[MUD-Dev] characters per account

[Jon Lambert]

F. Randall Farmer wrote:
>
>>Lord British:
>".....Technology will ultimately catch up however, and I feel in 
>   the long run it will be a positive force."
>

ObAside:
I'm hoping it never does.  Reliable identification is a double-edge
sword.  On the one hand it does make possible stronger social (and 
financial) contracts, but on the other hand, it can (and will) be misused 
and abused by those in positions of authority and trust.  

And then there was the Intel processor IDs...Project Excelsior..yada..yada
Color me paranoid, but I've used aliases in RL for years when dealing 
with certain entities.  

>F. Randall Farmer: (going out on a limb...)
>
>MM Games need to _embrace_ the nature of the net and incorporate
>its features/warts into their game designs from the beginning. To
>do anything else is to invite avoidable abuse/failure of a system.
>
>No amount of optimistic thinking will make some perceived
>"problem" of the net go away:
>
>There is no way to know who is sitting at the keyboard. Period.
>

Quite right.  Anonymity and multiplaying are perhaps the two most
fascinating features of mudlike games, and are rarely found in offline 
game experiences.  While there maybe social negatives in the
linkage of anonymity to inhibition, there are also strong social positives.
Without the electronic illusion you could never mistake me for Kull the 
Conquerer or Brunhilda the Valkyrie.  Anonymity is a both a creative 
force in social and literary expression and can as well be turned to 
licentiousness.  There's no cure for identification that doesn't create
whole classes of subversives of the customer/user.   

And it's not just wondering who is on the other end anymore, but _what_  
is on the other end.  It may be some cleverly wired metallic beast.  Or 
even thine own self reflected through a glass darkly.

--
--*     Jon A. Lambert - TychoMUD Email: jlsysinc at nospam.ix.netcom.com     *--
--*     Mud Server Developer's Page <http://jlsysinc.home.netcom.com>      *--
--* "No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." Thomas Jefferson *--





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