I’ve been meaning to sit down and write this post for a while.
Cheat codes have been around forever. As a kid who could get through Contra or Gradius without the Konami Code? It wasn’t until YEARS later that I was able to go through it in one play through (and also realized that the NES version is only like 12 minutes long start to finish). Over the past few years cheat codes have taken a backseat to glitches, exploits and hacks and it’s turning our hobby into a wasteland of entitled brats and douchebags.
I play games to have fun, talk with my friends (or meet new people), and relieve some stress my life like I’m sure a lot of us tend to do. Games are supposed to be fun right? And isn’t that fun, in part, because of the challenge? Battling evil, taking first in a race, solving that last puzzle at 2 A.M. because you know you won’t be able to sleep until you get it. That’s what drives us as gamers, the challenge and the fun. So where’s the challenge of glitching your way to the top?
Part of the reason I took a break from the Call of Duty franchise, besides the fact that it’s the Madden of FPS’s, were the glitchers/exploiters. You know the guys, the ones who need to find that place on the map where they can shoot you but it is impossible for you to see or shoot them? Yeah, that shit gets old really quickly. And where is the fun in that? To show that your E-Peen is the biggest on in the game? Is then fun in their K/D or do they find their joy in making people ragequit out of games? The only way to fight these tools is to stoop to their level since the reputation system in most games really doesn’t amount to anything. And I don’t know about you, put playing like that makes me feel all dirty.
Right now I’ve been playing A TON of Grand Theft Auto Online and Diablo III. I’m loving every minute of them (now that GTAO is working) and I have been looking at the GameFAQSÂ message boards since that’s been my go-to site for nearly a decade. Back in the day it was a good place to go to for codes, general help or to see the requirements for that trophy/achievement that you just can’t seem to get. But now? Now it seems like a constant race to find hacks and exploits to get the best loot possible.
DISCLAIMER: Not from my game!
Lets talk LOS DIABLOS first. Back in the Diablo II days, hacking was everywhere. That’s one of the main reason Diablo III on the PC made it that you always had to be connected to the battle.net servers. Now that D3 is on the consoles, the hacking is back again in full force. One time I left my room open to anyone and someone entered and had a sword very similar to this one. I didn’t realize it was hacked until I looked a little deeper into it. I know the upper levels of Diablo III get a little intense, but isn’t that part of the fun? The challenge?
Now, GTAO is an entirely different animal. I like to think of GTAO as a small scale MMO. You do jobs, group up and earn money and Rep (GTAO’s experience points) just like WoW or anything else. One of the great things about MMO’s is that it is about the journey. Most of the fun is finding what to do next.
Yes it was (and sometimes is) a little buggy still. And people found out how to turn some of those exploits into cash, which is funny considering a game like GTA is about breaking the rules. But why would you want to rush the game for yourself? The people that are the ones using the exploits and glitches or repeat the same missions/races over and over are the first ones to say they’re bored, moving on, or to declare the game “dead”. Well no shit dude, you cheated the system to get all of the top stuff and now you feel like you have nothing to do!
But that’s not the best part. Look at some of the posts on the GTAO board to see that some people are saying if Rockstar FIXES the exploits, they’ll stop playing. What the hell is that kind of logic? So, because you don’t have the mental capacity to play the game how it was intended and need to cheat to get your virtual car and mansion and now are going to cry to your mommy if it’s taken away?
If people would just PLAY THE GAME then maybe you could find more enjoyment in it. There are other GTAO related things that I’d like to talk about (including the Bad Sport system) that I’ll talk about in another post this week, but I just wanted to get my thoughts out there.
So what do you guys think? Leave a comment here, Facebook or where ever you see this post.
The Ninjaverse 