Character Locked = Undeletable. Then... what would you do? [Pics included]

How many of you would like a feature that allows to "lock" a character and prevent it from deletion?

I'm not talking about accidental deletion, since you need to input your char name to delete it.
This kind of lock would be meant to prevent your character from being deleted by malicious people that in one way or the other get to know username and password of your account.

The lock is time based. For a set period of time that character can't be deleted from the account.
That period can be "renewed" before expiration.

Here are some screens on how this would appear in the character selection screen:





When you click on the "Lock Character" button, a popup comes out telling you: "WARNING! If you proceed with this option your character will become locked. This will prevent deletion for the next 6 months, so you won't be able to change your mind. You are allowed to renew the lock in the 15 days before expiration of the current one. Click on "Yes" if you are sure, click on "No" if you don't want to lock your character."





Then the character is locked. On the window appear the remaining lock days, and the buttons "Lock" and "Delete" are greyed out. (Obviously the lock isn't just a greyed out button for 6 months, it needs a server side check before deletion anyway).

___________________________________

On the technical side here is how I think it could be done.
Option (1): easier codewise, puts a bit of server stress.

The database records of characters need to get a new field: "Days_before_unlock".
This field is set by default to 0, which means that the character can be deleted at any time. (So, if this was to be implemented all current characters, as well as newly created characters would have a "Days_before_unlock" = 0).
When a player clicks on "Lock Character", the server sets "Days_before_unlock" to 180, and each day that counter is decremented.
When the server receives a "Delete Character" command, it checks against the "Days_before_unlock":

If Days_before_unlock!=0 then {
message: "Sorry, this character can't be deleted";
exit;
};
Else Delete();



If option (1) puts too much stress on the db servers, updating each day a single field for each character, here is
Option (2): a little bit more complex codewise, less server stress.

The database records of characters need to get a new field: "Date_of_lock".
This field is set by default to 0, which means that the character can be deleted at any time. (So, if this was to be implemented all current characters, as well as newly created characters would have a "Date_of_lock" = 0).
When a player clicks on "Lock Character", the server writes the current date in "Date_of_lock" (the same way as it does for character creation date, for example).
This way the servers don't need to update the field each day.
The code should then check against time spans, so it is a little bit more complicated than just check if a field is empty or not.

If ( Current_date - Date_of_lock < 180days) then {
message: "Sorry, this character can't be deleted";
exit;
};
Else Delete();


On the bandwidth usage, it is just a few bytes to tell the client if a given charachter is locked or not, and how many days are needed before unlock. (Maybe just 1 more byte per character is needed when the client at login retrieves character info from the server)

___________________________________

Pros:
1) Gives Anet some breath (people bitching to Anet to get their char restored.).
2) Players would be able to "save" their precious characters.

(I myself would feel bad if my mesmer would be deleted... I created that char 19 months ago and played the nice amount of ~350hrs... I can't imagine how it would be, for those fellow players who have invested 2.000+ hrs on a single char, only to find it deleted)


Cons:
1) If you change your mind you can't go back for 6 months, so it is a feature that must be used with care.
2) If someone steals a user/pass and enters an account could vandalize it by locking the remaining unlocked characters (but then, I think that many would prefer to have all their character locked for 6 months instead of losing their main).

___________________________________

The coding part just speculation, I'm sure that Anet developers can do much better than those 2 crappy coding ideas I had (they are there just to show that the concept is quite simple).
What I ask you is:
How many of you find useful a feature like that?
Would you use it?
Would you ask Anet to implement this?
Do I need to buy me a stock of fire extinguishers?

Yes I'd use it.
It would be handy in the case of account thefts.
And It would be a good idea for Anet to implement some type of system as such to help protect their customers.

Please moved to suggestions forum, but cool idea nevertheless.

It should be in Sardelac.
edit: ops too late

Btw, I've never had a problem with character deleting, if you dont want to delete it, just dont do it ^^. But probably would help for a few ppl.

I think 3 months instead of six, or having to type out some extremely long confirmation would be better.

/signed

It will be great to have an option of locking your favorite characters.

I think we should have an option of choosing how many time will the lock last, because 6 months seems like too much.

I was asked by a friend to post this idea here on GWGuru, but I didn't look carefully where.
I am sorry I posted in the wrong forum section.
Thanks for moving it into the proper section.

_______________


I agree with you, I just said 6 months to say a timeframe for the example, I didn't think about additional options to keep the suggestion the most simple it could be, but if Arenanet Developers feel the need to add this feature, and with it the options to choose the timeframe, it would be really great.

Confirmation via e-mail sounds better.

I saw this idea suggested yesterday, but I still think it's a good one. I like it.
Other thread
That thread got "locked," perhaps this one will gain some attention.

Good idea, but 6 months is too long imo, you should be able to choose an amount of days manually.

~Prof.

yeah i think i'd use it. I'd never delete my main so it'd be good to have just in case!

That is my friend that asked me to post this suggestion.

an idea that is well past its time to be implemented (should have been done looooooonnng time ago)!

/signed!

/signed I like the idea

/signed
I would definetely use it even if the time was 100 years.

I think it would be a great feature.
From the explanation of vodka it seems stuff preatty easy to put into the game.



Thats my post
It was a thing vodka he told me some time ago, I just repeated that.
I insisted that was him to post all this on guru because he knows English better than me, can give coding ideas I wouldn't know where to start with, and because it was his idea.

About attention, I hope this will gain some, but:
does Anet ever looks in Sardelac, home of the wackiest ideas?

I would use this as a measure for myself to not accidentally delete one of my better characters, even though that isn't what this is about.

You seem to at least understand that locking characters shouldn't be to just put in your password and they're locked. If a person could get into their account, they could undo those locks in the same way.

/signed

Ding ding we have a winner...
7/14/28days.. 3/6month etc etc... option would be great

/signed

/not signed..

Just keep your account safe -_-

Would be cool, there could also be a method so that if the user's account details are changed they have to wait 15-30 days to delete a character...

/signed

I deleted my favorite character (Necromancer) instead of creating a new one... But hey, I had some cash in Xunlai chest.

why not just have a pin on the account, so when u wana deleate a charecter u gota put in a pin, using an on screen numberpad. that way it wont get keylogged

Couple of my friends have had there accounts hacked and chars deleted. Great idea this.

/signed

Keyloggers can also register mouse moves and button clicks.

/signed

I wouldnt mind this feature at all.

I don't think I have ever deleted a character that I hadn't intended to, but I can see how helpful this would be. I've caught myself several times in a pvp reroll almost selecting my ranger, which has almost hit her first birthday so that would be tragic if I did.

And as far as I can tell any cons my mind can come up with or that have been posted, are outweighed by the pros.

/signed

/signed
What about a seperate password for accessing certain characters too?

The con is that you will get a surprising amount of people that will lock all their characters for 5 year period.

On the next day, they'll be writing support tickets saying: "I know I had to confirm it twice, and I know I chose 5 years and I know it asked me if I'm really sure, and I know I had to confirm it via e-mail, and I know it then asked me again, and I know I had to re-confirm it, but I didn't really mean it. Can you unlock all of them?"

Protecting people from themselves is a lost cause

You cannot delete a character accidentally. It asks you for character name.

And as for argument about "hackers". Again - you cannot protect people from themselves. It's not "evil hackers on teh interwebs" that are the problem. They would just go in, and sell items.

Those that hijack accounts for botting and similar don't care about deleting the characters. So you don't solve anything.

And soon, people would demand that items in-game can get locked, so that they can't be deleted.

If you are going to lock your char, shouldn't that make him unable to trade while he is locked as well? Or else all your equipment is going to be gone.

I don't see a problem with not wanting it and still putting this idea in. I find it a good way to make sure your characters are not deleted by someone somehow hacking. I would probably only use it for my main characters, but even if people don't use it, it won't hurt in having this idea.

/Signed

/Signed.

This would help a lot of people.

signed.

good way to protect the account ..

I don't understand "/notsigners". Maybe I'm missing something, if that's the case I would like them to enlighten me.
I've yet to understand in which way an additional optional feature, like this one could be, is going to harm you or your gameplay.

I like Azazel's attitude. (Post #30 of this thread, first sentence)

I think that it would defeat the purpose of the lock.
If a keylogger steals your access password, why it shouldn't steal that separate password?


I'm just curious: where did you took the 5 years timeline?
If you read carefully the opening post I wrote a maximum lock of 6 months (or 3 months as some have suggested).
There should be no way to extend it further, except when it is going to expire (= when you renew it).
But even then it would be no more than 6/3 months from the renewal date.

Ehm... please read the opening post. It is not meant to protect people from accidental deletion.

It's not a solution to every problem.
It's not "Save the character. Save the world."
It's loss reduction.

Let me ask you a direct question: do you prefer a system where you lose everything if something bad happens, or do you prefer a system that at least saves something?

They delete the characters to make room for mules and/or farmbots.
So, even if they don't care, they do it anyway.
Ask those who had a deleted character if an option like that would have solved or not something...

Further explanation: This is meant to protect characters, not their items.
A locked character, is equal in everything to an unlocked one, except for one thing: it cannot be deleted.
So items can be traded, destroyed, whatever.

While it could be easy to protect a character from deletion (just a server side check before calling the function "delete"), it wouldn't be the same for equipment.

Ask the guy who opened this thread here, if his friends would not like their characters back even without any equipment. Even naked, spoiled of everything, but still there.
As I said, I would feel bad for my ~350hr/19months mesmer, and don't know how would feel those losing a characher after investing 2.000+hrs.

If you are unlucky/unaware/whatever and your account gets "stolen", you still have your character Legendary Catographer/Legendary Skill Hunter/and so on... You can make a new maxed armor for that char with few money (guildies and friends are FTW!) and you are up again for some farming to get money for cool stuff (Now in DoA you can make a nice amount of gold in a reasonable time).

This is not a solution to save everything. It is a system to reduce the damage.

/signed

A great idea

Sounds like a great idea :P changing the days is good but really 6 months isnt that long.... I've had my one Character for like 31 months which i'll never be deleting ever.

/not signed.
The hacker can just create enough characters to fill up all your slots and lock them all, preventing you from ever creating a new character or forced to buy a new slot.

That was already in the opening post:
In your opinion, what's worse?
Having your character deleted, or your slots locked for 6/3 months?
(I'd change my suggestion to 3 months as timespan for a lock).

Maybe don't get phished or download sketchy GW programs... then you'll be fine and won't have to worry about this.

The plaync.com account security is terribad, this makes such a feature great.

But the lock time shouldn't be longer than 2 weeks. It should be enough time to recover the account and long enough that people could change their minds about a character. The locking should be as simple as 2 clicks per character.

/signed

We appreciate that this idea is offered with the intention of increasing account security and that's always an excellent goal. However, the fact is, with all due respect, we already have a secure system for account access and character deletion. For if it were possible to truly hack the Guild Wars or PlayNC servers to steal accounts, you would see it happening by the tens of thousands. Server hacking is not happening. Account thefts take place on an individual basis. As kindly as possible, the vast majority if not all of the accounts stolen (aka "hacked") in Guild Wars are the result of poor player security or of issues outside Guild Wars itself.

Here are the most common ways account theft happens:

• A player uses an insecure password
• A player allows friends or family members to access an account (Support tells me this is the most common way in which an account is "hacked.")
• Somebody buys a used account or an access key, and then the original owner reclaims it. That's why purchasing and selling used accounts is disallowed; that's why we cannot and will not offer support for those who makes such sales or purchases.
• A player gets scammed into telling their account information ("Hey, I can dupe your items, but you need to give me your password." "Let me access your account to complete our trade transaction.")
• A player downloads and uses third-party programs or accesses sites that contain key loggers, and those key loggers or Trojans hand the password to an account thief on a silver platter
• A player uses the same password for multiple products, and once that password is gleaned from a less-secure source maybe a forum account (we saw that happen once not too long ago), maybe an email account (that happens pretty regularly), then the thief also knows the Guild Wars password and can access the account.

How to be secure:

• Choose a secure and unique password for all your Internet accounts, including Guild Wars.
• Never tell anyone your user name or your password -- there is absolutely no need for anyone else to have either of those pieces of information.
• Never download third-party programs. (Virus protection does not protect you; even the most up-to-date worm and Trojan detectors can be behind the latest malware.)
• Make sure no one sees you type in a password.
• Use care in forums, because again, no one needs to have any information except a single character name to, say, conduct a trade transaction, invite you to a guild, or get in touch with you in the game.

How to help us help you if your account is stolen:

• Keep all your access keys and receipts, so that if someone gains access to your account, Support can try to help you regain ownership. (If your purchase through the In-Game or PlayNC Store, I believe those transactions are kept on record, but I'd still recommend printing and saving receipts or screensaves, if possible.)

Adding the ability to "lock up" your characters sounds like a very complex request -- far more so than I think most of you perceive. It would assuredly take work from members of the design, art, programming, UI, and graphic design teams. It would certainly increase Support calls asking for resets, requesting lost passwords, etc. And if players continue to do the things that result in account theft, such as using insecure passwords or sharing accounts, it won't really help. In the end, in seems to me that if players use proper and appropriate account security measures, the addition of this process it simply unnecessary. However, I assuredly will request a dev team opinion about the addition of this process and if there is information to share, I will be more than happy to do so.

Thank you for the suggestion and everyone's further input. Thanks, too, for reading this lengthy (!) response.