Ever since the first intrepid video game explorer found the famous warp room in the original Super Mario Bros, one topic that has caused no shortage of debate amongst gamers is the merit or lack thereof of cheating. In recent news, this debate came to the forefront somewhat when PC Gamer journalist, James Davenport, outright admitted to using a mod to cheat the final boss of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the latest action game from FromSoftware, a pedigree that naturally came with the expectation of an incredibly challenging game. In his article, Davenport argues that he lost nothing in terms of gaming experience, and that the final boss was simply the point where what was once challenging and engaging devolved into frustration.
Removal of a vanilla game graphics file from a much earlier version of the game should prevent 'Someone owes you a Favor' UI glitches. Change to up to 70 wives - The game UI isnt really made for this, but I dont think many people care, so more is kind of better. CK2 isn't like EU4, it isn't primarily about the nation you represent but the dynasty you're a part of. My play style tries to reflect that and cause some chaotic/different history. This doesn't always involved mass expansion since some of my best games have been as a single Duke wrestling for control in a nation.
I play a lot of games including TOTAL WAR: Shogun II, Crusader Kings, Star Wars Squadrons, Age of Empires, Fallout, Squad, and much more! In fact, you can find me on Steam here. I've been a 'Dune' megafan since after I found out about the franchise thanks to an amazing review of a boardgame. Crusader Kings II: The Necessary Evils of Medieval Politics. Transcending time and reality, video games as a medium provide an utterly unique glimpse of life in historical periods and other worlds, while calling upon our unique knowledge and experiences to invoke our alter egos. Hello, My friend and I are trying to play Crusdaer Kings 2 online together, but whenever we try to use cheats in game we get the message telling us cheats are unavailable in Multiplayer. Naturally we would like to do away with this. So my question is this: is there some way to enable cheats in CK2 multiplayer (be it through config files or mods or what have you)?
Nevertheless, this prompted a strong response from Twitter user @Fetusberry, who simply declared that Davenport had “cheated not only the game, but yourself”, and whose brief statement quickly became the latest viral meme template. While @Fetusberry’s response was clearly hyperbolic for the sake of comedy, it does touch on this longstanding debate among gamers, especially when dealing with games of the ‘git gud’ variety like Sekiro, and it is something of an interesting question when you think about it. While obviously cheating in any multiplayer game is at best low and at worst contemptible, the matter gets a little blurrier when applied to any single player game. After all, it’s my game, who cares if I’m playing the ‘right’ way or not?
Of course, you’d need only glance in the direction of practically any discussion of a game more complicated than Tetris to learn that, in fact, people tend to have seemingly very strong opinions about the ‘right’ way you should play a certain game, and are all too happy to lambast you for not playing the way they want you to. Even in a game series as ubiquitous as Pokémon, there are still the elitists, who will insist up and down the only ‘real’ way to enjoy the game is to painstakingly build the perfect competitive team, with perfect natures and IVs and so forth. And indeed, for some people that is a very enjoyable way to play a Pokémon game, but surely, we can at least agree that’s not the only way to enjoy Pokémon?
“Whether cheating ‘ruins’ a game or not is dependent entirely on how much the actual challenge is supposed to be the main draw.”/castlevania-curse-of-darkness-game-cheats.html.
But then, outright cheating is quite different from playing a game in a ‘sub-optimal’ fashion, not least because, as we see in the case of Sekiro, it essentially lets you skip over the challenge of the game, which can certainly seem like you simply don’t want to have to improve to win. Of course, that raises a question of it’s own, what if you’re not playing the game for a challenge, but for different reasons entirely? As Davenport asserts in his article, while a challenging experience was part of the appeal to him, he got more enjoyment from Sekiro’s storytelling and world building than the difficulty the gameplay presented. Assuming this to be the case, can we really say he cheated himself out of an enjoyable experience if Davenport himself asserts the opposite, that cheating was what allowed him to enjoy it?
But then, how do we deal with the people who cheat in one game, but not another? To put my own cards on the table, I play both Darkest Dungeon and Crusader Kings II, in very different manners. In Darkest Dungeon, I play the game fairly straight, I try to optimise my party members, avoid spoilers, don’t take advantage of exploits and generally try to roll with the punches, even as I lose an entire party for the twelfth time and have to start from scratch again. With Crusader Kings, on the other hand, I cheat relentlessly, whether through save scumming bad events, console commanding cash whenever I run low or sometimes having particularly annoying characters drop dead from spontaneous heart attacks, there is no depth I’ve not plumbed in Crusader Kings in regards to cheating. Yet I would honestly claim that I enjoy both games very much, so what gives? Am I someone who enjoys a challenge or enjoys playing around casually?
The answer, in my case, would be yes. That is to say, I enjoy both a challenge and screwing around. But, perhaps more to the point, I feel these two separate games have different expectations of their players that influenced my own decision whether or not to cheat. Obviously, in the case of Darkest Dungeon, quite similarly to Sekiro, the clear expectation is that the player is playing Darkest Dungeon explicitly for the challenging gameplay, in which every dungeon cleared is an accomplishment, with corresponding costs to the heroes you controlled in said dungeon. Crusader Kings meanwhile, while challenge is a part of the game, the main appeal, as I’ve perceived it, is basically running your own personal medieval soap opera, where a good chunk of the fun is found in just how bizarre and perverse events can spiral while you and other characters run rampant across history (Just skimming the first two pages of it’s reddit page will show you just how far that rabbit hole goes).
What this meant for me, I suppose, was that one game was meant to be enjoyed as a challenge, while the other was meant to be enjoyed in other ways, and so I felt more inclined to cheat in the game where challenge wasn’t the primary point. I can’t speak for every cheater, but for me at least, whether cheating ‘ruins’ a game or not is dependent entirely on how much the actual challenge is supposed to be the main draw. With Darkest Dungeon, I would certainly agree that cheating would be screwing myself out of a good experience, just that I wouldn’t feel the same with other games.
To go back to the original dispute mentioned at the start of this article, I would personally take the view that if Davenport really felt that he didn’t lose anything from cheating the final boss, then we can’t really say that he ‘cheated himself’. However, had he been cheating right from the get go in Sekiro, that would have been a different story, and players who were able to play Sekiro without resorting to cheats are within their rights to say that the difficulty is a part of the game. Ultimately though, and I think Davenport and @Fetusberry would agree with this, the discussion of cheating in single player games isn’t something to get hugely worked up about, and really, so long as the player’s having fun, then the game has fulfilled it’s purpose, whether that fun was achieved fairly or not.
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Have you ever had a game that grabbed you and simply wouldn’t let go? Were its claws dug in so deep you had no choice but to surrender yourself to it body, mind, and soul? I think we’ve all had those sick days from work or school that simply had to be called in due to an overwhelming desire to game. Take Crusader Kings II, for example. It would definitely appear to fall into the “gaming crack” category, as according to the publisher, one user has seemingly racked up over ten thousand hours of playtime.
This got me thinking. What titles have hooked me like that over the years to where I simply could not/would not put them down? After much pondering, here are five of my biggest gaming addictions from years past.
Super Mario Bros. (1985):
Without a doubt, I have Mario to blame (or thank) for my video game obsession. The fun and adventure this little experience offered up still resonates today, and receiving this as a surprise Christmas gift remains one of my fondest memories. To this day I am still plagued by nightmares of world 8-1. The only other entry in the series that comes close to touching this is Mario 64 (another personal favorite).
Mortal Kombat II (1993):
During the ‘90s, I found the need to split my gaming hours between my home systems and the arcade at my local mall. While this might not seem relatable to some of you youngsters out there who’ll never get to experience this scene (and I weep for you), believe me when I say Mortal Kombat was the hottest thing around at the time - beating out even Street Fighter. I pumped countless quarters into its bloody sequel in 1993, which would later go on to become one of the best fighters on the SNES.
Madden 98 (1998):
As the arcade scene began to die down, technologies at home continued to improve. The Sega Saturn was my hardware of choice over more popular iterations such as the newly released PlayStation, and that's where I was first introduced to the world of Madden (I was a Joe Montana: Sports Talk Football guy up ‘till that point). Full disclosure, the only reason I didn’t put this game down was the simple fact that I couldn’t. Not because I loved it so much, but because I didn’t own a memory card. I ended up having to marathon the entire season right through to the Super Bowl over a two-day-long period.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002):
I didn’t dive headfirst into the seedy underbelly of GTA until Vice City came along. I can still hear the catchy commercial which used to air on TV every ten minutes, featuring Flock of Seagulls' “I Ran So Far Away.” The neon-soaked streets of this 80’s Miami-esque backdrop drew me in like no other. It was Vice City that turned me on to the joys of what real sandbox gaming had to offer, and I’ve been chasing that high (no Scarface pun intended) ever since. Even GTA V can’t recapture that same magic. It only happens once in a lifetime.
Halo: CE (2003):
I can think of no other game which has affected my adult life more than Halo. While I’m certainly not as into the series presently as I was in the past, I can’t even begin to calculate the endless hours I’ve lost to this shooter’s late-night multiplayer lobbies. I’ve made no secret that I prefer my FPS games played via mouse and keyboard, so when Bungie ported the Xbox’s flagship release to PC, my world was changed forever. I credit Halo: CE as my rebirth into the world of first-person. For that, I’m forever grateful.
I can confidently say the above list on scratches the surface of how deep my passion and appreciation for our industry truly runs. Hell, the fact that you’re reading this article at all is a testament to that love. I’ve practically made it my life’s work! But I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s had these “can’t sleep…must game” spells sweep over them. What are yours? Let us know in the comments section below, so we can all compare notes. Think of it as gaming AA.
I’ll start. My name is Jason Messer and I’m a video game addict…and proud of it.
Jason MesserEditor-in-Chief / Video Content Director
Date:02/16/2015