I would agree that the VOIP phone number bans aren’t productive and they need a better way to secure and authenticate unique users.
ALL phone calls are packet switched these days, and are functionally identical to using the internet to voice chat. The only major difference is barrier to entry to get a phone number versus calling someone up on Discord. But that is fraught with peril, as it likely isn’t possible to blacklist EVERY place you can get a burner phone number from.
I’d like to see Blizzard integrate hardware authenticators (Yubi-Key, et al) for account security purposes as SMS is weak protection… UNLESS you have a GOOGLE VOICE account SECURED by a hardware authenticator! Which would just be a round-about way of using a hardware authenticator to secure your account 
REAL ID, a hardware token, ISP checks (your IP may change, but the IP pool that ISPs use are known and people don’t typically change ISPs all that much), SMS authentication, hardware fingerprints, CC# verification… A LOT can be done to verify someone is a unique user.
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noone said about banning
Yet you want a report catagory
Yeah, it’s a special category that just sets the player’s MMR to the highest associated with their location and delays their access to comp.
Thats dumb. What if they really are a new person and people mistaken skill for smurfing
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Well, in that case they probably wouldn’t have an MMR associated with their key details and the system wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway.
What key details are we talking about here?
IP address? Cause if so, thats a complete breach of security
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Can you just like, read the post at this point?
Tracking CCs is a breach of Data Laws
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I think they can use it internally.
A lot of people are going to come to this and poke holes in any system we come up with to handle smurfs. All of it sidesteps the fact that smurfing is a problem. Not to mention, just because a system won’t be perfect means that the solution is to “do nothing”.
It also shouldn’t be up to us to find the proper solution. The devs should just be paying attention to us instead of ignoring the problem because it lines the pockets of their company.
I’m just tired of feeling robbed of a game because they have some level 6 tracer wipe my team when she shouldn’t even be playing with me in the first place.
At the end of the day, people need to always be with their skill level. It’s not right that you can choose not to play against higher SR because it’s hard, but because you get a smurf account, now I gotta deal with someone of a higher SR.
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I gotta agree that the Alt Account (SMURFF) 
+ 
needs to end.
"Great, Another blizzard Sale. Fine, just keep them OUT of my games until they want to invest time into their account and not just use it to Abuse people in chat. With the “icing to the cake” of Throw Competitive games for the sake of playing the game with their “friends”.
I get it. Playing with friends in an online game is fun. But dealing with the added toxic + that comes with it. is very annoying.
Quote: “I get the same, (lesser mature players) in matches, that want me to carry their team or help them level up their friends wants me to play better yet, just to cater to their whim. But how about just PLAY the game normal and use the ranking system and MMR system the way it was intended. Instead of buying ANOTHER account”.
You are at the SR you deserve!!
“Until players stop trying to circumvent the system, landing themselves CHAT bans and act civilized towards one another. Your Overwatch experience is NEVER going to be enjoyable and eventually each and every Blizzard-Overwatch sale drags the game down even more.”
I have to agree that Blizzard has lots of Merchandise potential for this game and really believe that they CAN make their paychecks with Cosmetics, avoiding the usage of RANDOM LOOT BOXES and be able to maintain proffit margins IF they so chose to do so.
" The Mercy Player base was the most UN-Tapped market for sales. Leaving mass rez alone, focusing on this player base would have earned the company top levels of MONEY. vs shallow sponsorships from outside companies. (Overwatch League)".
lolz… Im just re-iterating OLD quotes from 2017, 2018, and 2019 forums in a partial context to the issues of where players disrupt this game for everyone. Yeesh. gg wp.
Jeff has said that…because like MOST of the major issues overwatch has…Jeff doesn’t know how to solve them.
I don’t like companies tracking normal people for silly reasons . I’d rather they just admit comp is a farce tbh
I really like the mmr tbh. And wish it took priority. I would rather scrap comp altogether.
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If you change MMR based on hardware, you can now be forcing someone to play at an MMR too high for them. Console offers different accounts because multiple people might use that console. If I played console and my sister also used it but she was silver and I was diamond, what now my sister who is silver has to play in diamond ?
I’m okay with minimum level to play comp being higher.
I don’t think it’s realistic or fair to be able to report someone because they are on a new account. There is nothing wrong with alt accs and it is not the player’s fault if they make an alt acc and they place low and need to climb up. That’s the match maker’s fault for not being to able to properly figure out where they belong. Some people also make alt accounts because they feel like they are stuck because of anchor stats and want to start fresh. Some people make new accounts to practice heroes. I’m not a great Ana for example, so I’ve made an account to practice Ana. I’m like a gold/plat Ana but my Mercy is mid diamond. Should I not be allowed to practice Ana ?
Your first idea also has another flaw. On PC you can sign into your account on any PC. If I’m at my boyfriend’s house and I want to play Overwatch, what now he’s going to have his MMR changed to be higher because I logged into my account and it’s locked in the hardware ? Account sharing is against TOS so I can’t play on his account but now I’m not allowed to play on mine ?
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2 amazing things on this post:
- Someone actually believing Alt accounts are EQUAL to smurfs, like they should be on the same category.
- Smurfs are already on a reporting category: Sabotage. Smurfs are accounts that throw on purpose to keep a low rank so yeah, thats reportable.
I honestly don’t like alt accounts either because the system doesn’t know their real sr/mmr yet and they are placed around gold/plat usually… then stomp until master/gm. It is unfun and tiring to play against a new lvl 25 account in the enemy team then brag hes a gm and don’t care hes ruining it for us.
Having an alt account is not a punishable offence. Also we cannot know if someone is truly a smurf which would lead to a lot of false reports.
Psh, look at you, coming up with competent solutions to Blizzard’s problems…
If only they were smart enough to pay attention lol
That is absolutely true, I work in merchandising logistics so I see a lot of companies and what they make, what sells vs. doesn’t sell, and Mercy was such a hot commodity among the few OW things I saw, but no one at actual overwatch did all that much to capitalize on it. They could have easily made a cute hoodie pullover or t-shirt set that would have sold like HOTCAKES about 1.5 2 years ago on the convention circuit. I saw soooo many mercy cosplays, she was one of the most popular characters on the floor easily.
Honestly the merchandising from OW has been lackluster at best, their designs are very poor compared to the artists they hire to do other things (seriously, zenyatta’s dots? you’re calling that a ‘design’? who’s nephew made that in MS paint lol sheesh) and they have an active, captive market that they can advertise to - and then when they do products I see posts on the forums about the quality being sub-par, designs washing out etc.
A company like Blizzard should easily be able to sublet this kind of thing to another company that would handle it well, but they outsourced it from what I can tell to a pretty fishy company for that one Mercy design they did, if I remember people were unable to find much history on them at all. It was just odd, though I can’t remember details, it seemed like a weird move to me when I know of many handlers that could have pulled off that kind of print run in their sleep and these guys botched it so badly.
Anyway I’m rambling now, long story short; Overwatch could have made a MINT on their merch, and didn’t. Now? I don’t think the opportunity is the same, the market has shifted too much. The window is closed, sorry sir, this is a Wendy’s now.
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I don’t actually have a phone… I never leave my room so I’ve never needed one.