Computer Game Cheating and its effects - Rohit Kishore - II IT B

COMPUTER GAME CHEATING AND ITS EFFECTS

 Anyone who lies can be called a cheater or a cheat. In school, when you "cheat" it is understood that you have copied others' answers or from a source, say a book, during an exam. Between you and your lover, it could mean having an affair with another or simply lying. In sports, it means getting ahead of your opponent in a manner that violates the rules of the game.

But cheating in computer games is not necessarily equal to lying or taking unfair advantages over your opponent. It constitutes a wide spectrum of activities, which in general is aimed at altering the game experience so as to lead in the game. Cheating differs in every computer game and is dependent on what the players have agreed upon as an unfair advantage.

Most computer games have the so-called "cheat codes," which are used to make the game easier. But these cheat codes are designed for single players, especially those new to the game. Using these codes could also mean cheating, but it cannot be said that you are using them to gain unfair advantage.

Cheat codes are primarily used in multiplayer and mass multiplayer computer games played through the Internet. In these types of computer games, players may remain anonymous and so they can boldly cheat, without fear of being known to his opponents.
         There are different types of computer game cheats. These are by changing the user settings, by using bugs, exploits and external software and by cheesing.

When you alter the settings of your computer, the layout of the computer hardwares or the game itself so that it would suit your gaming style or your computer system, you are in a way cheating. But this can be acceptable. However, going as far as modifying the color and brightness of your computer in order to see through shadowy areas could be questionable.

Exploits are features of a game unintentionally or erroneously made by the developers. When particularly used to gain unfair advantage over your opponent, they can be regarded as computer game cheats. However, sometimes these exploits make the game more fun and exciting. The use of external softwares specially designed to let the player lead the game unjustly by modifying the program that runs the computer game, is considered as a grave way of cheating. Some of these computer game cheats analyze the status of the game in the computer's RAM. 

Other players "cheese" to lead in the game. This is done when virtual players do things that are not allowed or are unlikely in real life. Although this may not be a very grave kind of computer game cheat, most players disapprove cheesing in a game.

Usually, computer game cheats nowadays are due to alterations made in the game software. This is, in spite of the developers' prohibition of the modification of the original codes. The problem with most game softwares you can find in the market nowadays is that despite their being encrypted, data files can be easily revised without altering the main program so cheat protection features become useless.

Stopping all forms of computer game cheats is really hard because as said earlier, cheating in computer games cover a wide range of activities and there are a lot of aspects to consider in each computer game cheat. There are softwares, though that can be installed on the server in order to help detect a computer game cheat.

 Cheating in video games involves a video game player using non-standard methods for creating an advantage beyond normal game play, usually to make the game easier, or may also create unusual effects which do not necessarily make the game easier to play, such as giving characters different appearances, such as large heads. Cheats sometimes may take the form of "secrets" placed by game developers themselves. Cheats may be activated from within the game itself (a cheat code implemented by the original game developers); or created by third-party software (a game trainer) or hardware (a cheat cartridge).

History:

Cheating in video games has existed for almost their entire history. The first cheat codes were put in place for play testing purposes. Play testers had to rigorously test the mechanics of a game and introduced cheat codes to make this process easier. An early cheat code can be found in Manic Miner, where typing "6031769" enables the cheat mode.

In a computer game, all numerical values are stored "as is" in memory. Gamers could reprogram a small part of the game before launching it. In the context of games for many 8-bit computers, it was a usual practice to load games into memory and, before launching them, modify specific memory addresses in order to cheat, getting an unlimited number of lives, currency, immunity, invisibility, etc. Such modifications were performed through POKE statements. The Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum also allowed players with the proper cartridges or Multiface add-on to freeze the running program, enter POKEs, and resume. Some games tried to detect the Multiface, and refused to load if it was present. The earliest models had no ability to "hide". Later revisions included a switch, hid if you opened and closed the menu before loading the game, or automatically hid.

For instance, with "POKE 47196,201" in Knight Lore for the ZX Spectrum, immunity is achieved. Magazines such as CRASH regularly featured lists of such POKE instructions for games. In order to find them a software cracker had to interpret the machine code and locate the critical point where the number of lives is decreased, impacts detected, etc. Sometimes the term POKE was used with this specific meaning.

Cheating was exploited by technology-oriented players due to the difficulty of early cheats. However, a cheat industry emerged as gaming systems evolved, through the packaging and selling of cheating as a product. Cheat-enablers such as cheat books, game guides, cheat cartridges helped form a cheat industry and cemented cheating as part of gaming culture. However, cheating was not universally accepted in early gaming; gaming magazine Amiga Power condemned cheaters, taking the stance that cheating was not part of their philosophy of fairness. They also applied this in reverse; games should also not be allowed to cheat the player.

Later, cheating grew more popular with magazines, websites, and even a television show dedicated to listing cheats and walkthroughs for consoles and computer systems. POKE cheats were replaced by trainers and cheat codes. Generally, the majority of cheat codes on modern day systems are implemented not by gamers, but by game developers. Some say that as many people do not have the time to complete a video game on their own, cheats are needed to make a game more accessible and appealing to a casual gamer.With the rise in popularity of gaming, cheating using external software and hardware raised a number of copyright legal issues related to modifying game code.

Many modern games have removed cheat codes entirely, save for uses to unlock certain secret bonuses. The usage of real-time achievement tracking made it unfair for any one player to cheat. In online multiplayer games, cheating is frowned upon and disallowed, often leading to a ban. However, certain games may unlock single-player cheats if the player fulfills a certain condition. Yet other games, such as those using the Source engine, allow developer consoles to be used to activate a wide variety of cheats in single-player or by server administrators.

Unusual effects:

Cheat codes may sometimes produce unusual or interesting effects which don't necessarily make the game easier to play. For example, one cheat in Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis makes dinosaurs appear 'undead'. In other games, a cheat may make the game harder to play; for instance one could give the enemy special abilities, add a harder difficulty, make neutral bystanders attack the player or grant the player a disadvantage such as low health points or instant death. In a few games the player is humorously penalized if they use cheat codes originally for another game; for example, using cheat codes from Doom in Descent would result in a sarcastic message from the programmers on screen. Similar effects also occurred if codes from Descent were attempted to be used in its sequels. The game Heretic played on Doom's codes gives the complete opposite of the desired effect, such as instant death instead of invulnerability or stripping weapons instead of providing them. In Doom 3 if the user types in the cheat "IDDQD" from the original game, a message appears saying "Your memory serves you well."

Other unusual cheats found regularly in games include "big-head mode", switching weapons for other objects, and codes to change the colors of characters.Some games allow the player to enter a code to change what the character is wearing or to change the character itself, but not enhance the progress of the game. For example, most of the Grand Theft Auto games allow the player to enter a code to make the character change into an NPC. Another unusual cheat code in the Grand Theft Auto games is the ability to make the people of the town start rioting, or hold weapons.Easter eggs are a related feature, although such hidden content has no impact on gameplay.

Counter-cheating measures:

In games having attainable achievements or high score records, or both, cheats by nature allow the player to attain achievements too easily or score point totals not attainable by a non-cheating player. In some games, developer commentary mode can have the same effect because these games, in an effort to make all commented-on scenarios accessible to the player, render a player invulnerable to damage while in commentary mode.

Barriers to game completion:

·         The Sega 32X version of Doom does not allow the player to finish the game if any cheat codes were used; instead, after a cheating player defeats the game's penultimate level, the game simulates a program exit to DOS and displays a mock command prompt ("C:\>").

·         Some PC games and most Xbox games do not record player achievements if they are attained while cheat mode is activated. For example, Half-Life 2: Episode 2 turns this barrier into a continuing obstacle if a player saves the game with cheats activated: The game will record that fact in the save file and automatically cause subsequent reloads from the relevant save file to reactivate cheat mode.