CHEATERS

[Kyl Von Kull]

This sums it up. I now have to bear in mind that whenever I am discussing the qualities of a game with someone on this forum, be it difficulty, systems, pacing, and so on, it is very likely that they cheated their way through the entire game.

This is the problem in a nutshell. You can't have a real conversation about a game if the other person had a totally different experience because of cheats. I don't want to read five pages of bitching about AoD only to find out at the end that the bitch in question has given himself infinite skill points. It's just discourteous.

People can cheat all they want, but if you cheat you should disclose that fact up front when expressing an opinion. Otherwise it's impossible to have a meaningful dialogue.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Oh man!!! I was naively hoping for a game based on the tv series. Either an adventure game in the Leisure Suit Larry mold, but combining voyeurism with high-minded puritanism (playing a catholic priest, who upon leaving the church because it's gone too soft and no longer approves of killing heretics Anglicans!!!, and then, finding himself needing a job with no skills other than zealotry, takes over the production and hosting duties for the Fox 'reality tv'/'cops-meets-pre-internet-spycam-porn' series Cheaters, because he gets there late and is the only applicant to avoid getting arrested when the state legislature realise that "holy shit, I know it's 1993 and all, but how the fuck is it not illegal to make a hit tv series out of non-consensual voyeur spycam footage, and shit, is anyone even checking whether they're they're actually 'cheaters' and not, like, long-term separated and haven't got around to finalising the divorce".

Either that, or take the concept live to WoW and get introduce a new character class who gains levels by infiltrating guilds, identifying which '18 yr old f' is actually a married 43 year old having an affair with the guildleader, who happens to be the kid at school that's bullying her 16 year old son.

 

[Absinthe]

I cheat to test content/mechanics, to fix bugs, just for fun, and to plow through a game faster on occasion. I also play those games without cheats and complain that the game is too easy.

 

[Roguey]

Oh man!!! I was naively hoping for a game based on the tv series. Either an adventure game in the Leisure Suit Larry mold, but combining voyeurism with high-minded puritanism (playing a catholic priest, who upon leaving the church because it's gone too soft and no longer approves of killing heretics Anglicans!!!, and then, finding himself needing a job with no skills other than zealotry, takes over the production and hosting duties for the Fox 'reality tv'/'cops-meets-pre-internet-spycam-porn' series Cheaters, because he gets there late and is the only applicant to avoid getting arrested when the state legislature realise that "holy shit, I know it's 1993 and all, but how the fuck is it not illegal to make a hit tv series out of non-consensual voyeur spycam footage, and shit, is anyone even checking whether they're they're actually 'cheaters' and not, like, long-term separated and haven't got around to finalising the divorce".

The answer is that it's all staged https://www.insideedition.com/investigative/853-inside-edition-investigates-cheaters

 

[Brocken Jr.]

I voted yes, but I don't do this (on initial playthroughs at least) unless something breaks. For example, in New Vegas I used the noclip cheat a lot when I got caught in scenery or something like that.

Also, on replays, I'll cheat my way through sections I just don't enjoy. See: Bloodlines sewers.

 

[Tigranes]

Remember back when developers actually put effort in cheats?

My favorite cheat was in simcity (DOS): type "FUNDS" and get a lot of money, but then Godzilla will come and destroy your city

Me and my friends ran a campaign for a particular cheat unit in Age of Mythology, and managed to get ES to include it. Good times.

 

[Talby]

The only cheat I use is the teleport cheat in Baldur's Gate 2 to get around quicker. Only to save time, never to bypass enemies or get past locked doors/puzzles. I just LARP that my party's mage knows the teleport spell.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

I used to use weapon cheats to go on rampages in GTA games. That's it though

 

[mondblut]

Presuming the developers are in any way actually qualified to have a say how something is "intended to be played". Amusing.

 

[HansDampf]

Every 3D game should have a noclip cheat. Looking at you, STALKER!

 

[Modron]

Every 3D game should have a noclip cheat. Looking at you, STALKER!

Just 3d games in general, eventually you are going to clip through the geometry and plummet into the nether and a lot of games don't account for this and teleport you back to the intended area automatically. Maybe it won't happen to you but it will definitely happen to a player somewhere down the line.

 

[Cael]

Every 3D game should have a noclip cheat. Looking at you, STALKER!

Just 3d games in general, eventually you are going to clip through the geometry and plummet into the nether and a lot of games don't account for this and teleport you back to the intended area automatically. Maybe it won't happen to you but it will definitely happen to a player somewhere down the line.

MechWarrior 2 Mercs had a really funny one in the second to last mission. That is the one where you had to cross the valley and take out the Jaguar commander in a Cauldron-Born. If you sneak past them and go to the other side of the map from your starting position, the uphill climb suddenly ends. That's right, the map ends before the mission out of bounds zone. You actually drop down to the "ground" level. From there, you can go UNDER the rest of the valley on the Jaguar side (the lowest point in the middle will make you emerge from the valley side like a ghost). The "ground" of the valley acts like a one way window. You can see the Jag 'mechs walking around in their patrol circuits above you, but they can't see you. What's more, that LOS extends to weapons. Cheesiest way to complete the mission without taking damage.

 

[BrotherFrank]

Tbh I cheat like a mofo. But don't get me wrong, I don't cheat out of the box but usually under some very specific circumstances, basically allowing me to tweak or customize a game to my liking even if it's not what devs intended.

-Bugfixing: Beth games in general require you to be fluent with console commands to enjoy imo. Whether it be noclipping when stuck or using coc command because for some reason a specific stretch of land gives me constant ctds and thus i have to cheat my way past it. Some runs i also simply don't care about collecting bottlecaps or septims or w/e, mostly because i'm probably playing some extensive mod which i want to focus on (a good example is that fallout 3 mod that gives you an older sister who escapes the vault with you and helps add to the whole family theme of the story.. i know how it sounds like but it's a legit cool mod!).

-Skipping through what you already know: I love BG2, I religiously replay it every now and then (with a slew of new mods each time to help keep things fresh, I actually tend to leave minsc and jaheira in the starting dungeon to die so my pc starts off the game alone or with yoshimo at best), but for the town sections I give myself and all party members boots of speed.
This alone shaves off hours of needless idling time as I would twiddle my thumbs waiting for my party to cross waulkeens promenade for the zillionth time.
Obviously I'd take them off whenever approaching combat areas. I'm aware you can modify speed in EEkeeper (ah that's another one, I sometimes mess around with values in it, one recent example is when playing the Jon Irenicus redemption mod, redeeming him is tough so on my 4th run i cheated to see the good outcome for him) but that persists in combat so I avoid using that method.

-Just not having fun with the game and using cheats to skip mechanics i'm not enjoying: only way I can enjoy Darkest Dungeon or more recently, Lobotomy Corporation. Like sometimes i think the gameplay is just crap and despite giving it a good go i'm not having fun.. Yet i still want to play on for other reasons.
So no shame in abusing cheats here because otherwise i simply would stop playing.

-Skipping boring grind or tedium.
Because sometimes I really can't be arsed and can literally feel myself getting older by the second and I start wondering wtf am I doing with my life. Such thoughts are dangerous and I play games to escape those. Let's just say I wasted 45 mins to an hour grinding this spot over and over ty vm *shamelessly cheats*.

-Sometimes you just want to have an ez overpowered game or use cheats to have an alt experience.
My 5th or 6th run on AoD was with a dude with stupidly high stats, it made for a more popamole run because suddenly i was actually succeeding most stat and skill tests and my pc was like a classic typical chosen one character that excelled at everything (aka the exact opposite of what VD intended xD), but as a one time run it was fun and a nice break from the ass kicking the game usually gives me.
Another example is mount and blade. Give your pc max agility (66) and 10 athletics play the game as if it was a western dynasty warriors because your character can run faster then horses (depending on mod). Obviously it breaks the normal game flow to say the least but then I do retarded things like playing a bandit from the start and trying to found my own kingdom even though my army is still 5 swadian peasants so I still end up getting my face smashed in because even when you're the fastest man alive it's hard to beat a full 300 stack of high tier troops just by yourself.
This last reason is the one i'm most careful with since it can kill the fun of a game if abused but as the examples above showed, i was after a specific effect and knew what I was doing.

Does any of this invalidate my opinions? Well if I was ever to think my cheated gameplay experience represents the actual game and the intentions of the dev, it sure would. But I like to think I know what I'm doing when I'm cheating and am aware I am playing in an atypical manner so wouldn't use my cheated runs as the basis of my opinions when discussing a game.

 

[Jvegi]

Back in a day I would leave ToB overnight with my party shooting at off screen Fire Giants in Saradush to get to level 40 (or 50). I was never fond of ToB. Got through it without expoits a couple of time though so who cares.

I also remember saving after every succesfull dice roll in some boss fight in NWN. I must have screwed my solo monk build pretty bad for it to be neccesary, but it was.