I was suggested to post here by the support team. I wanted to try and have a respectful and productive discussion regarding the strict family plan policy around the permanence of linking accounts. I felt that this forum thread had some insightful thoughts to add: https://www.wizard101.com/forum/ravenwood-commons/why-cant-account-from-family-account-42266 user CrystalWizard said that people may not want to be in a family plan anymore because "the parents break up, the dad is in charge of the account and he isn't anywhere to be found. the kids grow up, move out of the house, go to college, and would like their accounts to be under their own control. A couple of roommates break up, become irl enemies, and now want their accounts to stand on their own. Or one of them wants their account under their own control and the other one is being nasty and vicious, refusing to buy crowns or pay for subscriptions as a way to twist the knife in his former roommate's back." I can attest that some of the people in my family plan are exes or friends that have ghosted me, and it can also create a loophole because someone like me could vindictively disable certain functions on their account, such as open chat, and refuse to enable it. If anything, that could pose a safety or security risk in itself. In extreme scenarios, the owner of the family plan could be abusive, and the strict family plan could enable the control or even financial abuse that they exert over anyone else in the plan, which also would permanently rob anyone victimized of autonomy by allowing them to break free from the family plan. Even thinking chronologically, children under the family plan of a parent will eventually grow up and may want their own accounts, and perhaps family plans with their own children. This strict family plan policy would mean that the oldest family member would have the ultimate control, even if that family member eventually ceases to exist, and the members in the family plan would only have to increase per generation, instead of making a more neater process of personal, nuclear family plans. I think it's also worth considering the statistics, research, and studies about families and their structures, and how such a rigid family plan policy does not align with the reality of family dynamics. Like Crystal mentioned, certain family members who may be linked to the plan can very easily come in or out of the picture, and this policy does not accommodate for that. The stability of a family unit has historically proven to be volatile and fluid, and the current state of the family plan policy suggests that none of these factors were considered.
I agree they need to have the option of unlinking. Family dynamics change and sometimes when you don't want to start over you just stop playing all together.
