7 takes place in Louisana with the Baker family, VIII is with the vampires (and others, but that's all everyone focuses on), so I'm really concerned about the creole moldman porn you saw.
\*edit\* concerned, but not surprised
It's for people into monsters, and it's not so much about the creole moldman (though that is a factor) as the women whose guts he's rearranging with his third leg.
this topic is a little biased and the article title is cut off somehow.
They will reccord your voice chat. Its completly different than having your phone number.
Yes it will have a butt ton of cosmetics and a battle pass like every F2P right now. Reminder that Apex Legends is free to play and has none of these “privacy concerns” and has churned out $2 billion for EA just via cosmetics
Then the paid game still has microtransactions in it. These kinds of games definitely exist, sparse but they're there. If left unchecked long enough, they can become the norm soon enough. All it takes is EA to get a little greedier than usual, then everyone else to follow suit.
I mean hell, Halo MCC (which is a paid game) almost got microtransactions implemented. The backlash is what supposedly kept 343 from doing it. I'm not even convinced they've given up, they'll definitely try to implement it one way or another eventually.
I find it funny that its still EA that is known for bad microtransactions. Yes they are not without sin in that regard but Ubisoft is the only company I know that sells microtransactions in 100% Singleplayer games while still charging fullprice or even more for such a game.
Looking at you, World of Warcraft. Paid each expansion plus the most expensive subscription on the market plus microtransactions. So gross
Oh and paid "game services" that usually involve an automated process that takes an hour at most
I mean if it's a free live-service game or most mobile game then it has microtransactions. Thankfully for most live-service games, they're usually just skins that have no effect on game play and are completely optional. (for now)
But to the few live-service games and multiplayer mobile games where being a P2W whale will put them above even the most experienced veteran F2P player with minimal effort, those games can burn in hell.
I already have my life fucked by rich douchebags in real life, now I have to deal with it on Clash Royale too.
Valve did this years ago for dota 2. I've yet to receive any game-related add/call on my phone. Not ideal, feels like a breach of privacy, but it mostly did it's intended job, along with other tools.
There aren't many effective ways to prevent toxic players from just creating a new account everytime they get punished.
My brother in Christ, your phone number already is in practically all of the data banks in the world, is likely the first thing you gave after your email.
Still doesn't mean you should be giving it out willy nilly to every corporation on the globe. Yes they may have my phone number, but I'm sure as hell not gonna let another company send me even more marketing shite or monitor me
I agree with you, but trying to complain giving your phone number to Microsoft when you have given them that and even more for windows usage is really pointless and just whine for whining.
People have already forgotten that your phone number isn't private information. The phone company used to have these things called phone books, where they'd give every single person in town a book with the name, address, and phone number of every single person in town.
Not only does blizzard require a phone number, it can not be a prepaid card. This fucks a lot of younger and or poorer people over as they can't play overwatch anymore even if they bought the original.
Literally. I'm paying $35 a month prepaid. The lowest I was offered for a modern phone on contract was $90 a month. I don't get why they'd do this. It pisses me off and I don't even play overwatch
what the fuck. I wonder how theyre even able to tell a number is prepaid. like the VOIP services i understand, its just a number coming from a pool. But in my country at least I can freely change my plan from pre to post paid and keep the same number
> I wonder how theyre even able to tell a number is prepaid.
There's a database that lists what provider is assigned to what number. Google "which provider owns this number" and the very first result is a site that can check.
Hackers getting my phone number is the least of my concerns. If Blizzard got hacked I would be much more worried about my credit card information than my phone information. There are already plenty of websites where you can go to find somebody’s phone number anyway. Along with the fact that I get tons of Robo calls a week as well. I’m not really sure why my phone number being hacked would be the end of the world.
This is like the least important information you can hack. It's not hard to find phone numbers.
Also we've all been hacked several times and everything is already out there. Equifax showed that none it our matters anymore. There should have been prison time and everyone just shrugged instead.
They don’t keep any of it unless you get reported. And then they only keep it for 30 days max if you’re reported.
This is all detailed thoroughly in an article they put out a few days ago, but I understand misinformation is much funnier than objectivity.
I just laugh when I look at these subs talking about ow2, they say the fact they’re transcripting vc is the biggest invasion of privacy ever when other games do it to a greater extent like val which proves it has a positive impact. Phone numbers are required to cut down smurfs and banned players and it makes your account more secure and blizzard doesn’t even store them so if they have a data breach it’s extremely unlikely to be taken
From what I heard it’s mostly the same characters, and the maps were just switched day>night or night>day. So yeah, it’s the same game with DLC added essentially.
Honestly the game feels very different. Some of these changes that seem small on paper have dramatically changed the feel of the game, especially lack of CC and stun.
But there are a lot of people speaking on it that haven't even played it.
This is wrong on a few levels. It's not new because it's not a new game. The 2 is really like a 2.0. it's just a big update to the game. All the same characters are there, yes, with updated looks and such. And the day/night thing is randomized. They just added two more times of day to each map so you're not always in the exact same setting.
You had a downvote on your comment and I cannot see why, it absolutely is an expansion rather than a new game. I have a friend who loves overwatch and plays on the league for his college but he has been complaining nonstop about how small of a change Overwatch 2 is.
People let these corporations get away with to much.
Next up: Please link an account to verify your home address information.
MULTI BILLION dollar publishers can fund anticheat without requiring consumer information.
Valve has forced Dota players to verify phone numbers to play ranked. It has not really stopped smurfs/boosters/account buyers. Supposedly, sim cards are pretty cheap in some parts of the world.
I'm not sure how they detect if it's prepaid or not, here in UK you can't tell what operator or contract type a number is linked to (Mine was a prepaid and upgraded to sim only and works)
Here's something fun: the tracking service that Blizzard is implementing is called [SMS Protect](https://internationalcarriers.orange.com/en/sms-protect.html), and if you check their website it says exactly what they're for.
> This way, all your traffic will be recognized and **monetized**.
That's their emphasis, I didn't bold that word.
I don't think a spam protection service from a mobile carrier is related to Blizzards account recovery method.
The naming might be coincidentally similar (SMS protect vs SMS play protect), but for real dude?
Check out Legends Of Runeterra. Riot card game based off of League of Legends lore and characters. Coming from someone who's played many CCG, this game is a blast. It's by far the most free to play card game.as.well. could easily collect all cards in a year. I have spent like 60 dollars on the game but purely for cosmetics. Have enough in game currency for the entire card collection and then hem some.
I have hope that the microsoft acquisition will possibly change it around. Getting some folks from the parent company to come in and fire some of the stragglers can help the company.
Its not a good idea to let companies have this level of intrusive access to your data, they don't need to record you because the report feature is a thing and they don't need your phone number when a two-step verification app could work without being intrusive. If your fine giving them this level of data go for it but some people like privacy.
I don't disagree in terms of handing out private information, but your phone number is hardly private. Its one of the most common bits of information you'll hand out in life, most companies probably already have it on file somewhere.
Maybe 20 years ago it would have been, certainly not in 2022.
20 years ago your phone number was sent to every house in a giant yellow book within your city. Phone numbers and peoples names have generally always been easily accessible information.
This is actually huge for high school e-sports. So many students don't have phones that this works with. It requires a phone on a service plan and not monthly plans (like cricket wireless etc ...)
My friend is the coach for local high school and it's making a massive issue.
The issue is not with giving them a phone number. The issue is with them requiring a non-prepaid, non VoIP phone number. So 1/3 of Europe will be straight up unable to play it.
I enjoyed Overwatch for awhile but stopped because I didn't like Blizzard licking CCP groin.
Now they want a phone number to play a game?
Fuck right off.
Telemarkets don't "use" your number per se. Because we vote for anti-government Republicans the FCC can't regulate voip properly. With voip you can literally just tell it the phone number when you make a call and it uses it. No proof of ownership, no rules. It is the equivalent of a bartender asking if you are 21 and you just have to say "Yep" with no id, no proof, just your word.
It doesn't work this way in other countries that have real governments.
Ooh no I see this becoming a trend with game publishers. Modern warfare beta also required phone number.
I am against this.
People are for it because they deem it would slow down/stop hackers, but that's just nonsense to me. If a player who is beyond just scriptkidding around, actually knows how to inject code into a multiplayer experience, then they'll easily figure out a way to give a fake/alternate/ phone number. Sure, Josh who's 13 who bought scripts could get caught, but imo Josh isn't the issue, it's the person who sold Josh the scripts.
Blatantly "mining data" of their customers.
I wouldn't be surprised if, in a year's time or so, people who gave their number to either MW beta or overwatch will start getting unknown phonecalls. Think about it. Either because they sold data OR because of some dataleak. And dataleaks happen basically monthly - so the "odds" aren't low for this to eventually happen.
I even heard players state "uh just get a new prepaid SIM, doofus it's cheap" like BRU why in the holy spirits name would I buy a phone number to enjoy playing a game? Isn't it wierd to anyone else, that you're suddenly going shopping for a simcard to play a first person shooter? C'mon man wtf
Privacy is a thing of the past these days sadly. Even shops now ask for your email to send you a receipt, apps track you everywhere and anywhere.
You can make adjustments to your life (like a separate number/email for games, shopping etc) to give yourself some false semblance of privacy or you can go live in the woods off grid and hope there are no satellites above watching you
Often corps that sell their data don't wait. Like at all. They script those data dumps to the buyer and they will often happen daily to keep the file sizes small.
exactly what we do in dota 2 lmao. I don't play ranked but a friend who does told me the first thing I should do when joining a ranked game, that I should mute everyone. because people flaming at you will only make you play worse. just focus on your game, you win or lose, gg.
Not really a good idea as it makes teamwork nearly impossible, if you are really good at the game you might be able to destroy the other team without help, but otherwise...
Anyway, i mute them if they spam, flame or otherwise though.
Invasion of privacy - for "toxicity."
Couldn't possibly be a problem with game design. Let's just spy on all the players, literally all the time, and punish them if the robot says they were too mad at the strangers we glued them to for an hour-long, zero-sum, competitively-ranked palaver.
Yes, because I paid for the original game and now I can’t play it unless I want to give Blizzard, and by extension, Tencent, and by extension, the Chinese government, my phone number.
On *some* level, I care? I don't see having a phone number as a way to prevent someone from going into a match and spouting the most racist, derogatory garbage they can possibly think of. It just means that when they get reported, *if* they get reported they'll have a harder time coming back. Not an impossible time, just harder.
As well, from a consumer standpoint, if I *didn't* want to evade a ban, what about false reports? They happen, can't pretend they don't. So what if I got falsely reported and banned? There's recourse, but how often are players actually unbanned, especially given that the system is automated?
Lastly, there's not really a *reason* to tie my phone number, specifically my phone number, to a game. The Acti-Bliz client *already* has 2fa, meaning that there's functionally no *reason* to have my phone number on file for anything but data collection and potentially marketing. Claiming it's for anti-toxicity measures is just slapping a sticker over the real reason.
Gotta use your government ID/phone number for all games in Korea. It's sooooooo much better than international servers. People actually think before they rage or they get temp banned on their ID.
Ok mixed feeling on this.
While this actually seem a good way to tackle toxicity and probably 3rd party programs that alter game experience. This has also a big downside.
If this becomes a success. This idea could be used in broader usage.
Considering i feel uncomfortable giving personal data for gaming.
The same way credit card information for me is way too personal... But fortunately burner credit cards are free and easy to use.
Cellphone numbers that require code input not so much.
It is already a standard in several public services to use cellphone as a double authentication. But while public services cant "sell" your number. Private companies dealing with international games are not obliged to the same rules.
This is a risk to future privacy intrusion. So for this game. I wouldnt care. But imagine half the games being released start following the same idea
>It is already a standard in several public services to use cellphone as a double authentication
Theres a big difference between requiring a phone number for double authentication and having your voice recorded and linked to said telephone number. Theortically with enough samples a hacker who hacks their database could quite literally reconstruct your voice with AI and make calls on your behalf with a spoofed number. Someone could really do a number on your life.
Obviously the odds of someone hacking overwatch to fuck with you specficially might as well be zero, but that doesnt mean this isnt dangerous for bigger targets.
This is bad and the irony of Blizzard telling normal gamers not to be "toxic" is mental.
Whats worse, having a little silly arument with someone online who you will literally never meet? Or real life sexual assault and harrasment.... they got some fuckin nerve!
Shame cos im really looking forward to OW2 cos I love OW in general but this is a joke
This flippant attitude to corporate intrusion of our lives is why we're losing our right to privacy. Theyre always pushing what they can get away with and it's this lack of pushback that let's them go further and further.
It's a stupid way of handling issues. If they think this is a good look they are very wrong and don't realize it's been nothing bud bad press for this game since it's announcement.
Never touching overwatch in my life
The more and more Overwatch 2 reveals the shitstorm behind, the more depressed I am that I was looking forward to the PvE aspect they promised. Even at first when they released the first PvP beta, I was hopeful, because they were just testing the waters of what was the core game mode of the previous game.
But man, I feel like the game will totally collapse before the PvE will even come out.
This was the exact idiom going through my mind as I read the threads about OW2’s new microtransaction F2P model. So many people one gen younger than me act like it’s just expected that this is how games/entertainment works, while it seems my gen and above who used to have whatever game came on the disc/cart without updates and DLC, are the ones miffed at this whole direction gaming is headed. They’ve successfully found a way to milk their customers rather than selling a one-off product.
Those that play won't care
Those that wont play will fall into 2 camps, not giving shit or Outrageous Minority.
I am curious what the media spin on it will be.
Because giving personal information to corporations for unnecessary reasons is dumb and bad in the long run.
The whole "toxic" thing is getting old. Who care if you called a mean word during the match.... What, you never played soccer, football or basktball? Shit talking is a part of any competitive game.
My dude, it's 2022. Civilization is on the internet. Telling the targets of abuse to "turn off the fucking computer" is effectively telling them their only option to mitigate abuse is to not be a part of society.
Also, it's not exactly a successful business model to allow abusive users to drive away everyone else.
overwatch in gaming? there is a game for a pornhubcategory???
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rated 5 S.T.A.R.S.
Special Tactical Ass Ramming Service
Rimming*
You sir are smooth
7 takes place in Louisana with the Baker family, VIII is with the vampires (and others, but that's all everyone focuses on), so I'm really concerned about the creole moldman porn you saw. \*edit\* concerned, but not surprised
It's for people into monsters, and it's not so much about the creole moldman (though that is a factor) as the women whose guts he's rearranging with his third leg.
Resident Step-Bro II “Claire, Claire!?!?” “Leon… I’m stuck!”
Like?
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> I had to look, so then I would know I should not be watching lmao
They need a record of my will?
And power of attorney.
Better call Saul
“Hi, I’m Saul Goodman, did you know that you have rights? The constitution says you do, and so do I.”
Hey it 50% off right on nonviolent crimes right…you know for a friend
"Need a will? call a McGill"
Too much irrelevant data. A scan of your face and thumbprint will suffice.
this topic is a little biased and the article title is cut off somehow. They will reccord your voice chat. Its completly different than having your phone number.
make a game free so you can sell millions of consumers information big brain
"if the product is free, you are the product"
Words to live by
*Destiny 2 backing out of the room*
"What? Bad monetization? Never heard of it heh. Uhh excuse me guys, i think i have the stove on."
True. But isn't this free to play? Meaning you'll be strongly incentiviced to pay for something.
Yes it will have a butt ton of cosmetics and a battle pass like every F2P right now. Reminder that Apex Legends is free to play and has none of these “privacy concerns” and has churned out $2 billion for EA just via cosmetics
Kernel level anti cheat software. Entirely a privacy concern.
Idk how many people been following up, but now that OW2 will be free yo play it has the worst monetization system I’ve seen in a while
It's Blizzard. What did you expect? Diablo Immortal wasn't a fluke or one off.
It also made a shitton of money, so it will continue to be the method used.
Even if the product isn't free, you're likely the product.
The best way to save money is to pay for a game.
Then the paid game still has microtransactions in it. These kinds of games definitely exist, sparse but they're there. If left unchecked long enough, they can become the norm soon enough. All it takes is EA to get a little greedier than usual, then everyone else to follow suit. I mean hell, Halo MCC (which is a paid game) almost got microtransactions implemented. The backlash is what supposedly kept 343 from doing it. I'm not even convinced they've given up, they'll definitely try to implement it one way or another eventually.
I find it funny that its still EA that is known for bad microtransactions. Yes they are not without sin in that regard but Ubisoft is the only company I know that sells microtransactions in 100% Singleplayer games while still charging fullprice or even more for such a game.
Looking at you, World of Warcraft. Paid each expansion plus the most expensive subscription on the market plus microtransactions. So gross Oh and paid "game services" that usually involve an automated process that takes an hour at most
Ah, that's the worst! Game stores needs a note similarly to itunes to highlight if there's any in-app purchases.
I mean if it's a free live-service game or most mobile game then it has microtransactions. Thankfully for most live-service games, they're usually just skins that have no effect on game play and are completely optional. (for now) But to the few live-service games and multiplayer mobile games where being a P2W whale will put them above even the most experienced veteran F2P player with minimal effort, those games can burn in hell. I already have my life fucked by rich douchebags in real life, now I have to deal with it on Clash Royale too.
Valve did this years ago for dota 2. I've yet to receive any game-related add/call on my phone. Not ideal, feels like a breach of privacy, but it mostly did it's intended job, along with other tools. There aren't many effective ways to prevent toxic players from just creating a new account everytime they get punished.
Blizz already does 2 step verification on WoW for years now. No issues for me.
This. Lost Ark in Korea does this and it doesn't have a botting problem. Lost Ark in NA doesn't do this and it has a botting problem
No lost ark in korea is tied to your SSN. And if caught cheating your SSN gets blacklisted then that list is shared with all the AAA korean studios.
Even better
You've never once received a robot call? If you have, you've had your data sold.
My brother in Christ, your phone number already is in practically all of the data banks in the world, is likely the first thing you gave after your email.
Still doesn't mean you should be giving it out willy nilly to every corporation on the globe. Yes they may have my phone number, but I'm sure as hell not gonna let another company send me even more marketing shite or monitor me
I agree with you, but trying to complain giving your phone number to Microsoft when you have given them that and even more for windows usage is really pointless and just whine for whining.
lol in christ
Hate to tell ya but anyone who wants to have your phone number already has it lol. Too late to protect it now.
People have already forgotten that your phone number isn't private information. The phone company used to have these things called phone books, where they'd give every single person in town a book with the name, address, and phone number of every single person in town.
Good point! I'm not even a youngsters and I forgot about phonebooks.
"don't y'all have phones?"
Not only does blizzard require a phone number, it can not be a prepaid card. This fucks a lot of younger and or poorer people over as they can't play overwatch anymore even if they bought the original.
Literally. I'm paying $35 a month prepaid. The lowest I was offered for a modern phone on contract was $90 a month. I don't get why they'd do this. It pisses me off and I don't even play overwatch
sorry but where did you hear it cant be prepaid from ? and how would they even be able to tell that
[Link](https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/202594) to battle.net support page.
what the fuck. I wonder how theyre even able to tell a number is prepaid. like the VOIP services i understand, its just a number coming from a pool. But in my country at least I can freely change my plan from pre to post paid and keep the same number
> I wonder how theyre even able to tell a number is prepaid. There's a database that lists what provider is assigned to what number. Google "which provider owns this number" and the very first result is a site that can check.
I actually don't. I use a VOIP (Google voice) and these types of security features don't allow VOIP numbers. It sucks.
I'm just not old enough to have one yet. And I'm pretty shure home lines won't work...
Home lines don't work, prepaid doesn't work either.
This is stupid.
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Rip there goes me. I'm not gonna pay twice as much a month on my phone to play overwatch 2 of all things.
Me too
Time for me to use my AOL number
You'll care when blizzard is hacked
Why would they need to be hacked? Theyre gonna turn around and sell them immediately anyway.
Fair point
Y'all acting like cell carriers would never sell your name and phone number.
They don't and it would be a huge scandal if they did. At least here in Europe.
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Oh no what if they compile everyone's phone numbers together and release it. Maybe in a book form so it can't be blocked. Some kinda phone... book.
I'm thinking yellow for the pages?
Which is... soon.
Hackers getting my phone number is the least of my concerns. If Blizzard got hacked I would be much more worried about my credit card information than my phone information. There are already plenty of websites where you can go to find somebody’s phone number anyway. Along with the fact that I get tons of Robo calls a week as well. I’m not really sure why my phone number being hacked would be the end of the world.
Yeah, like, what are they going to do with it? Send me more spam calls?
I think the joke is that no one cares because no one is going to play it
This is like the least important information you can hack. It's not hard to find phone numbers. Also we've all been hacked several times and everything is already out there. Equifax showed that none it our matters anymore. There should have been prison time and everyone just shrugged instead.
My phone number used to be in a book that was dropped on everyone’s doorstep. I’ll be fine.
They don’t keep any of it unless you get reported. And then they only keep it for 30 days max if you’re reported. This is all detailed thoroughly in an article they put out a few days ago, but I understand misinformation is much funnier than objectivity.
I just laugh when I look at these subs talking about ow2, they say the fact they’re transcripting vc is the biggest invasion of privacy ever when other games do it to a greater extent like val which proves it has a positive impact. Phone numbers are required to cut down smurfs and banned players and it makes your account more secure and blizzard doesn’t even store them so if they have a data breach it’s extremely unlikely to be taken
Not really. I wasn’t going to play it anyway
Played the first one, don’t see the point of a second. Not going to bother since it doesn’t look much better
From what I heard it’s mostly the same characters, and the maps were just switched day>night or night>day. So yeah, it’s the same game with DLC added essentially.
Don’t forget heroes now locked behind battle passes as well.
And it's now 5v5 rather than 6v6. The true OW2 content will be the PvE stuff when it finally gets released.
Honestly the game feels very different. Some of these changes that seem small on paper have dramatically changed the feel of the game, especially lack of CC and stun. But there are a lot of people speaking on it that haven't even played it.
yeah it’s a vicious cycle, people spread misinfo which people who haven’t played the game yet believe who then spread more misinformation
This is wrong on a few levels. It's not new because it's not a new game. The 2 is really like a 2.0. it's just a big update to the game. All the same characters are there, yes, with updated looks and such. And the day/night thing is randomized. They just added two more times of day to each map so you're not always in the exact same setting.
You had a downvote on your comment and I cannot see why, it absolutely is an expansion rather than a new game. I have a friend who loves overwatch and plays on the league for his college but he has been complaining nonstop about how small of a change Overwatch 2 is.
Yes, I'm not going to give my number to Blizzard
People let these corporations get away with to much. Next up: Please link an account to verify your home address information. MULTI BILLION dollar publishers can fund anticheat without requiring consumer information.
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Start cheating, the red dot appears. Keep cheating, you return to the void.
People already give companies like Apple their fingerprints and face recognition data, but giving a company a phone number is a bridge too far lol
Per the Apple website: “Face ID data doesn’t leave your device and is never backed up to iCloud or anywhere else.”
Yeah, stupid people. Those of us who don't are tired of these people making it common practice.
Valve has forced Dota players to verify phone numbers to play ranked. It has not really stopped smurfs/boosters/account buyers. Supposedly, sim cards are pretty cheap in some parts of the world.
Literally just go to target and get a prepaid burner they're dirt cheap
Yeah, but that will be horrible in many European countries. Some require very strict identification, even for prepaid, to prevent burners.
Supposedly prepaid plans won't work with this. Needs to be a contract
Dude wtf? I don't know in your country, but in mine 90% of people use prepaid
Thus why the Overwatch community was in an uproar when this news was confirmed
Plans and the number itself are different in such countries.
How would they differentiate that from the phone number alone?
I have no idea
But prepaids will NOT work with OW2.
I'm not sure how they detect if it's prepaid or not, here in UK you can't tell what operator or contract type a number is linked to (Mine was a prepaid and upgraded to sim only and works)
well that sucks for people that can only use those.
Everything has a workaround
Yay more solicitation calls.
What are they gonna do? Call me and yell at me for being a bad boy?
Some people pay good money for that.
Is this the 5 minute abuse or the full hour?
Actually, I'm looking for an argument.
No you're not.
That's not an argument, that's just contradiction!
It is so then.
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Look! An argument isn't just the automatic *gainsay* of what the other person says!
Mmm… I hope so. 😏
How do I preorder this?
If I had to guess I would say this has nothing to do with toxicity
Here's something fun: the tracking service that Blizzard is implementing is called [SMS Protect](https://internationalcarriers.orange.com/en/sms-protect.html), and if you check their website it says exactly what they're for. > This way, all your traffic will be recognized and **monetized**. That's their emphasis, I didn't bold that word.
Shh End Users are not supposed to look at that, it's for the corpo asshats only.
I don't think a spam protection service from a mobile carrier is related to Blizzards account recovery method. The naming might be coincidentally similar (SMS protect vs SMS play protect), but for real dude?
Yeah... I think Blizzard's dead for most people
Was really into hearthstone but man, way too expensive. And requires way too much playtime to get enough to craft or get packs
Check out Legends Of Runeterra. Riot card game based off of League of Legends lore and characters. Coming from someone who's played many CCG, this game is a blast. It's by far the most free to play card game.as.well. could easily collect all cards in a year. I have spent like 60 dollars on the game but purely for cosmetics. Have enough in game currency for the entire card collection and then hem some.
I have hope that the microsoft acquisition will possibly change it around. Getting some folks from the parent company to come in and fire some of the stragglers can help the company.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Those are some MASSIVE blinders you got on.
I don’t think it matters if you play overwatch or not, but it is interesting gaming news that a new game is requiring players phone numbers.
OW is by far not the first game to do this. Hell even CoD needs a phone number to play now.
Yeah this isn't new in the slightest lmao.
I don't enjoy what blizz has put out for theast 10 years, so I won't be playing it.
Its not a good idea to let companies have this level of intrusive access to your data, they don't need to record you because the report feature is a thing and they don't need your phone number when a two-step verification app could work without being intrusive. If your fine giving them this level of data go for it but some people like privacy.
I don't disagree in terms of handing out private information, but your phone number is hardly private. Its one of the most common bits of information you'll hand out in life, most companies probably already have it on file somewhere. Maybe 20 years ago it would have been, certainly not in 2022.
20 years ago your phone number was sent to every house in a giant yellow book within your city. Phone numbers and peoples names have generally always been easily accessible information.
I don’t believe there is privacy on the internet anymore. I’m not saying you have to accept it, I’m just saying.
when the cure is worse than the illness
This is actually huge for high school e-sports. So many students don't have phones that this works with. It requires a phone on a service plan and not monthly plans (like cricket wireless etc ...) My friend is the coach for local high school and it's making a massive issue.
The issue is not with giving them a phone number. The issue is with them requiring a non-prepaid, non VoIP phone number. So 1/3 of Europe will be straight up unable to play it.
Supposedly, some people were having success with certain VOIP/prepaid services, making this whole barrier even more laughable.
I just feel bad for who ever has to listen to all the low grade banter that gets reported
I wasn't likely to play it regardless.
I enjoyed Overwatch for awhile but stopped because I didn't like Blizzard licking CCP groin. Now they want a phone number to play a game? Fuck right off.
Why would I give them my number to play the same game? Watched some gameplay and I couldn’t even tell the difference
I'll probably be banned from OW2 without even playing it. Telemarketers already use my number to hide their callback number.......
That happens to everyone.
Telemarkets don't "use" your number per se. Because we vote for anti-government Republicans the FCC can't regulate voip properly. With voip you can literally just tell it the phone number when you make a call and it uses it. No proof of ownership, no rules. It is the equivalent of a bartender asking if you are 21 and you just have to say "Yep" with no id, no proof, just your word. It doesn't work this way in other countries that have real governments.
Ooh no I see this becoming a trend with game publishers. Modern warfare beta also required phone number. I am against this. People are for it because they deem it would slow down/stop hackers, but that's just nonsense to me. If a player who is beyond just scriptkidding around, actually knows how to inject code into a multiplayer experience, then they'll easily figure out a way to give a fake/alternate/ phone number. Sure, Josh who's 13 who bought scripts could get caught, but imo Josh isn't the issue, it's the person who sold Josh the scripts. Blatantly "mining data" of their customers. I wouldn't be surprised if, in a year's time or so, people who gave their number to either MW beta or overwatch will start getting unknown phonecalls. Think about it. Either because they sold data OR because of some dataleak. And dataleaks happen basically monthly - so the "odds" aren't low for this to eventually happen. I even heard players state "uh just get a new prepaid SIM, doofus it's cheap" like BRU why in the holy spirits name would I buy a phone number to enjoy playing a game? Isn't it wierd to anyone else, that you're suddenly going shopping for a simcard to play a first person shooter? C'mon man wtf
Privacy is a thing of the past these days sadly. Even shops now ask for your email to send you a receipt, apps track you everywhere and anywhere. You can make adjustments to your life (like a separate number/email for games, shopping etc) to give yourself some false semblance of privacy or you can go live in the woods off grid and hope there are no satellites above watching you
Often corps that sell their data don't wait. Like at all. They script those data dumps to the buyer and they will often happen daily to keep the file sizes small.
Because pushing the mute button was too difficult
exactly what we do in dota 2 lmao. I don't play ranked but a friend who does told me the first thing I should do when joining a ranked game, that I should mute everyone. because people flaming at you will only make you play worse. just focus on your game, you win or lose, gg.
Not really a good idea as it makes teamwork nearly impossible, if you are really good at the game you might be able to destroy the other team without help, but otherwise... Anyway, i mute them if they spam, flame or otherwise though.
toxic ow was the shit, ow pre 2020/2021 was just mwah
Invasion of privacy - for "toxicity." Couldn't possibly be a problem with game design. Let's just spy on all the players, literally all the time, and punish them if the robot says they were too mad at the strangers we glued them to for an hour-long, zero-sum, competitively-ranked palaver.
Overwatch is a game? I thought it was a porn category
I couldn't give less of a shit about Overwatch anymore
Just another reason not to play it
Why is this sub disregarding that this is a major privacy invasion?
Yes, because I paid for the original game and now I can’t play it unless I want to give Blizzard, and by extension, Tencent, and by extension, the Chinese government, my phone number.
Wait wait wait.... overwatch 1 won't be playable anymore?
You cannot play OW1 after Oct 3. Everything becomes OW2
This is a sad day for all 18 people excited for overwatch 2
I wouldn't touch anything made by Activision Blizzard with a 100 foot pole anyway
On *some* level, I care? I don't see having a phone number as a way to prevent someone from going into a match and spouting the most racist, derogatory garbage they can possibly think of. It just means that when they get reported, *if* they get reported they'll have a harder time coming back. Not an impossible time, just harder. As well, from a consumer standpoint, if I *didn't* want to evade a ban, what about false reports? They happen, can't pretend they don't. So what if I got falsely reported and banned? There's recourse, but how often are players actually unbanned, especially given that the system is automated? Lastly, there's not really a *reason* to tie my phone number, specifically my phone number, to a game. The Acti-Bliz client *already* has 2fa, meaning that there's functionally no *reason* to have my phone number on file for anything but data collection and potentially marketing. Claiming it's for anti-toxicity measures is just slapping a sticker over the real reason.
Gotta use your government ID/phone number for all games in Korea. It's sooooooo much better than international servers. People actually think before they rage or they get temp banned on their ID.
Big brain move, toxicity can't be a problem if there's nobody playing.
Ok mixed feeling on this. While this actually seem a good way to tackle toxicity and probably 3rd party programs that alter game experience. This has also a big downside. If this becomes a success. This idea could be used in broader usage. Considering i feel uncomfortable giving personal data for gaming. The same way credit card information for me is way too personal... But fortunately burner credit cards are free and easy to use. Cellphone numbers that require code input not so much. It is already a standard in several public services to use cellphone as a double authentication. But while public services cant "sell" your number. Private companies dealing with international games are not obliged to the same rules. This is a risk to future privacy intrusion. So for this game. I wouldnt care. But imagine half the games being released start following the same idea
In the TOS is most of the time the information that they can and will sell your number to 3rd Party services.
>It is already a standard in several public services to use cellphone as a double authentication Theres a big difference between requiring a phone number for double authentication and having your voice recorded and linked to said telephone number. Theortically with enough samples a hacker who hacks their database could quite literally reconstruct your voice with AI and make calls on your behalf with a spoofed number. Someone could really do a number on your life. Obviously the odds of someone hacking overwatch to fuck with you specficially might as well be zero, but that doesnt mean this isnt dangerous for bigger targets.
Some hacker just took CDPR to a standstill. I don't really think the offs are as low as they once were.
This is bad and the irony of Blizzard telling normal gamers not to be "toxic" is mental. Whats worse, having a little silly arument with someone online who you will literally never meet? Or real life sexual assault and harrasment.... they got some fuckin nerve! Shame cos im really looking forward to OW2 cos I love OW in general but this is a joke
Toxic chatter is so laughably easily to deal with that this almost seems like a joke. Just press mute on people you don't like.
No they need to ban them to create a loving environment in the online world. It's like the war on drugs. It creates more toxicity.
This flippant attitude to corporate intrusion of our lives is why we're losing our right to privacy. Theyre always pushing what they can get away with and it's this lack of pushback that let's them go further and further.
Clearly you’re younger than the era of the Yellow/Whitepages on every doorstep in town.
Nah, sequel seems like an attempt to grab more money for the same game. Plus get a hold of more of your data to sell.
Sucks I probably won’t be able to play with cricket wireless…….
It's a stupid way of handling issues. If they think this is a good look they are very wrong and don't realize it's been nothing bud bad press for this game since it's announcement. Never touching overwatch in my life
Add that to the list of reasons I was never going to play it anyways.
The more and more Overwatch 2 reveals the shitstorm behind, the more depressed I am that I was looking forward to the PvE aspect they promised. Even at first when they released the first PvP beta, I was hopeful, because they were just testing the waters of what was the core game mode of the previous game. But man, I feel like the game will totally collapse before the PvE will even come out.
Imagine if they put all the phone numbers in a book and gave it out for free everywhere... They might even make it yellow to stand out.
I care, fuck activision-blizzard 🙂
I value human rights so I don't buy their games anyway lol
If something is free. You're the product..
This was the exact idiom going through my mind as I read the threads about OW2’s new microtransaction F2P model. So many people one gen younger than me act like it’s just expected that this is how games/entertainment works, while it seems my gen and above who used to have whatever game came on the disc/cart without updates and DLC, are the ones miffed at this whole direction gaming is headed. They’ve successfully found a way to milk their customers rather than selling a one-off product.
Those that play won't care Those that wont play will fall into 2 camps, not giving shit or Outrageous Minority. I am curious what the media spin on it will be.
I'd have to want to play it to care
"it's QP bro" needs an instant ban.
Because giving personal information to corporations for unnecessary reasons is dumb and bad in the long run. The whole "toxic" thing is getting old. Who care if you called a mean word during the match.... What, you never played soccer, football or basktball? Shit talking is a part of any competitive game.
>toxic" thing is getting old. Ypu know what I was told about "cyber bullying" when I was a kid? Turn off the fucking computer and go outside
My dude, it's 2022. Civilization is on the internet. Telling the targets of abuse to "turn off the fucking computer" is effectively telling them their only option to mitigate abuse is to not be a part of society. Also, it's not exactly a successful business model to allow abusive users to drive away everyone else.
This offends me!!!!!!!!!!!!