In the comments of our article discussing Daybreak’s move to reduce gamemaster support for player “gameplay errors,” I was surprised to see a few of our readers shrug it off, arguing that gamemasters shouldn’t have been bothered with restoring accidentally deleted items or characters in the first place. “It’s not unreasonable for [Daybreak] to expect their players to make smart decisions and deal,” said one player. “This isn’t that big a deal,” wrote another. “Just take responsibility for playing the game and most mistakes can be avoided.” A third opined, “Heaven forbid that players should take responsibility for their own mistakes!”
In my mind, video games are supposed to be fun, not a punitive life lesson in horrific accidental misclicks, so smoothing over genuine mistakes is exactly what I’d think gamemasters should be doing — and it’s what they do in lots of other MMOs. What do you think? Should MMO customer service and gamemasters be in the business of fixing player mistakes and keeping everyone happy?