[MUD-Dev] strong encryption for authentication

[Matt Mihaly]

On Tue, 10 Jul 2001, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> On Tue, 10 Jul 2001 09:39:12 -0600 (MDT), Fred Clift
> <fclift at verio.net> wrote:

>> Anyone working on something like this?

> I thought about this at great length, and then it occurred to me:

> It's a GAME.

> Why the hell would you want to encrypt it?

Same reason people use PGP in their e-mail. They don't want others
able to spy on their lives. It's not a game, it's a community. It's
not a game, it's a world. It's not a game, it's part of life.


> Basically, I started thinking about all the people this would lock
> out of the game. People who didn't have the right
> encryption. People who didn't understand encryption. People who
> didn't like encryption. And no matter how much thought I put into
> it, I could not think of one single reason why people would give
> two tin shits in a wicker basket whether the game was
> encrypted. Nothing made sense. I came up with all sorts of
> concerns about privacy and security which, when you came right
> down to it, really didn't *matter* on a game. For a business
> conference, yeah, I could see that making sense. But it's a GAME.

Again, no, it's not a game. Chess is a game. Go is a game. Settlers
of Cataan is a game. MUDs are not 'just' games. It is a world with
game-like aspects. (at least mine is). The same can be said about,
say, the world of business and finance. The financial markets for
instance definitely have game-like aspects.


> So I'd pose this question, to which I would honestly like to hear
> the answer: what *possible* reason have you identified as a
> compelling justification for encryption? Because I really couldn't
> think of anything. Did I miss something?

My reason is simple really: I want it simply on principle. If Achaea
could be played using encrypted data streams, you bet I would. I
know I'm not the only one.

--matt

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