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From: hapgood@pobox.com (Fred Hapgood)
Subject: Re: Software steroids
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Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 19:35:00 GMT
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>
>I think the point is to find an honest player.  One who is looking for a 
>challenge in matching wits with you instead of pumping his (false) ego by 
>winning by cheating.

The problem is finding a player whom you won't *suspect* of using
performance enhancers.  Depending on the stakes, this
could be quite a small pool, since the higher the stakes (in
reputation) the more likely such suspicions are to take root.

 If this problem can't be solved, the online game constituency will be
reduced to people who a) only play with friends whom they trust, b)
are playing with PEs themselves and therefore have nothing to complain
about,  or c) are willing to endure the irritation of possibly playing
against PEs.   This is not a zero constituency, but it's not a mass
audience either, or so it seems to me.  It won't be possible to
organize big world-wide tournaments in such an environment, for
instance.

IMO


Fred
--
www.pobox.com/~hapgood
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