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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: 3, Interesting) by EEMac on Tuesday October 04 2022, @03:21PM (3 children)
>Those older games also aren't microtransaction farms,
Some older games aren't. But I'd like to remind readers that arcade games were literally microtransaction-based. You gave them 25 cents. You played a fun game for a few minutes. If you wanted to play again or keep playing, you gave them another 25 cents. Repeat for as long as you have quarters.
One of my friends got something like $10 in quarters and beat an arcade game (Altered Beast?). He was smarter than me, he got his satisfaction of beating it and never wanted to play it again after that.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 05 2022, @01:54AM
It used to be when the game ended, it ended and you'd have to play again. Then in the 80s they learned to end the game with "Continue?" and give you a ten second countdown using huge numbers to up your anxiety level and spur you to scramble to keep feeding the box. What really dampened my desire for the arcade was when they made a quantum jump from a quarter to fifty cents. That just bugged me at the time and it really curbed my desire to go to the arcade.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mykl on Wednesday October 05 2022, @05:22AM (1 child)
The pinnacle of my Arcade experience was being able to complete Midnight Resistance [wikipedia.org] on a single coin. Admittedly it was a pretty easy game, but it was very satisfying nonetheless!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Wednesday October 05 2022, @01:13PM
It was a great game tho, not very long. But good. The music was brilliant. Even tho the C64 SID version was far superior to the arcade soundtrack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ9_PTEut9o [youtube.com]