So think about this; top 500 in Overwatch’s competitive ladder requires phone verification for eligibility. This is a fine and dandy system, but what if it was actually extended to not only top 500, but to all of the competitive ladder?
The consequences would be immediate, too. Less smurf accounts on competitive, less throwers or people that don’t actually care about competitive, and a higher potential for a better experience playing the game. While this wouldn’t outright solve all of the issues that ladder has, it will at least alleviate the human aspect of it to make the game a more pleasant experience competitively.
If people are serious about playing competitive, they can take the time to verify their account with a phone number. And if people still want to use their smurf accounts, it will become a little harder for them to do it.
If done correctly, however, whether it be by requesting the user to input a code on their phone to verify the authenticity of it, or anything of the sort, then it would be come significantly harder for alternate accounts to be able to get into competitive.
What do you guys think? Should phone verification be required for the competitive ladder? What do you think would occur if it ever happened to be that way? Would you like it or hate it? And do you think the developers would ever implement something like this?
I think a lot of people who play don’t have cell phones, so it makes it somewhat difficult. You could also promote some shady things on the legal side of things.
But moreover, I think Blizzard is ignoring the problem of smurfs intentionally to get more revenue from sales.
With that said, I would personally enjoy it more if it were possible.
There are other games that require SMS verification for ranked play, if I recall. I’ve never heard anyone complain about those. However, yes I do agree it would suck for anyone who didn’t have an SMS number to play.
you wanna play ranked?
you have to get the code from the app on your phone to enter, so if you want to have several accounts for playing ranked, you need several phones…
How do you own a gaming PC/laptop but not have a phone. Everyone has a phone… Even 9 year olds on FOrtnite have a phone… Please… And if you didn’t have a phone. Ask your parents or sibling to use their phone so you can play competitive. Done…
people in africa have phones thats how they pay stuff there and get microcredits… if you dont have a phone then you are probably not allowed to play even ranked by your parents
I’m personally a fan of a compromise; verify with SMS to play at level 25, otherwise it unlocks at 100. This would at least allow the matchmaker to determine SR a bit easier.
While that is a decent compromise. I still think it would not eliminate the issues in ranked play. I truly believe ranked should be behind a SMS wall. And there will still be people who will find ways to bypass this (buying burner phones, using parents/sibling) but it would still drastically reduce the issue as not everyone will be bypassing.
Not everyone has a cell phone. Many people stick to landlines because they do not need a cell phone and/or do not want to pay for the plan. Cell plans are typically much more expensive, especially when you start tacking on data and texting to the plans. You also dont need a “gaming computer” to play overwatch. The game’s requirements are quite low to be able to hit 60fps.
There is guy with 2 accs in T500 lol
Probably and likely he is not alone.
It does helps but only to some extent.
Many people stick to landlines because they do not need a cell phone and/or do not want to pay for the plan.
Where is that? Nowadays many people I noticed dont have landlines. We dont have it either. Just gave it a thought, I dont think I know anyone who still has it at home.
EVERYTIME you wanna play ranked, you have to get the code from an app on your phone that is binded to the phone number. throw away phones wont help you there, only using the phone of your friend or whatever but then the friend always needs to give you the code which makes smurfing more annoying so people will think twice what phones they are gonna use.
That’s fine, you can also have automated systems where they can call your landline and a system reads out the code. PayPal and many other companies use this for verification.
It sounds excessive for a paid game. In a free-to-play game, sure, block certain features behind pay walls or other restrictions like this, but asking people to buy your product and receive only partial access to it is… questionable.
I don’t see how that would make any difference in this context. Use the same phone for both.
The problem with Phone Verification is that not everyone has valid access to a cell phone, especially those under the age of 18. It also wouldn’t perfectly prevent smurfs. Hell I have seen top 500 players already authenticate multiple accounts under the current system. I do believe there needs to be better controls over Competitive, but I fear this solution would be too detrimental on promoting new player growth of the game.