Why would you bother?

[Jim W]

The other day, wandering around one of my favourite magazine stores, I found a magazine devoted entirely to cheats.

It included a section on Civ II, which was basically the commands you have to put in to get unlimited gold for yourself in any one city.

I suppose you couold call me naive, at 55, but why would you bother? The game sets up a series of parameters, and the point is to win within those parameters. If you change any of the parameters so that you nearly "have" to win, what's the point?

You can't even get a sense of acheivement about outwitting the program, because all you're doing is copying information from a magazine, you haven't worked out anything for yourself.

I have just a vague sense trhat it has much to do with the culture of today, "Success at all costs."

And that leads us dangerously close to a rant.

I can see using some cheats to help you learn the game, to see what happens if I do this, without the necessity of having to play through thirty thousand games in order to make the same set of circumstances come up.

But cheat simply to win?

Gaaah!

Jim W

[cavebear]

Oh no. I was hoping that the gold cheat would not become so widely known. I don't know what it is, and I don't know how to get it. But I was hoping that it was false.

Damn!

It's getting to the point where there are so many ways to seriously cheat the game, that I don't know what to do anymore.

Sure, most players don't cheat. I trust everyone I play against. The cheaters are so few and far between that I shouldn't worry about it.m But it's something that just starts nibbling at me everytime I'm on the losing end of a game (and so far as I know, every game I lose is utterly honest). I mean that.

But you know what I mean... There's that sinking feeling that maybe someone is doing something underhanded. Maybe just once, somewhere, some game... And you never know where that might be.

And now, there is free gold. That just makes it too hard.

I *don't* want to know how, I *don't* want to know where. Darn it, I didn't even want to know it was possible!

(crying)

[KhanMan]

And the ridiculous part about this is that civ2 comes with a built in cheat-menu: if you want to cheat, use that!

So what's the fuss about people cheating on their own games? I mean, if someone cheats on a simple player game (not MP!), who does it affect, besides them? I agree cheating can be childish, but why cry over someone else's childishness, if it doesn't affect you?

-KhanMan of Sayen

[Jim W]

quote: Originally posted by KhanMan on 06-17-2000 12:46 AM So what's the fuss about people cheating on their own games? I mean, if someone cheats on a simple player game (not MP!), who does it affect, besides them? I agree cheating can be childish, but why cry over someone else's childishness, if it doesn't affect you? -KhanMan of Sayen

Well, I don't play MP, only SP. And sure, you can say that if someone cheats on SP, they aren't hurting anyone, and I don't think there's any way to stop them.

But it seems to me to be symptomatic of something a little larger. If someone cheats to get their way in a computer game that doesn't matter a d**n to anyone, are they likely to cheat in matters that are more important to them? And for 'cheat' you can read 'steal,' 'swindle,' 'lie,' or various other verbs.

Jim W

[Mao]

Some games are just frustrating, people use cheats just to see the movies at the end, or to use new shiny weapons to blow the enemy to Timbuktu. But in a game like Civ, there wouldn't be much of a point.

OK...now that I've said that...mind telling us the cheat?

I think people cheat when they aren't very good, and trying to see what it is like to win or something. I'm not sure why.

[Jim W]

quote: Originally posted by Mao on 06-18-2000 01:19 AM Some games are just frustrating, people use cheats just to see the movies at the end, or to use new shiny weapons to blow the enemy to Timbuktu. But in a game like Civ, there wouldn't be much of a point. OK...now that I've said that...mind telling us the cheat?

I've forgotten the name of the magazine. This may be perhaps due to the things that lupus does to my memory, and perhaps due to my feeling about the whole subject.

Sorry,

Jim W

[Bohlen]

I'd have to say that I totally agree with cavebear. I don't even want to know these cheats and I too am confused about the whole thing. There are so many cheats out there that the game is winnable at 4000BC...well, maybe things aren't that bad, but cheats are everywhere.

I'm also with what Khan says to a point. Sure, do what you want to in SP. It's your game, you bought it, do what you want to have fun. MP is another story altogether. Don't even get me started on that.

Still, even knowing that these cheats are out there, at least those cheats that don't involve the Cheat Menu, makes me feel like I don't really know this game that I've been playing for god knows how long. Just knowing about all of the cheats makes me feel like it's just a computer program and not an experience. I don't like that.

However, keep sharing the information. We need to know what to look for in those MP games.

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Proud Warrior of the O.W.L. Alliance

[The Mad Monk]

In those fabled days of yore, before the rise of computers, there was a device called a "deck of cards". Men would gather around tables in dingy, smoke filled rooms to play games like "Poker" with the "deck of cards".

When there was no one else to play "Poker" with, men would play a game called "Solitaire". Ocasionally, one would cheat at "Solitaire".

Hence the epithet, "That guy would cheat at Solitaire!"

This was considered a sign of bad character, and good folk would not play "Poker" with such a man.

Of course, we live in more enlightened times now...



------------------
The Mad Monk

"The capacity of a grass leaf to grow from the sheath
at its base is a useful adaptation to herbivore grazing.
It has also resulted, over the eons, in the piteous
spectacle of thousands of hominids vibrating behind
their lawnmowers from spring to fall."

-Someone's AP Biology Textbook