Singleplayer do whatever you like, multiplayer do not cheat.

The point of games is to have fun, "cheats" are essentially just difficulty options.

It's only really cheating if you cheat someone else. The point of video games is fun and entertainment. If "cheating" improves that, have at 'er.

Only single player games -- and usually only after they become monotonous playing the intended way.

no, I mod them

there is no such thing as cheating in a personal game

don't tell the people on Don't Starve forums, but save mods are totally okay and not at all "cheating and ruining the game". you know what ruins the game? losing my several hundred days of progress because I didn't actually pause the game when my dog started making puking sounds and I ran away from my computer

also, Minecraft automation - sure, I could let my server run overnight, or I could just directly give myself the materials the farm would have produced in 12 hours and save the power consumption. ofc I validate all my farms before I do any of that, and I don't give more resources than they produce.

It's hard not to in 4 player GoldenEye :D

I save scum my rolls in BG3 to get desired outcomes

If you cheat in a single player game you do you. You can do whatever you want. If you do the same in a multiplayer online game: fuck you, you are ruining it for the rest of us.

Edit: To answer the question: No, I don't cheat. Neither in single player nor in multiplayer games.

Cheating in multiplayer games is lame and defeats one of the main reasons people play games with each other.

There is nothing you can do to cheat in a single player game. You decide how you play single player.

Almost never. I've stopped even changing difficulties for difficult boss fights. Gives me more satisfaction and makes me feel better at games than I actually am. If I die 24 times and manage to get it on the 25th, then at least I was actually able to do it eventually. Just more fun imo. No shame in it though, just a personal preference.

I don't, because I find that as soon as I do, the game feels permanently pointless. It's like grinding to get some random chance item, and then someone gives you a magic menu enabling you to just put any items you want in your inventory whenever you want. Items mentally become zero value. And then any game mechanics built around scarcity and the intended emotional impact of that scarcity become permanently meaningless too.

It's pulling back the curtain. You can't unsee what's going on back there. Any further interaction with the game just leaves me feeling "this is just a video game, the rules are pointless and with that menu I can get it to do whatever". Even partial cheats, like infinite ammo with no reloading needed, break the illusion for me permanently and leave further gameplay even without cheats feeling unsatisfying and pointless.

For me, it's rare that a game can survive its mechanics or overall gameplay loop being destroyed by cheats when those are what make games...games. You're left with either a creative mode sandbox, or a movie, neither of which I care for in a video game format.

Not so much anymore because I haven't figured it out on my Steam Deck but ABSOLUTELY with PC games. Strictly a solo player though.

you can't cheat on a blow up doll. solo play is not cheating.

If I find a game too tedious and I'm about to drop it then sometimes I cheat whatever currency the game uses by editing RAM values which is braindead easy. Single player only. If it makes me want to keep playing. I have less patience for poor pacing as I get older.

Except Wreckfest if it counts. I had zero interest in the shitty single player campaign. I just wanted to race online but the game locks most cars behind a crappy uninspired single player grind. I gave myself enough money to just buy everything and then soley focused on online play.

Edit: oh and carry weights are my second most cheated thing. I get no joy out of shop runs. I don't give a shit if my pockets being unlimited is "unrealistic" so is carrying whatever artibrary capped number it is like 250lbs everywhere without a backpack. Takes nothing away from the fun to cheat this waste of time shit.

Infinite Weapon durability in System Shock 2 and Zelda BOTW also come to mind. Stuff like that.

Only in single player games and typically only when it’s too challenging like that mission/quest that is just really frustrating.

Or if I’ve already beaten the game and lost progress and just want to quickly get back to where I was.

Other than that, not really much. Maybe once in a while just to fuck around, but that’s about it for me. I don’t think it should be that big of a deal for single player offline games and you’re not trying to hit a leaderboard. It’s annoying seeing those on some games’ leaderboards and it’s obvious they’re there just because they cheated.

These days games often allow you to individually change the difficulty which I make use quite often when I feel a game is becoming too much of a hassle than a joy and I still want to know how the story continues or see what might be coming.

I don't think I have used a classic cheat in a long time. The last time I actively remember was The Sims 3 (I guess) and it kind of killed the game for me because suddenly everything was possible without any challenge and even a normal playthrough felt like I was missing something.

I kinda stopped cheating in games when cheats stopped being button combos or console commands. I never cared enough about using them that I am gonna go out of my way to modify the game or use a 3rd party tool to be able to cheat.

If the game has them built in, I might partake. Tho even back in the day, the one I used most just made everyone have a larger head (idk why this was even such a common "cheat").

single player games? yeah, especially if I've already beaten the game

other times I'm just skipping tedious grinding

definitely never in mp games

In single-player games I occasionally "lightly" cheat.

Using "infinite" mods or unlock "everything" mods just ruins all the fun for me.

But unlock a specific thing or get a small amount of rss type cheats that reduce grind I like.

It's fun cheating in single player games after you've already finished them the normal way.

Cheating otherwise robs you of the experience.

Cheating if the game is simply too hard or unplayable, is also acceptable.

Cheating in online games? Especially against other people? You're an asshole.

Mostly singleplayer, when I feel like I've completed the most that the game would offer. Sometimes save cheesing/rng manipulation if I can't get a certain thing to go my way, but not a lot.

On multiplayer, I did used to play anarchy minecraft servers (where cheats level the playing ground for everyone), but nothing that breaks that balance. Multiplayer is only fun when everyone has similar tools to you.

In single player yes, who cares, mods are fun too. In co-op, fine, as long as everyone is on board with the change. In PvP, never, thanks for fucking ruining the fun.

IDDQD, IDKFA, ⬆️⬆️⬇️⬇️⬅️➡️⬅️➡️B,A,Start, are the ones I know off the top of my head. Tons of people don't want to grind, just sandbox, so you get city and people sims with infinite cash codes.

I guess what I'm getting at is, if they weren't called cheat codes, would it even be considered cheating? Cheating usually involves someone being harmed or cheated out of something (money, love). Are there any victims in this case (strictly single player, of course)? I'd argue that you even lose out if you aren't using codes, cuz you might say 'fuck it', and just move on to another thing (like your Terraria example).

Heck, we might as well tie this up with something modern and political, like right to repair. If you bought the software, you should be free to manipulate it, all the way up to (but not including) distributing your version for money. Single player cheating is about as harmful as a nice masturbation sesh.

Single player do whatever you like. Play your way. Example: the old DnD games like Neverwinter Nights and Baldurs Gate, I’d start a game by console commanding a Light/Lore (scholar iirc) ring and a stack of identify scrolls. Do what you like to remove the irritating part. Bag weight mods in Fallout, anyone?

Multiplayer, no, never.

You could argue that mod use is cheating, in the same sense that console commands are. That would mean almost everyone who has ever played Skyrim is a cheater alongside everyone who modded out Inquisition’s beige pajamas before BioWare added an alternative.

Depends on the game and platform really.

Been using game cheats since IDDQD and IDKFA. I've never used a cheat in a multiplayer competitive game, that's like cheating at golf. No one really cares what your fucking score is, and cheating ruins any and all accomplishment and personal validation from competing. At that point, you're just being an asshole to other people for imaginary clout, and you should really consider what is gratifying about playing in the first place.

Back in the day my friend couldn't get through the MOH level with snow. It would just freeze and crash. So I showed him how to cheat and bypass the level.

If it's single player then do whatever you want. It only affects you.

Last time I remember cheating in a game was giving myself infinite lives in Sonic Mania. The game is really fun, but I'm terrible at it and I hated having to restart from the beginning of act 1 when I was struggling with the boss. Got really bad with the final boss.

Only if it's single player and there's some bullshit time consuming part I don't want to deal with or some bug fucks me over. I wouldn't in multiplayer. I can't even bring myself to murder people in arc raiders unless its self defense.

I play games to have fun, which is the reason I don't play multiplayer games (unless local). I also have a very limited amount of time to play games after work.

I cheat with WeMod on openSUSE Tumbleweed for every game I can. I've just recently beaten Resident Evil 2+3 and am currently on 4 right now, and am having a blast getting to play these games!

The number one reason I am having a blast is BECAUSE of the cheats. Every game is different for me, so I only use the cheats that will minimize the amount of time I have to do silly shit like collect X amount of this material or whatever other stupid grindy stuff they come up with that doesn't respect my time as a player. Using the RE games as an example, I don't turn on every single cheat. I don't want to worry about inventory management (not fun to me, personally), so I turn on No Reload. This means my weapons will never need to be reloaded, which means more space in the inventory for the story important items. Win/Win for me. What I don't do, for these games in particular, is use the infinite/god mode cheats. I still want to get damaged and try to recover if it happens, so I leave that one off.

People get... really fuckin' weird when you talk about how much fun you have using cheats in a video game. "You can't be having that much fun, or else you wouldn't cheat!", "You shouldn't cheat on video games because it takes the fun away!", "WOW, YOU NEED TO GET GUD SCRUB. ONLY LITTLE BABIES CHEAT IN VIDEO GAMES!!!!111!!". And here I am just having fun and completing game after game after game to get through my monumental Steam library. :P

Single player after i've beat it a few times sure. Multiplayer no.

I never cheat online multiplayer. I like to be challenged and cheating ruins it.

I hate that modding is considered cheating by some games when all I want is quality of life improvement. Divinity 2 does this by disabling achievements if you installed any mods but thankfully there is another mod that re-enables achievements.

IDKFA, IDDQD

DNKROZ, DNSTUFF

Not really. Taking away the challenge ruins the fun.

But I liked activating cheat codes in GTA: San Andreas. Spent many hours traveling around the map in a flying tank and causing random mayhem.

Cheating instantly ruins every game for me

No point in playing anymore if I’m cheating. Can just do literally anything else in life instead

Last time was in GTA 5 online, when it launched on pc, got some billions, all the things available and then stopped, never got banned, but forgot my password some years later.

The grind was too much, I never tried to instakill anyone, nor getting planes to harass other players, just wanted the grind to go away.

Edit: holy shit that was more than 10 years ago.

Never in PVP or competitive type games.

I've used 'cheat codes' and mods on single player or teamwork vs environment games for decades after playing a game long enough to want a different experience. Depends on what kind of fun I'm looking for.

When an aspect of a game is ass (usually grinding, and I tend to be tolerant), even if I try to engage with it. Or if I'm about to drop the game anyway and cheats means seeing an ending. Last time I did was Megaman ZX, the game was already tedious and expects you to then also do a boss rush with limited ways to recover between fights, so I cheated infinite lives to get it over with.

Sometimes. I tend to have quite hard lines about what feels like acceptable levels of cheating though.

To use Terraria as an example, I remember going mad searching for a lava charm, and I ended up using a map viewer to check whether my world actually had one. It didn't so I used a save editor to give me the charm. This part was a mistake, and felt like the kind of cheating that makes the game less fun in a slippery slope kind of way. I regretted what I did.

In future games, I would sometimes check to see if a Lava charm existed on my world if I had spent a while searching for it to no avail, and if there wasn't one, I'd try going to a different world. If there was one in my world, I'd try to not pay attention to where in my world the chest(s) with the lava charm(s) were (and in some cases, I'd get a friend to confirm whether one existed on my world, so I wouldn't even know the rough area where the chest was. Sometimes cheats can make the game more fun and engaging, if used wisely and in moderation.

I consider cheat codes to be an accessibility tool for disabled gamers, and I think it is really sad that they are far less common than they once were, and it's even sadder to see some devs/publishers (Ubisoft comes to mind) try to monetize cheat codes.

I'm strongly of the mindset that cheating only means taking a dishonest and unfair advantage over another person. Changing the rules of the game is not cheating, it's house ruling - in tabletop discussion, that's part of what we call Rule Zero. If I'm not in competition with another person, it's just playing by my own rules.

I remember one HL1 CS (Specialists Mod) LAN party I was in where we all turned on Matrix Vision and multiplied the slo-mo timer. It was great - utterly chaotic, but everything was equal.

So no, I don't cheat in games. I just play by my own rules as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. And if I do play multiplayer, I try to bring my house rules to them. I've never had any person accuse me of cheating when I ask about various options. TBH, the closest I come to cheating is turning on all of the assistive features - colorblind mode, target highlighting, auto target, sound notifications in minimaps, custom keybinds, and whatever else is in the menu. Everyone else can also choose to do that, and I'm just as happy if everyone I play with has those same things.

As long as no one else is being affected and my experience is being hampered I will

I used to, back in the days of cheat codes, because they were fun.

The only real way to cheat now is to hack the game. This will mean doing shit loads of homework to learn how to do it myself, or pay for some dodgy software that may or may not contain a virus to download all my nudes and blackmail me for bitcoin while my account gets terminated for cheating so I could win a couple games on COD.

I do not any more.

I don't get it in multiplayer games. Why ruin it for everyone and why cheat? Your not actually that good. I just don't get it.

And then what is cheering is watching/reading a walk through cheating? Single player so what you want.

I was getting ready to rant until you mentioned Terraria. Then I read the last line of your post.

Shoot, if I'm playing against the computer I use the game the way I want. It's not cheating if your opponent is non-sentient.

I especially feel that way in games where ridiculous stuff happens at random (e.g. Rimworld). If I'm 2h into building a new colony and somehow get wiped out by 1 rabid squirrel, I curse, laugh my ass off for a minute, then load an autosave.

no

I wrote a scripts that automates artillery for me in Hell Let Loose. It uses a webste that does the calculation. Providing degree and elevation. I input the target on the website, then scrape that data and use computer vision to auto adjust the gun to that position, load then fire. I can saturate an area, or just fire shots on target. It works about 60% of the time because the OCR (Optical character recognition) isn't super reliable. So it often is worse and slower than had I not. I did it last week so until then I had never cheated. Tomorrow they are releasing an updated that overhauls artillery, so I'll have more work todo. I'll probably just let it die xD

Depends on the definition of cheating. Here are a couple of ways in which I "cheat":

I didn't have the skill to progress beyond 4BC in Dead Cells, so I downloaded someone else's save file with all items unlocked.

If I hit a wall in Silksong to the point that it starts to put me off the game, then I look up a walkthrough to see where the nearest undiscovered bench is or where to fine the thing I'm looking for.

For any game if I end too frustrated by a boss, I'll watch a YouTube video to learn the attack patterns and avoid repeatedly dying to learn them. This is especially true for roguelites where I may have to cross 3 levels to get to a possible chance at a boss, and then get killed.

In FTL I used to copy out the save files to allow me to save scum if I died. The game is a roguelite and doesn't allow loading saves in case of mistakes of death....so this is a workaround to save scum.

I remember trying a Game Shark on a few games back in high school, and what I found is that it made the games boring really fast.

More recently I tried applying cheats in Super Ghouls and Ghosts. I still didn't make it past the first level. 😭

I use cheat engine speedhack (with different speed hotkeys) in almost every game. Got that long walk in Witcher/Skyrim ahead of you? 2x game speed. Got some waiting to do while the base builds in Command and Conquer? Speed up. For whatever reason you can't pause SPTarkov? 0x speed. As someone with limited gaming time, Cheat Engine speed function is a blessing

In single player games? Yeah.

Save editors for Mass Effect to unlock squad mates early for spoken lines that I would have never heard earlier, cheating in rare candies on emulated Pokémon games or making Pokémon shiny too.

I recall using something similar for Borderlands 2 circa 2012/2013 to get certain guns to drop with the right parts as well.

I always attempt to play a game the way the developers intended the first time through. If I decide to give it another playthrough and I don't want to put up with the extra grindy parts of the game, I'll look for legitimate cheats to help me fast-forward through the rough parts.

I mean "legitimate" as in, cheats the developers put in the game, not outside hacks or mods that alter the game itself. I'm not big on mods in general, and I don't usually use cheats, but I will in rare situations.

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Back in the day, Warcraft III had cheats that let you power through each level with stuff like infinite resources, invulnerability, or just letting you automatically complete a level. I used those on recurring playthroughs because each level could easily take 30 mins to an hour to beat, and it was very grindy.

---

In Satisfactory, there's a cheat where you can add a single stack of a resource into the back of a factory cart, then deconstruct the cart. You'll get all the resources of the factory cart in your inventory, plus double the resource you put into the cart.

Do this dozens of times and you can exponentially grow resources without having to wait on factories to make them. I'm pretty sure the developers are aware of this "glitch" because it's never been patched out, even after a bunch of people started pointing it out on official Satisfactory forums.

I played hundreds of hours of the game and made some pretty massive continent-stretching factories. Upon building a new world, I started to implement this "strategy" to hurry up and acquire rare resources so I could get factories off the ground. Saved me from hundreds of hours of gameplay, waiting on production lines to make basic resources into more advanced resources so I could get to the next step.

---

A buddy of mine asked to be part of my Steam Family so he could have access to my 4,000+ game library. He regularly streams games online and figured it'd save him tons of money buying games to play.

But he's also completed all achievements on almost every game he's played on console and uses some website to automatically complete all the achievements for his Steam games, so he doesn't need to redo them on PC.

The thing about Steam Family is... if someone's caught cheating and earns a vac ban, the owner of the family account receives the ban, not the individual player. I told him I was worried that cheating of any kind might affect my immaculate record and/or library of games and he decided to just buy his own games instead of risking my account. Good friend; he didn't even argue. I was still willing to let him have access as long as he was careful, but he chose another route.

In survival crafting games I'll almost always make it easier on myself through the world settings or something. Getting rid of item and food decay, boosting XP gain, making sure I get 100+ of each resource anytime I go mining or whatever.

Enshrouded is a massive pain in the ass on normal settings, so I make it easier to explore, gather, and fight enemies. Otherwise it'd take me at least twice as long to get to where I'm at in the game, and that already took me over 100 hours.

Palworld I do all those things and increase pal spawn rate so there's always at least 5 pals in a group at any given time. It makes capturing them so much easier.

Idk the last time I actually "cheated" in a video game though. Maybe one of the Lego games?

When I'm spinning up the n-hundredth skyrim run I cheat my stats up a bit to skip the early game tedium, but otherwise I tend not to unless I'm getting bored of a game and want to sample endgame content to see if I wanna keep with the grind

i cheat by practicing

I only use things like console commands in case I get softlocked or similar. When playing Bethesda games, especially modded, this will come up sooner or later. Apart from that, it would ruin the fun, so no point in doing it.

I never played the Sims or GTA 3 without them.

Multiplayer games are absolutely off limits cheating wise for me. HOWEVER... using trainers and mods and things like Cheat Engine in single player games is not only ok, but I often treat it like it's a mini game. Can I give myself an extra 100k gold? Hmm fire up CE and let's see :)

The immense thrill I get from reducing some horrible grind from hours to minutes is just huge fun. I'm basically a sandbox guy. GTA5 cheats, for example, have led to more unexpected sandbox fun than I could ever have imagined over the years.

Not using cheats in single player grindfests is like having a first class ticket on a plane but choosing to travel economy. I think it's basically that I don't like being told to grind for the sake of it or for some "moral" reason.

I love a FUN grind though. I've spent days in games like My Time At Portia just fishing for example. It comes down to this: If a grind is fun, I'll happily do it but if it's just like I'm a mouse being toyed with by some cat then hello God mode lol

I had to cheat to get any fun at all out of Far Cry 6. Piece of shit game.

IDKFA

I would consider dev mode in rimworld to be cheating in a “technically it is” sort of way.. spawning infant thralls that are then adopted by my colony, or spawning whatever activity site I choose are definitely not how the game is supposed to work. The mods are sort of also cheating I guess, tho most of them are content heavy.. there are definitely several hacky mods in my list, like minify everything.

But while it’s cheating in a technical sense, it doesn’t impact anyone and it’s teaching me a lot about how video games function, which I find more entertaining than completing hard-coded objectives. It’s the first game I ever put a lot of mods on, and between troubleshooting and testing stuff, it’s been nearly as illuminating as rendering lag that adds each texture layer individually starting from low poly (my ps4 is having some major lag issues I’m trying to sort out, and horizon zero dawn is fascinating for this rendering issue, so so many layers! And then to realize it usually gets processed in real time! 🤯)

As for cheating in multiplayer, it hasn’t come up in decades. WoW was the last multiplayer game I played, and I stopped that when whatever the third expansion was came out. So like 2010 or so?

In a world where everything is trying to steal as many minutes of our attention as possible, cheating in single-player games is just a way to experience the content without the grind. I appreciate any SP game that offers "dad-mode" difficulty options, but those are few. My favorite types of games are those that incentivize replay by offering "cheats" within the game. Games such as Dead Space and Silent Hill IV incentivized replay by offering enhanced items or, in the case of SH4, an infinite rocket launcher. Those are still, to this day, games I've played at least 3-4 times from start to end just to find fun ways to play and be a badass while doing it!

As with most things in my life, if it isn't hurting anything/anyone why would/should I or anyone else care? Cheating in MP is akin to drinking water from a public toilet, though. Almost nothing grosser than that action and those people!

All that said, one thing I've learned about myself over the years, especially since my ADHD diagnosis last year (or the year before, time is a blur anymore), is that cheating is nearly always going to kill any interest I have in that game. It's when I know I'm nearing the end of my interest in the game. It extends to hobbies, too, though the "cheating" in that is splurging and finally buying stuff to really get good at the hobby. I did that with woodworking, 3D printing, and ghost hunting. Bought the shit, got excited about using it, and basically didn't touch the hobby afterwards. It kind of sucks and I'm working on that stuff, though!

No, I tweak the rules to better suit my gameplay preferences.

i do in minecraft. ive done the song and dance of cutting tree, making table, making wood pick, getting stone farrr too many times. i cheat in a stone set, turn on warp/tp, and turn keepinventory on. makes it a less stressful game when my true intention is just to mine and decorate with friends high after work.

Not in the typical sense, but I do use mods that may alter the vanilla experience to be less grindy.

For example in Sacred 2 remaster I use mod that doubles the quantity of enemies making it more challenging but also more challenging.

In Incredible adventures of Van Helsing I made set and godlike items drop from special mobs with 1/10th of chance of epic items or something as without mods you'd have to grind for keys to open offline lootboxes.

I do also like exploits that may trivialize the game. Especially in rpgs where they may allow mevto create ridiculously powerful builds.

I had a game genie for my nes. Highly recommended. But for modern games? Na. I'll look up a boss if I'm having a hard time, but I don't really feel the need to cheat, outside of carry limit on stalker.

I used to back in the late 90s-early 2000s in StarCraft: BroodWar when I was a kid. Mainly because I was absolute trash and was trying to compete.

My favorite hacks were map hacks (removes fog of war) and stack hacks (construct buildings on top of each other to fit more in your base). I also used a no-CD crack (glad those days are over), and a disconnect hack so that I would never have a loss on my record.

Even with these hacks I was still trash at StarCraft, and always will be. Gave up on RTS games a long time ago. Hacks can't save you from poor resource management and low APM.

Haven't hacked in a game since. I heard that they cost money these days. I couldn't possibly imagine paying real money to cheat. The closest I get to cheating in games today is playing mobile shooters in an Android emulator on PC. That way I can take advantage of mouse & keyboard + playing on a larger 4K HFR screen for smoother framerates and better visibility over a phone screen. But that's allowed (Tencent even has an official emulator for this very thing), and many mobile shooters will detect M&KB input and try to only match you with other players using the same input method, so I'm not sure if you can really call that cheating.

It does give me an advantage, though.

I do not, as a rule, play games where my enjoyment affects others. When I do, no, I don’t cheat. The rest of the time? I’m not above taking a shortcut if it brings me more enjoyment if the product I paid for. I occasionally cheat at Animal Crossing. Look up treasure islands. I don’t abuse them but I definitely make use of them.

Never. I never used cheat codes in the 90s. I always felt being OP in games made them boring

What do you define as cheating? Like I might look up a guide online, sometimes, but I never use mods or exploit bugs.

Yes.

I play single player games on my PC without sharing my achievements with anyone or bragging about my exploits. When I discuss games with my friends, I usually talk about story, narrative, writing, acting, mechanics, etc. I don't discuss difficulty and I think people who say "not revert game is for everyone" are stupid, especially when a game is more than just its mechanics.

Yes if the game is more frustrating than fun without it. The most notable example is probably Elden Ring, which I cheated the whole way through.

If a game setting or mod does not do what I want, sometimes cheats can do the trick to tweak the balance of hp, stamina, enemy health, etc.

For multiplayer games to, fuck anyone that does!

One of the best things in games that aren't super polished or balanced is figuring out how to exploit the game. It gives you the same kind of feeling you get from getting to the end game in Gothic (or something like that). Getting powerful through your own skill and commitment to the game. Steady progression is good sometimes, but so is feeling progress.

Also yeah sometimes I cheat in single player games

Single player games only and only once I complete the main story and any side quests that I wanted to do, only then I install stat or mechanics altering mods for a new variety of play. Graphical or visual mods I install immediately, I don't consider those as cheating. Funny enough "cheating" in Skyrim has become one of my most played games in itself. I maybe played 5 hours at most of actuall Skyrim, yet have spent over 900 hours modding, breaking and then fixing the game. This involved anything from Thomas the Dank engine ramming a Sylvari in more way than one to modifying actions and scripts where everytime an NPC says the phrase "dragon" the game would summon a dragon and who will subsequently Fush-Roh-Dah their asses across the map to the top of a Whiterun building.

I don't mind cheating in video games as long as it's never against other players. Single player games or PVE games go ahead and cheat your ass off. As long as everyone involved with it is cool with it. The moment there is another human player on the other side of things NEVER cheat. Video games or otherwise.

Many moons ago I would to cheat in payday 2. Not because I cared about getting super rich but because I thought it was funny to make it rain duffle bags of gold bars that instantly kill anyone who isn't hiding under something. Or just watching the absurdity of the AI trying to fight hundreds of little turrets. The people I was playing with were just messing around for a laugh at this point. We had beaten all the maps on all the difficulties and now we just wanted to break the game.

How else are we supposed to play DK Mode Slappers Only?

Never in multi-player.

Single player very rarely. I dont like looking up guides either unless im absolutely stuck and ready to quit the game over it.

Im absolutely a person who does everything the hard way and looks down on anyone taking an easy road. To me it devalues people who actually do work hard (example, using auto tune/melodyne vs actually learning to sing. I dont care how transparent it is, its cheating and waters down the real talented singers out there).

On my old Pokémon games, sometimes, but say I am doing it on Blue, then on red I will use none. Sometimes I wanna walk through walls on my gameboy games. That's pretty much it. Unless you consider the old Halo 1 gernade jumps out of the map. Those were Hella fun

Only if I've already beaten the game legitimately before, and usually only to skip something that's tedious.

Not really, I don't even know how you cheat in modern games. Retro games I'll put in codes if they are built into the game but not game genie/ game shark codes.

I got no problem what you do in single player games though, you do you. I don't play online multiplayer anymore but you suck if you cheat online.

Finding cheat codes for Sega Genesis games was my introduction to the internet. It was so fun getting to tell other kids at school about cheat codes that you knew about for their games.

These days I don't, mainly because they don't seem to have them anymore, and also because if I'm not enjoying the game with its base mechanics I have plenty of other games in my backlog that I can check out instead.

I never play PvP (skill issue).

I will always cheat, but only by making the mods myself. I often find that I learn more about the game and have more fun modding than actually playing. For PvE, I make sure that everyone is aware of my mods and OK with them, or I turn off the mods they don't like.

I am not OK with ruining other peoples fun. I've even permanently deleted a mod which could cause issues in the wrong hands, because my hands were definitely the wrong hands. I'm still sad, but everyone else in that game is better off.

Everyone has fun in their own way. If a game is not fun for you, sometimes the right mods or cheats can make it fun. If no one else is harmed, then you're playing it right.

In single-player games only, and when I'm done with the main game as a way of enjoying the game a bit more on my own terms.

Honestly, I don't even like using the word "cheat" to describe customizing a single-player gaming experience in a way not blessed by the developers. Terrafirmacraft (and maybe even just Gregtech) isn't cheating at Minecraft; certainly the experience isn't "easier".

So, yes, I will play the game is whatever way makes for the most fun for me, whether that's "cheating" or not to you.

For experiences that aren't single-player, including (e.g.) anything with a global leaderboard (even at third-party one), I can understand why someone might choose to cheat, but I think I could deny myself those temptations. But, I've never been a "simple" cheat away from the top of a leaderboard or any other sort of acclaim or reward.

If save scumming counts as cheating, then yes. But otherwise, I've only ever used cheats in single player games and I really only use cheats if either the game sucks or the cheats I used didn't effect gameplay. Some of the times I remember using cheats are:

Using the "fixme" command in Morrowind because I got stuck somewhere.

Using various cheats in the GTA games, after I had already beaten the main story, just so I can cause some mayhem.

Using the "giveall" command in Doom because I installed a weapon mod that required it.

Using the free cam that built into some emulators.

I used to use save states in old video games that didn't have saving systems but I don't do this anymore. I just only play them until I get to a point I can't progress.

I think I remember using a cheat code to access unused content in at least one game, but I can't remember what game that was.

While I haven't played it yet, there is a PS2 (I think) game that requires using a cheat code to enable widescreen (or was it 720i, or maybe there was more than one game that did this, I can't actually remember now).

In single player games where there's fall damage, I always mod out fall damage and carry weight limits. I don't care about realism especially when it's selective realism like in video games. So in that sense, in single player games I'm cheating all the time

Yeqh, I do cheat sometimes, especially in games with puzzles. I love strategy, but hate puzzles, so to have fun in games that have puzzles, I do cheat so I can enjoy the rest of the game. Also, in some games with RNG, I can avoid the worst results because I dont find luck enjoyable. I like to win or lose a game depending on my skills, so I dont find RNG enjoyable. But I might, at the same time, turn up the difficulty to compensate

Cheat to enjoy the game, not to win. Winning by cheating is no fun

I play the game with john dark soul in easy mode, with unlimited health and the mod that plays a bonk sound every time my dual wielded greatswords hit an enemy

Absolutely. I usually do some gameplay straight to experience the game as intended and add cheats gradually to see how much difference they actually make but cheats are just part of customizing your experience to make the game as enjoyable for you as possible.

You're younger than me, cheats weren't stigmatized when I was young. Warpzones in SMBros were basically required to call yourself an experienced player and mastering the Konami code was a basic gaming achievement. I've always viewed learning to use cheats and exploits to be one of the things that transitioned someone from a casual player to a gamer.

in single player, always. I don't even pretend I'm going to be fair about it.

If I cheat to fix a bug or bypass some weird glitch, not cheating

If I cheat for fun or to bypass part of gameloop/gameplay, that's actually cheating and it's fucking shameful, but as long as I play alone and don't boast, who cares.

If you cheat and then try to boast, you're a lying scum not worth of whatever you achieved in game. If you cheat in multiplayer, same. Any other case, whatevs. And I consider unlocking achievements via cheats boasting, that's what they are for after all.

I cheat in single player games to remove the drudgery of farming or grinding past a certain point.

I have 2k hours in rimworld and I cheat like a motherfucker when my favorite pawn dies. I might go through a run having revived the same pawn 10+ times. I'll do all kinds of weird copes like oh its fine because I will also delete this stack of 10k silver or i'll delete another pawn as sacrific. However in multiplayer games nah no cheating, I can win fair and square. Outside of sandbox single player games nah I dont cheat either since it feels like its ruining the game for me.

The ways I cheat depends on the game. Sometimes to get rid of grind, others to obtain abilities that are mutually exclusive. EG: X-COM, where I had soldiers with all branches of their abilities active, rather than having to pick just one. Max stat spreads, without having to pick a specialty.

I pretty much play games for narrative or to simply keep my hands busy while listening to Behind the Bastards.

yep used to tp an spawn shit on random ppl in quite a few games an made a full menu for csgo

Whenever Skyrim would randomly crash and send me back to the dungeon as soon as I get to the boss, I use console commands. Other than that, flying, lightsabers, killer mushrooms, turning zombies in l4d to fall guy bean people, those are all fare game.

Yes, but also not really? Not sure if enabling "Keep Inventory" counts as cheating in survival Minecraft or if it counts as a play style. Of course creative mode is only cheating when you use it in a world that was meant for survival, but I haven't done that. Really unsure what counts as cheating in Minecraft singleplayer to be honest.

Other games: no, not really, I don't even know how to cheat in Hollow Knight for example, Universe Sandbox is fully a sandbox game so you can't cheat, and...

Oh wait, I guess I did use Assist Mode in Celeste once? I think that counts as cheating since I didn't really need assist mode at all I was just frustrated and wanted to have fun. Yeah, sometimes I cheat actually. It's fun in singleplayer and doesn't ruin the game for anyone else.

cheese steak jimmy's

Only in the games where "victory" isn't really the point, eg. Rimworld. I'm gonna turn a little bit of river into buildable land if it'd mean I have a better looking base.

For my kids, just like mi papi put trainers on the ole c64 for me

Porntipsguzzardo

I played Saint's Row 4, does that count?

No. I just don't enjoy it. I feel like i don't get anything out of it.

I remember using cheatcodes to unlock cards in Yu Gi Oh Dark Duel Series, those were fun

Nowadays I dont feel the need to, games I play are fun enough out of the box, sometimes I might look up what to do if I'm stuck

I'm generally not interested in playing a game in any way other than how the dev(s) intended. Ex. for a souls like, I don't get any enjoyment using mods to access content I'm otherwise unable to on my own. Using cheats to unlock all guns in GTA, or to get infinite rare candies in pokemon, or to time travel in Animal Crossing is fun for all of about 5 minutes, at which point I feel like I've deconstructed the fun out of the game.

My unique experience with a game is defined both by what I do and what I don't experience. If I use cheats to ensure I experience everything, then IMO I've effectively dashed anything unique about my experience with the game.

That said, there are games that I feel I've experienced all there is that the dev intended, and now I can use it as a platform for my own creation through mods or custom game modes. Those are generally few and far between though. Something like Minecraft, primarily because it works great as a platform for multiplayer interaction.

Years ago - I did cheat in many single player games. For example, I am extremely bad at RTS. Couldn't beat computer on easy in WC3, even today. I was cheating during campaign just to go thought the story of the game.

I did cheat in WoW pirate server but not in the way of malice. I only did use flight cheat to travel quickly and a small teleport 1m ahead because sometimes quests or dungeons were broken and this was the only way to deal with that. I never used cheats in BGs or against other players but one of my friends did and got banned many times for that.

I have never cheated in any PvP games like CSGO, LoL, HOTS, L4D2, PUBG, COD, Town of Salem. I hate when cheaters ruin my game. I would not want to ruin anyone else's game.

General rule: single-player cheats are ok. Multiplayer cheats - not ok.

I only cheat on games I've already completed without cheating

I really find I can't cheat on an ongoing save even when I think most people would consider it completely justified, an example being when the medusa enemy was first added to terraria it was pretty buggy and could turn you to stone from off screen and through walls (despite explicit patch notes saying it should not do this) so I ended up losing all my gear to an objective bug. Tried save editing it back in but it still ruined the feeling of the save to me.

The only time I can cheat and not ruin my own fun is for testing purposes in games without any kind of creative mode, particularly 4X games which tend to be pretty long and I don't want to play a several hour game just to test a random theory about how 2 mechanics might interact in a lategame build.

I used to be like you. Way back when, I would love to cheat currency into single player games with a little help from cheat engine. The biggest culprits were BTD5 and PvZ1/2, and it'd give me a kick just being able to go through and buy everything before using it all while feeling unstoppable

Since then, I've gone back and replayed the games without cheating, and I honestly regret using cheat engine. It felt way more rewarding getting everything at a more sustainable rate, like I really earned the item

You also talk about feeling like you earn the ability to cheat, but, looking back on my own experience, I can safely say that I was terrible at gauging whether or not I should use a hack. Turns out, when you have a shiny item in a shop that you could come back in a few hours for or get instantly now for free, more often than not we'll choose the latter

Cheating in first player games is perfectly fine.

I cheat the fuck out of Skyrim. I add all my perk points bc I don't feel like grinding for 200 hours to get my build.

Changing stuff on a single player video game is not cheating.

Cheating can only exist on a competition, like on multiplayer, because you are expected to fair play with another human being.

To think that playing on your own and changing the parameters of play is cheating is a limiting and constrained, and honestly sad, point of view. It's like punishing a kid for imagining that a toy has super powers. Extremely soul crushing and anti-creativity. If you are playing on your own, then there's no cheat. Your play, your rules, no punishment for changing your mind. The play field exist to play, not to impose arbitrary and oppressing notions of real life judgement. You can't cheat, when you are just playing for fun.

That said, if you cheat to make the game easier and access content that you can't access by skill. It is not cheating, it is a failure of accessibility features. There's nothing more stupid that the sense of gamer honor.

Not just games but in real life. I'll do whatever it takes to succeed and reach my goal even if it's steps on a few toes, even if it means the destruction of the planet.