How Important are the Rules? (10/9/2006)

[Eric Smith]

This reminds me of the golf controversy some years ago about the golfer who wanted a cart when the rules of the event prohibited it.  LARP is a social game, if people wanted a table top social system then they would play table top.  

If you examine people who repeatedly enjoy LARPS, they tend to be somewhat outgoing and gregarious.  They are also often the people who drive your games due to their enthusiasm and excitement.  This has been true for over 10 years and I see that as natural to the environment.  You need to find a way to encourage such players while still managing to support the shy players.  One way is to encourage the enthusiastic players to rope others in.  You have to be aware, however, of why people play.  If the gregarious person is a high stress manager in real life, they may have no interest in doing such a thing in a game.

[buggy]

Magic O.  I think you are the most clever spambot I have seen yet.  You actually answer the question, sort of, and then give an example that is completely random.  Kudos.

Hey Admins, please kill MagicO's spamming account.  Thanks!

[Territan]

Seconded: MagicOPromotion is a spambot.

Bonus Twist: It's a badly configured spambot. The link in the signature doesn't work. It should have been pointed to the product or service he was trying to advertise (thereby artificially boosting SEO), but instead talks about some nebulous piece of software. A quick Googling turns up the new XRumer 5.0 product page and reveals why the original server is down: "FTC Shuts Down Notorious Rogue Internet Service Provider, 3FN Service Specializes in Hosting Spam-Spewing Botnets, Phishing Web sites, Child Pornography, and Other Illegal, Malicious Web Content" But not to worry: "XRumer should receive authorization but it'll take little longer time, course it receive it from reserve server." [sic]

Schadenfreude: He paid $520 and a $10 monthly subscription for the program. What a moof.

Additional Freaky Twist: Features include "A built-in proprietary "Question-answer" system" (as noted) and the ability to defeat a steaming pantload of CAPTCHA methods.