From:	Spellslinger <mruane@***.UUG.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Yet another question
Date:	Mon, 31 Oct 1994 11:02:27 -0700

On Mon, 31 Oct 1994, Jan-bart van Beek wrote:

> OK Last question of the day. I'll promise
>
> Can ettiquete skills really be made into knowsofts ?
>
Sure. Look ont he bookshelves today and you find tons of books on how to
please women, or how to make your man into a love machine, or how Dr.
Bigus brainus uses pyschology to pick up chicks, etc. If you've ever
tried some of the pick up techniques in these books, they work about 10%
of the time. So you could make tailored etiquette softs at different
ratings (I have a rating 9 etiquette knowsoft so there, Mr. Big pants!)
but their effectiveness at different situations is lacking or that the
other person says, 'Oh, like I haven't heard THAT line before'.
Underworld relations are definitely shaky with a skillsoft. I'm sure the
little package of info doesn't contain everything you need to know about
how to treat life in the shadows. Plus that everything in the shadows
changes with the situation on the street or in the corps, etc-- so that
rating 6 knowsoft in Street Etiquette is useless in about a week or a
month, depending on how the world changes.

I like to view these knowsofts as a general guideline for shadowtalk. If
a specific situation comes up, more than likely the runner will have to
wing it. Plus a lot of etiqutte (epsc. Street) is region specific. And
that means that Street etiquette in Redmond is different than that in
Bellvue. It's understandable that a learned etiqutte would adapt to the
streets, but a knowsoft wouldn't.

Mike aka Spellslinger