Cheating

[Worm of Despite]

Do you ever use cheat codes in games?

I used one recently on a frustrating StarCraft mission. I usually don't resort to any kind of guide or aid in my games, but that mission was one of the "survive for ten minutes" things; I was vastly outnumbered, and it was bad enough that I suck at strategy games. After restarting the mission for a 5th time, I gave up and turned the invincibility cheat on.

So there's my guilt trip for the day. Stone me if you wish!

[High Lord Tolkien]

Sometimes you just need to step into God-mode and slaughter everything at your leisure.
It's a good thing.

Plus it lets you play and experiment with moves that you don't have time for in usual play.


And some people, like me, need it to survive more than 5 minutes in regular play.

[Worm of Despite]

I also cheated on the last Zerg mission. It was a "bring-the-drone-with-the-crystal-to-the-enemy-base." I beat it fair and square a year or so ago; I recall surrounding the drone by a ton of Overlord units, so they would take the hits/shelter the defenseless drone.

I'm going to try my darndest to not cheat during the Protoss campaign. (crosses fingers)

One game I do pride myself on never using guides: the Zelda games. Only a few puzzles have caused me to look at a walkthrough, and it's usually puzzles that are so simple that I overanalyze them (like throwing a pot at a door to break it).

Memo to self: must begin playing Oracle of Seasons.

[Avatar]

If I do, it's very rare that I can go back to normal game play, so it spoils my ability to complete the game.

Usually I only do it if I've either finished already, or if I've given up on the game.

--A

[balon!]

Usually I cheat when it's just freaking impossible for me, when my hand eye coordination just doesn't cut it. Then I put on the god mode and KILL.

[Queeaqueg]

I don't like cheating to win a game. I used Cheats on GTA but that was because they are fun, not used to complete the missions. The only time I have cheated to complete a game was to get the Ion Cannon in C&C.

[Xar]

Usually I only cheat if I've completed the game at least once or twice and I just want to play it again to find out if there were different options I missed the first time around. However, I mostly play CRPGs (such as Neverwinter Nights or Oblivion) so in most cases it's not unlike the fact that you have foreknowledge of what's going to happen, because the story is what it is.

[Cagliostro]

Depends on the game for me. If the game is too frickin' hard, I'll do it, but typically no. Final Fantasy games I like to sit with a cheat guide in hand, as you get so much more out of the game if you do, as it is a damn long game no matter how you slice it. But I pretty much never buy them. And as for going into God mode, it's nice to slaughter, but I generally get through without, in case I miss some silly cinematic or something.

[Waddley]

Up up down down left right...

Anyway, in Riven I used the hint guide when I was impossibly stuck, but I maintain that that game was absolutely impossible to beat w/o either having programmed it, or looking up hints. IMPOSSIBLE!

Other than that, I've never played the kind of games that have cheat codes. Or at least, none that I know of.

Fake edit- Actually, reading Cag's post I guess I have played those. I haven't cheated in RPG's, though. They're too much fun to fumble around in.

OH! After I beat Morrowind I downloaded all sorts of items to make me invincible-er. (I mean, dude. I was already like level 70...) but they allowed me to fly everywhere, which was cool, and regen health fast, which at that point was pretty unncessary. But like I said, I didn't do that until I beat the game.

[Cagliostro]

I completely agree with you on Riven. There were a few puzzles on that which were insane. I love playing adventure games, probably more than any other genre, but there can be some pretty major mindbenders in those. I only cheat if I am completely stuck and can't move on in the game. I remember Starship Titanic being one of those games that just weren't intuitive at all. I don't mind looking up hints on those, but Myst games I always feel bad whenever I have looked up a hint when I'm REALLY stuck, and find that if I thought a few more minutes, I would have arrived at the solution. However, if it is too out there, then I feel good.
My ex and I used to play games like that together. It's so much more fun getting two on the problem. We worked well together too, as she would think of things I didn't, and vice versa. SO much fun.

And I think Final Fantasy is the only RPG I've ever used hint guides on, and that is due to a friend who buys the hint books because he prefers to play that way. But there is so much in FF games that you miss out on unless you have those things. My naughty friend made a FF completist out of me.
And I agree...RPGs are too much fun to go explore, so I almost never do.

[I'm Murrin]

I have a bad habit of looking up things on FAQs if I'm the slightest bit uncertain of what to do, usually just on RPGs. Final Fantasy games I'll start off just playing normally, then I'll get thinking about what the extra bits are and start looking up how to get everything in the game. Once I start looking at guides it can be hard to give up.
Cheating I don't do much, but if I know how to cheat it can sometimes be quite tempting. I end up quite often cheating on the Total War games when my campaigns get difficult.

[Holsety]

Heh. I always find those survive missions to be easy. The only Blizzard timed mission I found difficult my first run through was this WCIII map where you have to kill a bunch of villagers before an enemy turns them into zombies (I kid you not). You have to balance well between killing off zombies and the enemy force.

I used Cheats on GTA but that was because they are fun, not used to complete the missions.

Agreed.

I don't cheat or use guides in an RPG unless I know there are secrets of some sort which I can miss out on. For instance, if I'm playing a game in the suikoden series I always print out a list of every character who isn't recruited as part of the story (there are 108 characters total, often a few more, in each game) before I sit down to play. Or I might read the intros to a guide, just to get some starting hints on stuff like characters to pick, jobs and classes, and stuff like that.

If it's a platform game or something like that, and there is some sort of cheat to give me more lives, I'll usually use it on my first few runs to get used to the game as a whole. But if I'm doing a speed run I don't use them.

[Avatar]

Once I start looking at guides it can be hard to give up.

That's my problem too, which is why I try not to.

--A

[Nav]

I generally don't use cheat codes unless they're of the novelty variety, like the GTA ones. In my student house we used to do the 'Mayhem Challenge' on GTAIII, where we would activate the 'armed pedestrians' and 'aggressive pedestrians' cheats and then try and survive a lap of all three islands. It was absolute chaos and more often than not you'd find yourself blown to smithereens by a hooker with an RPG.

In RTS games I do bend the rules by pausing to issue orders and while this isn't exactly a cheat it is unrealistic and you obviously can't do it during multiplayer games. I've never been able to develop the uber Micro skills for RTS gaming.

I think a habit a lot of Warcraft players quickly develop is Thottbot addiction. The database of quests and locations of just about everything in the game are only a click away (I even have a search box for it in Firefox), but I find it saves me way too much time to consider not using as often the quest descriptions are quite vague and the maps very big. You occasionally meet someone who refuses to use it and while it should be a postive thing, I always end up looking on Thottbot and then giving them directions!

[Cagliostro]

In RTS games I do bend the rules by pausing to issue orders and while this isn't exactly a cheat it is unrealistic and you obviously can't do it during multiplayer games. I've never been able to develop the uber Micro skills for RTS gaming.

What is unrealistic is having one person giving all the orders for all the teams. You'd delegate out. Therefore, it isn't a cheat and it is just as unrealistic as the game is.

[Nav]

That is a fair point, although I suppose by extrapolating that idea it would also be impossible to micromanage the entire army. You would have to give voice instructions to a deputy and they would order the units around as they see fit.

Mass Effect, the upcoming game from the makers of KOTOR, actually features an instruction system where you pause the game, position ghosts of your party where you want them to stand. When you unpause, your character spends a few moments relaying the instructions and the party members start moving.

[Loredoctor]

In RTS games I do bend the rules by pausing to issue orders and while this isn't exactly a cheat it is unrealistic and you obviously can't do it during multiplayer games. I've never been able to develop the uber Micro skills for RTS gaming.

What is unrealistic is having one person giving all the orders for all the teams. You'd delegate out. Therefore, it isn't a cheat and it is just as unrealistic as the game is.

Good point.