THE
MONTH IN BRIEFAt
the end of May, we held our first free weekend since
moving to the web, designed to give new players a chance
to check the game out for free before deciding to commit
their dollars. The reports on how it went appear in the
June yearbook, but see below for the sad tale of an
accidental death.
Most of the month was taken up with
a scandal about harassment by snogging. A group of
players went to CDs together and repeatedly snogged and
groped Barb, who was upset and offended. Players
immediately formed into groups; those who thought that it
had been harassment, and those who thought that it had
not, and the debate rumbled on for weeks - until it was
overtaken by another heated debate.
The new discussion was whether it
was OK for a player to call themselves Bitch, and once
again two groups formed; those who thought it was
acceptable, and those who were offended by the word.
Hazed ruled that it was allowed, and since she makes the
rules, that should have been the end of it; but again,
the debate rumbled on and on and on.
More details were released about
the forthcoming release of Genesis, the offline planet
builder; wannabe POs started licking their lips in
anticipation.
Meanwhile, there was still no sign
of the Duke puzzle returning and players were getting
increasingly frustrated by its prolonged absence.
The very prestigious Walrus of
Merit for outstandingly wonderful planet design was
awarded to Aeris for the planet Creation.
Bizcarp's weekly Duchy Report
feature in the news turned to tragedy when she was
interviewing Duke EvilZoot. As he showed her around the
planet, he stepped into a death location without
insurance, and died DD. Bizcarp was mortified that she
had contributed to his death; but he was unfazed and soon
climbed the ranks back to Baron, there to await his
chance to solve the Duke puzzle and reclaim his lost
Duchy of Aaargh.
DID YOU
KNOW...?
...That you can slide down the
banisters in the Mansion on Earth? The butler might not
like it, but it's great fun.
...That apart from being a food
item, the sugarlump has another - very useful - function?
The clue is in its appearance.
...That the CHEAT command
lets you experience life at the top? Try it and see!
PLAYER
KNOWLEDGE
The snippets above are part of the
pool of player knowledge about Fed. Things that are not
mentioned in the manual, but that certain players have
found out about over the years and passed onto their
friends.
At least, that's the way it used to
be, BFF (before free Fed).
On systems before AOL, and to a
certain extent on AOL in the early days, players came
into Fed wanting to learn everything they could about the
game. I can remember - way back when I was a humble
player - spending several weeks with my friends working
out all of the object and mobile matches in Sol.
Back in the days when you could
fight in Sol, we painstakingly plotted the spaceways of
the Solar System so that for every single space location,
we knew which direction a ship would move in if its
computer was on auto and it got fired on.
In those days, Fed was an
adventure, a universe to be explored, full of wonders to
discover and puzzles to solve. In those days, a new
player would be taken under the wing of an experienced
player who would teach the newbod all they knew about the
delights and intricacies of Fed DataSpace.
Somewhere along the way, this style
of playing Fed was lost. When AOL turned flat-rate and
Fed became effectively free, a new breed of player
appeared - those who wanted it easy, who wanted to climb
the ranks with no effort, make it to the top as fast as
they could without stopping to take in the sights on the
way. Suddenly, exploring the little out-of-the-way places
and learning all there was to learn wasn't important any
more. High-ranking players who knew all about the game
became a minority, as many people promoted to PO or even
Duke with minimal effort. How many players these days
even know the names of all the Sol mobiles, let alone
what objects they really want?
Now that we've moved to the web and
are charging again, I would like to see us change back.
Fed isn't just about ploughing through the ranks as fast
as you can. It's a huge alternate world for you to
explore. There are lots of fun things in Fed that aren't
useful to the main path through promotion, but are great
fun. And there's lots of tricks and tips that will help
you promote, if you could only find someone to teach them
to you.
Those knowledgeable POs and Dukes
are still out there, so why not take advantage of their
experience and ask them to teach you the things you
didn't know about Fed?
UNSUCCESSFUL
LOGINS
Feedback mail recently received the
following letter:
I just checked my account
details... imagine my surprise when I saw my last
unsuccessful logon was by someone I had no previous
knowledge of having access to my account. Here is the
message I received:
Last unsuccessful login:
1988-04-22 from [IP address]
Who the heck is this and how
did he access my account and/or password?
Well, don't panic; the important
word here is UNSUCCESSFUL. It means someone tried to use
the account, but failed. Somehow they knew the account ID
but they did not know the password; or perhaps they have
an account with a similar ID and mis-typed it.
Ideally, you don't want anyone else
to know what your account ID is, because it is one half
of the key to your account. So it's never a good idea to
tell other people your account ID - nobody needs to know
what it is, unless you have a problem and are talking to
ibgames staff about your account. However, some people's
IDs are fairly easy to guess because they are the same as
their Fed character names.
But if this is the case, you should
not fly into an immediate panic, because without the
password having someone's ID is useless. Assuming you
have been sensible and haven't picked something
blindingly obvious as your password, then all the person
can do is make a few guesses, which will probably fail.
And they cannot sit there trying every word in the
dictionary because 20 consecutive failed logons will
disable the account until you go and re-enable it again.
So, if you see notice of an
unsuccessful logon on your account details page, or when
you log into Fed, don't worry. Someone may have tried,
but they failed!
POST-SCRIPT
TO UNSUCCESSFUL LOGONS
Last week we explained that if your
account details showed an unsuccessful login, it meant
that someone else had tried and failed to log onto your
account - either maliciously, or by accident.
Of course, there is one other
situation that causes an unsuccessful login. That's if
you type in your password wrong when logging on! So it's
not necessarily something all that sinister.
We were asked if it's possible to
find out who made the unsuccessful attempt.
The answer is that there is no way
that an ISP is going to tell you anything about any of
their customers unless you have a court order, so you can
forget about any idea of finding out who it was.
However, many ISPs will take action
against a customer who violates their Acceptable Use
Policy. Trying to gain unauthorized access to an account
violates just about every AUP there is.
The correct thing to do in this
situation is to write to abuse@wherever -
"wherever" being the ISP, which you can find
out by looking at the IP address shown on your account
details for the unsuccessful logon.
Some ISPs don't have an abuse
address so if the mail bounces back then there's probably
nothing more you can do.
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