(doing my bit to keep the forum uncluttered!)

I mentioned this site on another forum, and I think a few of the members there are going to join, with the intention, initially at least, of playing a passworded game amongst ourselves. This will be the first time I will play against people I know from somewhere other than this site.

If I end up in other games with them, I will of course treat them like any other player but I think it's only fair to let people know I know them. Which got me thinking...

How about a space on everyone's profile for them to list other players on this site to whom they have some sort of connection (eg relative, schoolfriend, work colleague, chat buddy)? That way anyone playing in a game involving two connected people has an opportunity to be forewarned and forearmed.

Obviously there will still be cheaters who hide such information, but I can see the benefit for people such as flashman, who is quite open about the people who he knows on this site but still gets accused of multiaccounting and metagaming. Friends should be able to play with and against each other, it's when they do so in secret that they have an especially unfair advantage.

We can argue about whether open metagaming is fair or not, but it's certainly a lot more fair than secret metagaming, and if I know going into a game that two of the other players are likely to be quite cosy, I'm going to be a lot more prepared and less annoyed than if I only find out afterwards.

Such a feature could easily be customised to encourage friendly rivalries between players even if they only know each other from this site! I can think of a few players I might flag up as being my arch enemy, or my nemesis, to add a bit of extra flavour to games.