For this week’s Community Mondays, I wanted to talk about something I’ve taken to calling the Never Shall I Ever option, and how such a mechanic would be well received in MMOs. The idea comes from RuneScape, back when Jagex announced that players would be able to talk to an NPC to reset certain skills, a process that could only be done once and could not be reversed under any circumstance, players who wanted no part in the process were given an out.
You could talk to the same NPC and pick the option to completely disable stat resets on your account, permanently. Like the reset itself, this process does not expire and can not be reversed by Jagex under any circumstance whatsoever. I personally activated this on my account. Should it ever get stolen, and it won’t, the attacker may steal my stuff, but they won’t be able to damage the character itself.
So I would like to see this Never Shall I Ever mechanic implemented in other games, an irreversible process that cannot be undone because there isn’t anyone with the authority to do it. The process itself would have to be have some sort of protection to prevent hackers from using it maliciously, of course, but it would save a lot of headache for customers and customer service.
The question then becomes what can be protected? Players with no intention of ever deleting their characters could permanently protect them from deletion, disabling access from IP addresses originating in foreign countries to cut down on account theft, put extra requirements on purchasing cash shop currency or account services, etc.
What would you like to be able to disable on your account? Apart from the subscription fee.
MMO Fallout 