Cheating Sans Guilt

[Arcadia2000]

Long opening post:
Do remember when it was a mark of shame to crack a book (or site) in order to progress in a game? Perhaps it still is...
But do you remember a sense of accomplishment for knowing that you beat something on your very own, and you may not have gotten 100% (or more!) completion but at least you beat it?

What I'm wondering is any or all of the following:
1. What games do you feel no shame for having cheating at?
2. What games did you beat without ever having to cheat and you felt a sense of accomplishment?
3. What games do you still feel a vague sense of shame for cheating at?

Now to define "cheating" for the purposes of this post...
Cheating is using any resource other than your own mind or skill or any outside influence to progress in a game. Therefore, if I play FF7 and the *only* thing I know is the code to the vault because I was watching my friends while they played, I have cheated if I open the vault because I knew the code prior to playing. If your older sibling beat this really hard section for you, you cheated. If you looked it up in a guide, you cheated. If someone told you how to do it, you cheated.
If you blindly guessed, you're okay. If the game itself gave you a passcode, that's legal. If dumb luck was involved, that's fine. If you're a master of skillz, then great.

Yes, this is an extremely harsh definition, but it suits my purposes for figuring out what constitutes as your own abilities and the ability of someone else.

 

[bluerahjah]

Any of the GTA games I didnt give a crap about cheating in, hell half the time it made them more fun.

 

[Chiasm]

I try to never cheat as it ruins enjoyment and sense of reward.However the games I do end up having to google a god mode cheat is mostly ported to PC games(Or badly made PC games) where they have a auto save feature and the game auto saves you in a position where you have 10 health and two grenades at your feet.

 

[Arcadia2000]

So without further ado:

1. No shame! Jurassic Park for the SNES. There's a billion little fiddly things to do and no save. Also, Pokemon Explorers of Time. Someone has figured out how to get me all the wondermail I could ever want. You have to raise new recruits from level 1 anyway, and it's harder than in the regular pokemon games.

2. No help! I beat FF4 (back when it was 2 in the US) without using a guide or any help. Oh, the things I missed!

3. Still ashamed! We had to use a guide to get anywhere after the first dungeon of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES). It was our first foray into something beyond Mario (and platforming in general) or Tetris-like things. But after we started using it, we realized how >stupid< we had been. It was so easy! However, that didn't stop us from buying guides for LoZ:OOT and LOZ:MM... and every other Zelda thereafter. Those were... not as easy. (Even though we can beat OOT in hours now, not days.)

 

[Anton P. Nym]

I guess, by your definition, I cheated to get through Psychonauts by accessing a walk-through online. I did so only because I got irretrievably stuck in an early level (I didn't recognise that part of the terrain was destructable... I blame Schaefer for that, because the cue that it was had been used elsewhere in that level for non-breakable terrain) and I did want to continue. I did so again on "Meat Circus", because that [censored] knife-thrower puzzle was just too much to solve on a timer.

Otherwise, though, I tend to stay cheat-free.

-- Steve

 

[irrelevantnugget]

Grand Theft Auto, but only when I had someone come on over, so we could just do random stuff in-game. Never saved afterwards, of course.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. First time and only time I knew how to cheat (godmode, teleport etc.) in an online game (and it only worked with version 1.00), but I didn't really abuse it. Occasionally I'd go on a public server with an alias, to go snipe people on the Omaha map after teleporting myself onto the roof of the bunkers, but meh. It gets boring quickly because people just wait for your head to pop up.
I also cheated when using my normal nickname, but only when other people were. If someone would teleport under the map, to kill off my entire team, I would just go underground as well, kill that person, then kill myself. I just wanted to see a game played fair.

Oh, another one: Pokémon Pearl. Used pokésav to get my pokémon battle-ready, simply because I can NOT be arsed to grind them to level 100 and try to get their IV's and EV's right.

 

[The Thief]

I'm not against using walkthroughs, but only to make sure I'm not missing anything. I won't look up answers to puzzles or strategies, etc. However, I will look up stuff like the location of all 100 skulltula for the Ocarina of Time, and similar things.

I don't use cheat codes until I've completely beaten a game legit, and never online.

 

[GenHellspawn]

I don't use cheat codes until I've completely beaten a game legit, and never online.

Same here. Although I will admit that sometimes the cheating is more fun than the real game, if slightly less challenging.

 

[GothmogII]

Haha, I used to cheat all the time when I first started gaming. Mostly for messing around you know like spawning a million evil chickens in Baldur's Gate, then spawning a hundred Drizzt's to butcher em'?

Don't cheat at all these days. However, although I don't consider looking up a guide occasionally cheating per say, I'll still rarely do so unless I'm really stuck.

 

[ItsMine]

1. For the gta series i feel no shame for having cheated. Most of the time it was hilarious giving all people guns and/or running around shooting everything in sight.

2. The singleplayer campaigns of the call of duty series, beat all of them without cheating on veteran. Although i camped underneath a trainwagon in the last level of cod:uo. My poor pc couldn't handle all the action back then.

3. I cheated in X3:reunion, a space sim game. Gave myself lots of money and some nice ships to fly. I feel ashamed because the fun part of the game is all about getting enough money and reputation to buy those ships in the first place. So i got bored real quick after that. But it did feel awesome to fly a carrier class containing 40 fighters and pay the nearby pirate sector a short visit.

 

[Arcadia2000]

This is all really interesting. The kind of responses suggest that cheating is "okay" if you get hopelessly, hopelessly stuck; if it makes the game even more "fun" or "funnier"; or if the game is "unfairly hard" due to port-problems.

However, I'm also seeing a good many responses that suggest that cheating is never okay. I didn't expect it, but it's completely reasonable. Does that say something about how my morals have degraded due to easy access to the exploitation of video games?

While I am in complete agreement about cheating online or against other people that don't have the same cheats (like if everyone has a code to give them all guns that shoot shurikens and lightning as opposed to butter-flavored donuts, at least the playing field is still "even") do we think cheating is "okay" due to the fact that it's just a game, because it's you vs the computer and the computer always has an unfair advantage, or because it is just you and the computer and you want to get your money's worth out of a game / finish the compelling storyline? I hope we continue to get some posts, because this is turning out to be very interesting.

Also, I forgot we completed Kirby's Adventure for the NES without cheating. It was a team effort though, my sisters and I, and so in this case by my very own rules, we cheated because we helped each other. So, should I append the rules to include team effort i.e. two heads are better than one? If both (or more) of you are puzzling it out without cracking the book, aren't you still, in a sense, being completely legit?

 

[Y2Ken]

Used to cheat a bit. Put cheats in for the bonus skaters in Tony Hawk's 3 on PS2, plus I've used a few walkthroughs. Don't think I've cheated at all in this generation though, although I have helped other people with bits they were stuck on. My exception will be if I get FF XIII, I've finished X and just about to go back to XII (which I stopped when I got my PS3) - but I always use a walkthrough cause there's just so much stuff.

 

[Calmaveth]

I was given Goldeneye for the N64 by a family friend, and he'd left his completed gamesave on the cartridge (those were the days...) he'd unlocked nearly all of the cheats, and I spent many an hour gleefully running around the second Bunker level with invincibility, infinite ammo and all weapons firing dual RPGs/Grenade Launchers in every direction (until the frame reate dropped considerably. Dual P90s and Autoshotguns were pretty cool too. For a long time i always used cheats in any game that had the option, but only once I got older did I see the value in a game actually presenting a challenge.

 

[Ionait]

Poof

 

[Gamer137]

I dont think cheats are all that fun, even after you beat the game without them. I dont know why people find them so appealing.

 

[Arcadia2000]

I dont think cheats are all that fun, even after you beat the game without them. I dont know why people find them so appealing.

It's exactly this kind of opinion that I want to understand. Bravo, sir! Now granted, there are games that are much "easier" to complete or beat without cheating. There's still a massive amount of skill and practice involved, but you don't *need* a strategy guide to beat Halo, or Soul Caliber. However, I've gotten the vibe that it's nearly impossible to get through MMORPGS and RPGS without one these days. Definitely MMO's though. I mean, who doesn't use quest helper in WOW? Just because Blizzard doesn't have a problem with it doesn't mean that it doesn't fall under the definition of cheating I'm using here. It's not part of the original game (or a patch for the original game).

But then again, is a little help now and then such a bad thing? If you can work collaboratively with another person, then why can't you turn to someone in the virtual world and figuratively say, "I need a little hand with this. Oh you have a guide? Great, can I borrow that? Thanks, man!"

If you don't feel as if a game is a test of your personal achievement potential, then why shouldn't you ask for help if you get stuck? So then, does your personal outlook on what a game represents to you determine your morality?

Thank you all for the replies thus far!

 

[shatnershaman]

What I'm wondering is any or all of the following:
1. What games do you feel no shame for having cheating at?
2. What games did you beat without ever having to cheat and you felt a sense of accomplishment?
3. What games do you still feel a vague sense of shame for cheating at?

1. All that I cheat in.
2. The halo series since they have no cheats.
3. None.

 

[Jobz]

I try my damnedest not to cheat in anyway, in any game with only one real exception. I beat most games without ever having to use a cheat, walkthrough or other outside help. But to answer your three questions:

1. I am in no way, shape or form ashamed of using cheats to beat any Grand Theft Auto game. The only cheats I use in them are the cheat for all weapons and to lower wanted level. Technically it doesn't really make the game any easier. Just eliminates the annoyance of having to drive to the gun shop everytime I run out of ammo, and having to run from the police for half-a-fucking-hour everytime I finish a mission.

2. Like I said I beat pretty much every game without cheats. But when I was younger I didn't have any such morals and cheated all the time. One of the first difficult games I ever beat without using a cheat, walkthrough or help from someone else was Final Fantasy VII, still feel accomplished.

3. I'm still ashamed of using a walk-through to help be get through parts of Still Life and Dream Fall: The Longest Journey. There were a few puzzles I couldn't quite figure out how to do and had to look them up online.

 

[Mnemophage]

Maybe it's because I'm one of those Ritalin-chewing self-gratifying wankers that everyone furiously advertises to these days, but I've never really cared whether or not I'm cheating. I bought the game, I'm playing through it, and I suffer absolutely no guilt over enjoying the thing my own way. I do like to go through games plain, when I can, but as soon as it starts getting too annoying or un-fun I crack open the console and give myself infinite hit points. Even in story-driven love-fests like Planescape Torment and Morrowind, where I've immersed myself to the point that playing a fan-modded blue elf with dual scimitars (and not noticing the Drizzt similarity until it's far too late) doesn't seem as ridiculous as it wholeheartedly is, I just don't care enough to stick to the core gameplay unless the core gameplay is unutterably fun just how it is.

Let's sling some examples.

Chrono Cross. I'm hardly a completionist, but my first time playing through that game I missed so much content that it wasn't long before every single boss I came across was carving me up for hors d'oeuvres. There's a whole lot of innocent, non-intuitive stuff that can wreck everything that the game just never tells you about. So I felt not toolish at all when next I went through with a walkthrough open next to me trying to find out which dialog option to avoid so as to not lose forever three separate characters.

Fire Emblem. When a character dies, they die forever, and you never get to use them again. Healers have absolutely no way of defending themselves, and there are very, very few of them, and maybe one or two on horses. Fuck that shit, I'm invincible.

Morrowind. Wait! Morrowind is good! I don't need cheats for Morrowind! Well, no, technically I don't need it. Technically, it is also a HELL of a lot less fun to play when I CAN'T fly around picking off cliff racers with mass implosion spells. Sometimes it's just plain FUN to be the superpowered asshole that commoners shriek and cringe away from. Sometimes it's fun to be able to kamehameha the big horrible things that would chew through your skeleton with the ease that only a vindictive game developer can provide. And come on, Vivec without high-speed levitation is too annoying to contemplate. And I didn't really TRY to emulate Drizzt with the scimitar thing. I was a mage, honest.

I never cheat in multiplayer games, though. If only because I hate being called on it.