The princes of hackerdom skate the phone-lines, and computernetworks, as a lifestyle. They hang out in loose,modem-connected gangs like the "Legion of Doom" and the "Mastersof Destruction." The craft of hacking is taught through"bulletin board systems," personal computers that carryelectronic mail and can be accessed by phone. Hacker bulletinboards generally sport grim, scary, sci-fi heavy metal nameslike BLACK ICE -- PRIVATE or SPEED DEMON ELITE. Hackersthemselves often adopt romantic and highly suspicious tough-guymonickers like "Necron 99," "Prime Suspect," "Erik Bloodaxe,""Malefactor" and "Phase Jitter." This can be seen as a kind ofcyberpunk folk-poetry -- after all, baseball players also havecolorful nicknames. But so do the Mafia and the MedellinCartel.
PLAYER FOUR: The Simulation Gamers.
Wargames and role-playing adventures are an old and honoredpastime, much favored by professional military strategists andH.G. Wells, and now played by hundreds of thousands ofenthusiasts throughout North America, Europe and Japan. Intoday's market, many simulation games are computerized, makingsimulation gaming a favorite pastime of hackers, who dote onarcane intellectual challenges and the thrill of doing simulatedmischief.
Modern simulation games frequently have a heavilyscience-fictional cast. Over the past decade or so, fueled byvery respectable royalties, the world of simulation gaming hasincreasingly permeated the world of science-fiction publishing.TSR, Inc., proprietors of the best-known role-playing game,"Dungeons and Dragons," own the venerable science-fictionmagazine "Amazing." Gaming-books, once restricted to hobbyoutlets, now commonly appear in chain-stores like B. Dalton'sand Waldenbooks, and sell vigorously.
Steve Jackson Games, Inc., of Austin, Texas, is a games company