Just noticed most of the people complaining about the SMS thingy are new accounts on the forum so i would assume it’s either rival companies trying to cause a stir upon release or they are actually the guys who thought they would have an easier time to create accounts and cheat.
I know there are people that might also have issue with the phone thingy but i am pretty certain they are minorities and if you don’t have a phone in 2022, might as well not have a good PC to play OW you trolls
Game is 13+ rating, can imagine even younger playing it, this alone could be reason why some people have pc but not their own phone, ignoring all the things about regional problems.
The irony in the fact that someone the other Day was complaining that Cricket was Denied and whom had well over 5,000+ posts
Yet someone walks in w/ a mere 19 posts and now all of a sudden everyone has as few posts as they themselves do….
You can check my account activity, there are posts from like 3 years ago, and also my profile is like diamond border ahh yes ironic
What’s that? You claim you don’t have a phone?
You don’t exist/you’re a smurf/you’re poor/just don’t play the game I guess
I don’t see the issue, they can ask for their parents mobile number for that, legit everything nowadays requires phone verification but somehow everyone makes it seem in OW community like we are living back in 2010 era or something
A lot of the people having trouble have phones, it’s just their particular plans are blocked by Blizzard.
Also, there’s a lot of underage players and some families play together with separate accounts but only have one phone.
….and?
You have 20 posts now?
Yet complaining everyone except yourself are all FRAUDS, right?
Yea the ones with the phone plans i agree they need to find a way to sort it out but i was referring to people who say they don’t have phones.
In the past few I saw at max possibly 2 whole ppl claiming they do NOT have a Cellular out of maybe 20+ whom said they cannot get Verified
Ok let’s go by your logic, i am a fraud diamond border player…what are you trying to achieve here??
You’re talking out your back side?
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/need-phone-to-play-wtf-bs-is-this/692751
Some people legitimately still don’t have access to cell phone for whatever reason. Heck, up until a few years ago I didn’t either since I wouldn’t use one enough to justify the cost and my parents were super slow to adapt.
SMS verification is great but while it works for most, some people are inevitably going to fall through the cracks. There’s alternative methods of account verification Blizzard could (and should) provide so no one gets left out.
Oooor maybe, and just hear me out here…
A lot of people have suddenly been told they can’t play Overwatch any more and have come to the forums to try and figure out what’s going on (and from what I hear Tech Support is redirecting people to this forum if asked about it.)
I know it could be tough for some, but we have seen how terrible OW1 was with smurfs & cheaters. I think blizz just had to make a choice and sacrifice the minority for a better game. If the same issue were to be addressed on OW2, the game will die fast and this is like their last chance to get things right.
This forum is so bad, developers literally stopped to come here for years and come here only for official notifications and very few other things.
Before in 2016-2018 they come here to talk with us of the game.
So isn’t really a surprise some type of “players” acting in this way.
But they are a very little part of the players, so they will be ignored like usually happen.
I rarely get on here myself unless i feel the state of the game is literally unplayable if you have seen my previous posts but yea like you said, it’s mostly a venting forum and i would rather think they would listen to the content creators to make changes.
Yup let’s sacrifice that minority of loyal players to cut down on smurfs/cheaters… that are likely going to still find their way into the game regardless. 
Just because there’s another obstacle in the way doesn’t mean that people out there won’t still cheat or smurf.
Why even take this route of sacrificing honest players when the problem you’re trying to solve will still be there?
That’s a very large portion of the potential Player Base left out in the cold don’t ya think?
Like dropping an Atom Bomb to kill a Bee
I recall someone someplace stated comparing SMS vs Players lost
But again, that’s just it, combating smurfs doesn’t mean Blizzard has to just throw up their hands and sacrifice that minority.
All Blizzard practically speaking needs here is a way to verify individual player’s identity that isn’t easily gotten around. SMS is easiest for most people, but it’s not the only nor even most effective way. I mean, it’s invasive, but submitting a driver’s license or similar ID card would definitely work for Blizzard’s purposes.