Cheating In Video Games

Hey guys, I'm KJ.

For my university course this semester, I'm doing an in-depth case study of cheating in video games, primarily in an as yet unexplored part of game culture; a group of gamers I'm collectively calling Elitist Gamers, meaning gamers who game on a semi- to highly regular basis and are involved in some form of stat-tracking or meta-game outside of their primary gaming format, that contributes to their game-play. Basically, the users of TA and sites like it.

For this paper, I'm exploring how gamers within Elitist game culture view cheats and cheating in general. Below I've listed common forms of cheating as defined by several different sources. Keep in mind, while you may not think of these as 'cheats', there are many gamers that do, which is why they have made the list.

One of my main sources for this paper is Mia Consalvo's 2008 book 'Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames', specifically chapter 4. This chapter outlines many of these forms of cheating and allocates them to one of three major groups based on the gamers the surveyed and where they drew the line. With that in mind, here's the list:

FORMS OF CHEATING:
- Strategy Guides
- Walkthroughs
- Achievements Solutions
- Game Magazines
- Word of Mouth (friends and family)
- Breaking 'soft rules' (an admin saying 'no shotguns' in a BF3 server description)
- GameShark, et al. (external devices used to input cheats)
- Cheat Codes
- Exploiting Glitches/Bugs
- Paying Real Money for In-Game Items/Currency/Character Progression (third party companies or developer institutions, like WoW's Auction House)
- Console Commands (ala Fallout 3)
- Turbo-Controllers
- Boosting/Coop Sessions
- Modification of Game Code
- Modification of Game Hardware (Controllers, consoles)

For your opinions to be in keeping with the research question of my paper, I need the following two questions answered in as much detail as possible:
1) Where, based on the boundaries outlined in the list, do you draw the line on cheating? (Keeping both single- and multi-player games in mind.)
2) Do you think cheating, in any form, can have a positive influence on game culture and why?

Be as detailed as you can for this, please. Also, if you don't want me to quote your gamertag in my case study project, just say so in your response.

Thanks, guys!

KJ

When it comes to cheating, personally I think it comes down to why you're using the cheats, for what purpose.
If they're only for harmless fun and to mess around with no real goal in mind then go right ahead, but if you're using cheats in such a way that it's breaking the game boundaries to unlock specific things such as achievements then it#s a definite no.

For example when I was little I used to use the level select cheat code in Sonic 1 for my Sega MegaDrive, and the Super Sonic code in Sonic 2, those I don't consider cheating as I'm simply only having fun.

When it comes to multiplayer (unless co-op) cheats should never be used and I'm fully against it, everyone should have an equal chance and in a lot of games these days that doesn't seem to be the case.

Hope this helps toward your paper, good luck

I think that first you have to understand the definition of cheating. The definition of this word has broadened considerably since the inception of gaming, and has come to include just about anything that people want it to mean. Most people these days confuse "unfair" with "cheating". For cheating to occur, someone has to be negatively affected by it, and it has to be something that is not readily or legitimately available to everyone. In essence, someone has to be cheated out of something for cheating to occur. Everyone has their own definition of what is fair, and what is unfair. It's important to remember, however, that unfair is not the same thing as cheating. Unfair is a subjective opinion. Cheating is an objective determination.

I think that a lot of the items in your list can be pretty much eliminated as forms of cheating by all but a very few gamers that you might call truly hardcore elitists.Let me elaborate. The following can probably be removed from your list in the opinion of the vast majority of gamers:
- Strategy Guides
- Walkthroughs
- Achievements Solutions
- Game Magazines
- Word of Mouth (friends and family)
- Boosting/Coop Sessions
- Exploiting Glitches/Bugs
Using a strategy guide, walkthrough, solution, magazine, or verbal advice is no different than using the assembly manual that comes with that bookshelf you bought at the store that has 47 pieces and 112 screws. Games today are huge, complicated, and involved experiences that most people are not going to completely grasp every element of as they play through it. These mediums are basically video game text books to help you along your way. Exploits and glitches cannot be considered cheating, as they are part of the game's coding and that coding is delivered as a finished product to the gamer. The exploit/glitch is available to anyone who chooses to use it, and no one is being cheated out of anything. It's just not possible to say that someone who stumbles across a glitch purely by accident is therefore a cheater. After all, that's how most glitches/exploits are discovered in the first place.

As far as breaking "soft rules" I'm not sure what you're talking about here. I'd have to have some examples. When you talk about cheat codes and devices such as GameShark, it's going to depend on the coding of the game itself. If the cheat codes are built into the game's coding, that means they were intentionally placed there by the developer, who intended for you to use them. That cannot be considered cheating since it is available to everyone, and no one is being cheated out of something. It's simply a personal choice of whether you want to use the code or not. Regardless of whether you view the use of codes as fair play or unfair advantage, it is still not cheating. If, however, you are using some type of code or device that manipulates, alters, or circumvents the coding of the game, then you are most certainly cheating. Such methods are neither legitimate, nor readily available to the general gamer population, and were not intended by the developer.

Paying real money for in-game benefits is similar to the use of codes. If the item/currency/benefit is provided to the public by the developer/publisher, then this can in no way be considered cheating, no matter the advantage that it gives to the gamer. These are provided to anyone who chooses to purchase them and are intended for in-game use. On the other hand, if you are paying real money to someone so that they can intentionally subvert the coding of the game, then by all means, that would be cheating. In this case you would be purchasing an unfair advantage over other gamers by illegitimate means with the specific intent to defraud other players.

Again with console commands, you are simply making use of the game's delivered content as it was released by the developer/publisher. It may, or may not, have been the intent of the developer to leave these commands in the final version of the game, but nevertheless, they are there and they are not being accessed illegitimately. A mistake by the developer cannot be construed as cheating on the part of the gamer. The commands are available to anyone who chooses to use them, so this is simply down to personal choice.

Turbo controllers cannot be considered cheating as well, since all of the game companies (Microsoft, Sony, etc.) have licensed and approved turbo controllers available, i.e. the Horipad EX 2 Turbo. Unapproved turbo controllers should probably not be considered cheating either, since they are all generally the same, and the licensing is simply a financial consideration for the companies involved. Note, however, that there is a distinction between turbo controllers and modded controllers. Modded controllers are most definitely cheating. Altering the hardware used by a game is no different than altering the coding of a game. A game is designed to be used with specific hardware. Modding such hardware, whether it's the console, the controller, or something else is an illegitimate means of gaining an unfair advantage over other gamers since this is not an intended use of either the developer, the publisher, or the hardware manufacturer.

Now for boosting. This is the one that really gets to me. I completely fail to understand the people that consider boosting to be cheating. So let's check boosting against all the qualifications of what constitutes cheating. Can anyone do it? Absolutely. Boosting is available to anyone who choose to do so. It's simply a personal choice of how you wish to play your games. Are you gaining an unfair advantage over other gamers? Not in any way. In fact, you are not even playing with any other gamers. You are only playing with your boosting partners. Nor are boosters manipulating the game's coding. You are playing the game exactly as intended by the developer, but you are doing it in a cooperative and efficient manner. So no, boosting cannot be considered cheating by any definition of the word. You may, or may not, consider boosting to be fair but it is not cheating.

Great topic for a paper. You can quote if you want.

Yes, what weis said.

Exactly what weis said

That's three posts that could have been spared: I agree with this/this post was helpful

Twinkling82 said:Hijacking another thread to make TA facebook? Forget about that

I haven't had a thought about that thread for MONTHS up until now, so hijacking a thread? No, not really.

Twinkling82 said:Yes you do actually. This thread is about a school/uni paper; no about liking or disliking a post someone made.

Back on topic please, guys n gals.

What WeisGuy said, except for "should probably not be considered cheating either, since they are all generally the same"... this is very inaccurate. Voodoo controllers as an example are programmable with button sequences and much more than your standard licensed turbo controller.

JMJimmy said:Yeah, I'll agree that's probably inaccurate, now that I think about it some more. Probably why a lot of them are not licensed, as well. I suppose with turbo controllers, it depends on the use to which you put it. If you're using it to AFK a repetitive achievement that's one thing, but it's entirely another if you're using it in online MP to give yourself an advantage that no one else has.

Guys, please write your own opinions instead of just agreeing with Weisguy. I can only quote one person so many times before it looks dodgy. Even if you do agree with him, post something original or not at all, please.

Dexter010 said:But I don't think boosting is cheating.
take a look at the online achievements of Need For Speed: Carbon, some of Battlefield 3, Bioshock 2 or Assassins Creed: Brotherhood.
Some of those you'll never unlock by just playing the game, or maybe if you play for atleast 200 hours online.

To nip this in the bud, Boosting is listed as a cheat because it involves groups of gamers subverting the original intention of the developers with regards to game play by agreeing to helping each other achieve certain goals instead of hindering each other by playing as they normally would. While I agree that nobody is really hurt by this except, as Mickey Burns said, randoms joining unexpectedly and the game's creators, it is -still a cheat-, simply because anything that subverts game play is a cheat.

Also, if you've got a few minutes, click the link below and complete my survey on this subject. It's a fair bit more succinct that the questions I asked above.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MJ6KKMX

KJT CD ACD said:If you've already determined that boosting (and everything else you listed) is cheating, then why are you asking? I kinda feel like I've wasted my time now.

I think I probably need to withdraw my permission to quote if you're just going to use it as an example of "how gamers justify cheating".

The question was never 'what do you think is a cheat'. They were:

KJT CD ACD said:Then, you questioned what the definition of a 'cheat' actually is, even though I specifically mentioned that the cheats had been largely outlined in one of my main references:

KJT CD ACD said:Users then latched on to your ideas, specifically your views on boosting, and continued to discuss that rather than the source topic I need for my essay. Hence, I was trying to get things back on track, and provided an easier method for people to give me the information I need while expressing their own opinions, re: my last post.

Just trying to get the best results I can for my paper in the very limited amount of time I have to collect data for it.

You must be going into journalism ... you'll fit right in with the modern news media.

Minimal research ... check.

Do a survey in an attempt to "prove" minimal research ... check.

When the survey yields results contrary to the minimal research, those surveyed are wrong ... check.

Continue reporting an assumption based upon minimal research and false information and statistics ... check.


I took the liberty to delete my input to your so-called survey. Good luck with your biased report.

Actually, I'm going into game design. And this isn't a news report, I'm looking for information on a specific subject vetted and previously researched by academics in the field of video games studies. My inquiries are focused on a specific sub-classification of gamers that hasn't been extensively researched. Kind of hard to explore a thesis point if you don't get data that either proves or disproves your thesis, especially when those you're asking are latching on to a certain point that has nothing to do with it.

Thanks for your non-contribution to furthering the understanding of modern gamers and their perspectives on the broad topic of cheating. I'll be sure to mention you (not by name or gamertag, of course) and your feelings on this matter in my case study.

As mentioned before, anyone with an opinion on my actual subject can fill out my survey as linked above and post whatever you feel the survey did not cover in this forum.