I think it's time to remove the play game tab.

[Siarczek]

I think it's time for the "Play Game" tab to go. The hacking incident was not only a long time ago, but occurred at a time when the community was incredibly toxic. The community has became smaller and quieter, and the social conditions that allowed for the hacking incident to occur are no longer present.

Ever since the implementation of the tab, I've been getting connection issues. For example, back in 2015, I used to play FH in-between classes at university- the day the tab was implemented, I no longer could, and was only able to play FH at home. My home WiFi was recently reset, and now I can't play FH at home either- not on my laptop or on my desktop PC, which has been my main device for playing FH for 8 years. I can login, but can't get past the character selection screen- I'm met with a "failed to connect to map server" error. (Edit: I got it to work, but it doesn't change the fact that the tab isn't friendly towards players who don't have the right WiFi)

The tab may have been important at the time of the hacking, but it was at the cost of making the game unplayable for a lot of people, and it should've been a temporary measure- not a permanent feature.

[l3irdie]

I'm in agreement with you there.
 I know it's purpose is to a double-authentication page to block out the problematic users (aka, hackers) and if I'm correct, it actually brings in some ad revenue(?) These are the pros, but there are definitely cons.

1.) If I remember correctly, it wasn't supposed to stay here as long as it was. It was just 'temporary' fix. (correct me if i'm wrong, just going off of recollection)
2.) It did take a chunk of activity from the playerbase, either because they didn't realize it was put in place
3.) There is bugs and errors, like you've mentioned, and I've noticed and influx of them just recently (i.e the whole 'done' thing)
4.) I'm biased here, but it's just somewhat cumbersome.

It's absolutely important to keep the playerbase safe, but I think there could be a different way things can be done in terms of double-authentication. Especially with the rise of VPNs and some walk-arounds. I'm sorry to hear you've been having issues though, but you're not alone. My hope is if Raz decides to come back, there could be some tweaking done to the server-side of things, at the very least smoothing out some of it's bugs. But that's just my two cents.

[Kuri]

Agreed.

[Dark_heart]

Right.

[SpicyDirt]

I do agree with you. The incident did happen long ago and the people are more trustworthy now. But sadly, I doubt the tab will go away anytime soon.

[Oddonelynx]

Yeah! Sometimes it can be buggy glitchy, or even annoying.

[LadySigyn]

I'm neutral on this topic. I understand it's use, but I also understand why it's an annoyance to many users. I've personally never had a problem with it, even with my horrible Australian wifi, but I've seen that's not the case with others. We have to keep in mind it's roles in FH.

1. Protection from hackings, DDoS and other nasties (whether it is actually a high-quality security measure, I'm unsure, but we haven't had an issue since the hacking, so I think that's saying something). There's still toxicity in the community, there always will be, and if it's taken down and someone gets word, we might have a round 2 on our hands. It's a risk, and at this stage where the game is almost a ghost town, something like that could bring FH to it's knees and with Raz M.I.A, I doubt it'll survive.

2. Ad revenue. FH and it's site can't run on nothing.

I'm not saying I'm for or against the login page, but there's all different pros and cons to the situation I suppose. It would be ideal to return to how it used to be, and I know it's been 5 years since the hacking incident, but the staff can only do so much with what they've been given. There's really not much that can be done with the server master absent.

Also keep in mind (or a news flash if you haven't heard already) that a new FH is being created, and I'm sure the staffers working on that project are looking to bring to it what the community are after in a game like this.

[BashfulWolf]

I personally never had an issue with the play tab, but I have noticed that I actually don't need the play tab open, just only for when I log on. I can close out of it and still be able to play perfectly fine. So I'm also very neutral about it, as it does help protect us and give FH some ad revenue.
Just because something happened in the past doesn't mean it won't ever happen again, hacking can happen at any time, even if our player base is extremely small now.

[Nutella]

I agree with you.