That is commonly implemented but at short term. If the game was an rpg where you age and fight constantly, maybe 7 years is too much. Most people would rather save and load, unless it''s one of those games where you save and exit only.

I think long lasting penalties it''s cool, if it''s implemented nicely. But so many things could go wrong. You have to be sure that if every penalty that is posible is applied to the player, he still can win. Even if it''s hard as hell, as long as it''s posible.

Thinking about that, there could be a game where instead of gaining abilities throught the game you would lose em. We could say you start an adventure game with near god status, and the more you use your abilities you keep losing them. So if you keep throught the entire game using human habilities when you got to the final boss you could wipe his ass easily with your mighty powers.

I guessed that is what you meant, my last paragraph is about an idea that came with your post

But now, I have been thinking about MMORPGs and players know exactly what they are going to fight. Honestly I don''t like it. If you are fighting against another player you can tell his level by the clothes he is wearing and with the level you can guess what magic or weapons he is using, since there is no variety (if you are lvl 10 there is a sword that is stronger than the one you can use when you are lvl9, but weaker than that of a lvl11) althrought there should be variety, that''s another thing to discuss that I don''t want to bring to this topic.

If every player were to be given one of these special abilities with serious long term(not necesarily permanent but some could be) penalties, and you could choose it at the beginning, it would give another aspect of mystery to the game, tought you could almost bet that your oponent won''t use his special ability, but still it would add something new.