Nethack quote at Userfriendly

Janis said:
>There's a minor quote of Nethack at Userfriendly,
>in case someone's interested...
>
>http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20080119

Someone should tell those guys score doesn't really mean much...

--
http://rjy.org.uk/
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pendell.DeleteThis@hotmail.com wrote:

> On Jan 22, 8:12 am, RjY <R....DeleteThis@sp.am> wrote:
> > Janis said:
> >
> > >There's a minor quote of Nethack at Userfriendly,
> > >in case someone's interested...
> >
> > >http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20080119
> >
> > Someone should tell those guys score doesn't really mean much...
>
> It does if you've never ascended.

You haven't followed UF for very long, have you? Sid _has_ ascended. Or
so he claims.

Richard
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On 2008-01-24, Richard Bos wrote:
> pendell.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com wrote:
>
>> On Jan 22, 8:12 am, RjY <R....TakeThisOut@sp.am> wrote:
>> > Janis said:
>> >
>> > >There's a minor quote of Nethack at Userfriendly,
>> > >in case someone's interested...
>> >
>> > >http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20080119
>> >
>> > Someone should tell those guys score doesn't really mean much...
>>
>> It does if you've never ascended.
>
> You haven't followed UF for very long, have you? Sid _has_ ascended. Or
> so he claims.

But from the NH occurences on UF so far, I think one can conclude that Illiad
doesn't seriously play NH or research in the contemporary NetHack community to
get a feeling for how difficult it actually is[1], since the impression in the
undertone is that ascension is something only a hardcore NetHack geek achieves
once or twice in his lifetime.

[1] Not that I think he should, the presentation is good enough for yet
another minor geeky sideplot.

--
Ohle Claussen | GPG-Key-ID E7149169
----------===========----------
BOFH Excuse #373:
Suspicious pointer corrupted virtual machine
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On 2008-01-25, Ohle Claussen <ohle.claussen RemoveThis @ds.mpg.de> wrote:
> But from the NH occurences on UF so far, I think one can conclude that Illiad
> doesn't seriously play NH or research in the contemporary NetHack community to
> get a feeling for how difficult it actually is[1], since the impression in the
> undertone is that ascension is something only a hardcore NetHack geek achieves
> once or twice in his lifetime.

There _is_ a userfriendly nethack server, I believe. But I don't
think anyone has much played there; it has the TurboNerd patch
installed.

--
Derek

Game info and change log: http://sporkhack.com
Beta Server: telnet://sporkhack.com
IRC: irc.freenode.net, #sporkhack
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On 01/22/08 8:12 AM, RjY wrote:

> Someone should tell those guys score doesn't really mean much...

Perhaps Greg and Sid know this, but Sid wants to keep up appearances for
everyone else at Columbia Internet who haven't ascended and use the
score as a sign of ability...

--
Chris Odorjan - codorjan.TakeThisOut@gmail.com - http://www.execulink.com/~bobnet/
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Chris Odorjan <codorjan.RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 01/22/08 8:12 AM, RjY wrote:
>
> > Someone should tell those guys score doesn't really mean much...
>
> Perhaps Greg and Sid know this, but Sid wants to keep up appearances for
> everyone else at Columbia Internet who haven't ascended and use the
> score as a sign of ability...

Possibly, but I don't think Greg has ascended, either.

As for Stef, he'd get beaten up by that silly white d that keeps turning
up at the start of the game.

Richard
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On 01/27/08 2:33 PM, Richard Bos wrote:

> As for Stef, he'd get beaten up by that silly white d that keeps turning
> up at the start of the game.

If he makes it down the stairs at all...

--
Chris Odorjan - codorjan.TakeThisOut@gmail.com - http://www.execulink.com/~bobnet/
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On Feb 4, 6:49 pm, Jorgen Grahn <grahn+n...@snipabacken.se> wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:10:51 +0000 (UTC), Ohle Claussen <ohle.claus... RemoveThis @ds.mpg.de> wrote:
>
> ...
>
> > But from the NH occurences on UF so far, I think one can conclude that Illiad
> > doesn't seriously play NH or research in the contemporary NetHack community to
> > get a feeling for how difficult it actually is[1], since the impression in the
> > undertone is that ascension is something only a hardcore NetHack geek achieves
> > once or twice in his lifetime.
>
> Most geek-type people I know have that impression, if they know of the
> game at all.
>
> Hell, *I* have that impression. I've played semi-regularly for
> fifteen years or so, and ascended only five times or so. I propose
> that the vast majority of players - even spoiled ones - ascend very
> rarely.
>
> As always, there are different perspectives ...

I've met a few other nethack players in the most unexpected of
places. Heck, I work with another one (he's never ascended and plays
more than I do). When ascension counts come up, I have yet to
randomly meet anyone with more than 3 ascension. After sheepishly
admitting to having "over forty with a seven-game streak", I'm often
on the receiving end of dumbfounded looks and/or accused of lying.

So ... I'd say your typical hardcore nethacker has ascended, at most,
a few times. The hardcore paranoid-android types (self included) who
reel off ascension streaks with clockwork regularity are statistical
outliers. An rgrn regular probably has their perception skewed
because a significant chunk of the posting community consists of
serial ascenders.

For example, there are over 29,500 usernames on NAO. 1,126 of these
have ascended. I am not attempting to control for the "one-player,
several accounts" silliness. That way lies madness. Stealing from
http://alt.org/nethack/ascstreak.html gives a picture of just how
unusual going back-to-back really is:

Longest Ascension Streak:
10 or more games (10 players)
9 games (2 players)
8 games (2 players)
7 games (5 players)
6 games (6 players)
5 games (13 players)
4 games (21 players)
3 games (53 players)
2 games (126 players)

-cdi
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On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:10:51 +0000 (UTC), Ohle Claussen <ohle.claussen RemoveThis @ds.mpg.de> wrote:
....
> But from the NH occurences on UF so far, I think one can conclude that Illiad
> doesn't seriously play NH or research in the contemporary NetHack community to
> get a feeling for how difficult it actually is[1], since the impression in the
> undertone is that ascension is something only a hardcore NetHack geek achieves
> once or twice in his lifetime.

Most geek-type people I know have that impression, if they know of the
game at all.

Hell, *I* have that impression. I've played semi-regularly for
fifteen years or so, and ascended only five times or so. I propose
that the vast majority of players - even spoiled ones - ascend very
rarely.

As always, there are different perspectives ...

/Jorgen

--
// Jorgen Grahn <grahn@ Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu
\X/ snipabacken.se> R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
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On 2008-02-04, Jorgen Grahn wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:10:51 +0000 (UTC), Ohle Claussen <ohle.claussen DeleteThis @ds.mpg.de> wrote:
> ...
>> But from the NH occurences on UF so far, I think one can conclude that Illiad
>> doesn't seriously play NH or research in the contemporary NetHack community to
>> get a feeling for how difficult it actually is[1], since the impression in the
>> undertone is that ascension is something only a hardcore NetHack geek achieves
>> once or twice in his lifetime.
>
> Most geek-type people I know have that impression, if they know of the
> game at all.
>
> Hell, *I* have that impression. I've played semi-regularly for
> fifteen years or so, and ascended only five times or so. I propose
> that the vast majority of players - even spoiled ones - ascend very
> rarely.

Certainly. I mean, my own ascension count isn't even in the double digits yet
(I don't play very often, lately). But Sid is supposed to be the prototypical
old time übergeek. I'd certainly expect him to have ascended a couple of
times, and understood that the score system isn't a good measure of player
abilities (which is what started this discussion)

--
Ohle Claussen | GPG-Key-ID E7149169
----------===========----------
"It's very important for folks to understand that when there's more trade
there's more commerce." --dubya
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