Does Cheating Make if Fun?

[Rampala]

Since I think it's safe to say everyone here plays some sort of game, whether RPG, RST, online, offline, etc., I thought it might be a good crowd of people to ask. If you go to a search engine to look for tips or help on a game, I guarentee you'll get plenty of sites with cheats on them. Okay, so people cheat, what's the big deal?

Okay, first off, what qualifies as cheating? Is using a walkthrough cheating? Having your friend help you out? Or do you have to actually input some sort of cheat code or hack to actually be cheating? Technically, when I used walkthroughs I thought it was cheating. A low level type, but cheating nevertheless. Sometimes you get stuck, so you need a little help.

With cheat codes, you're outright giving yourself abilities in the game you would not normally have. For example in the game Glover, N64, I found it impossible to win even with cheats. But cheats included abnormally large life, opening future levels without completing pre-requisites, etc.

Now let's talk hacks. I know D2 best for hacks; Example- Maphack. With maphack the entire map is lit up and all the areas already marked on the minimap, obvously giving an unfair advantage. (Some people deny this is actually cheating, but, it is.)

Cheating, cheating. Big deal? Well, in single player games you're only affecting yourself. In online games, like D2, you can actually screw up the entire online economy by duplicating items, etc.

That aside, even if you weren't "hurting" anyhow, I don't quite understand why people cheat? I mean, at least when I play the FF games, I do it completely on my own the first time through if possible, and maybe the second time look up some hints online for additional help or side quests I missed. But, why cheat? In D2, why use Maphack? Why have a bot play for you for hours on end and get you tons of good items and then use them? Where's the fun in that? You didn't earn it...

Does cheating make games more fun? Or at least in certain instances? I know when I played the Sims the worst thing I ever did was learn the cheat that gave you unlimited money. It completely ruined the game for me, there was no game anymore, I could have everythign I needed without actually playing. No challenge.

I thought games were fun because they were challenging, and cheating removes the challenge. Hence, how is it fun?

...just a thought?

[Casey]

Yes it is does make games fun. It only makes it fun when you've been playing it along time, like for example diablo2 expansion, there used to be a program called ''map hack'' which shows the whole act map and people say its cheating but to people playing the game itself for a long time its not. Its just handy.

[DeathIsMyFreedom]

Been there done that, Yes haveing a friend help u is considerd cheating, if you cant do it yourself its that of a cheat, but then again it also makes the game more fun, u dont have to focus on the other and can go further with out being pissed(or like me socking walls cause of bull lol) But it ruins the replayability...cheats are fun when u dont take seriusly in other words.

[Caltrap]

Here's a little question I'd like an answer to. The only cheats I ever use are ones that like change the characters appearance or something. These are always grouped with cheats, but are they?

[Peegee]

Cosmetic hacks are not cheats, but if you type a code, it gets lopped in there because 'cheats' are things that alter game variables and how they function in the game (ie infinite life would probably negate the 'if get hurt lose life' algorithms'.

I think cheating is perfectly fine. I call it cheating if and when you alter the game programming code at any point. Having a friend play for you is not cheating, in that case.

OOC: I thought rampy was going to do a rant about how cheating on your significant other is a good way to have fun....at the cost of your moral goodness.

[Rampala]

Rampy..? O_o

Um, bet, anyhow. Caltrap, I would say that editting the game like that is not a cheat. Like, adding skins to your Sims. Obviously, you are hacking the game in some way, but as long as what you're doing doesn't give you some sort of advantage over the way the game was intended to be played, it's not cheating.

[xenapan]

IMO chesthack in D2 was hilarious. with a lick of a mouse, you could cover SCREENS with all sorts of items. fair enough that it was bad for blizzard cause it meant clogged up servers but hey.. they took it upon themselves to make ultra rare uniques which some people would never hope to see. they brought it upon themselves to force many more into cheating thier way through the game. and as we all should know (or at least those who played d2 1.07-1.09. things were screwed up in softcore. it more or less became a meaningless game. i wasted at least a year or two before i realized.

then again.. there were plenty of other hacks... those familiar with maphack would know you can actually scroll off the screen to target things normally out of your sight range :P that and full lighting screwed up PVP as well.

then came iths and stufflike that, runewords that came out again, tradehacks with image only items, etc... it just simply screwed up the game.

in the end... cheats are ok.. as long as its restricted to affecting you only IMO that means offline games with no sort of linking etc.

then again... the D2 hacks gave blizzard a real headache :P that was just fun while it lasted. but regardless.. the effects resulted in the new d2 patch 1.10 which had to take AGES to come out (so long i quit even hardcore) to fix many of the exploits all at once. i guess they needed to learn.

[GrimmReaper]

i got through doom cheating.



it was great.

[DeBlayde]

the first time I played the N64 Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, I got stuck in the first temple as Grown Up Link. I musta spent 4 hours running in circles looking for another bloody key! finally, I ran out to the local supermarket and bought the strategy guide. when I got back, the answer to moving forward was so simple that I had to shmack myself in the head with the guide several times. Of course, it's not something that was terribly obvious and would have thought to do, but still. Fortunately, I had the guide already for the palace in Lake Hylia. even with the guide, that temple drove me about nuts!!!!

but guides do tend to provide replay value. instead of playing the game through a couple times and selling it, you find things that you never knew existed and so you go back through and try to find them yourself. but there's still this one weapon that I can never get an enemy to drop in Castlevania SOTN. I know who drops it and where, and got it once, but died right afterwards and hadn't an opportunity to save. poor me.

[Peegee]

I wanna see a game where the programmers didn't make cheat codes. You can beta test something by using trainer equivalent programs, instead of cheat codes.

[Garland]

My general philosophy is: play it once fairly, then you can cheat on future games to add replay value. It's always best to play the game guideless and cheatless first though, at least in my oppinion. I typically play a game once "legitly", then try it with a guide for my "perfect" game. When I used to have a gameshark or gamegenie I'd use that for godly abilities and such. Anything that gets you more play time for your money is a good thing. On online game communities like PSO, FFXI, Everquest, or the like, I don't think cheating is right at all. In single player you only affect yourself. Your cheating shouldn't ruin someone else's gaming experience.

[Agent Proto]

Some hacks do mack some games fun, when it's more like adding special characters, or other things, most of the time for multiplayer games, but for other things, like getting more money, or other things, cheating isn't really that great, but it could be of some help, if you're like really confused.

Oh, and I think this thread is more suitable to General Gaming because we're discussing about cheating in games, which is not the same thing as cheating in life, unless there's some sort of involvement between the two. *nods and moves thread*

[Breine]

I sometimes use cheats when playing with another person, Multiplayer... It usually makes it more fun.

[Heath]

I'm pretty much the same as Garland here.

When you have to unlock cheats by doing various things like in Goldeneye on the N64 then yes, cheating does make the game fun by letting you go through levels with big heads, invisibility and so on, despite 1:20 on 00 Agent in Archives being a royal pain to get and not be out by a second or two which happened to me far too many times.

[Ryth]

For me it depends on the game the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series I would cheat on those games some aren't the ones you shouldn't cheat on most RPGs and Zelda games. Walkthroughs should only be used when you can't beat something even hours and hours or even days before resorting to a walkthrough. Like I had a problem with Ocarina of Time so I went to www.cheatcc.com the biggest cheat/code/FAQ/Walkthrough etc. archive EVER and helped me out big time. Warning though it does have lots of pop-ups every time you go to a new page.