As we prepare to welcome new and returning heroes with the launch of Overwatch 2 on October 4th, we have a quick update about forum access post launch.
At launch, access to discussion channels will only be available to players who previously owned Overwatch. Anyone with a valid Overwatch license, including those who bought the Watchpoint pack before October 4th, will continue to be able to access all discussion channels. We will be adding functionality in an upcoming update that will grant forum access to new players based on reaching certain milestones in-game. Anyone with a Battle.net account will continue to have access to the Technical-Support and Bug-Report channels, to report any issues with installing or playing Overwatch 2, in addition to our regular support tickets through the Customer Support Portal.
Thank you and we’ll see you in-game!
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Does this mean that people who can’t play OW2 can’t write?
Is this a way to reduce the number of posts criticizing SMS protection?
These posts will be deleted if they are in the technical support genre.
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I presume that’d depend on what:
-means. Taken generously, a OW1 account with gametime might count.
And if you’re one of the people who bought the Watchpoint Pack for a game you now can’t play but can’t get a refund for it you should also still be able to post to complain about it, if I’m reading this:
Heck, I can’t play OW2 and didn’t buy the Watchpoint Pack and I’m right here posting on these forums right now!
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Was wondering how they would handle in influx of new players. Seen it overload a forum before and make it nigh unusable until significant restructuring steps were taken. Good call catching that early.
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The problem is that new users, excluded from SMS protection, cannot participate in the discussion.
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Thanks for doing this update do you know if the forms will be replaced when Microsoft gets in charge
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While this does seem like a measure put in place to help manage a sudden influx of new users, it would bar anyone who hasn’t played Overwatch 1, and can’t meet the SMS requirement for Overwatch 2, from being able to voice that, outside of filing a ticket, which as of now just points you to voicing your concerns on the forum. It continues to seem like this is a loss the company is willing to accept.
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Will SMS authentication be required for all users to post going forward including OW1 owners?
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I would’ve assumed so but I’m still here, and you’d think they’dve enabled something like that immediately after OW1 went down.
(Now watch this post age poorly in a few days or something 
)
It just says you have to be a previous owner of Overwatch, so I would assume you would not have to go through the authentication.
If they did change it to where authentication was required, I would expect that they would have made a point to say that explicitly.
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The problem is about new users.
Overwatch could use a New Player forum like WoW.
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Wait does this mean someone can’t make a new account just to troll the forums anymore? If so this is the best change ever 
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Why is that a problem? It’s basically the same as the current system.
Blizzard does not host the forum and are beholden to whatever Discorse (the forum provider) is able to code into existence… and Discorse is notoriously slow at fixing and making things happen.
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Ah so I can still post and be upsetting to people 
To be fair, I don’t want to upset anyone lol.
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This misrepresents the number of users having problems
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Then I’ll be their voice when I say REMOVE THE SMS REQUIREMENT, NO FREE TO PLAY GAME EVER USED IT. 
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