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Cheatcodes used in Oblivion for invincibility.... Hmmmm
Zaxx99
Member Posts: 1,761
I was watching in utter frustration as my young nephew happily used cheatcodes on the great game of Oblivion to make himself utterly invincible. He then bragged at all the uber armor and loot he has aquired and how he had leveled up 3 levels in the past hour. I sadly shrugged my shoulders, wishing to some higher order above that these game companies would stop putting code in their games (especially the great games) that allows people to erase all challenge from the game.
I just don't understand the fun in playing a game without any challenge what-so-ever. And then I began to think a moment. These cheat codes are extremely popular these days. Millions of gamers use them to successfully beat a game or get to the end. In my opinion, they absolutely RUIN a game by using such codes. They waste a good $50 game by using a code that essentially just takes them to the "You Win!" ending without any challenge at all. But thinking about this, isn't this VERY similar to the path that mmorpgs have taken the past 6 or 7 years? They continue to eliminate challenge, thought, skill, and planning ahead by making death cost you nothing (no item drop, no exp loss, etc) and they continue to aid the player with more and more "signs" on exactly what to do and what not to do (ie red, yellow, blue indicators oh how powerful a foe is compared to yourself) The old mmos didn't have this huge gimp factor. In AC and UO, you paid a stiff price for death. Smart players would prepare for death in advance with smart tactics/planning ahead. You also didn't know a mobs level compared to yours until you basically experimented with it and either paid the price with death or got away running for your life!
So... how similar are these newer, more stream-lined, easier on the new players pride mmorpgs to using cheat codes in single player games that essenitally strip away all or most of the challenge of those games?
I would say the similarities are VERY IDENTICAL.
And this is the reason we have such a sad, sad, unchallenging mmorpg status today.
- Zaxx
Comments
As far as single player games go. If a person wants to spend money on a game and use cheat codes to beat it right out, that's their business. If I bought a game and wanted to throw it in a damn lake, that's my decision.
As far as MMO's becoming less complicated. That's true to a certain extent, but they have also always been complicated in areas.
The whole color coded indicator for a MOB's toughness has been around since EQ started. As well as death penalties in EQ were quite harsh, but difficulty is subjective. Some would argue that strict death penalties serve little more purpose than a time-sink. They could also say that they don't wish to pay to play a game to be punished in game.
Then you have the other side, advocating challenge, skill, and such. Saying that less conveniences, require intelligence, determination and building better skill and possibly a more mature playerbase.
I remember the reviews for SWG were critical of SWG's learning curve, but if it wasn't for the mismanagement, publish plans not followed through on, broken promises, I am betting SWG would have been immensely successful.
Then you have WoW. Simple, streamlined, frequent updates, few bugs, decent customer service, most successful MMORPG to date.
Less complicated means less work for developers, less bugs, less effort, more subscribers.
Evidently, more complicated means more work, way more bugs, more effort and less subscribers due to not just complexity of the game, but the problems that arise from having a much more complicated game to develop.
That's how I see it anyways.
People buy games to have FUN. Not for a "challenge" Some people find such a challenge "fun", and some don't. If people are unable to advance in a game due to a hard level, should they not be able to use cheats in order to advance and therefore continue their fun? If people are done with a game, should they not be able to use cheats in order to further their "after-game enjoyment" (ala GTA cheats).
Cheats are a failsafe agaisnt mistakes that can cripple a person's enjoyment of a game. I know glitches in GTA3 that forced me to use cheats to move on. If they weren't included, then I would have never been able to kill Catalina. That bitch.
We have us some rules at my house...
A) No cheat codes till you win once.
If I find out you cheated you lose computer/console rights for a week (before "winning").
C) (for games with expansions) No expansion till you beat / max level current game.
Yah, i'm a bastage. I just don't care... I'm raising the next generation of gamers and I'm gonna raise em right. I use cheat codes on occasion after ive beaten a game and wanna see an alternate ending or something but don't care to play the game over again.
Shadus
Calm down Bruno.
Use all the cheats you want. All I'm saying is what I think of them. Also don't come bragging to me about how you beat such and such game in 2 days or how you got every car in Gran Turismo, or whatever. Using cheat codes is totally "gimp", and it's a way for you to say "I give up" yet still have your cake and eat it too. But don't be braggin to people about how you beat games where you've entered cheat codes. You didn't beat the game. The cheat code beat it. If you beat the game as it is designed to be played (without cheats) then you have truly beat it.
Now, I know this will hurt the pride of some of you "wittle" game players you think you pwn all with your mighty sword of cheat codes. Take it like a man and move on to your next little game mommy and daddy will buy for you.
- Zaxx
Alright, zaxtor. Now you're just being a jackass. When you start making comments like, "take it like a man," when talking about video games, your grasp on integrity and intestinal fortitude are skewed.
If beating a video game without cheats, and when your opinion of someone using cheats in a video game is one of disgust, then you have one damned frail ideal of accomplishment and being a "man."
Many of these same people that use cheats in video games often have much bigger problems that occupy all of their time, save for the time spent playing video games in any manner they choose.
PS. If its a female gamer in question, would she also need to take it like a man?
Cheat users sucks. Plain and simple.
You can't give me as an argument the fact that if you get stuck somewhere, it's the end of the game for you unless you cheat. Cheating also means to ends of everything the game has to offer... If you buy a game just to see the Cinematics, i suggest you go rent a movie instead.
You're a shame for the gaming industry. I HATE CHEATER!
Then don't come here after that crying that the gaming community doesn't respect you. Don't cry that you're getting walked on if you act like a carpet...
Loosers
What deserves to be done, deserves to be "well" done...
Cheat-user haters calling people losers and treating them like crap, talking about respect.
You claim that cheat users are a shame to the industry. I claim that people who get so worked up about such a trivial issue, and equate a video game with moral character are a shame to the human race.
It's a game. Play a game, live life, "like a man."
How dare someone do something one considers fun!
It's actually pretty basic. Sometimes, actually quite often when playing a game it stops being fun. The only reason I play a game is for entertainment. If want something fullfilling or meaning I will not find it in a game. So when a game stops being fun, sometimes it is fun to be invincible. You can pretend to be a godlike creature and throw doom and destruction on all the petty mortals who get in your way.
Sometimes its just fun, and fun is why we play games.
Simple.
Venge Sunsoar
Sorry that's my honest opinion and I am entitled to that.
People who use cheat codes to ruin a great $50 game because they can't get past a certain part are lame as hell. Just as lame as all those kiddies who claim WoW is the bestest mmo ever. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that about 97% of all WOW players use cheat codes in single player games in a regular basis.
And taking WoW's subscription numbers into consideration, yes that will mean I will get flames for stating my opinion on the lame-level of using cheat codes. Hehe. oh well.
- Zaxx
That reminds me a lot of friends of mine, friends that spend countles hours typing codes in the gameshark just to be level 99, have all the matters, all the moves (ok, i dont remember the name of the final moves :P) and everything else you can imagine in the FF.
I just don´t get it, why did they spend so much effort in cheating instead of playing and having fun?
I also had a friend that played CS and battlefield with stupid bots so he can feel god in game and kill everyone without getting hit...
In this case it feels like a social disease to me. Whats with this people? Why are they trying to be god?
I think this cases are the ones that really failed at life...
Now, and before you start flaming me. Cheat codes where ment to help players whenever they got stuck in some part of the game or when they wanted to feel like god. This is not bad at all, in fact who did never played some gta with cheats just to make a rampage through the city? Not everyone that use cheats is a cheater, nonetheless i think a game is somehow designed to give a chalenge, and if you overide that chalenge with cheats you will end up loosing the gratification of conquering that chalenge.
As far as your nephew, when i was 15 i used to want to rush through games just to see them, and yes, sometimes i used cheats. That may explain the cheating in his case.
My 13 year old does the same thing. When I bought Painkiller and Far Cry, the first thing he did was look up the cheat codes. God Mode. He ran through half the game and got bored.
He didnt even do a search for the codes, he knew exactly what site to go to.
i didn't like it either...
but we better dont cry it out loud or we might get ourselves killed by an army of fanbois
Some people should have to pass a common sense test before being allowed access to the internet.
Yes... I think using cheatcodes is gimp and lame.
Yes I think you are wasting good challenging games by using them.
and Yes I have also never used them myself. I'd just as well throw the game away then strip out all the challenge.
But my main point of my original post was honsetly NOT to flame people who use the cheat codes and I appologize if that's how it come out.
Rather, my question was the similarities of using cheat codes to strip the challenge away from a single player game and get the instant gratification by using them... and the newer much more stream-lined mmos these days. To me, it seems that the mose popular mmorpgs almost have hidden cheat codes built in to them and the mmos of today are much less challenging, easier to play without thinking, and basically much more BORING.
Again I think the similarities are very striking.
- Zaxx