Whoa - anyone else catch this?

General Discussion
1

From the description on the Overwatch 2: Watchpoint Pack:

[A mobile phone number must be linked to your Battle.net® Account to play Overwatch® 2. ](https://account.blizzard.com/details/sms/setup/add)

Very interesting to say the least…

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2

Will this be a very good move against smurfing, or is there an easy way to spoof a number?

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There is money to be made doing so, so if there isn’t a way to do so yet, then there will be soon.

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4

Lots of people have at least one spare phone/2nd sim slot. I can buy 3 sim cards for $0.25 inc free shipping from ebay.

Not exactly going to stop anybody.

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5

From what I’ve heard, you can just sign up to Google Voice to get a phone number for free without a phone.

6

Sure but it will cut down on the endless accounts per individual.

Well it says cell-phone… that implies you will not be able to.

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7

I am not picking up a cel contract just to play this game.

8

Do you guys not have phones?

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9

Hell I don’t even have Internet…

10

You can’t even sign up unless you have a postpaid number apparently. I just tried and it gave me an error saying I needed a postpaid number :/.
"You will receive this error when adding a pre-paid phone number. Pre-paid phone numbers are not supported. Blizzard Customer Support cannot bypass this limitation. "

Guess this means everyone on prepaid(Verizon Prepaid, Cricket Wireless, Boost Mobile, etc.) are ineligible to play Overwatch 2, as well as things like Google Voice. Depends on how the number is classified I guess. Maybe some prepaid carriers would show up as postpaid, I have no idea.

I already paid for OW1, and now the game is getting taken away from me, just because I chose prepaid over having to pay for a monthly plan(it’s very expensive for me to get a postpaid, for a single line). I hope they change their minds, to at least allow all numbers, because this is terrible, I’ve been playing for years. I’d happily even use our house landline too if they allowed verification by automated calling codes.

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Hate to say it, but to stem alts/smurfs, its necessary. I think you have point a though, if the number is registered but you have no minutes does that still apply? I would think they mean you must have a number with a carrier.

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I’m sure people will find a way to get around it. I wouldn’t be too worried. It just might require you to do some googling.

13

It will still reduce the number over all alts/smurfs overall and that is a good thing. Now, if it doesn’t, we may have to go the social security number route like some Korean companies did…

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14

You can’t be serious

The war on smurfs is overrated. Sure they’re annoying, but it’s not something that makes my gameplay terrible.

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I am kidding but it was done in Korea actually in some cases, just heard about it. I mean an equivalent personal identity code given out to players might be the next step.

16

That sounds like a good way to kill your game. I don’t even want to give blizzard my phone number. Believe me, once there is a verified way to dodge giving them your real number, I will be doing it.

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As someone with an online number - because I can’t afford an actual one - Blizzard 2FA blocks it. It has to be an “actual” number. Discord and Twitch block it too.

So online numbers aren’t an avenue. You will need an actual, paid number.

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By limiting Smurfs? How so exactly?

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I actually don’t have a phone no, this means I can’t play? Already have the game on console.

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You would just be fine giving a gaming company all your personal information, even your SSN? I mean, if you’re fine with that…good for you I guess. Most people don’t even want kernel level anti cheat software…but you’re like, why don’t we do that, AND here is my identity. I guess to each their own.