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Phone Number Required to Play?
Wiliest
Member
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.
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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Comments
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.
but seriously, I don't think a phone number is required? just email as far as i'm aware.
I'll start.
Medication for paranoid personality disorder.
@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.
People who actually have reasons not to be tracked still use phone numbers.
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.
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.
Each to their own I guess.
Yes it is, you just don't realize it.
This is a complete Joke and OP is the punchline.
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
Saying that, I do pay $120 a month for Starlink...
Drinking refreshing snowflakes tears
Well we are lucky Intrepid is not a government agency that can track every move you do by having your phone number... PS: If you have an issue with it buy cheap google trash phone with a new number that is registered not on your name. Dunno how deep you want to go but at the end you should not even use the internet if I was you.
Still would like an official response to this. We shouldn't need to give up our privacy to PLAY A GAME.
Blizzard backed down from requiring phone numbers for existing players of OverWatch. I asked two upcoming MMO developers this question and the first one responded the same day that they will NOT be requiring phone numbers.
Will Intrepid invade the privacy of people playing their GAME and require a phone number?
Based on some of the responses above, I'm not the only one concerned about this.
Blizztard changed the policy to only require phone numbers for new accounts. Which is still ***** up. Why anyone would want to give them money in 2023 is beyond me. The only reason they changed the policy is the backlash they received from foreign players with account issues...and people like me.
I'm still going to continue asking this question until we receive an official response. I feel it's very important to keep the internet free...which incudes games. If I want to shop at Gamestop and buy a time card with CASH to play a game...I should be able to.
Nothing nefarious. I just don't think companies should have a right to my information...ever. I don't think it's too much to ask for personal privacy (in America it's a constitutional right), not to be tracked, or my information sold for profit.
So I'll ask again...will Intrepid respect it's players privacy and not require phone numbers to have an account?