From:	Owen Landgren wodin@********.com
Subject:	Harrowing of Focus (sic)
Date:	Wed, 18 Aug 1999 22:53:29 -0500

Rand Ratinac wrote:
>
> > > You missed his point, James. He didn't say people don't do it or
> shouldn't do it. He said why do it? We see so much crap in the world,
> what's the point of dwelling on it in your escapism?
> > >
> > You know, this sort of dovetails with the other discussion currently
> going on, about SR devolving into criminals, criminals, criminals. You
> know, criminals aren't good people. Despite any code of honor you might
> have, it's still a code to keep you from totally going psycho. You're
> still playing a criminal, and they're not nice people.
> >
> > So, essentially in one conversation we have people saying that SR
> only focuses on criminals, and anther thread saying that playing a
> criminal is bad. Could we have a consensus here?
>
> You're generalising, Mark. There's a big difference between a thief and
> a psychopathic child killer. Even in the eyes of the law (one'll get a
> few years, one'll get life).

Indeed. I actually had a character who accidentally killed a child.
The results were not pretty. He lost all his contacts, had to get a
complete redo as far as physical features were concerned in a foreign
country, and there were other complications(like the custom Savalette
Gaurdian that cost him over a 100K that he wouldn't give up, and that
almost got him killed when recognized). And this was when it happened
accidentally.

What's more, the character had a massive emotional crisis, and came
out basically a zombie. Which got really boring to roleplay, but I
couldn't get him therapy, so eventually his depression led to
overcybering on purpose. He was a fairly skilled character-- watching
him go through cyberpsychosis was not pretty.
--
Owen