GuildOx introduces Alt Detection

WoW database site GuildOx, which ranks guilds, players and loot from World of Warcraft by reading data via the official WoW API, has introduced a sparkly new service for would-be recruiters.

Thanks to the introduction of account-wide achievements, GuildOx, along with any other site that is smart enough to extract this information from the API, can use the cross-account information to tell you exactly who that new player's alts are that's applying to your guild. So, if someone claims to have amazing gear, and anything else that isn't a linkable achievement on an alt, you can now check it out on GuildOx.

The functionality could allow a guild leader to see if the new person they're picking up is actually the worst trade chat troll on the server, for example. As GuildOx says, this can provide extra insight into applicants when recruiting new guild members. If you think you'd benefit from this, then you can check it out on GuildOx's new service by viewing one of the site creator's characters, and all their alts.

There is, of course, a down side.

On the other hand, many players painstakingly create separate and distinct identities for each character, maintain different circles of friends on different servers, and may almost be different people on different characters.

If you were unfortunate enough to garner unwanted attention, you could once just jump ship to another character for a while. No longer, with this feature. You can now be tracked throughout Azeroth from just one character name.

So, if you want to disable this, GuildOx have been good enough to let us know how to do that, too. Hit Escape to bring up the menu, go into Interface, then Display and then check the "Display Only Character Achievements to Others" box. I know I will.

It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!