Growing up when I was gaming in the 90s and on, I knew of the stigma of cheating in video games. You were seen as stupid, someone incapable of completing challenges on your own. You were seen as lowly, someone who can never go through life without cheating. Like, it was a pretty big deal as I grew up, hearing all of this for years on end.
I’ve been able to beat games without cheating, of course. But during my late teens and early adulthood, I just tried going past the stigma. Cheating in video games don’t necessarily reflect how you handle life and don’t translate. I’ve found it quite fun to cheat in video games. Probably not in multiplayer and especially on the receiving end.
I even use cheats just to beat games anymore, who the hell cares. People only care if you want to make a big deal about it, by showing it to everyone and boast how you’ve beaten a game in record times. I’ve tried beating some games head on without cheats but there just comes a point where you ask yourself if it is fun dying a hundred times at some part of a game. I don’t think so, personally.
So yeah, I don’t have the stigma anymore. I kinda like how gamers today only care about cheating if it was done in multiplayer or if you’re trying to beat a speedrunning record or some score record. Fun is meant to be how you find it.
I used to cheat in two ways
The first way is in minecesft skywars on hypixel. I was 12 at the time, had 300 ping, and just wanted a win. Regret it now.
The second way was in single player games. I’d hack in items mainly just to avoid grinds. I’m okay with myself still doing this if I apply stringent rules I must follow (such as only hacking in rare candies in a nuzlocke with a level cap), but you have to remember that you’re your own worst enemy in this regard. It’s so easy to start overreaching and take away the “game” part of the videogame. I remember hacking in a bunch of free money in btd5 when I first played it, and I heavily regret it because it robbed me of experiencing the game.
Yes in single player games if something starts to bore/bother me. I don’t play games for the challenge.
Usually no, I like taking the challange as intended by the devs especially if it’s hard. However, if it reaches a point where I would cheat to skip something tedious I’ve already stopped.
I used to gameshark on GB/GBA/DS, and that was fun to learn how poking bits changed how the game worked, but eventually I noticed that as soon as I started manipulating the game to my own interests, I lost interest. It became arbitrary, the game disappeared into a pointless matrix of numbers.
So now I mostly only play according to how the dev intended. Like watching a movie, I’m not going to change the dialogue, or who survives at the end, just because I’m experiencing negative emotions. Those emotions are intentional as part of the art. I want the experience the art intended to create, even if it’s frustrating, or devastating, or hopeless, and to an extent, even if it’s tedious and boring. The lows are there so the highs feel that much higher.
I wrote a crappy Skyrim fanfic about a character with a unique power she called Solace Controls. Then I played her. I used a lot of console commands (aka cheats).
My answer: Yes, I do cheat and mod games. Got a habit of save scumming here and there. I have had wrote my own simple cheats for some older multiplayer games too. These were either a learning experience or, for singleplayer, just to goof mostly after completing a campaign or when replaying it.
The interesting part for me is that researching and developing on cheats had solidified my interest to work in cyber (which I work in right now). There’s handful of people I know who had branched off to interesting tech positions similarly. It does offer an interesting perspective for technical folks. It is very much facilitated by technical knowledge out there compared to 90s (even after you exclude AI-assisted methods in the recent years).
But I do sympathise with many others here. Its not fun to be in the receiving end (unless you are playing with friends lol). My advice is try to have a good sportsmanship when you are playing with others. Go crazy with your singleplayer stuff. Games are meant to be fun and experimental.
You rocked Contra without the Konami code?
Playthrough or it didn’t happen.
Dude, the 90’s was mostly couch co-op. I don’t believe this post.
Even on my third play through of Fallout 1, my friends knew I was cheating, but I was doing so as I wanted to know every quest.
PVP cheating is shit, but there was barely PVP in the 90’s.
Sorry, but as a 90’s kid, nobody was talking any shit unless they were being a braggart about beating something like Contra or Gradius III using the Konami code.
And being cheap in Street Fighter II only led to combo systems that you see in every fighting game today.
So what examples are you actually giving with “cheating” in the 90’s?
I cheat or mod games to make them more fun.
Depends how.
Using Rimworld as an example because I’m playing it now, I’ll occasionally create a separate save file in the same seed at the same location and turn on god mode to see if certain defensive strategies will work before I implement them in the actual game.
Additionally I’ll sometimes save scum, but only if I think the consequence I’m trying to avoid would ruin the fun for me, I remind myself that sometimes bad things happening can be interesting, but I work a lot and don’t want to have to start from scratch because a mechanoid colony landed in the perfect place to wipe my tribe.
But I don’t give myself infinite food or the best weapons because that just wouldn’t be fun. I need challenge, I need to overcome hardship and come out ahead. I don’t want to cheat myself out of my victory.
That being said people still shouldn’t cheat in multi-player games.
Depends. For games where i feel like a god, no. Hard games like recently mortal shell 2, i wish. Sometimes I just need extra help to get my build quicker. For valheim, it’s so relaxing turning fighting off and just mine, grow food and build things.
Single-player-only games? Sometimes (slightly more if you include something like no-clipping myself after getting stuck in the terrain or an object). Never in anything multiplayer.
I usually play with zero cheats on the easiest difficulty of something, at least for the first play-through. I’m generally more there for the story and some light involvement in things rather than being there for combat or something (even as someone who was in a few FPS tournaments back in the early 2000s).
I don’t understand people who hate on people that cheat in singleplayer games. You are the only person affected by that and if it makes it more fun for you then why not?
I remember when I first found reddit and ventured into game subs such as for Don’t Starve.
oh the shit I was given for using a save mod so that I didn’t lose my 300 hours of progress because I forgot to pause the game when leaving my desk for a few minutes. like fuck off, I play the game to have fun and relax, I don’t want to start a new world every time I die, I have a life and I don’t have time to put in a thousand hours to get good enough that I never make mistakes and can enjoy a long play world without stressing about permadeath. but boy did some people ever take personal offence to me not playing the game exactly how it was purchased and how they chose to.
I do not. If I cheat, what’s the point of playing? I want to challenge myself to see if I can beat the game. If I can’t, the game is too hard for me, or not a very good game. 🤷♂️ Simple as that, in my opinion.
I mean what is cheating?
Is it cheating to play Minecraft in Creative mode? You are invincible, can fly/teleport anywhere and have access to every block and more.
Is it cheating to play Grand Theft Auto and spawn in a tank or guns?
Is it cheating to play Goldeneye 64 and turn on DK mode?
Is it cheating to play Halo on any difficulty other than Legendary?
If it’s a single player game and you’re fine with it, then it isn’t cheating.
I mean what is cheating?
I agree it’s at least not immoral cheating.
Here’s me playing on easy and looking up walkthroughs or help threads when I can’t get past a boss.
Replies on thread: yes, this part is annoying, just put it on easy for this bit and you’ll fly through.
Me: But Doctor, I Am Pagliacci!
As a child: yes As a teen: absolutely not As an adult: I cannot express how much I do not give a fuck about my ability to beat a game as intended. I only care about having fun.
There is fun to be had with a work/reward balance but sometimes there’s just too much work/skill needed and it can kill the fun. Granted, cheats don’t exist as much in primary titles as much as they used to. It’s more like reducing difficulty for a sequence or chapter.
No cheating in PvP though. Just solo and coop.
