“It feels like being punished for being poor” over watch Player Richard Meunster tells my box via email. A long with 19 million other peopleRichard and his brother both use Cricket Wireless, one of the prepaid phone services that surveillance 2 will not accept its newly introduced mandatory two-factor authentication system, SMS protection.
Every single one surveillance 2 Players, including those who previously purchased over watch, must provide a phone number that meets certain requirements to start the game. As part of these requirements, numbers cannot be attached to a prepaid phone plan, land line, or use VOIP. Even though what remains of Blizzard’s heart seems to be in the right place – the developer hopes the requirement will reduce “both cheating and disruptive behavior” – players like Richard will be forgotten. Not because they don’t play well or don’t care or don’t want to have fun, but because they can’t afford the right phone.
Prepaid phone plans like Cricket and Mint Mobile allow people to prepay for the cost of their use. Although wrongly slandered as breaking Bad-Type “Burner phones”, prepaid phones are easier to fit into low-income budgets, with monthly costs typically ranging from $15 to $50. Some companies like AT&T even advertise prepaid services directly to low-income customers.
Richard, a college student, uses Cricket’s $50-month plan because “if you can’t pay it that month, they just turn off the phone instead of taking you to collection agencies.”
“If I get a regular phone plan and then can’t pay, my credit will be destroyed,” he said.
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At one point in 2020 there was 74 million Prepaid phone plan users in the US alone. Richard is far from the only one over watch player will expire.
“I’m ashamed of having a prepaid phone,” said one Reddit user posted in r/Overwatch and received a thousand upvotes in less than 24 hours, said. “I never thought I would be disqualified from playing over watch based on my ability to afford a phone contract, but here we are… Blizzard is the first company I feel too poor to play a game at.”
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“I can’t believe Blizzard denies access to people with prepaid phone plans surveillance 2” wrote one Twitter user. “Why is it important how I pay my phone bill? 6 years of my life, all the time, money and progress down the drain.”
Blizzard’s phone restrictions appear to be primarily and to a large extent affecting users of prepaid phone plans in the US, and the company has not returned my box‘s request for comments in time for publication. Prepaid phone users in other countries have reported be able to log into the game with ease, which some players suspect could be either because their country requires identification to purchase a prepaid phone, or because Blizzard has only banned known prepaid phone plans.
“Therefore, the system will not stop hackers or smurfs‘ wrote one Reddit user. “They’re just using a virtual number service that Blizz doesn’t know about.”
While Blizzard works on it, Richard and countless other low-income prepaid phone users are suffering.
“It feels like a huge injustice,” Richard said. “Cheap postpaid plans cost around $90. If you are a prepaid phone owner who really wants to play surveillance 2, check out $50 more a month to get a Blizzard-approved phone. Talk about going free-to-play.”
