Yet another blunder by Actiblizz.

[Shockzalot]

The SMS verification is another failed experiment. Thousands of complaints have arisen on the official forums about phone providers not being recognized by blizzard so you're unable to play OW2 with it's new verification. I have cricket wireless and I'm also one of the affected users. My number was originally a Verizon wireless number, switched to Straight talk for several years and several years ago I made the move to cricket. When I attempt to verify my number I'm shut out by blizzard. How ridiculous is it that there are likely tens of thousands of users if not more who are unable to play OW2 because of this new flawed system?

[Jester Joe]

Cricket is pay as you go, no?

They said it wouldn't work, it's not a flaw it's working as they said.

Google Fi works just fine for what that's worth.

[PhantomAgony]

It is a flaw. They are purposefully blocking providers. As well as those who don't have phones (Parents with children for example) Why should carrier even come up as a problem. They knew about it and did nothing about it. I don't understand why people are defending blizzard on this one

[Calfredd]

It is a flaw. They are purposefully blocking providers. As well as those who don't have phones (Parents with children for example) Why should carrier even come up as a problem. They knew about it and did nothing about it. I don't understand why people are defending blizzard on this one

Ah yes, now it makes sense. When everyone got angry at Wyatt Cheng when he said "Do you guys not have phones?", it was because they were all phoneless parents.

[doodle90]

Its a stupid decision especially when you think what socio groups usually use prepaid phones. They are essentially being classist. As some phone companies want huge deposits if credit is bad, etc etc. I've also seen parents with multiple children who bought multiple copies of OW so they could play not be able to log their kids into the game they paid for because they dont have multiple phone lines for each child. Who ever decided this was a good idea was a complete idiot.

[Shockzalot]

Cricket is pay as you go, no?

They said it wouldn't work, it's not a flaw it's working as they said.

Google Fi works just fine for what that's worth.

Mint mobile is pay as you go, there are very few complaints about their numbers being rejected. AT&T and Verizon have launched their own pre-paid services. Cricket and MetroPCS seem to be the worst affected by these changes. I've witnessed finger pointing that it's a cricket issue and they're not complying with FCC regulations. Apparently blizzard didn't even come up with the SMS system themselves, it was developed by an outside source and they made the determination what would be accepted by this new system and what would be rejected. There are over 25 million users in the USA who use Cricket and MetroPCS, that shut out a shit ton of potential players.

[Jester Joe]

Mint mobile is pay as you go, there are very few complaints about their numbers being rejected. AT&T and Verizon have launched their own pre-paid services. Cricket and MetroPCS seem to be the worst affected by these changes. I've witnessed finger pointing that it's a cricket issue and they're not complying with FCC regulations. Apparently blizzard didn't even come up with the SMS system themselves, it was developed by an outside source and they made the determination what would be accepted by this new system and what would be rejected. There are over 25 million users in the USA who use Cricket and MetroPCS, that shut out a shit ton of potential players.

Obviously they have a bias for Ryan Reynolds.

That's weird though if it is allowing a few pay as you go when they straight up said "no pay as you go".

It's just the simplest way though that they thought could cut down on smurfs and ban evasions (Admittedly possibly the laziest too). I'm not exactly saying it's amazing since you can only have one account per phone number so people who bought extra accounts to screw around on also get locked out of their extra purchases. Fully intended since it's "smurfing", but there's still justifiable reasons why some people wouldn't want to play on their main account.

[Shockzalot]

Obviously they have a bias for Ryan Reynolds.

That's weird though if it is allowing a few pay as you go when they straight up said "no pay as you go".

It's just the simplest way though that they thought could cut down on smurfs and ban evasions (Admittedly possibly the laziest too). I'm not exactly saying it's amazing since you can only have one account per phone number so people who bought extra accounts to screw around on also get locked out of their extra purchases. Fully intended since it's "smurfing", but there's still justifiable reasons why some people wouldn't want to play on their main account.

Straight talk is another that's not had many complaints on the official forums, it's the same service as Cricket. I became aware of a workaround with talkatone....you can pay .99c for credits and verify your account. Now how in the hell is that supposed to combat smurfs, toxic players or cheaters when you can spend a mere .99c compared to a $40 box price? It's a flawed shit system and blizzard will never adjust it.

[Jester Joe]

Straight talk is another that's not had many complaints on the official forums, it's the same service as Cricket. I became aware of a workaround with talkatone....you can pay .99c for credits and verify your account. Now how in the hell is that supposed to combat smurfs, toxic players or cheaters when you can spend a mere .99c compared to a $40 box price? It's a flawed shit system and blizzard will never adjust it.

Not everyone has access to an unlocked phone to constantly be shifting providers like that though. Especially if it's something as simple as them just having to cut out another provider from what they accept.

And Overwatch was often on sale for like, $10-20 or even less at times.

[GreenJesus]

Minorities and LGBTQA communities are disproportionately effected by this change. Blizzard is in effect enacting an ID and poll tax and on their game and disenfranchizing african american and LGBT players. Shame on Blizzard for their bigoted and racist policies.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

I don't get why they don't just go the route of issuing hardware bans to handle ban-evaders instead of this awful system. Seems like it would impact a lot fewer legitimate players.

[Relapses]

Minorities and LGBTQA communities are disproportionately effected by this change. Blizzard is in effect enacting an ID and poll tax and on their game and disenfranchizing african american and LGBT players. Shame on Blizzard for their bigoted and racist policies.

A... are you serious?

[Linkedblade]

The SMS verification is another failed experiment. Thousands of complaints have arisen on the official forums about phone providers not being recognized by blizzard so you're unable to play OW2 with it's new verification. I have cricket wireless and I'm also one of the affected users. My number was originally a Verizon wireless number, switched to Straight talk for several years and several years ago I made the move to cricket. When I attempt to verify my number I'm shut out by blizzard. How ridiculous is it that there are likely tens of thousands of users if not more who are unable to play OW2 because of this new flawed system?

I dont understand exactly why they are forcing this requirement? I've heard its to combat smurfing? So, you are only allowed to have a single account? Unless you have multiple cell phones?

[Vellus]

Minorities and LGBTQA communities are disproportionately effected by this change. Blizzard is in effect enacting an ID and poll tax and on their game and disenfranchizing african american and LGBT players. Shame on Blizzard for their bigoted and racist policies.

Oof imagining unironically having this take

[Linkedblade]

Its a stupid decision especially when you think what socio groups usually use prepaid phones. They are essentially being classist. As some phone companies want huge deposits if credit is bad, etc etc. I've also seen parents with multiple children who bought multiple copies of OW so they could play not be able to log their kids into the game they paid for because they dont have multiple phone lines for each child. Who ever decided this was a good idea was a complete idiot.

Primarily anyone say under 15, whose parents havent given them a phone yet. It's ridiculous.

[VoidSeeker199X]

[IMG]https://files.catbox.moe/dfcpu1.jpg[IMG]


Infracted for spam/non-constructive.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Oof, another brick on metacritic.

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/overwatch-2

I know Blizzard fans absolutely despise metacritic for eviscerating every game cash grab Blizzard has made for years now, but aside from all the connection issues (that Blizzard is now infamous for now), Overwatch 2 isn't so much Overwatch 2 as it is Overwatch 1.2 repackaged with updated monetization models.

[Jester Joe]

Oof, another brick on metacritic.

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/overwatch-2

I know Blizzard fans absolutely despise metacritic for eviscerating every game cash grab Blizzard has made for years now, but aside from all the connection issues (that Blizzard is now infamous for now), Overwatch 2 isn't so much Overwatch 2 as it is Overwatch 1.2 repackaged with updated monetization models.

You misunderstand.

Blizzard fans don't hate metacritic. People hate metacritic for the user reviews. Because for some reason, Randy Mcrandom crying "I CAN'T CONNECT TO THE SERVERS" and putting a 1 is considered the holy gospel.

You wanna give Overwatch 2 a bad score, by all means. But it is, under no circumstance, a 1. A 4-5? Sure. But a 1? Nah. Server issues are terrible, but you can't review a game you haven't even played.

EDIT - oh it's even better, people are trying to give it a 0 lol.

[Stickiler]

I don't get why they don't just go the route of issuing hardware bans to handle ban-evaders instead of this awful system. Seems like it would impact a lot fewer legitimate players.

Hardware bans don't exist as an actual system. Any purported "hardware bans" can and are bypassed via incredibly trivial methods.

I dont understand exactly why they are forcing this requirement? I've heard its to combat smurfing? So, you are only allowed to have a single account? Unless you have multiple cell phones?

To combat bots, hacking and smurfing. Nobody likes hacks in their competitive queues, so by setting requirements like this they make it harder for people to continually create new blizzard accounts and continue to hack in ranked, after they've been banned once.

[Yriel]

Primarily anyone say under 15, whose parents havent given them a phone yet. It's ridiculous.

Older people too, probably. I still do most of my calls via landline, i have a mobile phone but rarely use it so i only have a prepaid account.