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Is Cheating a Lost Art in 2016?

Is Cheating a Lost Art in 2016?

I was at a trivia night recently. It was just for fun, something to do while you eat dinner. There were no prizes or real incentive to win outside of bragging rights but everywhere I looked, people were looking up the answers to the questions on their phones. Why do this? Doesn’t cheating diminish any personal feeling of accomplishment or pride one should feel? What were these people doing? Did they just want to appear smart? Is winning a satisfying feeling, by any means necessary? Or, is it just fun to ruin other people’s good time?

At first, I really couldn’t figure out the logic behind their actions. That’s pretty silly of me, though. Not only do I write for a website whose literal focus is on cheat codes, but I’ve benefitted from their use from time to time. There are a lot of reasons people cheat, especially in video games.

There are, of course, those who cheat or hack or what-have-you because they think of multiplayer experiences in a totally different way than your typical gamer. For some, the objective actually is to diminish the fun other people are having. It’s a troll-ish mentality and it’s undeniably present in FPS lobbies. Some people like to have their fun at the expense of others, whether they’re motivated by a desire to win or are just doing it “for the lulz.” These people aren’t nice.

Of course, not every cheat or exploit is bad. Some of them are harmless and can actually enhance a game for some gamers. These are the cheats that function more as a short cut. A means of progression that allows players to skip a grind they find unenjoyable to get to the parts of the game that they enjoy. This can take form in a few different ways.

One reason a large portion of video gamers play games is for the story mode. In older games, especially of the JRPG persuasion, content could get difficult and require a grind to overcome battles that bar players from more story. In these games, it’s often possible to flee battles, which means players aren’t getting the requisite experience points they need to level up their characters to an appropriate strength. Players do this because they’re just so darn eager for those tasty morsels of narration. Fortunately, cheat codes and exploits can allow these gamers to find a balance that works for them.

Is Cheating a Lost Art in 2016?

Cheat codes could also be of use for people replaying video games. It’s far from unheard of to lose a save file, and a series of cheats can allow you to quickly regain your progress. I recently had to do this with Final Fantasy VI. If it weren’t for cheat codes, it would have taken me forever to build up the motivation to retrace my footsteps over nearly 20 hours of lost progress. Video game reviewers, especially those who edit video, can also benefit from this kind of usage. With cheat codes, they can quickly gain access to the gameplay clips they need to locate to fit their video editing needs.

Unfortunately, cheat codes aren’t as present in games as they once were. The prevalence of trophies and achievements on Microsoft and Sony platforms make it hard to allow cheating; it seems to unfairly affect these systems, in their estimation. They still exist, though, and gamers looking for an edge of some type should feel justified in using whatever advantage they can get. Just try not to ruin the gaming experience of others when you do.

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