Growing up when I was gaming in the 90s and on, I knew of the stigma of cheating in video games. You were seen as stupid, someone incapable of completing challenges on your own. You were seen as lowly, someone who can never go through life without cheating. Like, it was a pretty big deal as I grew up, hearing all of this for years on end.
I’ve been able to beat games without cheating, of course. But during my late teens and early adulthood, I just tried going past the stigma. Cheating in video games don’t necessarily reflect how you handle life and don’t translate. I’ve found it quite fun to cheat in video games. Probably not in multiplayer and especially on the receiving end.
I even use cheats just to beat games anymore, who the hell cares. People only care if you want to make a big deal about it, by showing it to everyone and boast how you’ve beaten a game in record times. I’ve tried beating some games head on without cheats but there just comes a point where you ask yourself if it is fun dying a hundred times at some part of a game. I don’t think so, personally.
So yeah, I don’t have the stigma anymore. I kinda like how gamers today only care about cheating if it was done in multiplayer or if you’re trying to beat a speedrunning record or some score record. Fun is meant to be how you find it.
The point of games is to have fun, so you should play the game in the way that is most fun for you. Whether that involves cheating or modding the game is up to your own preferences.
Cheating only becomes a problem in competitive contexts because at that point you are being dishonest and ruining the fun for others.
There are some cases where cheating is not okay in singleplayer games and some cases where it is okay in multiplayer games. It all circles back to whether everyone is having a good time.
Its always okay to cheat in single player games
It doesn’t matter if its single player or multiplayer, if you are competing against other people, cheating is not okay.
If you cheat to get a highscore on a leaderboard in a single player game, thats not cool. If you cheat a speedrun in a single player game, you lose all my respect. If you use cheats to beat near impossible challenges in single player games to get clout on social media, that’s despicable.
It’s not always ok to cheat in single player games.
I would say that a game stops being singleplayer as soon as a any form of competition with other players is involved, this would make it asynchronous multiplayer in my eyes.
No matter the definition of singleplayer or multiplayer games, if you cheat and it affects other non-cheating players that did not consent of you cheating, it’s not okay.
Absolutely true!
There are zero victims in cheating in a single player game. No one is deprived of anything. Records are not single player. Competition is never single player.
Bowling or solving a rubix cube is only single player if theres just one player. Two people playing bowling or solving rubix cubes is no longer a single player game. If only one person is bowling or solving rubix cubes, cheat away! Two people in a competition, that’s no longer single player and cheating is obviously not a good thing to do.
You’re kind of twisting the definition of single player. In a colloquial sense, it’s an adjective that describes whether game modes are played alone or concurrently with others. Not literally related to the number of players that have played the game.
The label exists to give people a sense of what the game is like to play. A game can have both single player and multiplayer modes.
Compete in single player games? Are you referencing speedruns?
Single player, if I feel like it, yes. Why the fuck no, its my game, If i feel like cheating makes the game more fun for me why shouldnt I.
Games nowdays have a fuckton of griding and content that is “Collect this” so the cheats help with a lot of that.
People who “cheat” in single player games… I don’t care. You do you.
People who use “hacks” in multiplayer games? Scum of the earth. Don’t deserve internet access.
Single player = absolutely
Multiplayer = absolutely not (unless we all unanimously agree to cheat, confirmation is required)
I can’t wait until my group finishes the actual content of Valheim so we can turn on cheats and build giant castles
Valheim rules. I just want to farm all day, I don’t need enemies.
single player, absolutely. half the fun in the 90s was typing in a code from a magazine just to see what broke
I cheat on a lot of single player games and I’m happy to tell anyone. It makes gaming sooo much better. It’s one of the main reasons I favor pc gaming and have moved away from console. Cheating in competitive multi is nasty and I would never do that but for single-player it helps me reclaim time and avoid frustration. Grinding is a thing of the past - good riddance. I used to love it as a kid and I cannot stomach it now. Heavy punishments for failure is some sort of trend now and I don’t understand it and don’t want any part of it. I don’t want to replay 10 minutes to get back to where I was because it decided to send me back to the beginning of a level or a boss has 4 phases and I’m just stuck on the last one. I skip a lot of platforming in my action / adventure games - jumping around to climb a building is not why I’m playing. Rng for rewards - skip that too. Grinding and save scumming and guides were all strategies to work around annoyances but cheating is much faster and easier. I don’t make the game trivial I just make it so that I’m enjoying the fun parts and avoiding the tedious parts that I no longer have the time and patience for.
I mean what is cheating?
Is it cheating to play Minecraft in Creative mode? You are invincible, can fly/teleport anywhere and have access to every block and more.
Is it cheating to play Grand Theft Auto and spawn in a tank or guns?
Is it cheating to play Goldeneye 64 and turn on DK mode?
Is it cheating to play Halo on any difficulty other than Legendary?
If it’s a single player game and you’re fine with it, then it isn’t cheating.
Whenever I play Minecraft, I enable commands on for any of the worlds I play. If I want to do something with the world, I will, though typically it’s just active for when I need it. The most prominent changes I did was to stop the flow of time at night, and continued playing the world until I came back from the End. It’s now my forever world.
I mean what is cheating?
I agree it’s at least not immoral cheating.
Here’s me playing on easy and looking up walkthroughs or help threads when I can’t get past a boss.
Replies on thread: yes, this part is annoying, just put it on easy for this bit and you’ll fly through.
Me: But Doctor, I Am Pagliacci!
Singleplayer? Who cares. Cheat mods can be fun. You’re not messing anyone else’s day up, and as long as you’re not making any claims about your skill based on cheating it’s not even worth discussing.
Competitive multiplayer cheaters can get fucked, though.
Cheating destroys the joy I get from games. I used to run cheatengine, but noticed I got bored of the game the instant I ran a cheat. So I stopped. Only time I will create a cheat now is if I get stuck in something time consuming and I don’t really enjoy the game but want to see what’s next.
Never cheated in multiplayer, people who do that should be put to death, fucking assholes.
Yes. Mostly Money and Inventory Space. I’m already grinding and at full capacity in real life. Why should it follow me into my hobby space? Health, mana, legendary weapons/armor, levels/experience points, one hit kill… Almost never. Only if the game starts to become unfair. But I still like to have a challenge.
I consider inventory space mods third party bugfixes
No, I would rather actually play the game then to research how to cheat in them.
If we’re talking single player games I do use cheats on games I want to play but dont want to grind for it. No man’s sky or space engineers for instance. I just wanna build shit man.
Single player, sure, especially grindy jrpgs just to cut down on time to complete time
Multiplayer. Absolutely not
I grew up typing IDDQD and never once felt bad about it. Single player is your sandbox. Online is the only place cheating actually costs someone else their fun.
I don’t understand people who hate on people that cheat in singleplayer games. You are the only person affected by that and if it makes it more fun for you then why not?
I remember when I first found reddit and ventured into game subs such as for Don’t Starve.
oh the shit I was given for using a save mod so that I didn’t lose my 300 hours of progress because I forgot to pause the game when leaving my desk for a few minutes. like fuck off, I play the game to have fun and relax, I don’t want to start a new world every time I die, I have a life and I don’t have time to put in a thousand hours to get good enough that I never make mistakes and can enjoy a long play world without stressing about permadeath. but boy did some people ever take personal offence to me not playing the game exactly how it was purchased and how they chose to.
Lol that happened to me playing Don’t Starve. I never opened it again
if you like that type of game (base building, exploration, farming, survival, combat), I highly recommend giving it another try. I haven’t played it in a while, but if the modding scene was great a few years ago that I’m sure it’s just as good now.
I typically played with quality of life mods like material stacking (less time spent running back and forth moving items around), save games (death resets you to the start of the day, not deletes your world), and some food things to make the game less grindy and focused on resource management (food spoilage rates changed). the core mechanics of the game are all still there, but it’s much more friendly for the casual player who is looking to relax, allowing you to focus on the parts that are fun like building up to fight a giant and exploring.
IIRC mods are also very easy to install with the built-in mod configurator in the game — no need to use an external launcher or manually manage mods like with Minecraft
I might give it a spin with mods. I liked pretty much everything else about the game.
I admittedly didn’t get very far, maybe 60 days? But it was furthest I got by WEEKS and I just couldn’t bring myself to start over
totally understandable
it is one of my favourite games. I never think of it as being a game on which I have a high play time, but the stats show differently lol
I don’t see any ethical issue with it, just an artistic one. To me, it’s akin to altering dialog or story in a film or book. IMO, for a first play-through, you should want to experience what the game’s creator wanted you to experience, even if it’s uncomfortable. After that, mod and cheat to your heart’s content.
To me, the ability for a game to simulate situations which force you to confront emotions you would otherwise avoid or never have is what makes games an art form. The first time you lose a pawn in Rimworld, getting frustrated at a boss in Elden Ring, your favorite Pokemon evolving, meeting a new neighbor in Animal Crossing, falling in lava in minecraft; all of these moments could be cheapened or circumvented entirely by cheating, and IMO the only person you’ve cheated is yourself out of a unique experience. I call it Emotional Min/Maxing, and I consider it a form of optimizing the fun out of a game.
- Multiplayer (if I play it); No. Never.
- Single player; Yes. Trainers, mods and the like.
Having a full time job and only being able to game a few hours in the weekend. So I just want to enjoy and not being stuck and raging about one or two hard bosses. Unfortunately, I’m not a teenager anymore that can spend hours on a boss to beat.
Gaming is meant to be enjoyable and entertaining.
