When you say "it", what do you mean, the game or the cheat code?Zachary Amaranth said:
The game is legally obtained and the cheat code via cheat engine is not using the developers code.
Do you think it is piracy to use Cheat Engine on a F2P game to get otherwise paid content?
- Thread starter WeepingAngels
- Start date
The game is legally obtained and the cheat code via cheat engine is not using the developers code.
The developers code (the DLC itself) costs money, altering RAM on your own doesn't cost money.sageoftruth said:
How are you accessing and using the in-game content once you have used your cheat engine?WeepingAngels said:
I don't understand what you are asking. In order to use Cheat Engine the game has to be running, the legally obtained game I might add. You do know that Cheat Engine really is just a software Game Genie right?Zachary Amaranth said:
Let me clarify things a little more. I used Cheat Engine to max my EXP in Final Fantasy XIII. Now the addresses are not static, they change every time you reload the game. That means that you have to find the addresses everytime you load the game.
SE could sell DLC (code that they wrote) to automate the process for those who don't want to mess with searching for the correct memory addresses every time they reload. They doesn't mean you can't still do it manually.
After reading all the other comments, I think I'm in over my head here. I'll let you guys sort this one out.WeepingAngels said:
Yep. Certainly sounds like piracy to me. That's like saying "Sure, I downloaded a keygen to crack this game and get it for free, but I didn't take an actual cd key, I just used a program to generate one. Totes Ok guys."
The real question is why waste your time with one of these wait-to-play games to begin with. There has to be something better out there to play.
The real question is why waste your time with one of these wait-to-play games to begin with. There has to be something better out there to play.
I honestly don't think that it's wrong, being able to modified data on you own hard disk is a stable part of what I enjoy about PC gaming and any way trying to differences between doing it in a game you pay for fully and a free to play game just seems forced. As long as no false data is send to a server I find should and must be fine. If for no other reason that to protect modding. Now I will say if a game is free to play and good enough that I would be willing to even play it in the first place I would feel way to bad about editing files in this way.
I used a Save Editor (Black Chocobo) on my FF7 PC file that was uploaded to the cloud. I don't think that was wrong.linwolf said:
The DMCA has anti-circumvention rules that I haven't fully researched yet, but they seem to be made for cases very similar to this: basically what you're doing is equivalent to circumventing DRM, which is illegal regardless of whether you do it for personal use or for distribution (with exceptions, which is why jailbreaking is legal for instance but No-CD cracks are not).
I'd have to know more about exactly what the trainers do and go back and read the DMCA and subsequent case law, but just based on gut feeling it really seems illegal.
I'd have to know more about exactly what the trainers do and go back and read the DMCA and subsequent case law, but just based on gut feeling it really seems illegal.
deth2munkies said:
I am sure trainers do the same thing cheat devices do, they alter RAM. NES games had DRM too (the 10NES Lockout chip) but using a Game Genie was not illegal. Altering the ROM chips would have been illegal but that's not what cheat devices do.
Also, unless a game has some sort of security that you have to crack to get access to the RAM, I don't see how anti-circumvention applies.
I would say it depends on what exactly the content is. If you could get that content anyway through play, I would say no it's not piracy. If you cannot get that content through play, then I would say yes it is piracy. For example, League of Legends skins can only be purchased with real money, but new characters can be acquired through playing the game.
Obviously, anything that has to be downloaded would not be available by using a hex editor.spartan231490 said:
Might want to read Original Post again. He said using the editor to get "gems" and using gems to "purchase" content. I'm equating it to using a cheat to get more RP or IP, but leagues really the only F2P game I've played in a long time. Maybe this analogy doesn't really work, but it seems to.WeepingAngels said:
I am the OP and I didn't say anything about using gems to buy content.spartan231490 said:
The gems ARE the paid content that you can give yourself by altering the values in RAM. In other words, the devs are selling a cheat code to people who are willing to buy it but if you have the knowledge to make your own cheat code....
And once you've accessed the content, you use it in the game. The game which you are accessing because it's running, and in which you are obtaining unauthorised content. There is no way to play the game with the accessed content without meeting the given criteria. That you are altering RAM values and not the game's code is irrelevant.WeepingAngels said:
Honestly, this sounds like the equivalent of trying to rationalise a gunpoint robbery by saying that the victim happened to make a charitable donation while you had a loaded weapon aimed at them.
But is playing the cracked game?WeepingAngels said:
You can argue the legality of hex editors but it doesn't mean that downloading, cracking, and playing a game is legal.
Of course, it apparently is in some jurisdictions, but that seems outside the scope here.
What content is unauthorized? Is infinite invincibility in Super Mario World authorized by Nintendo? Is that relevant? No and No.Zachary Amaranth said:
Anyway, I have to go and I am only repeating myself. We'll have to agree to disagree.
Okay, fine. Pretend it's not relevant. I don't get the point of asking a question if you're going to take the actual definition of piracy and respond to it to the effect of "lalalalalalala! I'm not listening."WeepingAngels said:
You've just made a successful argument that virtually nothing is piracy. Hell, you edited out the hex gen question which actually takes your theory into what is actually considered piracy, so I'm pretty sure you yourself see the bridge. But fine. Whatever. Have it your way.
As far as Super Mario World goes, you keep going back to examples that largely predate modern copyright law. Shouldn't that tell you something about your argument?