Hacking. Cheating. And the death of honourable gaming?

[grannywils]

I do not like the on-line games and never play them. I am too slow and like to wander around too much for the other players. If I did, however, I would never cheat. That would be totally unacceptable. However when I play a single player game, I usually play it through once first with no cheats just to be sure that I can do it. After that I will use cheats just to see what is available and what else I might have been able to do. The only exception to the first time rule is sometimes I will us a cheat to get myself some more gold/money. As I am a terrible (and I do mean terrible) fighter, it helps to have enough gold to at least equip myself a little better. In games like Dragon Age Origins where you have multiple battles with multiple enemies, once I have done it without cheats, I will use the cheat codes just to get through the battles faster, as they can become boring to me, since I do love the game and have played it many times. I don't use things like God Modes or anything. I do like the challenge of playing and winning the game myself. But some of the cheat codes have allowed me to find things that I didn't even know existed in some of the games.

[CommanderCrazy]

Too tired to type it all, so get my gist from what I picked.

 

1- It is better to lose as an honest man than win using a cheat.

2- More must be done, but without becoming Nazis. (Ubisoft anyone?)

[Vindekarr]

You're right about cheating in singleplayer. But some exceptions do exist. Saint's Row II is a fun game. But it eventualy gets boring without cheats... ...and a fairly fun game with them no matter what. And the cheats are the spice of multiplayer in that game too because the cheats are usualy as much a danger to yourself as any advantage. Just take Half Gravity for example. While it DOES let you carjump the entire airport in a single mighty leap. It also makes helicoptres and air vehicles unflyable-I'm a very experienced pilot but even I cant control the helos with this on. And even makes the guns a bit harder to aim.

 

Thats an example of cheating the right way. Because SR II is just such a crazy silly game and because you ca ONLY cheat in unranked matches-which encourage you to cheat. But finaly, it also has a rather remarkable law eforcement feature. Often times when one player cheats, the cheat applies to EVERYONE! So if one guy goes invulnerable, so does everyone else.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

I think that the votes will come down pretty much along the usual "cheats are fine for singleplayer but not for multi." Most gamers generally agree that cheating against other players robs them of the value of their gaming experience, but that bots don't have voices and are therefore fair targets for god mode.

 

Honestly, I hate exploit abusers far more than I do outright cheaters. Cheaters are at least easy to try and convict once you catch them; if somebody is found to be running an aimbot or damage hack then there's really no question that they were doing something wrong. Even if you don't know for sure, it's easy to test as long as you can find another player who you know isn't cheating to compare them with. Exploit abuse is far, far more insidious- you can never really know for sure that they're doing it on purpose unless they do it repeatedly, and even then you have to serve up proof unless you're a mod or admin. It's not as easy to test for, and a lot of the time even when you know someone is exploiting your only option is just to leave the server because you can't prove they were doing it. On top of that, they come back with that irritating "if it's in the game it's supposed to be there" crap, then complain two weeks later when the devs finally get around to patching their favorite crutch. Ugh.

[leetgamer]

I use cheats only in my second play. Purely to see how the game feels from a different, more god-like perspective. However, if I hit a brick wall that I simply cannot manage to pass, I use said cheats, but deactivate them when I feel that I no longer need them.

[Pyrosocial]

In multi-player games cheating is the low of the low, not only do you spoil it for others but there can't be any sense achievement for winning. Single player is different, sometimes developers get carried away when it comes to "challenging" the player and make later stages in games a chore rather than fun, I'm more than happy to use them then, chances are I wouldn't see the end of the game I paid for I didn't. I also use them to get rid of certain game mechanics I dislike, for instance I up my characters Security/Lockpick level in Oblivion/Fallout with the console because I detest the annoying mini-games.

 

 

honestly, nothing irritates me more than unload 50 rounds into a guy only for him to have a speed cheat and rush right at me while my rounds practivly bounce off. or freaking moving through walls >.<

[Kalfear]

I have never understood the thrill some get with cheating?

It robs you of any real form of accomplishment and in multiplayer games means you ruining not only your own but others game enjoyment!

 

I just dont see the appeal!

 

Hell I try to not even use walk throughs if at all possible and dont understand those that buy the Prima cheats books for new games!

If you just reading and doing, why play at all?

[evilneko]

Really depends; in DA and ME2 I never would because I think each class should have its role and place, strengths and weaknesses; when I see people on youtube hacking ME2 to give an Adept Shepard the Revenant or weapon training in everything, well I just don't get it; it spoils it for me so I would never do it.

 

 

Cheats are very useful in singleplayer to reduce frustration and to change gameplay factors that are otherwise fixed. For instance I give my child characters in Fallout 3 the Child at Heart perk for free. 'cus, you know, they ARE kids.

 

I "cheat" at ME2 to attempt to make it more like it should've been, more fun. My imported Shep was an Adept with Assault Rifles. I wanted my Assault Rifles skill back. I modded it back in. Biotics got a huge nerf in ME2. I found a partial fix for it. Planet scanning is monotonous (though not as frustrating as the friggin' Mako from the first game!) so I added a mod that increased resources, so I wouldn't have to do as much boring scanning. Result: less crap, more fun.

 

I try to only cheat when I feel the fight's unfair or the computer's cheating and/or I've tried and failed several times. I'm not gonna just give up and stop playing because I can't get past something.

 

Then again, there's nothin' for blowing off steam like a god mode run through a few levels of DOOM, or its spiritual successor, Painkiller. :D (a game which Yahtzee of all people called "Bloody Awesome")

 

Cheating in multiplayer, when most other players aren't, is pretty low though. I don't do it. I don't play games online much though.

[Vindekarr]

The you honestly have no idea just how bad it's getting in some games.

 

Today I saw a cod server get entirely taken over by a group of hackers-and you just have to wait for the hackers to leave because none of the Steam powered games have moderators or cheat detection gear. A few games are getting literaly unplayable online-just take Team Fortess for example, speedhacks and noclipping modes are standard issue equipment.

 

And then you've got the absolutely repulsive communities. Sure, some people will ignore this. Sure, a lot of people are actualy the people responsible. but I've honestly had enough of being sworn at by five year olds who cant even spell "play properly" let alone understand the concept.

 

When I was booted from a game for being a "soft weak little pansy who didnt even have the balls to fight like a F***ing man" simply because I refused to cheat or desecrate the corpses of the fallen enemy, thats when I stopped bothering to play online.

[lonewolfkai]

In terms of multi-player games, cheating/hacking should be a bannable offense to the offending account. And if the cheating continues with future accounts, should be an IP address ban.