Massively OP reader Minimalistway recently wrote to us with a rant about how bizarrely hard it is to quit MMORPGs and delete your account. “Jagex asks for a copy of a driver’s license or a passport sent by mail (not email!); Square Enix makes you jump between websites to disable your account,” he says. “If Google allows people to delete their accounts easily, there is no excuse for MMO developers to make the process hard!”
I suppose that’s because they don’t really want us to leave, right? They want to give us the option of returning. I’d rather know my account is still there; I remember back when studios would delete old characters, and there are games I never went back to once my toons had been wiped from inactivity. But still, really, a driver’s license?! And here I thought Steam’s insistence that I boot it up on my phone to hunt down an ever-changing authentication key in order to sell a trading card for 4 cents was the height of dumb.
So for today’s Daily Grind, let’s broaden the topic: What’s the worst tech or account annoyance in MMORPGs?