Protect!

If people want to experience futility and suffering, they should just do so for free outside - make hobby games for hobbyists.

Painful gaming is just the last bastion of old pay models and high-risk PvP, so I'd personally give any modern game with punishing penalties a wide unles it is high-risk PvP orientated (in which case I'd be avoiding it for entirely different reasons).

Guild Wars remains my favorite game of all time, and more than four years in I'm experiencing yet ANOTHER revival of it, so in the scope of my own interest that's 100% proof that games can be compelling for the long-haul without relying on cheap crutches like erasing progress or characters.