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Game Cheats - A Big Business

Posted by simoniker on from the up-down-etc-dammit dept.

Thanks to the San Diego Union-Tribune for its amusing article discussing the use of in-game cheatcodes and other game spoilers. It can be big business - regarding the cheat/hintbook market, an analyst suggests: "When you look at the magazines, Web sites and hint books, it's clear that consumers are spending quite a bit of money not just on the games. It's well over $100 million (annually). It's a big, big area." The up-side of cheating is mentioned, too - Chris Ulm of Sammy Studios says "Some of the codes let you play the game again and have a different experience. It makes the game a toy that you can play with in a different way." But the dark side is also revealed, with one piquant passage suggesting codes could be "...akin to cheating at solitaire, a source of false accomplishment and just one more instance of the fraying in society's moral fabric."

4 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. I want to cheat! (in single player) by oni · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Cheating in an online game is immoral IMHO, but in a single player game I actually *demand* the ability to cheat. See, I view computer games as just an extension of my imagination. And I don't like arbitrary walls holding me in. There's no joy for me in "defeating" a single player game. The fun is in the play itself, and if the designers - being only human after all - limited me in some way, I want a way around that limitation. I want a cheat.

    Case in point. X-COM UFO Defense. A great game and one that I still play because I can cheat at it. There is a program called xcomutil. I use it to add or replace the aliens and generally make the story progress the way I want it to. To me, that makes it fun, even though strictly speaking I am cheating.

    I also play a lot of Quake and I've seen what cheaters do to an online game. So, my hope is that game makers, in their zeal to protect the online experience, will leave plenty of loopholes for cheats in single player games.

    1. Re:I want to cheat! (in single player) by Goldberg's+Pants · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Right on!

      If you cheat in multiplayer games, YOU ARE SCUM. That's all there is too it, and the planet would be better off without you on it.

      As for single player, cheats rule. One thing that SERIOUSLY irks me with todays games is the process of unlocking items. Now, don't get me wrong, I WORKED to unlike everything in Gran Turismo 2. I'm a racing nut, so it was fun to do. However, when you get the likes of Tony Hawk 2, the last THPS game I actually liked, I lost patience before I'd unlocked the third level. I shell out my money for the game, I should NOT have to work to access stuff I've paid for.

      On saying that, once I got cheats to unlock everything in THPS2 I was in heaven. And some of the other cheats are fantastic. Low gravity, reverse the levels etc... All good stuff, but that initial process of being forced to unlock stuff SUCKS if you're a casual player. MOST of us have lives and can't invest anywhere near as much time as we'd like into a game. Having the majority of the game locked out punishes the casual player.

      The argument is made that unlockables are rewards, but playing the game should be it's on reward.

      Okay, so I'm all for having SOME unlockables. Hidden characters and the like, that's fine, but Tony Hawk pushes it TOO far with having every level bar the lowest locked out at the start. Sadly, other games do the same.

  2. Yeah, right! by Tom7 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "...akin to cheating at solitaire, a source of false accomplishment and just one more instance of the fraying in society's moral fabric."

    ahahah, yeah, right. Games are really just about entertainment. Someone else has already beaten that boss, and seen the ending. Nothing in the real world actually happens when you kill Mother Brain. For sure you can make an argument that cheating is pointless because it makes the games less entertaining (perhaps true), but there's no moral issue here. Nobody is hurt if you cheat. Nobody is hurt if you don't bother finishing the game because it was too hard. Nobody is ever hurt because ultimately there is no point to games other than to amuse you.

  3. Ugh by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "...akin to cheating at solitaire, a source of false accomplishment and just one more instance of the fraying in society's moral fabric."

    Stupid ill-thought conclusions like that are doing more to fray society's moral frabic than cheating on games is.