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I am working on a browser-based game currently, and am really scratching my head on a development decision. At the time of player registration, the player has to choose one of a few secret questions and then provide a short answer. This is saved into the database, and is used if the player forgets their password before they can reset it. While I am also going to implement an email check as well for password resetting, this is an added layer of security.

But now I was going to ask the player for the secret question answer again when they want to delete a character off of their account. Do you think this is overkill? I know people forget their answers every once in a while, and do you think it could cause a lot of administrative work (players may be deleting characters off of their account fairly often due to the game's design)?

hmm i don't see it as too much. Just remind the players at registration that they should make the question easy to remember for it will be needed when retrieving passwords and deleting characters.

firstly. let the player choose their questions.

secondly. it is vary rare a player will delete their character. you may get some people do it for reset perposes, but that will probably be about all

Torniquet wrote:firstly. let the player choose their questions.

secondly. it is vary rare a player will delete their character. you may get some people do it for reset perposes, but that will probably be about all

First, while it would be just as easy to let people choose their own questions, that can often lead to users choosing bad questions. Good questions are usually absolute, and cannot be forgotten, such as the city you were born. Bad questions can be subjective and change often ("What is your favorite food"), can lead to rambling answers that are easily re-arranged or misspelled ("What was the first thing your spouse ever said to you"), or are things that seem obvious to only you and unforgettable at the time but really aren't (I kid you not, but I tried to log back into a service after a year or two, and I actually entered something like "That thing with the r, v and 6"...wtf was I thinking?!).

And second, you just have to believe me that players may be deleting characters off at least every once in a while. It has to do with the design, as it is not an ordinary RPG.

I'd be inclined to not have the question, but instead put a time limit on the deletion of about a week, to give some time to make up for mistakes or compromises.

But granted you might only have one character slot at the mo and that's complicating that.

How about just sending an e-mail to the player with a link for final deletion - that way only the dude with the e-mail can delete it?

That's a good idea, sending them the email. I may try doing it like that. Thanks!

NP! Glad to help