I agree - another good option is security questions, those have always worked with me. And of course the scanned picture of the ID.
Also, yeah people lose email accounts (.edu's, .govs, .mil) but I would say half of the time people who 'forgot their emails' are people just trying to fluff the system. I have access to the same email accounts i've had since grade school, but thats only because I was able to retrieve them with security questions. While I do see that losing information to accounts with time is inevitable, I just think this whole SMS sytem is really, really flawed. Not being able to update the number upon getting a new phone, people simply not getting the text, not being able to see what number its even going to (or atleast last 4). Like I said originally, this entire process has just been extremely frustrating and not getting any feedback from the admins or devs about it just adds insult to injury...Basically "yeah we made the sms to protect your account, but if the sms system doesnt work for you, then that sucks"
I just want them to atleast buff out the scratches in the system, at the very least. Or now that problems are arising in the hundreds due to it, maybe do a reset, people can choose not to add on now that they know it doesnt work for them.
But above, the guy said admins could transfer character data, that would also be an easy fix for people in which this system doesnt work for, transfer their data to an account that doesnt have SMS, atleast now we will know not to use it.
I've kept all of my passwords and account names for any game or website in a composition book for years, nearly 20 pages of nothing but passwords, account names but I've moved so many times in the last 7 years I've lost half of my belongings in transit
Hopefully something comes of this, if not, at the very least, i would like to bring strict awareness of the problem to devs and admins.