| From: | "Mark L. Neidengard" <mneideng@****.CALTECH.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Info wanted... |
| Date: | Sun, 30 Mar 1997 10:29:55 -0800 |
>According to Paul Adam:
>>I've got a character coming in who's pretty dark. He probably won't last
>>long, though....
>
>None of the really dark ones do, unfortunate? I think so.
Goes with the territory, I guess.
>>It does, though, irritate when children are able to post "help me, help
>>me" messages so easily.
>
>Agreed. Having said that, one or two kids would be capable. There is a
>12 year old in the States, called Nic, he is what I would describe as a
>wizkid. He writes programmes in four languages, he's got a pretty good
>website, and is already associated with a couple of the larger "hacker"
>rings. Not bad for a "kid". And it's not often that a kid posts to
>the list, just when someone wants to have an irritating squirt around
>for a moment. Like Dashira and whoever Tinners kid was during Thunda.
I won't rule out the possibility, but getting young kids onto the net takes
a certain amount of resources (especially the capital to have the right
computers on hand, and to have had the opportunity to learn how to use them
from someone). I'm especially unfond of the "Otaku", which look like nothing
to me so much as a FASA concession to bad SciFi (and to Gibson-style
Japanese mangling). As for this Nic, I'll say that just having a website
is something that public schools in my area are looking at firing up in the
primary educational system, and that it's not that hard to get in touch with
some of the major "hacker rings" if you're lucky enough to have the right BBSs
in your area (I did it while I was in high school, then scrapped it when I
finally had the chance to get into real engineering and academic computing).
The programming in four languages is more promising...OTOH, my third-grade
teacher made everyone in my class learn BASIC and Logo, and I'm sure I could
have picked up C and Java if they had been as popular at the time as they
are now....again, not to belittle Nic, but when I think of computer prodigies
I think of people like Dan Farmer or RTM.
I guess the point is that with the rise of the Information Age there's a lot
of room for the average kid's computer proficiency to rise without making them
especially "talented" in the sense that a top-rated decker must be talented.
In 2058, I'm sure that kids can be educated in as many computer languages as
they (or their parents) choose to be. =)
>>A dissenting opinion. A board like this _would_ be monitored. What
>>shadowrunners can create, corporations and national intelligence
>>organisaions can read.
>
>Not dissenting. I agree a board like this would be monitored, but
>really, would SIGA, FBI, Lone Star, Serenity really use this board for
>their conversations? I think not. Too many good deckers would live
>here that may intercept that information, or get curious about the busy
>datastream between the FBI and SIGA, or Serenity and someone. OK, it's
>essential to certain areas of the plots to have their posts available
>for S-tk to read, but is not really something I think would happen. The
>FBI, though they undoubtedly monitor Seattles Shadowland boards, are
>highly unlikely to make their presence known. And certainly wouldn't
>use it for traffic. :) (Though for the moment they will continue to do
>so <g>)
This was one of the reasons for the INTERNAL tag. =) On the third hand
though, I could see an organization that has to share network substrate with
sister governmental organizations routing some traffic (probably with extra
encryption) through Shadowland simply to avoid the prying eyes of their own
MIS staff. Part of why Shadowland occupies the place it does in the world
model is that it offers a very valuable service: reasonably secure, reasonably
private, reasonably reliable communications.
>But increasing the intrinsic power level of this list, would also reduce
>and prevent characters posting. Look at it another way. Although as
>you know Gates is very skilled in my game, and provides the team with
>valuable information in exchange for payment, if he had arrived on this
>board with those skills and attitude, I would have been (deservedly)
>flamed out of existence, because I rearranged his stats and skills, and
>equipment, and brought him to a "newcomer" entrance level, nobody has
>complained about his presence. The same for Marathon, his skills
>privately are a lot higher than here in the list. Over time, I will be
>able to increase his abilities, as the list becomes more familiar with
>him, and he grows in here. But to have a net god suddenly arrive would
>be ridiculous, and uninteresting. Something I feel would happen, if the
>level of this list was increased. I know quite a few people who post
>here, who don't want to play with "Superhero" characters. Just slightly
>more than ordinary joes, who want to make a living.
But what is a "net god"? Skill level 6? Higher? It varies from campaign to
campaign. I think part of what's _good_ about not insisting on mechanics for
everything is that the "depiction" of the character in words tends to
normalize for the different power levels from the campaigns the characters here
came from (to some extent at least =) To some extent, I think this is
actually a good forum for "high-powered" characters to be able to stretch
their legs, so long as their players can simulate their competence with good
writing. It's quite clear that _just_ having a higher Firearms skill or
Initiative score means little or nothing in the face of a well-prepared
opponent.
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark
Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict
