Question of the Day, Feb. 20, 2010

[Susan Arendt]

Question of the Day, Feb. 20, 2010



Though some transgressions are more clear-cut than otheres, what constitutes "cheating" is frequently very much in the eye of the beholder. Where do you stand?

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[Swaki]

if its a known bug, and in mutliplayer, then yeah id say it cheating.

also "no, if it" if it what?

 

[Pielikey]

also "no, if it" if it what?

I think you're expected to fill in the blank.


OT: Yes, it's cheating. Some of the exploits can get pretty bad.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Using an exploit to help you beat others is cheating, it would be the same as using steroids in a sport. The counter argument is that game exploits are not forbidden anywhere other than game tournaments. So basically, everyday people who use game exploits to help them win online, suck, they suck harder than that one guy who sucked so hard that he turned himself inside out.

 

[Jedoro]

I wouldn't say it's cheating, since while unintentional it's in the game and anything in the game to me is fair game, but good luck being good when they fix it.

 

[Amarok]

Purposefully taking advantage of a bug is cheating. But not intending for a bug to happen, having it happen anyway, and enjoying the benefits can't be faulted.

 

[Blazing Steel]

If it only affects certain people, then yea it's cheating, but if everyone can do it than I would say no.

 

[Leodiensian]

It's a dicy issue. I think some responsibility should fall upon the developers for placing a buggy product out there to be exploited.

 

[Trivun]

It's pretty complicated, but my general approach is, yes it's cheating if playing with others, but in single-player it's perfectly fine. I recall playing Kingdom Hearts a while ago and there was a bug such that Captain Hook went all Goldeneye on me and just stayed in one place spinning rapidly. I proceeded to pummel the shit out of him until he died, knowing that he couldn't do a thing against me. Now, that was single player, so I see it as being fine. But if the same glitch happened in the middle of a Halo 3 CTF game, then I would leave the server, or ignore the glitched player. Basically, it depends on the scenario.

 

[Blanks]

it's really not, it's more of a strategic advantage, are we talking single player or multiplayer cause i don't play multiplayer games >.>

 

[Deleted]

Its cheating if everyone thinks so. If everyone uses it (like say wavedashing) then its not cheating because it became part of the game.

Or

Its cheating simply because it was a mistake in the programming.

 

[Rednog]

It really depends for me, like some bug/exploits where they were the steps are a little insane yea using them is most likely cheating. But if they are really lame exploits like a boss fight if you stand in X spot he can't hit you or something than there was some missing play testing or something then I really don't consider it cheating at that points most likely everyone is using it. Even with those two cases there are just some cases where people go through insane steps/ create insane ideas to glitch things out that I applaud them for their ingenuity. For example in L4D1 people figured out how to move baggage carts in the Dead Air Finale to sit on top of the plane or to actually get set into the plane to escape. All the maneuvering and such takes like 20 minutes, so it is pretty impressive to do so much to cheat on such a short part.
Then there are somethings like back in the day when people used scripts, ie awp/deagle swapping in counterstrike back in the day, its like it really isn't cheating because it is such a basic thing but gives such an advantage.

 

[Macar]

Yes it is. but is cheating a big deal? No.

 

[the1ultimate]

No if it's either:
A) Single player or
B) Multiplayer (or MMOG), where exploiting the game mechanics in the situation wouldn't frustrate competitive gaming achievers.

Because everybody experiences single player differently, and no game is really free of bugs, so anyone could just as easily be hit with a flying witches hat, and it might even be you. When you get down to it, it's always you vs the gameworld.

I salute professional glitch exploiters, although speedrunning takes waaaaaayy too much patience for me.

 

[sirdanrhodes]

Welp, you buggered up todays poll.

 

[tomtom94]

It's not cheating per se, but it is cheap and ruins the other players' fun.

 

[Galad]

Depends. If it's multiplayer it's definitely cheating. If it's singleplayer and the game is easy enough, then why bother? If it's hard enough, then it's not cheating. If the game's being awful the player has the right to be awful in turn.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

If you understand the bug in question, and you are using it to win in a competition, then it is cheating. You're taking advantage of something for your own benefit and you are using it to get ahead of other players, giving you an unfair advantage against competitors who may not know the glitch in question. But a big question is how can you tell whether they were doing it on purpose?

This reminds me of the controversy behind the defeat of Arthas, the Lich King in WoW: Wrath of the Lich King, as written about in [user]John Funk[/user]'s column A View From The Road [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/view-from-the-road], under the article Fail to the King [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/view-from-the-road/7139-A-View-From-The-Road-Fail-to-the-King]; the first team to defeat the Lich King in 25 Man Mode, Ensidia, managed to do so by exploiting a bug in the way the arena would be destroyed over time, and by doing so, managed to defeat Arthas. Blizzard found out about this, though, and fixed the bug, stripped Ensidia of their winnings from that battle and suspended them all. While this would seem fairly normal, Ensidia got pissed, saying in their member's [http://ensidia.com/muqq/blog/4078/] blogs [http://www.ensidia.com/Jinxarn/blog/4090/] that the strategy they were using to exploit the bug was a strategy that their members use as standard, it's just that when they used this strategy in the winning battle they noticed the effect that it had on the environment and took advantage of it then.

The only people who could've seen Ensidia take advantage of the bug is Ensidia, and they have a vested interest to say that they didn't mean to exploit the bug, due to their suspensions for it and them being stripped of their treasure as a result of it, so they can't be fully trusted as a source. So who's to say whether or not they meant to do it?

As for Single Player, this is completely different. Helping you beat a computer with glitches and errors isn't cheating per se, as there isn't anyone to have an unfair advantage against. This is the main reason why exploiting bugs in video games to finish quickly has started to become less of a disgraceful activity and more of an artform [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_207/6192-Zen-and-the-Art-of-Speedrunning] over time.

 

[Kaymish]

if you are in a world with other players then its cheating if its in single player anything goes i try not to cheat on my first play through but on the second i like to test out all the things what can i say im a born beta tester

 

[Connor Lonske]

No depends answer? That sucks.