darkSpyro

I got a notification yesterday that I had a new friend in game. I knew I hadn't sent out or accepted any invitations for weeks that hadn't already appeared in game, but I still have some friends listed in Activate that are not in game, and every few weeks one of them pops in, so I didn't think too much of it. But when I accepted, my name - my real name - was displayed at level 2 with the game centre icon instead of the Activate one.

Recently, my son decided to continue playing his old island (he stopped playing back in November and uninstalled the app) on my old iPod, which may be linked to that game centre id. I'm not sure how to tell - certainly when you get that banner at the top saying 'Welcome Back, X', it is my expected ID, not my real name. He had to follow through the intro tutorial actions before he could login to his activate account and restore his island - which he did no problem. That's the only thing I can think of that would have created a level 2 island with that id.

But even if that part is correct, there were definitely no invitations sent or accepted between that necessary starter island and anyone, so I'm still at a confused loss as to why it would appear in game on my island.

Anyone have any insight?

Also, I know how to easily pop into Activate and remove a friend. How do I get rid of this unwanted/inactive game centre friend?

The "welcome back" message sounds like it might be from GameCenter.

I am under the impression that existing GameCenter friends from other games who pick up the game become your friends automatically. It's new friends, whether Activition or GameCenter, that require confirmation.

Just a hypothesis.

Ah! That would explain it. The two devices were linked through GameCenter to play Ascension a while back. A long while back - I'd completely forgotten about that.

Strange that the GameCenter would save the starter game though and not overwrite it with the 'real' version of the game once my son logged into Activate.

A bit annoying to think that I'll now be sending this non-game a gift each day as I scroll down my list of friends giving each day, but I'll live. Yes, I know I just have to look at the name to not send a gift, but then it will appear at the top of the list, and it's easier to quickly give to everyone at once than bother looking at each name.

And just like that - this Friend has silently disappeared. I'm guessing it just took a while to overwrite it with the 'real' version and, once it did, recognized the same island as already being an Activate friend.