Difference between revisions of "Start scumming"

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(Well, whether it's cheating or not is a matter of opinion, so let's not be too quick to judge.)
m (Text replace - "\[\[[sS]pellbook of (dig|magic missile|fireball|cone of cold|sleep|finger of death|light|detect monsters|healing|knock|force bolt|confuse monster|cure blindness|drain life|slow monster|wizard lock|create monster|detect food|cause fear|clai)
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'''Start scumming''' is a simple abuse that involves immediately [[quit]]ting characters that do not meet some arbitrary criteria. [[Wizard]]s are most often the victim of this [[scumming]] behavior, due to their useful starting magical equipment. For example, a player may startscum Wizards looking for a very good starting spell (such as [[spellbook of identify|identify]] or [[spellbook of magic missile|magic missile]]). Every [[role]] is startscummed to some extent, even those who receive no random [[equipment]], because sometimes players demand unusually high starting [[stats]].
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'''Start scumming''' is a simple abuse that involves immediately [[quit]]ting characters that do not meet some arbitrary criteria. [[Wizard]]s are most often the victim of this [[scumming]] behavior, due to their useful starting magical equipment. For example, a player may startscum Wizards looking for a very good starting spell (such as {{spell of|identify}} or {{spell of|magic missile}}). Every [[role]] is startscummed to some extent, even those who receive no random [[equipment]], because sometimes players demand unusually high starting [[stats]].
  
 
On [[nethack.alt.org]], startscumming has been defined as a [[quit]] or [[escape]] with less than a thousand [[points]]. This is by no means a perfect definition, as players sometimes commit suicide instead of quitting, and sometimes players quit or escape with no intention of scumming (such as when they accidentally choose the wrong [[role]]).
 
On [[nethack.alt.org]], startscumming has been defined as a [[quit]] or [[escape]] with less than a thousand [[points]]. This is by no means a perfect definition, as players sometimes commit suicide instead of quitting, and sometimes players quit or escape with no intention of scumming (such as when they accidentally choose the wrong [[role]]).

Revision as of 17:00, 25 November 2012

Start scumming is a simple abuse that involves immediately quitting characters that do not meet some arbitrary criteria. Wizards are most often the victim of this scumming behavior, due to their useful starting magical equipment. For example, a player may startscum Wizards looking for a very good starting spell (such as identify or magic missile). Every role is startscummed to some extent, even those who receive no random equipment, because sometimes players demand unusually high starting stats.

On nethack.alt.org, startscumming has been defined as a quit or escape with less than a thousand points. This is by no means a perfect definition, as players sometimes commit suicide instead of quitting, and sometimes players quit or escape with no intention of scumming (such as when they accidentally choose the wrong role).

Many NAO scripts that generate stats based on the logfile (including Rodney's death announcements) ignore startscums as they have defined them. This is partly because about 34% of games on nethack.alt.org fall under their definition of startscumming; more than half of those scums are Wizards.

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