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[Miles708]

Or right.
The more barriers you make, the better. A phone number is the least invasive thing they can do. Players cry for anticheat measures all day without understanding that it means giving up portions of your "safety".

Installing a kernel anticheat is insanity to me. But a phone number? not really.

The concept of willingly giving unrelated personal info, only to be able to play an online game "because cheaters" is, quite honestly, something out of a parody.

I mean, they don't HAVE to make this game. If you can't find a way to make it properly without these ridiculous band aid "solutions", maybe it's best to not make the product at all.

 

[ParaSeoul]

They should entice you by saying you'll get sexts from your favourite character.

 

[Skifi28]

My concern is how I'll be able to play OW1 in the next few months ???

You won't, case closed.

 

[Uiki]

The concept of willingly giving unrelated personal info, only to be able to play an online game "because cheaters" is, quite honestly, something out of a parody.

I mean, they don't HAVE to make this game. If you can't find a way to make it properly without these ridiculous band aid "solutions", maybe it's best to not make the product at all.

No, they don't. There is not solution to cheaters. You can create as many barriers as you can: phone number, price entry, xp in game, anticheat, whatever. You can't make a f2p game without having all those system in place.

You don't have to give your personal info. Vote with your wallet, no? I'm not playing valorant, I don't want to give riot acces to my pc. But I fully understand why they are doing it and why it's needed. If you don't want to give your phone numer is fine. But saying that you can make a f2p shooters without proper measures to combat smurfs/cheating it's simply naive.

 

[SJRB]

 

[DeceptiveAlarm]

Who gives a shit. I never awnser mine unless I know the caller anyhow. I doubt Bobby is going to leave me voice-mail where he breathes heavy and sends me dick pics.

 

[JCK75]

Diablo Immortal was the worst thing Blizzard has ever done.... OW team: Hold my beer.

 

[nightmare-slain]

Who gives a shit. I never awnser mine unless I know the caller anyhow. I doubt Bobby is going to leave me voice-mail where he breathes heavy and sends me dick pics.

why don't you post your phone number here then?

post your home address too please! don't forget your bank details as well

/s

 

[DeceptiveAlarm]

why don't you post your phone number here then?

post your home address too please! don't forget your bank details as well

/s

Jesus christ. Lol. There is a difference between my number to a billion dollar company and giving you guys my bank details.

 

[Fuz]

People gonne start getting burner phones just to play Acti/Bliz games.

I know just the guy

 

[CeeJay]

How long before they start putting biometrics into all controllers as standard (voice, face, fingerprint) all in the name of anti-cheat and "improved experience"?

 

[adamsapple]

Whelp that explains this ..

Silent Hill: The Short Message rated in Korea

The Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea has rated the unannounced “Silent Hill: The Short Message.” Platforms were not specified.

www.gematsu.com

 

[SLB1904]

Why?

 

[Fuz]

giving out a phone number to a company at ordering or on goverment forms as a contact is standard.

It's not, and it shouldn' be in any case.

 

[Roman Empire]

Babe, it's 2 a.m. and Blizzard is calling me!

 

[Nautilus]

Next time, in Overwatch 3, Blizzard will require you to hand over your credit card information, so that you never miss a battle pass.

 

[nightmare-slain]

Jesus christ. Lol. There is a difference between my number to a billion dollar company and giving you guys my bank details.

still waiting on you giving us your phone number. we'll all send you nice messages...promise

 

[Xyphie]

Why?

Making smurfing/cheating more of a hassle. Requiring SMS verification for F2P MP is pretty common. CSGO and Dota 2 has had it for like 5 years.

 

[nightmare-slain]

How long before they start putting biometrics into all controllers as standard (voice, face, fingerprint) all in the name of anti-cheat and "improved experience"?

shhh don't give them ideas

 

[Roman Empire]

It's not, and it shouldn' be in any case.

This smells of Chinese investment and info gathering. No way in hell I'm handing out my phone number to Blizzard or any big corp of sorts. Fuck them.

 

[DeceptiveAlarm]

still waiting on you giving us your phone number. we'll all send you nice messages...promise

1-800-mesohorny

 

[nightmare-slain]

1-800-mesohorny

if you don't want to give out your real phone number just say so.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

No video game could ever have any legitimate reason to require your phone number.

Especially since Battle.net Authenticator has been a feature for years, then can just use that.

 

[hemo memo]

Nobody wants to know about your waifus and how you got STDs from them.

You are very wrong. Exclusive health packs?

 

[DeceptiveAlarm]

if you don't want to give out your real phone number just say so.

I'm obviously not putting my real number on a gaming forum. Big difference between that and a company. Amazon had had my number for years. Haven't pranked called me yet.

 

[ahtlas7]

with all the the spam text and calls I get I’m sure everyone has my number already.

 

[Fake]

'Do you guys have phones' is starting to make sense after all this time.


Yeah, can't wait to see someone defending this. Gonna give them a call.

 

[Ezekiel_]

 

[Miles708]

No, they don't. There is not solution to cheaters. You can create as many barriers as you can: phone number, price entry, xp in game, anticheat, whatever. You can't make a f2p game without having all those system in place.

You don't have to give your personal info. Vote with your wallet, no? I'm not playing valorant, I don't want to give riot acces to my pc. But I fully understand why they are doing it and why it's needed. If you don't want to give your phone numer is fine. But saying that you can make a f2p shooters without proper measures to combat smurfs/cheating it's simply naive.

I get that and I agree with you there, you have to plan measures against cheaters, that's correct and fine.
My point is that, between straight-up malware to install and personal identifiable information to give up, the solutions to "cheating" are worse than the problem itself.

Let's not forget, you're giving your real personal info (and probably access to your machine and files, with certain bollocks "anti-cheat software") just to play a shooter game online with randos. There's a profound disparity between the "price" you pay, and the advantage you get.

I mean, there are a lot of games out there. Let's not normalize this kind of behaviour, shall we?

 

[Punished Miku]

Who gives a shit.

Me. Fuck that shit.

 

[Three]

No video game could ever have any legitimate reason to require your phone number.

Data collection and identifying people for targeted marketing is their "legitimate reason". They want to use use your data for ads and sell them to partners.

 

[Fake]

Not too fussed about handing over my phone number if it is to help prevent cheating and keeping people banned.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Over reacting for the sake of over reacting it looks like. Laws here in the UK and EU prevent companies using your personal data for additional purposes (outside the one specified at data collection) and can’t force you to consent to marketing (or anything) as a precondition of a service.

What do people honestly think they will use phone numbers for?

 

[GymWolf]

Meh, everyone and their mother have my telephone number already.

The hero to unlock is a much bigger bullshit.

 

[Holammer]

GDPR is one helluva can of worms, so one likely solution will be an opt-out option for Europeans.
One big problem for GDPR compliance is that the second a player says "I'm [sexual orientation], I vote [party] or I have [disease]", boom! The data falls under an entirely new protection category and that's stuff they aren't allowed to deal with.
Even if the player could consent, the system will catch background conversations from other people and they aren't allowed to process that.

A friend of mine works with data processing for a government agency and it's a nightmare for them, no matter how they anonymize or delete data, it's never enough. How they hell does Blizzard think they can record thousands of hours of random conversations daily and handle the legal aspects?

 

[Fake]

So not only a phone number is required, but voice in every match is recorded.

 

[Haggard]

Well, that made the "do I try it nor not" -decision really easy.

 

[Pallas]

What’s stopping these “disruptive” players from using services like Google voice or some other VoIP to avoid giving out their real phone number?

 

[IWasInSeinfeld]

As a privacy buff, I have nothing against this, in fact I endorse it, go and turn on 2FA on all your accounts, however, 2FA (e-mail based) is already turned on by default, I don't think that this should be a requirement, unless they don't have a proper anti-cheat that can't detect bots, so they have to come up with BS.

 

[Saiyan-Rox]

Free to play




As long as you give us your personal info.....


This comment brought to you by go fuck yourselves

 

[Fuz]

Over reacting for the sake of over reacting it looks like. Laws here in the UK and EU prevent companies using your personal data for additional purposes (outside the one specified at data collection) and can’t force you to consent to marketing (or anything) as a precondition of a service.

What do people honestly think they will use phone numbers for?

How cute, so naïve.
Let's just gloss over that they shouldn't have nor require those data, but
1- I want to see how people eventually check & prove they are.
2- The fines for those infractions are MUCH LOWER than what they gain from them.

GDPR is one helluva can of worms, so one likely solution will be an opt-out option for Europeans.
One big problem for GDPR compliance is that the second a player says "I'm [sexual orientation], I vote [party] or I have [disease]", boom! The data falls under an entirely new protection category and that's stuff they aren't allowed to deal with.
Even if the player could consent, the system will catch background conversations from other people and they aren't allowed to process that.

A friend of mine works with data processing for a government agency and it's a nightmare for them, no matter how they anonymize or delete data, it's never enough. How they hell does Blizzard think they can record thousands of hours of random conversations daily and handle the legal aspects?

This is really interesting. I might get a burner phone just to mess with them.
Which country are you talking about?

 

[The_Mike]

 

[IWasInSeinfeld]

Okay.

 

[ManaByte]

ITT: People who haven’t played MP Overwatch in years fail to grasp the problem of Smurf accounts in a game getting sequel where it is completely free to create a new Smurf account.

 

[Miles708]

ITT: People who haven’t played MP Overwatch in years fail to grasp the problem of Smurf accounts in a game getting sequel where it is completely free to create a new Smurf account.

If the solution is giving your info and recording every conversation you have, the solution is simple.
Change game.
Really.

 

[Three]

Over reacting for the sake of over reacting it looks like. Laws here in the UK and EU prevent companies using your personal data for additional purposes (outside the one specified at data collection) and can’t force you to consent to marketing (or anything) as a precondition of a service.

What do people honestly think they will use phone numbers for?

To identify you and use that for marketing.

Privacy Policy:

How we use your information. The personal information you provide Blizzard, and that Blizzard collects automatically, will allow us to provide our games and services, fulfill your product or service order; alert you of new products or services, features, or enhancements; handle/route your customer service or technical support questions or issues; to send eCards or “recruit-a-friend” emails; and/or notify you of upgrade opportunities, contests, promotions, or special events and offers. We also use this information to secure our services and users, to prevent cheating and fraud, to monitor for toxicity, and to enforce our agreements with you.

Additionally, communications made using a product or service should not be considered private. By using the speech to text feature in voice chat, you understand that your communications may be used for transcription of speech to text, including for accessibility purposes. We do not retain the chat transcription after you end the session and close the chat window. However, by using voice or text chat, you understand that your communications may be monitored and/or recorded for accessibility, toxicity analysis (e.g. toxic player behavior), to prevent cheating and fraud, or for enforcement of Blizzard’s End User License Agreement (EULA) and/or terms of use. You acknowledge and agree that you have no expectation of privacy concerning the transmission of any user generated content or communications, including without limitation chat text, voice communications, or speech to text for transcription purposes. Because voice chat and other communications may be viewed and/or heard by other users, users should avoid revealing any personally identifiable information in those communications.

Last, we may use your personal information for internal marketing or demographic purposes and so we can adapt our products and services to better suit your needs. We do this to better understand and serve our customers.
Categories of Personal Information
PERSONAL IDENTIFIERS, e.g. account name, BattleTag, name, email address, phone numbers, home address, social media handles, legal guardian details, any open field such as chat records

Categories of Source(s)

You, both directly and through your use of our games and services:
Our vendors
Our affiliates and business partners
Social Media and other third-party accounts, if you choose to link them
Additional Purposes for Collection

Communicate with you
Customer Service
Personalize and improve your experience on our systems and websites
Newsletters, Marketing, and Surveys

"we may use your personal information for internal marketing or demographic purposes and so we can adapt our products and services to better suit your needs. We do this to better understand and serve our customers."

"Categories of Personal Information
PERSONAL IDENTIFIERS, e.g. account name, BattleTag, name, email address, phone numbers, home address, social media handles, legal guardian details, any open field such as chat records

Categories of Source(s)

• You, both directly and through your use of our games and services:
• Our vendors
• Our affiliates and business partners
• Social Media and other third-party accounts, if you choose to link them

Additional Purposes for Collection

• Communicate with you
• Customer Service
• Personalize and improve your experience on our systems and websites
• Newsletters, Marketing, and Surveys

 

[rodrigolfp]

No problem. And only Diva and Genji matter anyway...

 

[ManaByte]

If the solution is giving your info and recording every conversation you have, the solution is simple.
Change game.
Really.

As others have said, CSGO and Dota2 have required SMS protect for years. Warzone 2 does, and Fortnite requires 2FA for tournaments. It’s to prevent from making endless Smurf accounts to cheat and boost their rankings.

 

[SJRB]

So not only a phone number is required, but voice in every match is recorded.

This will allow Blizzard to "collect a temporary voice chat recording" of a reported player and transcribe what they're saying through text to speech programs. This text is then analyzed by Blizzard's chat review tools to search for "disruptive behavior."

How can anyone be okay with this? They're going to record literally everything you say when playing the game.

The fuck is wrong with you?

 

[Generic]

You need to put your phone number to turn 2FA on anyway.