Well laa dee daa, aren't you cool. Speaking as the author of that essay, I can tell you, I did my fair share of hacking. I'll go up against you in a hacker dick-measuring contest any day. Back in 1992 I was rolling my own builds of Nethack on a university server, OVER DIALUP, to play it my own way. And before Nethack I was hex-editing my copy of Beneath Apple Manor. So nyeah.
This is a fair response. I didn't feel your essay brought out that aspect of the game very well, but I have no reason to doubt it happened. IMO, the use and abuse of the game's rules are the most interesting bit of Nethack, and I wanted to highlight that.
"I'll go up against you in a hacker dick-measuring contest any day."
This is ridiculous and in no way appropriate. I meant nothing personal by my comment.
