On 5/6/06, Stas Pirogov <keyos at keyos.org> wrote:
>
> Today I would recommend to Joe (I hope he's in the list) to remove
> this login name from rc file. This way there is much better chance of
> seeing new logins (these days like 90% of login names are new-be-nice)
> and getting familiar with people. Recognizing newbie is much easier
> from watching him play.

Amen to that! Sadly the trend is for many experiences players to play
as anonymous or even to masquerade as someone else. It's really
childish and it's an interesting datum that there seems to be a high
correlation between the most abusive players and anonymity. Some
anonymous players are consistent in using the same Login and I can
respect that though I think it's a bit too paranoid. Perhaps we can
have a player setup utility that will ask them to choose a name and
login at least and at most will allow intuitive setup of their rc
file. When I started playing netrek 90% + of the player base played
from university accounts and had a verifiable user id. This also
allowed for quick identification and differentiation. Often you could
use finger or other utilities to find out exactly who that player was.
I really don't see it as a bad thing if players had to give their real
names to play.

Zach