Why are there Cheats?

I didn't know it said that, but I'll take your word.

I guess there are cheats so somebody can feel like an insider.

Okay, well it really offers a place to discuss cheats, secret codes, etc. Glad we haven't decended to outright cheating, but still, I'm shocked we have decended to this level.

Guys, I'm not sure I understand the issue. Cheats, secret codes and strategies etc are a staple part of the gaming community. Developers of games sometimes add all kinds of secrets to games that can be accessed either randomly or through a specific sequence of choices made by the player (secrets codes etc). Developers also add in all kinds of "cheats" for games knowing full well players will use them if they so wish. They may do these things for many reasons:

1) People pay good money for their games, they're buying a product, handing over money, it becomes their property as they wish to use it. With this said, it seems perfectly reasonable to give players the opportunities to access and play the games in their own personal style OR if they're stuck, to offer an alternative to proceeding further in the game.

2) A game called Grand Theft Auto included all kinds of codes to generate objects and abilities in the game that would otherwise be impossible/difficult to get. This is an example of expanding a game beyond it's initial play through or beyond the new/shiny feel once a game has been played to such an extent it becomes a little boring. Some secret codes allow for players to go into "God" mode or play as an invincible character in other words. It's all just giving the player a chance to experiment.

There are loads of cheat/secret/strategy sites on the internet dealing with purely this, it's not "bad", it's standard and par for the course, A2K hasn't descended to any level as I see it. A2K isn't helping people to cheat in some malicious sense, these cheats are nearly always created by the developers themselves, often for testing purposes or map editing. Cheats and secret codes are widely available in gaming with zero taboo attached at all really. Most people like to play games through 1st without anything of the sort to play the game "how it was meant to be played" but after that, choice is paramount to a games' success. Or am I completely mis-understanding the situation?

Some games would be nearly impossible to play without hints/help.

Yeah I once used a hex editor to add an item to a game of 'Eye of the Beholder II', after I'd used said item earlier in the game having no idea/inclination of a future use. It's a massive game and right near the end (picked up said item quite early on) you need this item to proceed to a final battle. That is a harsh game! Brilliant fun though, they don't make them like they used to, very little leeway for error.

Cheats and codes are commonly available for just about any game out there. I suspect that the reason they are so popular is because many game players are just kids, or adults with childish mentalities, and they want to RULE the game world less than they want the satisfaction of beating the game on its own terms.

I have long enjoyed the role playing games which are based on the Infinity engine (the "engine" being the game program). These are Planetscape Torment, the four games in the Baldur's Gate series (two main games and two expansions), the Icewind Dale I and II games and their expansions, and Neverwinter Nights.

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn provides an incredibly rich game world, and scope for literally hundreds of hours of play with different characters, and a good deal of freedom to choose one's path through the game world. I've enjoyed it more than any of the others. I once installed a mod--a game modification. That mod was The Darkest Day. Such unofficial mods can cause some problems, but the main reason why i eventually abandoned it and un-installed it is because it ruined the play balance of the game. It made things too easy. There were weapons and armor, spells and magic items which made it too easy. An example: in Shadows, the undead, particularly vampires, are a constant problem and a threat. In The Darkest Day, it is possible to get weapons which are specific to killing vampires, and in particular there is one cleric spell which will toast any undead creature in a heart-beat. For example, vampires which will attack on the street at night have about 80 hit points, and they are hard to hit. But the cleric spell which was only available with The Darkest Day mod did more than 1000 points of damage. It takes the fun and the challenge out to the game. There are lots of fun mods out there, but mods which make it too easy, and cheats, ruin the game for me.

Some mods are awesome--Tales of the Luremaster is a mod for The Heart of Winter, and that is the expansion for Icewind Dale. Tales of the Luremaster changed my entire attitude to playing the game, a far more rigidly structured game than Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II. It made the game challenging and interesting again. Then i started playing it on the "Heart of Fury" setting--which is the "insane" level--WOW ! ! !

The "Heart of Fury" setting sounds fun! I remember playing Baldur's Gate 2 and occasionally changing the difficulty settings, I'm just not good enough for the highest levels. I guess I don't have enough experience with RPG's, I get toasted on those levels. I actually plan on playing through all four BG games in the summer, I doubt I'll have the time to finish them but it'll be fun trying. I've never played BG 1 before either but it's nice to play sequels using previous party sets etc.

I love the modding and expansions that go on throughout the game community, it's what sets the field apart in many ways. I've done a little work with something called the Dark Engine, making maps/missions for a game series called Thief, the original games consist of a set of individual missions linked together with a tight story. The developers, this is several years back now (the game is 10 years old), released the tool sets to allow fans to expand on the game and create their own missions or even series if teams of people got together. Some of the missions created by individuals/teams of fans are simply superb, they'd easily grace the original game. It was never just a simple map design either, you add completely new & customised stories, plot twists, reading materials & scenery to really cement the player in the world that was originally manifested by the developers themselves. Great stuff, the work done for this game in particular was/is astounding.

I agree about balance though, even with this game that is a problem. You literally play a thief who steals from the rich nobels of some steampunk-medieval setting, some people liked to play "lytha" style which is to be completely unseen, unheard etc. Others find this too challenging and like to get involved with fighting etc (unprofessional at best really!) but fans developing their own missions would often restrict the style allowed based on their own preferences. Similar to someone creating a mod for a game and either not testing it at all or more likely not testing it for better/worse players than themselves. Like I said though, the choice available and the opportunities to create lead to the "fan mission" community of this game becoming massive.

"Heart of fury" is the Icewind Dale version of the insane setting. It means that monsters do double damage, but if you survive, you get twice the experience points. It works out, but you have to move very slowly and carefully--you can't just rush out and throw down with the baddies. It's good if you can work out your tactics so that the enemy is drawn to you, and you can fight them one or two at a time. Still, it is common for party members to get killed, and to need resurrection. Clerics became crucially important for healing.

One thing which made playing Icewind Dale on "heart of fury" possible was the game mod "Project Auril." It provides new scripts for all the classes, and druids and clerics will automatically heal injured party members (you don't have to make them do it) and they will do potion swapping (they'll take the healing potion from injured party members and use it on them to heal them). The "smart" scripts which come with Project Auril are the best scripts i've ever seen--clerics and druids automatically use "buff" spells (spells which protect party members and increase their skills), mages automatically use the most effective offensive spells, and no one casts spells needlessly (other scripts for clerics often result in a cleric, for example, casting "Bless" again and again, before the first use of the spell has worn off--this won't happen with smart scripts). One of the best things about smart scripts is that the party members switch from ranged weapons to hand weapons automatically, depending on the situation. I was going to try to use those "smart scripts" in BG I and II someday, but never got around to it. I'm a little vague on how you change scripting.

There is another activity in which one can indulge which is similar to a cheat--many players consider them cheats. I don't happen too, but that is because it is a part of game playing, and one which i have used since the first board games i played in the late 1950s. That is an "exploit." This is not the noun exploit as you usually think of it, but a different noun created from the verb. An exploit means that the player exploits an aspect of the rules of the game which don't deal with reality, but which provide an advantage.

Here is an example. In BG II (but not in any of the other Infinity Engine games), when a mage copies a new spell into his or her spell book, the entire party divides 1000 experience points per level of the spell. So, if you have six members in your party, and the mage writes a sixth level spell into her book, the party splits 6000 experience points--1000 xp per party member. Well, the game doesn't keep track of what spells you write, and it is possible to write the same spell again and again. At the Copper Coronet in the slum district of Athkatla (the city around which the action of the game centers), the innkeeper, Bernard, sells a seventh level spell, Chromatic Spray (or something like that, i don't recall the exact name)--and he has unlimited supplies of it (but it ain't cheap). So, if you have a party member who is three thousand experience points short of leveling up, you go to Bernard, you buy three copies of the spell, and you give them to your mage. If she has the spell already inscribed in her spell book, she erases it. Then she inscribes it--voila, 7000 xp. Have her erase it, then write it again, whoopsie daisy, 7000 more xp. Have her erase it again, and inscribe it again--by then, you've picked up 21000 xp for the party, which is 3500 xp per party member, and your party member who was 3000 xp short now levels up. That is an exploit, because you exploit a flaw in the game rules to your own advantage.

Do i routinely take advantage of exploits? You bet your ass. (If you have a really good thief, you can pick the pocket of a fence hiding down a side street at night, and sell back to him or her the valuable items you just stole--if your thief is really good, you can rack up a lot of coin. Of course, if you thief isn't that good, you may be attacked if he or she is caught picking the pocket.)

Those scripts sound very interesting, having party members carry out certain actions automatically just makes good sense in many ways. The flip side of the coin is that it really can become tedious having to carry out ever single action, deadly in some cases when you're not fast enough of course.

Good point with the exploits, I use them too, just as you would in life, seeing an opportunity and taking it. Morrowind has a system in place to stop people from stealing and re-selling to the same traders, they know and attack on site. That doesn't stop you from stealing and re-selling to an entirely different trader of course. I spent a good portion of my time stealing in Morrowind, the character was a thief so fair play but still, there's something about breaking into a building with a good thief and stealing the best suit of armour for a thief in the entire game that is wonderful. It was worth loads too but why sell it? 'Glass Armour', I love that. I remember taking advantage of the gameplay in Baldur's Gate to take down dragons, especially that first one to get all the great items like the Dragon scales etc. Traps, every time. I might actually work out how to properly use the mirror spells (something like that) to double/treble up on spell damage next time I play, sounds really useful.

I'm not sure who would consider it cheating, maybe loads of people would, but particularly with RPG's, I like to search/discuss the game worlds with people online/offline to help in locating/completing quests etc. In Morrowind there was a special item you could get to trap the soul/spirit/essence of monsters to later use again and again for creating extremely powerful enchantments, it was called the Azzura Star if I remember correctly. Anyway, it's location is very remote and I discovered some vague directions online which I used. I like to think of this (the resource used to find the info I was looking for) as being an extension of the game world if you like, since the difference between people who have played the game & NPC's in many respects is minimal, incomplete knowledge etc. It's just a matter of knowledge the developers have supplied vs knowledge they haven't but I think this is all part of the rpg game genre success myself.

Sometimes I like to compare what I do in certain situations with how I'd really act or what I'd really get away with if the exploit is particularly blatant, like taking advantage of a game's physics to get past certain situations. I wouldn't consider re-selling items to a trader in this, I can imagine a hooded figure whose face just always happens to escape the notice of the trader...

Cheats are often leftovers from the game development. Doom was more than happy to explain this about their cheats.

If you want to try to get to the 17th level and test how to kill the big guy, the last thing you want is for your game testers to have to go through the first 16 levels every time. The cheat is a way to get the tester there. In most cases the cheat wasn't taken out because it required key combinations that are not a normal part of the game. They have to be or it would interfere with the testing. Removing the code for the cheat might also have unintended consequences and cause problems that wouldn't become apparant until the game was released without the cheat. It has become normal for those "cheats" to become available at some point. Often released by the game manufacturer or employees.