One of my players refuses to come up with a handle and an icon when hacking. He's using his character's real name and has had no hint of an icon. Therefore, it is assumed he uses his own physical appearance as his icon. After asking him to come up with one for many months of game time, I am getting sick of him not cooperating. I hope he reads this too. How far could one get without a handle, icon, or street name for that matter?

As far as the Star let you...

Cheers,

Max

Yeah. Start sending the Man after him. The Man'll set him straight.

IMO:

Handle: I've seen people on the internet using "real names". But I have no clue if they actually use their real names or it's just a fake name they like to use. So without someone checking you up, using your real name as a handle is just as good as using "Backgammon". Of course if they check your account, whatever handle you use isn't gonna save you anyway.

Icon: I would handle this by describing him what his icon looks like. Systems generate icons by default. It can easily be changed, so the player can put in flavour and describe himself. To punish him if he doesn't, give him a stupid looking default icon. Like a atupid looking face with "numbnutz" written on the forehead, or wearing a shirt that says "NOOB", or somehting. You could even have it give him negative social modifiers when dealing with other hackers cause he's too dumb to know how to make his icon look cool (which IMO must be a HUGE deal in the Matrix... your icon HAS to look nova hot if you want respect)

Street Name: Realistically, street names are so, so very dumb. "Hello, they call me.. Nightstalker!!" "uh, sure there.. what a homo."
That being said, no sane runner would be known by his REAL name. He would die in a week. So if the runner insists on using his real name (well, one from one of his SINs), then give a bonus modifier to anyone researching him (records, sin, etc). He'll hopefully have his next character use a street name after his current one's appartment door gets blown open and a grenade gets tossed next to his bed while he's sleeping.

icon, default ums icon, handle (registered user 001239234)

simple nuff.

no reason to force him into your view of hackers.

The default UMS icon for a persona is a chrome, featureless humanoid I believe. Probably just as big a social blunder as using the name "Player" in most FPS games. Marks you as a noob at first glance.

Which maybe a hacker likes bieng mistook for that? =p

Just fill up a list on each scenario of whom is looking for that character, what are the griefs, and what elements then have to get him (already : face and look, name, thus they can track him on the grid - he apparently use forums on the same name ...)
take 1 or 2 hours each scenario to make him understand why almost all runners prefer to run in shadows.

Icons are clearly an excellent branding tool, so I'd assume that any major Matrix Service Provider would set it's users to default to a corporate "user" icon.

For a user logged in through the Shaiwase matrix service it might be a japanese guy in a suit with the user's username on the name tag (first initial, a dot, last name truncated to six letters, a number is the common default today).

Remember that it's likely that you need to select a username just to log in to the matrix. You'd really only end up with the default of the UMS flat chrome icon and (i'd guess) "Unknown User" if you were logging illegitimately through a line tap or through some sort of poorly adminstrated bootleg matrix service.

RunnerPaul: Most MSPs will probably still require that you supply a username and password to log in to your matrix service, and that username will likely be your default matrix handle. It's not required, but you'd need to be using an abnormal setup for it to not happen.

His handle is his real name and his icon looks exactly like him. I feel it is a lot easier to find a person by their name than some random handle. Not only that, but we continually refer to him by his real name in the run. If someone cares enough to find out who he is, it would certainly be incredibly easy to find him just through his name.

I now wonder about the usefulness of a transparent, invisible, or non-existant icon.

Yes, using one's real name is a big no-no. Does he tell the "teenage" boys he meets in chat rooms his address and where he goes to school too?

If he uses his physical appearance and real name, and is Matrix-active fairly often, I'd just assess a bonus to attempts to obtain information on him, such as associates, residence, modus operandi, etc...

That alone, if you play a game where consequences arise (i.e. where killing cops makes your life very interesting for years to come, and where hacking a corporation's network might mean that corporation could come gunning for you several sessions down the line at an inopportune time), should be deterrant enough. When your Matrix and meatworld identities are identical and transparent, you're effectively doubling your info-tactical footprint.

I would just start piling on consequences.

I consider the GMs primary responsibility creating the game world. That includes NPCs, but I also consider it making realistic consequences. You have to start bringing consequences in order to show the player why anonymity is important.