by Zachary Heil

Created on: July 17, 2008   Last Updated: September 10, 2008

This article title reminds me of the creed- "If you're not with us, you're against us." Simply put, it's misleading and not completely true or false. Many gamers can reach achievements and goals in a game, all on their own and still cheat. Particularly while replaying games, some gamers like to use cheat codes, just to see what they do. This can be quite fun sometimes, like when the cheat alters the physics in the game, or makes the game harder than the default settings allow. Physics changes, extra ammo, ridiculously powerful weapons, and so on can actually create some hilarious scenarios. Sometimes cheats are used for shortcuts in tedious parts of the game, that are simply tedious because of time constraints. For instance, there are some gamers out their that just don't have enough time to play a game as in depth as some others may, because of work, family, and so on.

Cheating in single player or any non-networked (home or online) games, is pretty much harmless. If anything, after finishing a game completely, when a cheat has been used, you tend to feel less fulfillment. If you struggle your way through levels, use determination and puzzle solving skills to master a game, well, it can end up putting a smile on your face. Hopefully that's more gratifying for every gamer, than cheating.

Cheating has a dark side though, one that can truly upset a lot of gamers. That's cheating in the online or home network multi player games. Some online games services like X-BOX Live, cost money to use, that fact alone is enough to really tick someone off when an opponent cheats. As an example, the Halo franchise with the games Halo 2 and Halo 3, both had/have issues with cheaters. Some cheaters would manipulate their network/modem to create a favored game play advantage. Others modified their X-BOX to manipulate the programming code the developers put in the game, thus creating unfair advantages such as; invulnerability, infinite ammo, faster speeds, multiplied damage, and so on.

Why would these people cheat in such a way, is it really that satisfying to win against a disadvantaged opponent? I don't think so, I think in most if not all cases, it's because of the player ranking system that some of these online games have. Players with more wins than losses, are ranked higher than those with more losses. This ranking system is posted online, for everyone to see, so I think it creates an incentive for the gamers to cheat. They feel that since they can't compete and proficiently

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