'Take a break' prompts

Hi!

With the influx of new players arriving in-game (hiii can't wait to RP with you all), we've got the boon of fresh perspectives on some of the existing game systems. And one which I think could stand to benefit from review is the 'take a break' prompts that begin appearing after a certain number of hours spent logged in.

I'm a very strong advocate for taking regular breaks and maintaining a healthy game/life balance -- it's never pretty when one Goes Too Deep, we've all been there, I'm sure. I think that while the intention behind them is very sound and I take no fault with it, these messages perhaps don't always have the desired effect. Instead of serving as a gentle reminder not to neglect oneself, I've been privy to at least a couple instances where they have instead resulted in Badfeels and shamed a player off the game. Many log into these games as an escape from RL stressors and it's a bit crummy to be made to feel that doing so is irresponsible and/or unwelcome here.

I think a possible solution might be to make the prompts opt-in. That way the people who feel they could benefit from a reminder can make good use of them, and the people who find them a bit uncomfortable can opt-out.

For my own part, I vaaaaaguely remember being a bit confronted the first time I received the 'go touch grass' prompt, but I admit I am mostly speaking on the behalf of some newbies here to offer feedback. And while I'm not personally all that invested in whether the prompts stay or go, I'm very invested in new players staying! So just opening the matter up for potential discussion.

Hiii!

I agree/like those suggestions. An opt in, or an op in alongside perhaps a setting to choose when the message prompt shows up.

The prompts can be a bit immersion breaking occasionally. Some of those longer session times I may have been doing something like playing slay the spire or similar, while idling into a time others might log in on sparser population nights.

Hello! As one of those new(er) players, I do admit I found myself a bit confused by the prompt that basically hinted that if you were on the game for "too long" (a couple hours) something was potentially wrong and to perhaps contact staff. 

Yes, would strongly support making these prompts optional out of respect to players' very different backgrounds and lives. The first one I received was more harshly worded than the others I've seen and I almost didn't log back on after seeing it. Thanks for raising this point!

I've discussed this with Pilgrim (the coding half of staff, for those of you who are new) and we've agreed that making the messages a toggled feature is a good idea. So while I can't guarantee this will get implemented right-straight-away-immediately, it is up there on P's priority list to code in!

Thank you to everyone for your constructive feedback on this!