SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the because-we-must-sell-cell-phones dept.
Polyon reports that players will be required to link an SMS phone number to their Battle.net accounts if they want to play Overwatch 2. "The same two-factor step, called SMS Protect, will also be used on all Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 accounts when that game launches, and new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare accounts," the report adds.
As the name suggests, this requires SMS "texting". That means normal landlines, VoIP numbers, some prepaid cell phones, and messaging apps are not allowed.
From the report:
Blizzard Entertainment announced SMS Protect and other safety measures ahead of Overwatch 2's release. Blizzard said it implemented these controls because it wanted to "protect the integrity of gameplay and promote positive behavior in Overwatch 2."
Overwatch 2 is free to play, unlike its predecessor. Without SMS Protect, Blizzard reasoned that there is no barrier to toxic players or trolls creating a new account if an existing one is sanctioned. SMS Protect, therefore, ties that account to something valuable -- in this case a player's mobile phone.
SMS Protect is a security feature that has two purposes: to keep players accountable for what Blizzard calls "disruptive behavior," and to protect accounts if they're hacked. It requires all Overwatch 2 players to attach a unique phone number to their account. Blizzard said SMS Protect will target cheaters and harassers; if an account is banned, it'll be harder for them to return to Overwatch 2. You can't just enter any old phone number -- you actually have to have access to a phone receiving texts to that number to get into your account.
The report notes that Blizzard has refunded one player after they contacted customer support and said they didn't have a mobile phone, but it's unclear if this policy will apply more broadly.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Tuesday October 04 2022, @10:01AM
I kind of stopped playing World of Warcraft, Blizzards other flagship game, a couple of years ago. While they didn't force you to hook up a security token then they did reward you if you did. As I recall it now your characters got a bigger backpack in game and you got some cosmetic items and a in-game pet. At first it was one of those security tokens but then eventually it was possible to just do it via phone and app. Not sure now if it was just the app or if it was SMS messages. Still I guess it was a good thing and an incentive and since it was a game that requires a subscription they already had your credit card information, unless you paid with tokens or game-cards, so they might as well have your phone number to.
I have not played any of the Call of Duty games since probably the first or second installment. Modern shooters just don't do much for me. I guess the part that matters then is the multiplayer aspect as they shouldn't care about your single player experience. But multiplayer shooters have turned into data-gatherers so that you can gain all your achievements and score points to get more achievements and buy or unlock things. That said I would think those things are almost secondary to the possibility to just smash the banhammer and block people that they find misbehave. Which is very common in all kind of multiplayer games. After all you don't want to lose access to the game you paid for and all your in-game achievements to just start over again.
I wonder if "securing your account from hackers" even make the top 3 or top 5 of reasons they do it. I would think that gathering more user data, behavior compliance (trying to get the people with online tourettes that just have to shit talk all the time to behave) would score a lot higher then any evil hacker attacks.
Have Blizzard blocked all such services? There are several SMS forwarding services etc that receive the message and then send it on. They can send them to other phone# or the email etc. Disposable or burner phones are sometimes just not an option everywhere anymore. That said I'm not sure you would want to use some disposable number that everyone or anyone can use and reuse to receive codes for your game since then eventually it will get recycled and someone else could get those sweet promos from blizzard and hijack your account. But for a game that requires constant online-access to work it seems somewhat silly that you would need a SMS capable device. Why not just send tokens or codes to an email address? It's not like phones can't be hacked or spoofed.
On a somewhat related note it does appear to me that Google have started a real spree with this attach a phone to your account much more aggressively then previously. It had not been an issue with gmail for many years but just this fall I lost access to two accounts due to them now demanding a phone-number to help "secure" my account from the evil hackers, cause we all know it has nothing to do with their creepy as fuck data-gathering operation. I guess I'll reclaim them eventually in the future if I care enough. But I'm not giving them my real phone-number.