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Phone # requirement in dota

KakitaMike·4/21/2017, 2:29:33 PM·9 votes·2,280 views

Valve adds Phone Number Requirement for Dota 2 Ranked Matchmaking - IGN

Seems like an interesting idea. Love the solo queue option.

Article below

Valve has announced a number of major changes to Dota 2's matchmaking, most notably an all-new feature that would require players to link their phone number to their Steam account in order to play ranked matchmaking.

According to the post on the Dota 2 Blog, the developers hope that this change will cut down on players using multiple accounts and lead to a more positive matchmaking experience at all skill levels. Players will have until May 4th to register their numbers, at which point any account without a linked number will be ineligible for ranked play.

In addition to phone number linking, Valve is bringing back solo queue along with an option to only match against other players that are queuing alone. In the past some solo players would occasionally be placed in matches with teams to speed up the matchmaking process, but now players can choose to opt out of these games.

Valve is also making changes to the reporting and discipline systems within Dota 2. From now on any player marked for low-priority matches (a special queue for highly reported players) will receive a duration based ban from ranked matchmaking. This punishment will be added in addition to the penalty games players currently receive. To further improve the experience for all players, a new detection system is also being put in place to better recognize undesirable behavior, such as intentional throwing and issue stricter punishments.

26 Comments

Big Lincoln4/21/2017, 3:09:16 PM4 votes

what a stupid idea

Great Muta4/21/2017, 2:34:29 PM4 votes

Cue "Someone might ABUSE this somewhere one time, so we can't have this"

And ** "Yes, other games have things like this but League is S.P.E.C.I.A.L and what works everywhere else would NEVER work here"**

DuskDaUmbreon4/21/2017, 3:16:40 PM4 votes

Phone number requirement? That's a terrible idea. Why?

Too easy to trick. I can pick any random number, really. It ain't hard to do.
If you require a text message verification, or some similar system, some people don't have a phone good enough.
Many people don't want to give personal information like that away for no reason. 10 seconds on Google can let anyone find your address from your phone number. Easily.

Oelyk4/21/2017, 3:28:23 PM3 votes

Well thats interesting.

Sarutobi4/21/2017, 4:33:29 PM2 votes

The only thing I would dislike about this is security. Any kind of breach could potentionally give out every single persons phone number.

Oleandervine4/21/2017, 4:15:03 PM2 votes

Why do you need a phone to play an online game? The days of needing phones to use the internet are long passed, to the point where most League players be like "WTF is dial-up?"

eazymakaveli34/21/2017, 3:03:53 PM2 votes

thats a retarded idea. ill use every phone number in the yellow pages.

Mizuki Zahra4/21/2017, 3:00:06 PM2 votes

it help with security like in gw2 I like it

NineTailedMystic4/21/2017, 4:12:15 PM2 votes

Would suck because I don't own a phone.

franticFurball4/22/2017, 12:42:06 PM1 votes

Literally the worst idea they ever had, but hey, there is a reason why DoTa has less than 1% the player numbers of League of Legends.

a) it completely fails because its easy to circumvent

In several countries, telephone numbers can be registered with mobile carriers using prepaid cards. People are willing to pay cash money for skins, does anyone truly believe that 5$ for a phone number is gonna stop anyone?
Many devices and services have telephone numbers that could be used for multi-accounting. There are people who have 5-6 telephone numbers available to them without even realizing it, or using them. Once tutorials spring up on that topic, that's gonna change in a heartbeat.
There are virtual number services which allow registration of a local number which is then forwarded. Cost: A few bucks. Time to implement: A few minutes.
Skype Numbers and similar VoIP services offer number registration.

This is the kind of idea that happens, when people with zero technical knowledge are allowed to make technical decisions.

b) privacy issues

Putting aside the fact that this system is easily circumvented, we do live in the age where people start realizing that online privacy matters.

So why should anyone be willing to give sensitive private information to a gaming company, in exchange for access to a service which is provided elsewhere without such requirements?

This ~~idea~~ brainfart is just another nail in the coffin of DotA2.

ModKnightsKemplar4/21/2017, 3:51:23 PM1 votes

I LOVE this idea.

I hope that Riot will at least look into this. I know that there are some questions as to how they can get around some of the issues, but really, this is a pretty ingenious way to solve some of the smurf problems.

WDrake4/21/2017, 5:18:52 PM1 votes

This is a great idea.

A text verification is a reasonable security feature. I use text verification with a few different sites/accounts so adding one to League is not unrealistic. Phone / Text verification is becoming industry standard (see: Google, Steam, etc).

Expecting a player to have a phone is also reasonable. They already have an internet connection and a computer good enough to run League. Unless the player is a child, everyone in League's target demographic likely has a phone.

The ideal situation is to not only control smurfing but to control bad behaviour in general. A phone number linked to the account makes it more challenging to create new accounts after being banned. It wasn't long ago that the experience required to reach level 30 was reduced, which makes a ban a minor inconvenience of time.

Let's review some points made in the replies:

item 2049 "If you require a text message verification, or some similar system, some people don't have a phone good enough."

item 2045 **Flip phones from the 2000's have been able to text with the most basic of interfaces. Unless you're using a land line, I don't know any modern cellphone that can't text. **

item 2049 "Many people don't want to give personal information like that away for no reason. 10 seconds on Google can let anyone find your address from your phone number. Easily."

item 2045 **The personal information is not being given away for no reason. Plus, the phone numbers wouldn't be public information anyway. If you're worried about hackers, they have been able to locate people with much less. That becomes a security issue rather than a phone verification issue. **

item 2049 "Suppose multiple individuals in the same family want to make an account. Some people wisely don't allow their teenagers to have cell phones, or some people cannot afford multiple phones... what then?"

item 2045 **Everyone can still play the game with their own accounts. Only those who want to do ranked games would need a number. **

item 2049 "If you're doing this to squelch the number of smurfs or to add security then there are many ways to beat such a system, such as spoofing numbers and various apps that will allow you to circumvent such a system. All this would do is inconvenience a significant portion of your player base."

item 2045 **Much like how you can "beat the system", the system can also be improved upon. Security is always a cat-and-mouse scenario. The typical password system is an "inconvenience" to me the odd time I've forgotten it, but it's still valued. Passwords, encryption, captchas and so on are still viable even if a few smart people can circumvent it. **

item 2049 "Maybe I don't wish to give out my phone number to play a video game online. Maybe I'm an adult in my 30s who just wants to sit down and casually play an online game without a lot of hassle."

item 2045 **For adults like us, we have phones and our own computers. The number would be a one-time entry (most likely) and you're good for life. **

DarkPh0enix4/21/2017, 6:02:26 PM1 votes

You are forgetting that league BANS players, DOTA doesn't unless a player is hacking and if they are hacking, they won't want him back either way.