Phone Number Required to Play?

I don't give out my phone number to anyone...ever...for any reason. Blizzard/Activision is REQUIRING a phone number to play OverWatch 2. I played and enjoyed OW since release casually. I will NOT be playing OW2...along with many others for this reason.

In fact, Blizzard just solidified my plans to get rid of my cell phone and get a Land Line again. There are many people that are tired of being tracked and spied on by major corporations or governments and are doing the same. We didn't need cell phones 20yrs ago...we don't need them now.

Do you plan on requiring a phone number to play your game? If so, please let the community know now so we can stop supporting it. Thanks.

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Wiliest

No this is not a joke or a meme.

Azherae

Wiliest wrote: »

No this is not a joke or a meme.

So you will get a Land Line, but then not actually use the phone number from it to play OverWatch? Just making sure I understand.

McShave

I hope they require a phone number just so they can call you after you you make a bad play and say some dumb stuff like "ha, noob!" and stuff like that. Like, you try to pk someone who is gathering herbs and then they kill you after you engage, then your phone starts ringing. would be great 10/10 experience.

but seriously, I don't think a phone number is required? just email as far as i'm aware.

burnerecks@yahoo.com

We should start a list of things we didn't need at first, but do need now.

I'll start.

Medication for paranoid personality disorder.

Hinotori

Just wrap your cellphone in tinfoil.

Sapiverenus

@Euthenasia
@Natasha
Only reason spying, privacy invasion, and other boundary breaking isn't more pervasive and more "violating" is because of those that are particularly bothered and even 'psycho' about being spied on. And those that 'audit' the government by digging deeper.

Or do you guys not know what the NSA, CIA, whatever else are up to? PRISM? Windows backdoors? Intel/ AMD CPU backdoors?

It's just the world we live in.

faimx

just download google voice, get a free number.

BaSkA_9x2

You do realize it's quite easy to get VOIP numbers, burner cellphones, etc, right?

People who actually have reasons not to be tracked still use phone numbers.

BlackBrony

Wiliest wrote: »

I don't give out my phone number to anyone...ever...for any reason. Blizzard/Activision is REQUIRING a phone number to play OverWatch 2. I played and enjoyed OW since release casually. I will NOT be playing OW2...along with many others for this reason.

In fact, Blizzard just solidified my plans to get rid of my cell phone and get a Land Line again. There are many people that are tired of being tracked and spied on by major corporations or governments and are doing the same. We didn't need cell phones 20yrs ago...we don't need them now.

Do you plan on requiring a phone number to play your game? If so, please let the community know now so we can stop supporting it. Thanks.

Just buy a prepaid phone with cash, and use that number for games?
I mean if you really care about privacy you wouldn't use the internet, at least the "public" one.

Abarat

Euthenasia wrote: »

We should start a list of things we didn't need at first, but do need now.

I'll start.

Medication for paranoid personality disorder.

A switch to decaf, perhaps.

@Wiliest Why not just give them a fake number? People have been doing it for years.

ps. please dm me your phone number, i would love to discuss this further.

akabear

I would have thought giving a credit card number would be more of a worry than a phone number.

Each to their own I guess.

Fantmx

Wiliest wrote: »

No this is not a joke or a meme.

Yes it is, you just don't realize it.

WHIT3ROS3

Fantmx wrote: »

Wiliest wrote: »

No this is not a joke or a meme.

Yes it is, you just don't realize it.

This is a complete Joke and OP is the punchline.

maouw

I'm wary of giving out my phone number too - but if the company is explicit about not handing it to 3rd parties, I'm ok with that.
I don't like Personally Identifiable Info (PII) being used by a company's data analyses - but if they at least agree to anonimise the data before the number crunching (doesn't have to be true anonymity, just map it to a garbled string), that's a mid-way point that I'll reluctantly agree to. Simply because the more my PII is handed around the company, the more likely a breach of security will expose that data.

So, why not use a burner phone/etc.?
It's coz MMO's do much better if there's some sort of proof of id tied to every account - makes it way more difficult to create throwaway accounts for shady purposes. Plus, people take more responsibility when it comes to following EULAs, coz each account matters.

Public trust of institutions is really low now, especially following revelations around Zuckerberg - I don't really know how to fix that.

Extra context: I used to be more lax about this stuff, but I've recently had strangers trying to blame me for their speeding fines - it took months before the taxation office believed me. DESPITE IT BEING IN THE MIDDLE OF LOCKDOWNS WHEN BARELY ANYONE SHOULD BE DRIVING ---- gah I get so mad thinking about it

Gizban

What about a prepaid phone? I've been using tracfone for years, only pay $20 a month. I can't believe people shell out $100s a month for phone service.

Saying that, I do pay $120 a month for Starlink...

Liniker

you are being tracked right now by intrepid.. they can see your IP!! RUN

maouw

Liniker wrote: »

you are being tracked right now by intrepid.. they can see your IP!! RUN

SQuinTz

trust me spam callers from india allready have your number lol..

Deadfool

Maybe a hot russian woman will send you a message saying she is in your town and if you would like to hook up...

Gandalfthegrape

It was because you need a phone number and not that overwatch 2 is the same game as 1 and they are just stealing the game you paid for already essentially? If you actually looked a the snowden leaks you would know land lines were compromised loooong before the internet even existed. The way data is collected in itself is a security issue, anti cheat having kernel level access is a security issue. Requiring a phone number to get rid of most botters and cheaters is a good system considering the environment of already massively compromised systems. I hope they require a phone number for anything other than the trial. Killing rmt in its tracks is a must for any healthy mmo.

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