Cheating in Videogames
Cheating is defined as defrauding, deceiving, and eluding, which in the gaming environment are methods players use to gain advantage or move forward in gameplay through guides, exploits, modifications and hacks that are not part of the gaming instructions (as defined by the game creator(s)). Cheating affects all the players involved, either intentionally or unintentionally, and has many different justifications and consequences.
Contents
Forms of cheating
Code
Mostly found in single player versions of games, a "cheat code" is a cheat placed in the game intentionally by the creator. Cheats can range from level skipping to player modifications that simplify the difficulty of certain levels or the game as a whole. If implemented, most cheat codes are activated via a specific combination of buttons or keys. Some games have a specific password screen and others require the user to know where to input the password, such as the start screen or a drop-down console.
Modifications/Hacks
Some cheats are carried out through illegal modifications of game code. With modified code, players can do things not originally intended by the creator, such as giving the player god mode, noclip, unlimited lives or ammo, etc. Players may also add hacks to the game that make the overall experience much easier for the user, difficult for other players, or often both. The term hack is used more with cheats that give the player an unfair advantage in online gaming. For example:
- Wall hacks allow the player to see through walls.
- Aim hacks center the crosshairs on opponents in shooters which make kills almost instant and skill-less.
- Speed hacks which alter the player's speed.
Players can also use scripts to assist with gameplay. In older shooters like Quake and Team Fortress Classic, the game engine increased the speed of the user if they strafed in the air. Users learned how to exploit this to greatly increase their speed (Bunny Hopping). With scripts, players could bind a series of commands to a single key, and when pressed, their character would auto execute the specific command.
Example TFC Bunny Hop Script::alias +hop "alias _special h_jump; h_start; slot10; alias hop_t -hop" :alias -hop "alias _special h_stop; alias hop_t +hop" :alias h_jump "+jump;wait;-jump;wait;h_start" :alias h_start "+attack2; -attack2" :alias h_stop "slot10" :alias hop_t "+hop" :bind "some_key" "hop_t"
Exploits
An exploit is a game bug that gives the player an advantage not intentionally programmed in by the game creator. For example, the effect of a grenade might not be fully canceled by a wall, allowing players to use a grenade to kill enemies through walls if they are close enough to the blast.
Guides
The use of guides is up to interpretation. The use of a strategy guide, or getting outside help, can be considered a form of cheating. Strategy guides generally tell the user exactly how to play a game, where to find items or powerups, and give step-by-step accounts on how to beat each level. They may also include other hints and tips to help the player along that the player wouldn't otherwise know about.
A popular website for game guides is GameFaqs, where most notable are the rather elegant text based guides and walkthroughs along with maps and other aids. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey and bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by CBS Interactive. The site has a database of video game information, cheat codes, reviews, game saves, and screenshots, almost all of which is submitted by volunteer contributors. The systems covered include the 8-bit Atari platform through modern consoles, as well as computer games. Submissions made to the site are reviewed by the site's current editor, Allen "SBAllen" Tyner.
Other
Other forms of cheating include using external programs to interfere with the game which helps the user by allowing unlimited lives, adding items, activate in-game cheats, etc. Users can also modify game save files to cheat with methods such as making the game think that the user had 100 lives as opposed to 10 or possessing one or more door keys. In some games, such as Sonic the Hedgehog or Half Life, users are able to access developer debug tools which allow them to alter various aspects of the game environment, like weapon or item placement, and attributes of the player themselves, like invincibility or the removal of character clipping.
Reasons for cheating
All users have their reasons for cheating, such as frustration, difficulty, time, etc. In the case of playing online, especially in shooters, all players generally want to have the highest kill count and the lowest death count. When players cheat, they gain an unfair advantage over the other players that allows them to achieve the goal of being the best. It can also been seen as a lot more fun wrecking havoc on all your opponents, versus getting killed almost immediately every round.
According to Mia Consalvo, there are many possible reasons that may cause players to cheat, including:
- boredom
- difficulty
- limited Scenarios
- rough patches or just bad games
Some users may cheat because other users are cheating, and in interviews conducted by Consalvo, she found that players who cheat have few qualms about doing so. Others cheat just for the satisfaction they get from the frustration of other players (See Multiplayer Cheating and Griefing).
Multiplayer Cheating
In the online environment players enter a competitive world where, generally, the aim of the game is to win. Some players may resort to cheating to make sure that they end up on top, some players just enjoy having an advantage over others, and some may cheat for the simple reason of "being an ass" (that being they get more enjoyment out of ruining the game for others but without any clear goal/aim). As said by Alfred in The Dark Knight: "...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."
Introducing a ranking system gives gamers another reason to exploit the system to rapidly rise over their fellows. This leads to a power-gaming mentality of accomplishing everything one can by any means necessary or allowing a gamer to brag about their skill by pointing at their top ranking.
Camping also becomes an issue in online environments.
See Also Online Cheating and Griefing
Notable Cheats
For the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)/Famicom, the game Contra made use of the Original Konami Code mandatory in order to get in a decent game.
In the late Nintendo Game Boy classic Pokemon Red/Blue, players could take advantage of a glitch in the system by battling the non-Pokemon "MissingNo" (Missing Number), and by doing so would grant nearly infinite supplies of whatever item is in the 6th slot in the player's item menu. This was typically used for Rare Candies (to put a player's Pokemon on steroids) and Master Balls (to catch all 150 + 1 if you knew how. Mew was unavailable for normal capture in the American versions of the first Pokemon Game Boy Games, which led to a popular obsession with trying to get it anyway. However, as in the "+1" link, it can be done).
In addition to cheating done by players alone, several companies sought to take advantage of an individual's desire to take advantage of exploits by creating products such as the GameShark, GameGenie, and Codebreaker. These machines allowed any gamer to cheat with incredibly ease on virtually any game.
Prevention
In the single player world, cheating only affects the single person playing, and prevention is not entirely necessary - or specifically up to the game creator to decided how and if they want to prevent cheating.
In the online world, prevention is more complicated and has many different methods:
See Online Cheating and Punishments in Virtual Environments
References
Consalvo, Mia. Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames (Chapter 4: Gaining Advantage: How Videogame Players Define and Negotiate Cheating). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2007.
