Growing up when I was gaming in the 90s and on, I knew of the stigma of cheating in video games. You were seen as stupid, someone incapable of completing challenges on your own. You were seen as lowly, someone who can never go through life without cheating. Like, it was a pretty big deal as I grew up, hearing all of this for years on end.
I’ve been able to beat games without cheating, of course. But during my late teens and early adulthood, I just tried going past the stigma. Cheating in video games don’t necessarily reflect how you handle life and don’t translate. I’ve found it quite fun to cheat in video games. Probably not in multiplayer and especially on the receiving end.
I even use cheats just to beat games anymore, who the hell cares. People only care if you want to make a big deal about it, by showing it to everyone and boast how you’ve beaten a game in record times. I’ve tried beating some games head on without cheats but there just comes a point where you ask yourself if it is fun dying a hundred times at some part of a game. I don’t think so, personally.
So yeah, I don’t have the stigma anymore. I kinda like how gamers today only care about cheating if it was done in multiplayer or if you’re trying to beat a speedrunning record or some score record. Fun is meant to be how you find it.
Back in my day cheats added so much more variety for local multiplayer games with friends. Some cheats were hilarious, like giving you big head, or add gameplay features. Nowadays off course with strangers on the internet where only one part have them activate is unfair. How times has changed.
I mean some of that stuff would more accurately be called mods rather than cheats.
It used to all be built into the game and unlocked by typing in cheat codes.
Agreed and I also found out cheats back then by just trying combinations, such as in Killer Instinct on SNES.
However there is an exception to this, where Game Genie and Action Replay could be used to cheat in the games. And those could be classified as temporary Modding with outside tools.
I think that wouldn’t be correct. Because modding means an external change that is not part of the game. However cheats are integrated into the game, so you don’t need to mod the game to use integrated options. That’s how I see it. Unless we talk about Action Replay and Game Genie engines.