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.

  • Snazz@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    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.

      • Snazz@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        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.

        • Magiilaro@feddit.org
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          7 days ago

          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.

          • alfert@feddit.dk
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            7 days ago

            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.

        • 0xDREADBEEF@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 days ago

          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.

          • Snazz@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            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.

  • LuckyBoy@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    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.

  • Linktank@lemmy.today
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    6 days ago

    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.

  • MilitantAtheist@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    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.

  • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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    7 days ago

    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.

  • Thymos@discuss.tchncs.de
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    6 days ago

    Oh yes, I did a lot of rosebud cheats in The Sims back in the day. But it’s not like you’re taking anyone else’s money, so who cares? Then, after building homes got boring, I challenged myself to try the game without money cheats and it was like a whole new game.

    Right now I’m playing Ori and I wouldn’t even know how to begin to find cheats in that game.

  • capital5@discuss.tchncs.de
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    6 days ago

    When I want to, yes. I play for fun, not for some arbitrary badge of merit that the game authors decided I ought to live up to. Just because the game’s authors had their own ideas about what they think is fair and fun, doesn’t mean that they’re right. It’s my spare time, and I’ll use it the way I want.

    Valheim, I’m looking at you.

    I only play single player games though. I would never cheat in a multiplayer game. If I felt like I wanted/needed to cheat in a multiplayer game, I wouldn’t play it to begin with.

  • Bieren@lemmy.today
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    6 days ago

    Sometimes. Fun is fun. If it makes you happy and have fun doing it, do it. Who cares what anyone else thinks.

  • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today
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    7 days ago

    If the game is a grindfest and I dont have the time, I will do whatever it takes to just see the ending.

    It is meant to be fun after all.

  • Magiilaro@feddit.org
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    7 days ago

    I like to cheat sometimes on singleplayer shooter games, give me all weapons and unlimited health so I can just kill monsters in a wild rampage to relax and release stress. This is especially fun in Serious Sam style games.

    The other thing that I do in singleplayer games is to use mods, that could be seen as cheating too, which I personally don’t.

  • Konraddo@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Depending on your definition, if using mods to give myself unlimited weight limit is cheating, then I definitely cheat every game if possible.

    But things like God mode, no.

  • pathief@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I don’t see the harm of cheating in single player games but I don’t personally like to do it. I like to play the game in the way the Dev intended.

    I have a few exceptions. I replay Final Fantasy 8 and Final Fantasy 10 regularly and I do abuse the built-in cheats. Speeding up is a must have now, can’t live without it. I also use the Get all items cheat to complete the sphere grid before doing dark aeons. I establish that I can kill the monsters that drop the items and then just use the cheat. It saves like 10 hours of repetitive non stop grinding.

  • orbitz@lemmy.ca
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    7 days ago

    I can’t recall the last time I used a cheat. I so wanted a game shark growing up. Some games I will exploit systems if I get a chance. That said there is fun to putting on ‘god mode’ for a game like gta and going to town to just blow crap up, sometimes you just want to fool around.

    I wouldn’t say I ever beat a game while cheating though, hell the list of games I’ve beaten is shorter than women I’ve dated (or at least close I don’t keep track anymore). Really though growing up with undiagnosed ADD and only being allowed to rent games, possibly for the best, I finished reactively few. Oh shit the Sierra adventure games I never count those ones for some reason, they were great for learning typing.

    In the end just play how you want single player and don’t cheat multiplayer is what I think works. Though I wouldn’t call it beating a game if you used cheats, maybe saw ending or finished but not beaten. Though all semantics is all.

    • FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      The Sims is more fun with cheats, but these days I only play the Sims with the nsfw mods. I don’t actually like playing The Sims as the devs intended, and never really have enjoyed it. Building a rad house was fun for an hour or two tho, and the money cheat made that possible without having to tell some foolish bot to piss in a toilet.

      • orbitz@lemmy.ca
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        6 days ago

        I haven’t tried the sims in ages, it was relatively fun but not overly for me. Still tried all 4 at one point well 1-4 there was another one or two I know. I can see that one being good for cheats to just build and have fun.

        That said I quite enjoy two point games of making rooms and areas for whatever their theme is for that game. Hospital, museum and the other one(s?) I forgot, been awhile now.

        • FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          I loved Sim City 4. I have countless hours in that game, and I still fire it up and binge it for a few months every other year. But the two games (Sims and Sim City) honestly don’t have that much in common.

          • orbitz@lemmy.ca
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            4 days ago

            Oh by others I sort of meant mostly other the sims not in the 1-4 had to look them up but urbz, bustin’ out were two I recalled if only by mention that they existed, can’t say I ever played them or even recalled reviews. Back in the day used to keep up with that thing, now just read a few reviews and play if it doesn’t sound like shit.

            Have played a fair bit of city over the years too, I actually didn’t mind 4 even if it was received poorly and I get it, though that was close to 15 years ago heh.

            • FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world
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              4 days ago

              SimCity 4 (2003) was well received. A franchise reboot titled SimCity was released in 2013 – it had major issues and people hated it. I never played it.

              • orbitz@lemmy.ca
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                3 days ago

                Thanks for the correction been so long I forgot which was which but that is the one I didn’t think was too bad. Though I could never manage cities well in earlier versions either so perhaps just didn’t notice. Though originally other issues like needing to be online if I recall, which I can understand would be negative. There were lots and sure most were valid being EA.