted by danno8

A matter of many, many degrees.
1.This is not illegal in the game or in RL. Peeping in someones basement window is.

non sequitur. It doesn't have to be illegal to be invasive.

2.This is not really creepy or sexual in any way.

non sequitur. It doesn't have to be creepy or sexual to be annoying.

3.This info is freely available and Turbine wishes it to be this way apparently.

The information is freely available because Turbine has made it that way. It's possible that the information has to be available by law, just like deeds etc. are public knowledge. The judgements people put on others after snooping out this information is no less defamatory than other forms of segregation ... by principle.

Your arguments are prime examples of the type of entitlement people expect. They don't have the basic decency to ask first, they just take. Yeah, nothing to be annoyed with about that.

May as well disable the anon then, if Turbine won't take steps to ensure that someone who doesn't want his character stuff viewable isn't actually getting what he or she wants.

Seems kinda wrong to me, to provide a backdoor for people to invade someones attempts at privacy while at the same time allowing players to fool themselves into thinking they can make themselves impossible to inspect or send blind tells to, even if it is a game. Would make more sense to just disable anon and avoid having all the extra holes in the system for information to go out. From a security perspective anyway.

There must be some money attached to it.

Want to mess with the app users? Take all your stuff off before you log. That should fix that.

To be honest, I always thought the "anonymous" checkbox in-game was only meant to keep you from showing up in the Social panel, and the inspection thing was just an unintentional side effect.

Back when gold spam was a big deal, this helped prevent otherwise quiet players like me from getting tells with advertisements, without having to restrict tells to their friends lists. I don't think it was ever intended to hide information from players you're already interacting with, such as talking on a chat channel or walking past in-game.

It came out about that time yes. It was terrible back then, speaking of, Turbine has come a loooong way from those days. Ever since restarting on the US servers here, *knock on wood* I've not had a single tell or spam email in game. Good job on that Turbine!

I turn it on when I get several tells in a play session asking if I want to run an instance, and try and remember to turn if off. Especially when I'm in a read all the quests mood, I'll turn it on. I could care less if someone is that interested in seeing what I have. I do get into moods where that DING gets annoying and I prefer not to hear it, which is as you said a by product of that, unfortunately.

Originally Posted by probitas

May as well disable the anon then, if Turbine won't take steps to ensure that someone who doesn't want his character stuff viewable isn't actually getting what he or she wants.

Because that's not the only use, and not even necessarily the primary use, of the anon feature. I turn on anon when I don't want to be bothered, the fact that it hides my gear and trait setup is a different feature.

Most of the time when I'm inspecting someone it's for a positive reason anyway. I like the way that outfit looks, I want to see what it's called. Or I think that person is really good at playing their character, I wonder if looking at their setup will give me some insight on how to be better myself. Or if someone in the group is struggling, maybe if I glance at their setup I can suggest some alternate trait setup or where they could get some better gear.

If someone else wants to inspect me, I dont mind. I'm not going to know it's happening, and they're not impacting my playing at all, so it can hardly bother me if they want to check out how I've arranged my characters pixels.

I don't believe the data on mylotro that this pulls from is exactly up to the minute at the best of times anyway. So if you use this to look someone up all you'll see is what they were wearing the last time it was updated which could have been an hour ago or it could have been several days ago.

Originally Posted by opurt

You're not trying to peep into someones basement window through the shutters.

The reason people want this information is so that they can brag about how much better they are or to exclude people from groups. People who are sick of that type of player prefer to keep the silly numbers private.

Originally Posted by Lohi

The reason people want this information is so that they can brag about how much better they are or to exclude people from groups. People who are sick of that type of player prefer to keep the silly numbers private.

Yep, and half the time when I've turned Anonymity on it was precisely because some moron decided that they needed to critique what I was using, my stats, etc. I find that to be obnoxious, and I'm thankful I can turn it off if I wish. Same deal with my MyLotro page... I have one public character, and all of the rest are non-public. I don't "advertise" my characters in my forum signature either (and in fact have that turned off so I cannot see anyone else's either).

What annoys me about this is A) they provided a way for people to be Anonymous and then circumvented it with a porous web service, and B) that Sapience claims this is how social networking is "supposed" to work. In a real social networking site like Facebook, we get to decide who can see what, which groups in which relationship to us get notified of what, etc. If everyone were allowed to see everything, neither my wife nor I (nor my kids) would have Facebook pages.

Does this keep me awake at night? No, of course not. These are my characters, not my person. But why even allow such Anonymity if it can be easily circumvented? When I've designed role-based, group-based, and user-based permissions for the products I work on, they're checked rigorously for every page (and even for each data element on every page)... you cannot bypass them simply by knowing the right URL. When a customer wants to hide data from certain groups (or even from "everyone" besides themselves), they expect it to be reliably and persistently hidden.

Put another way, if Turbine were to ask their customers who have non-public characters whether they want their character data to be truly hidden from web access or to merely have some links removed in MyLotro, what do you think that survey would say? I'd bet 80% would want it truly hidden, easy. Maybe 90%.

I understand the argument about wanting to have a full set of character data so people can do name searches, etc. OK. So how about they make it so that if a character is "non-public", going to their web page gets you a server, name, race, class, and level. That's it. The rest is private.

Khafar

Originally Posted by Lohi

The reason people want this information is so that they can brag about how much better they are or to exclude people from groups. People who are sick of that type of player prefer to keep the silly numbers private.

So, let me get this straight.

The solution to prevent people from excluding others from a group based on inspecting them, is to have an optional feature that allows others to prevent people from inspecting them?

Wait, what?

The very fact that you are willfully blocking the ability for someone to inspect you is going to automatically raise all sorts of red flags with that person. If you really did run into someone like that, they'd just require you to turn off anonymous, or kick you from the group anyway.

I mean it's kinda like getting pulled over for reckless driving, and refusing a breathalyzer. The very fact that you're refusing the breathalyzer is going to get you more scrutiny from the cop - he's not just going to let you go.

As far as bragging goes, as already was mentioned - those who want to brag can rest easy - thanks to this particular anonymous feature, they don't even have to have great gear to brag.

It never solved anything - if it did, then LotRO's epeeners are more stupid than words can describe - and now, it's actually causing just as much bad behavior (if not more) as it's theoretically preventing.

By the way; do the statistics come in a handy XML feed or similar structured format that would make data manipulation easy? Because I realized it would be simple to build a gearscore-type system atop this functionality. Someone just needs to assign values on gear, build an interface that matches the equipment with the scores, and release on iPhone.

"OD raid, gearscore 2000+ only!"

I usually run through ME with anon "on". If I want to go with some pug (very rare case) or if I want to join raid organized by another kin I usually switch it off, so the organizer can inspect me / see me.
Reasons:
- dont want to be bothered
- more roleplaying feeling - OR is it usuall in RL to ask anyone around in the street: "What do you have in your pockets?" (actually, very lore-fitting question, I must admit )

I find the whole anonymous thing silly.

If people really have such insecurities about their gear and can't deal with people in their group critiquing them, then I can't help but wonder if they just put their hands over their ears anytime somebody says something they don't like. I mean, really?

Imo it just encourages laziness and deceit, especially with the cosmetic system. You could join an instance with piss-poor gear, but tell everyone you're really pimped out, and just drag the whole experience down for everyone else because they have to carry you.

Now, what they should do is separate the "I don't want random whispers option" from the "please hide all my gear and stats from everyone else option," because there are totally valid reasons to use the former, and, frankly, none for the latter.

Ask them for an inspection. State your reasons politely. If they refuse, let it go. Some anonymous folks are really touchy when it comes to this issue. Not worth getting in an argument over it, really.

Originally Posted by Zetsubousensei

By the way; do the statistics come in a handy XML feed or similar structured format that would make data manipulation easy? Because I realized it would be simple to build a gearscore-type system atop this functionality. Someone just needs to assign values on gear, build an interface that matches the equipment with the scores, and release on iPhone.

"OD raid, gearscore 2000+ only!"

We already have a pseudo-gearscore system. It's called "Virtues". The most ridiculous way to see if someone qualifies for a raid or kinship, but I still see it used. Virtues not 10? No invite. What happens when you try to join with 8 Loyalty instead of 10? How much of a difference does that +6 vitality make?