“It’s like being punished for being poor” Surveillance player Richard Meunster said My box by email. On with 19 million other peopleRichard and his brother both use Cricket Wireless, one of the prepaid phone services that Monitor 2 won’t accept for its new mandatory two-factor authentication system, SMS Protection.
Each Monitor 2 player, including those who previously purchased Surveillance, you must provide a phone number that meets certain requirements in order to start the game. Within these requirements, numbers cannot be associated with a prepaid phone plan, landline or use VOIP. However what’s left 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 are left out. Not because they don’t play well, don’t care or don’t want to have fun, but because they can’t afford the right kind of phone.
Prepaid phone plans like Cricket and Mint Mobile allow people to pay for the cost of their usage up front. Although unfairly decried as breaking Bad-type “burning phones”, prepaid phones are easier to fit into low-income budgets, with a monthly cost generally between $15 and $50. Some companies like AT&T even directly advertise prepaid services low-income customers.
Richard, a student, uses Cricket’s $50 monthly plan because “if you can’t afford it that month, they just turn off the phone instead of taking you to collections.”
“If I get a regular phone plan and can’t pay, my credit rating is destroyed,” he said.
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At some point in 2020 there was 74 million US prepaid phone plan users only. Richard is far from the only one Surveillance player being eliminated.
“I’m ashamed to have a prepaid phone,” a Reddit user, who posted in r/Overwatch and received a thousand upvotes in less than 24 hours, said. “I never thought I would be disqualified from playing Surveillance based on my ability to afford a phone contract, but here we are… Blizzard is the first company to make me feel too poor to play a game.”
Read more: Be Prepared For These 7 Big Ones Monitor 2 Gameplay changes
“I can’t believe Blizzard is denying people with prepaid phone plans access to Monitor 2“, a Twitter user wrote. “Why is it important to pay my phone bill? » 6 years of my life, all the time, money and progress in the sewers.
Blizzard’s phone restrictions appear to be primarily and largely hurting US users of prepaid phone plans, and the company hasn’t backed down My boxrequest for comments in time for publication. Prepaid phone users in other countries reported being able to log into the game without issue, which some players believe could be because their country requires identification to purchase a prepaid phone, or because Blizzard has only banned known prepaid phone plans.
“That’s why the system won’t stop hackers or smurfswrote one Reddit user. “They’ll just be using a virtual number service that Blizz doesn’t know about.
While Blizzard pulls through, Richard and countless other low-income prepaid phone users are suffering.
“It feels like a big injustice,” Richard said. “Inexpensive postpaid plans are around $90. If you own a prepaid phone and really want to play Monitor 2, you’re looking at an extra $50 a month to get a Blizzard-approved phone. Talk about going free-to-play.
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