Icepick's Ultimate Uplink Guide described the rating best; Adversly affecting a company increases the rating, while adversly affecting an induvidual decreases it.


Who or what runs those companies? OK, in Uplink the software controls the companies, but do you think even in 2010 computers will replace all the humans? What about the people who run and maintain the systems? Do you think artificial intelligence will be advanced enough for a computer to be a CEO?

When you delete or seal a file from a system, do you not affect the people who worked on it, wheter it was a secretary who lost a boss's memo or a scientist who spent years on research?

When you destroy a database, how does that positively affect the people who worked to collect the data that was in there?

When you crash a system, how is that beneficial to the sysadmin who must work overtime to restore the system to a working condition? How is this good news for the workers who suddenly have no work to do? How does the system security people proffit from being fired for failling to keep hackers like us out?


No matter what we do, we adversly affect someone connected to the data and systems we break into. Data collectors have to start from scratch again, IT people have to loose free time to undo our damage, people loose work and loose their jobs. Someone else pays a price for our hacks, and by Icepick's description of the Neuromancer Rating, we should all be "Morally Bankrupt."
I do whatever work needs to be done, whether its a system crash or a removal job, and I know some people will be negatively affected. It's just the nature of the biz. Some of you may be disturbed by my revelation (no relation to the ARC virus). If I upset anyone's abillity to sleep comfortably at night, this may be the best answer I can give to your moral dilemma:
"It seems the only winning move is not to play."
(W.O.P.R from Wargames)