For a post that describes the "hacking" ethos of the game that I wanted to bring out, try my wife's atheist, petless, genoless, wishless wizard ( http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.roguelike.nethack/m...? ). Putting together all those conducts meant she had to be creative in identifying curses, acquiring holy water, coming up with a viable end-game weapon, and fighting certain dangerous enemies. The sequence of confusing herself to read remove curse and make holy and unholy waters so she could bless the polymorph book so she could polypile for fireball so she could beat the quest boss is the sort of "using every corner of the rules to your benefit" thing that I love about nethack.
(Also, let me repeat for emphasis: the original post was an enjoyable read. I mean no disrespect to its author.)
So in twenty years of playing Nethack, I have apparently "missed the point" of the game, by not choosing to play with self-imposed restrictions?
Actually, come to think of it, that statement doesn't even apply. My self-imposed restriction was to take no notes, not even after identifying rare items.
Personally, I think my tactic for identifying magic lamps counts as "hacking" according to your earlier definition.
I think you're missing the point now. Again, no disrespect to you or your Nethack abilities; ascending a character is serious evidence of skills.
What I wanted to point out is something you didn't emphasize: using and abusing the rules is what makes Nethack a unique gaming experience. Self-imposed restrictions aren't the only way to go, but they do force you to abuse the rules more heavily than without.
