What Do You Consider Cheating?

[XskywardX]

Hey all, I just want to know what your guys's opinion on cheating in games. Me and my dad are talking about cheating, because he is using a program called "Cheat Engine" to slow things down in a game (CarTown, so he can do races easier[if you know what it is]). And he's asking me if I would like for him to set up "Cheat Engine" for me teach me how to use it. I'm telling him no, that I don't want to cheat because then I don't feel like "I" did it, I feel like I didn't really accomplish anything. And he's telling me that I cheat on other games; so of course told him to give me an example. He told me that I've cheated on things like Zelda, Mario, etc. and explained how looking up a walkthrough for a game is cheating. I don't consider this cheating though, but he still stands by it; as he says, and I quote "It is technically considered cheating, because you are using an outside source to gain an unfair advantage". I don't agree with this, what I consider "cheating" is using something like a GameShark or something similar to that or even looking up cheat codes of sorts to get things you normally would be able to get. To put it simply, I consider cheating altering the game in some way; such as in Zelda, let's say you just started a game, you have no Idea what you're doing, so you use GameShark to every item in the game right off the bat - THAT'S cheating. Not starting a game, not knowing what you're doing, and looking up a walkthrough - That is NOT cheating, that is simply getting a little help when you need it. Anyway, just tell me what you guys think about this, and what do all of you guys consider cheating?

Thanks,
Dlane_skyward :triforcepiece: :triforcepiece: :triforcepiece:

 

[Viral Maze]

I agree with you.
I view cheating as changing the game rules, or bending them (or breaking them) in your favour (or someone else's favour). Like grabbing an extra $100 after you pass GO in monopoly.
Getting information from outside sources (though I feel like it ruins the fun of actually doing it myself) is just like reading up on some strategies for opening moves, or setups for a game like RISK, where you're not breaking the rules, but gaining an advantage through the meta-game.

 

[MW7]

If you google the definition of cheat it's "act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage, esp. in a game or examination." The most important aspect of cheating is gaining an advantage. If you are playing a single player game and not comparing your performance to others, then there is no way to cheat. How is "cheating" be unfair if no one else is involved? It's cheating to gain an unfair advantage in a multiplayer game. However, it's also cheating to use an unfair tactic in a single player game to subsequently compare your performance to someone else. For instance if you hack into Mario Kart to break speed records, then that would be cheating unless you are forthcoming about using the hack and admit that there is no just reason to compare your times to actual records obtained without a hack. Another important point is that in some cases virtually nothing is considered cheating. A good example is speedrunning in OoT. The speedrunning community of OoT looks for as many exploits as possible to lower speedrun times. Virtually anything that can be done outside of hacking/catridge tilting is acceptable. In fact if you look for records of OoT speedruns, you'll have a much harder time finding "glitch-free" runs than anything else. Cheating requires an unfair advantage to be obtained, and therefore social contracts between players can eliminate virtually all cheating by allowing anything.

tl;dr It depends on who you're playing with and comparing yourself to. If you are playing for your own benefit and never plan to brag about your achievements, then it is impossible to cheat because by definition cheating has to be unfair (requires an advantage over someone else). Without other people involved only you can set the rules.

 

[XskywardX]

I agree with you.
I view cheating as changing the game rules, or bending them (or breaking them) in your favour (or someone else's favour). Like grabbing an extra $100 after you pass GO in monopoly.
Getting information from outside sources (though I feel like it ruins the fun of actually doing it myself) is just like reading up on some strategies for opening moves, or setups for a game like RISK, where you're not breaking the rules, but gaining an advantage through the meta-game.

THANK YOU!!

If you google the definition of cheat it's "act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage, esp. in a game or examination." The most important aspect of cheating is gaining an advantage. If you are playing a single player game and not comparing your performance to others, then there is no way to cheat. How is "cheating" be unfair if no one else is involved? It's cheating to gain an unfair advantage in a multiplayer game. However, it's also cheating to use an unfair tactic in a single player game to subsequently compare your performance to someone else. For instance if you hack into Mario Kart to break speed records, then that would be cheating unless you are forthcoming about using the hack and admit that there is no just reason to compare your times to actual records obtained without a hack. Another important point is that in some cases virtually nothing is considered cheating. A good example is speedrunning in OoT. The speedrunning community of OoT looks for as many exploits as possible to lower speedrun times. Virtually anything that can be done outside of hacking/catridge tilting is acceptable. In fact if you look for records of OoT speedruns, you'll have a much harder time finding "glitch-free" runs than anything else. Cheating requires an unfair advantage to be obtained, and therefore social contracts between players can eliminate virtually all cheating by allowing anything.

tl;dr It depends on who you're playing with and comparing yourself to. If you are playing for your own benefit and never plan to brag about your achievements, then it is impossible to cheat because by definition cheating has to be unfair (requires an advantage over someone else). Without other people involved only you can set the rules.

This I can agree with. There is no cheating in single player unless it is being compared to another person. Though, I still do not like hacking/cheating in single player games, because then I don't fell like it's my own accomplishment.

 

[Chiraku]

If you take advantage of and/or bend the rules of a game for yourself, it's cheating. It's kind of the same as lying. If you intend to benefit yourself by doing something out of the norm and/or at the expense of others, it can be considered cheating.
Now on the video game sense, cheating is just messing with the code. It can be considered cheating because you're not winning it the way they intended you to. I'm not into gamecheats... unless it's getting a Pokemon that I missed an event for.

 

[Dio]

Cheating is everything from hacking to using guides or outside help. In single player you play against the game, when you finish it you might say 'I beat the game'. You can't say that if you got help, the game has beaten you when you resort to such things.

 

[Pokemon]

Altering the game to a state where it is different from what the original developers intended it be; to give yourself an advantage of some sort.

 

[snakeoiltanker]

Im pretty easy on this subject. As long as the game is not being hacked, i dont consider it cheating. However i can agree that looking at a walkthrough would kind of be considered cheating, however im not above looking something up so i can progress in a game. i dont generally do this with games like Zelda and others i play a lot. but if i rented a game and am paying every night for having it, then i will look it up so i can complete the game and get it back to the box!

That being said, in competition games like FPS's, here is where i stand. If its something the game allows you to do without any outside interference, its not cheating! just a cheap and vital strategy. i used to argue against a guy about this, as i used to give him crap for running around Blood Gulch in a Tank every time we played. and would just rack up kills. He said "It may be cheap, but it is a safe and vital strategy". What could i say?

 

[misskitten]

I think cheating only really matters if it happens on someone else's expense. Whether you alter a game technically or look up a walkthrough to get some guidance, it doesn't really matter to anyone but yourself. It all comes down to how strict you are with yourself. If you regard technically altering a game to access items and/or levels you weren't supposed to have yet, or increasing character abilities, etc that way as cheating - then you don't need to do it. If you regard looking up walkthroughs, player hints, etc. as cheating - then you don't need to do it.

I have little qualms about doing either of those, it just comes down to what would make the game more enjoyable for me. If I play Tony Hawk Pro 3 it'll be a huge hassle to work to unlock every single character in the game, so having a cheat code to unlock them all so I can play them as I please, it makes the game more enjoyable for me. I might have less bragging rights, and some might consider me a cheater for doing so, but honestly; it's a game, it's supposed to entertain you, and having my pick of characters to play makes it more entertaining for me.

If I play the old classic Tomb Raider games, I might want to use a cheat code that allows me to get all the weapons right away. And if I want to skip ahead to a future level through a cheat code, I will, because sometimes it can be a bit dreary to always have to play your way through the first couple of levels over and over again when it's a later point in the game you want to relive. I tend not to do cheat codes that makes me immortal in games and such, because that tends to make the games less interesting for me. But it doesn't matter to me if someone else chooses to do so.

If I get stuck in a game, and I just can't figure out where to go next, I will probably consult a walkthrough to help me out. And I don't care if anyone considers it cheating, because it's game, not an exam. For some people, it's more fun to figure things out completely on their own, no matter how long it takes. For others it's more fun to play games without getting stuck too long on any specific point.

 

[A.rae]

I agree with you. I don't consider it cheating if you use a walkthrough, I use them whenever I have tried a level for a while but still have no idea what to do and I'm starting to get mad. I don't use cheats in games until after I have beaten them, like using an action replay to get event pokemon, and junk like that, to extend what I get out of the game.

 

[Emma]

Modern games don't really let you cheat. Back in the 90s and early 00s, a great many games had cheat codes or unlockable cheat options. but those are extremely rare now. You'd be hard-pressed to find games in the last generation, and in the upcoming one, that have any kind of officially-implemented cheat on consoles. With PC games, in-game cheats have been relegated almost exclusively to the use of the console interface, basically a text box you open with a button or button combinations and then enter commands into. Games with even these are even quite rare now, though Bethesda games always have them, as do some simulation games such as The Sims. Outside of these limited circumstances, there's only two ways you can really cheat anymore. One, of course, is with glitches, which applies to any platform. And another, like has already been mentioned, is hacking programs on PC versions of games. I wouldn't necessarily stop anyone from cheating, or judge them. It's not my business. Personally, I'll cheat if it means unlocking some content that you otherwise can't get (though for those on PC games it's much easier to use mods that make it available through normal gameplay), or if you need to to get around a glitch (rather common in Bethesda games), but usually not to make the game easier. Video games have gotten way too easy, so I don't think cheating to make them even easier has any kind of appeal to me.

 

[Ventus]

What I consider to be cheating is using things to gain an unfair advantage. These include fighting less-advanced players, spawn-trapping, using overpowered weapons, using paid-DLC weapons with a clear advantage over the free variant, and other such tactics.

 

[RegalBryant]

As long as you held the controller from start to finish, and you didn't alter the game in any way, then it's not cheating.

 

[Justac00lguy]

"Exploiting a game, or playing a game in ways it's not meant to be played, to get an advantage in said scenario"