The business model for Overwatch in Korea is very different than it is here in the USA, which means that there will be at least one person looking at it with longing. After all, there’s something seductive about the idea of not having to buy the game to play, just buying time on a PC in a gaming cafe and making a free account right there. Of course, the result is that the game’s Korean servers are like the wild west, as players can easily make disposable accounts for hacking antics that thoroughly demolish the game’s rules.
It’s like the wild west insofar as it’s a lawless wasteland, that is. The actual wild west featured very few teleporting robots, aimbotting purple French women, or invulnerable British lesbians who could teleport.
In response, Blizzard is changing how the account setups work starting on February 17th, requiring a permanent Battle.net account to log in and play even at a gaming cafe. The hope is that players who hack the game and get banned will then find themselves unable to create further free accounts to harass people who want prefer a version of the game not filled with hacks and nonsense. If you’re reading this while haunting the cafe and hacking your way through the game, know that your days are limited.
