Enforcing obscurity in the @who
Exactly how many people are not in the city?

So, I would like to share this, Under @who you receive a line at the end, showing the various breakdowns.

Mega-sprawl amounts are in the mix, numerous are topside, a few aren't in the game, a few are somewhere and one isn't in the city.

Were I the one not in the city, and being actively hunted, I could watch this number and the moment it ticks up, I could use that to take my leave from my current lodgings, displace and get someplace more obscure.

I'd replace it with instead, " and some may not be in the city at all." No matter how many are in or out of the city. With maybe a progressing amount if somehow it's above 5-10.

This is a simple way to reduce meta both on the part of the potential hunted, and on the part of potential hunters.

Agreed, villa... But if this sort of thing is available someone will be tempted to use it...

Sounds like a good suggestion to me, any opportunity for gaining meta-knowledge is a bad thing as far as I'm concerned.

Aside from active use of that sort of knowledge, it is sometimes hard to remember what you 'don't know that you do know', if that makes sense :p

As ridiculous as the gaming of the system mentioned in the OP sounds, I have (as a somewhat newer player) often wondered what point @who serves other than:

A) Showing you what staff is online

B) Allowing various possibilities for meta

Why not just turn @who into something that shows you how many characters are connected (but not names) plus the individual names of staff members online? Or make everyone be invisible? What is the point of @who from a player list perspective other than using the information for various meta purposes? (genuinely asking, not saying that is the case).

These anonymized numbers act as a general indicator of where the RP currently happening is. In the past, and during times of the day where there are 40 people on and not 80 people on, it can be good to know that most of the RP is currently topside, or most of the RP is currently in the Mix. It is not meant to point at any one person, though yes, there are times when if you already KNOW someone is in the badlands, you might be able to guess it is them online-- though puppeted NPCs are factored into this count too so it is not accurate just for players.

@beandip a lot of things have changed in the 3 years or so you took off the game. Using that experience as a barometer for now is a recipe for confusion (both for you and for others reading your posts).

If this is the level of meta we have to worry about, then I think we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. That isn't a bad thing. It means we have eliminated the big, obvious things, and folks are now homing in on the smaller, possibly not big deal ones. I think that is the case here. I don't mind the post, but I don't know that I would change anything in the game based on it at this point, either.

(Edited by Slither at 7:00 am on 5/10/2020)