Poll: Lack of cheats is costing game developers money from me. You?

[Volstag9]

When I was about 10 or so cheats were fantastic because I was terrible at video games.

Now, I don't really care too much about them.

 

[Therumancer]

I love cheats. But, long story short, I think they're also necessary to my health. I'm increasingly buying only PC games with cheats available. Serious Sam is fantastic! But I didn't buy Hitman Absolution or Sleeping Dogs on today's steam sale as gamefaqs lists no cheats for them.

Got several hours left I think. Do you know of cheats for either of these two games?

You have to wonder if the companies know just how much money they are losing by not letting people do whatever they want with our games.

Well, the cheat code became kind of obselete with the development of acheivements, since the two things were mutally exclusive. When cheat codes started disabling achievements, people stopped using them, and the demand kind of evaporated.

That said there is also a movement via things like "Saint's Row 3" to sell cheat codes as an extra feature, for those who want those kinds of things. Not to mention that a common theme with microtransactions and such is to provide overpowered weapons, armor, etc... that might as well be cheating.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

Please listen to my story.

I miss cheats, I really do but let me tell you a story that really turned me off from cheating in games (also Rockstar for years)

Way back in the day when San Andreas first came out I bought it. Now of course this was back when cheats were in all the games and I loved using them. Now I had gotten really far into the game, the part where you have to save a washed up rapper from committing suicide. The "cut scene" that happens before the mission start where you can't move and just have to sit and stare at the screen, well whenever I was at that part the Rapper would jump off the hotel roof (before the start of the mission!) I couldn't even do anythin, and it was the only mission I could do! I called up Rockstars help line and the guy told me they made the game in such a way that if you cheated too much it would fuck the game up! Oh man was I pissed!

I miss cheats so much but man

 

[MercurySteam]

I use the command console in most Bethesda games and some glitch exploits in older games but otherwise no, it's not a dealbreaker for me and I don't think Hitman: Absolution or Sleeping Dogs need cheats either.

 

[Madman123456]

Ordinarily, i'd play a game normally and then play it again with all kinds of cheats. No cheats means less to do with a game. You can play it normally of course, but you can not play it again with cheats if the game doesn't allow it.

 

[gorfias]

microtransactions and such is to provide overpowered weapons, armor, etc... that might as well be cheating.

I do think sleeping dogs has some super sword for sale. Not sure it would really replace cheats and mods ala Skyrim or Saints Row for me, but makes that game a little more tempting.

Cheat Engine.

If you can't figure out how to work out the pointers for yourself then someone usually posts a table for whatever game you want it for.

^This.

And frankly, I don't miss cheats at all. Yes, I used them, extensively. Yes, I had some fun with them. But it always quickly drained any of my interest in the game. They are fantastic to use once you're done and ready to leave the game behind you, but aside from that, it just eliminates my interest in playing the game at all quite quickly.

I'll look into the pointer thing.. .sounds interesting. I think one of my skyrim mods was just a batch file that set everything to 100.

I miss cheats so much but man

I do get pissed when cheats glitch up my game. I may start Fallout 3 New Vegas as cheats have made my map unusable

 

[Woiminkle]

Not buying a game because of a lack of cheats is, to me at least, a rather silly thing to do. You miss out on a lot of fun that way.
Sure I used to like some cheats in sandbox games like GTA but usually only after I'd already beaten it and just wanted to dick around for a bit rather than actually playing the game and its objectives. My favourites were always low gravity or big head mode kinda ones that made for random silliness rather than some god mode.
Or of course as some have previously mentioned the money cheat in the sims so you can avoid having to run the characters life better and more tightly regimented than your own and just be free to build the mega mansion of your dreams and begin the theatre of cruelty (though this latter bit might just be me) more quickly.
I never understood what the attraction was for people who put on god mode and just slog through a game with no effort or risk involved. Why not just skip the game entirely and just have press x to instantly win? Or just watch all the cutscenes on youtube instead if the story is all you care for?
I've got to wonder how much you actually "play" games TC. Where is the reward without effort or risk? I just don't see it. Especially since these days normal mode seems to be what easy mode used to be and easy mode is just sleep walking your way through a game.

 

[MammothBlade]

No. Mods have entirely supplanted cheats for me. They extend the vanilla game life considerably, cheats are good for a few laughs but I've honestly all but forgotten they exist.

 

[barbzilla]

I'd prefer games to support modding out of the box over cheats.

Same here. A good mod collection can do wonders for a game, and the best part is it only costs the devs a small amount of money to release the mod tools (they are generally the same tool they used for level design with a few features removed). Look at games like the Elder Scrolls series and the new Fallout games. If they didn't have such an awesome modding community the games would have a very limited following on PC.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

For me, cheats= re balancing = turn crap into fun.

The dreary piss easy, watered down overly grindy game mechanics they poo out constantly has turned me off most games...its sad when you have to hack it to make it playable to enjoy the POS.

Online cheating is a different world altogether tho I'd wish sever admins could re balance things across the board that way weak and annoyingly bad balance issues will go away.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I can honestly say that cheats have never factored into my decision to buy/not buy a game. I rarely ever used them even when they were common.

 

[Voulan]

I voted 'no' because I've never been turned away from a game without cheats, nor do I look to see if there are any before getting them. However, that being said, GTA IV (which is my least favourite game ever) and it's horrendous lack of any good, fun cheats was definitely a contributing factor to never playing it again. That series is renown for its ridiculous, and sometimes extremely useful cheats. But then again, GTA IV did a lot of stupid, realistic things that turned me off of it.

 

[Kroxile]

as long as cheats remove trophies/achievements so I can continue to judge you as a garbage gamer I don't really care one way or another.

No, not having cheats has ever put me off of buying a game. They were fun in GTA 3 for about 20 minutes I guess, but other than that.. meh.

 

[themind]

Up Right Left Down, Up Right Down Left, A+B+C+Start.

I do miss level select cheats, but most games these days let you choose your level after you complete it anyway.

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

No. Not at all. If a game has cheats or a Console, I may be inclined to use them. But it doesn't effect me whether it has cheats or a console because if the game genuinely interests me, I will buy it due to interest. Not because it has cheats.

 

[mew4ever23]

Cheats were fun, but not important enough to turn me off games.

 

[octafish]

I...I don't even like playing Minecraft in "creative" mode...

 

[l3o2828]

I really miss games having cheats Yeah.
But i can understand how they could ruin the game experience for some people.