Many people hear the word “cheat” and immediately think of thoughts that characterize the act as dishonest. This isn’t strictly accurate; many legitimate ways cheats can be used. Following, we’ll briefly explore five common myths about gaming cheats to help you have a more enjoyable, well-rounded gaming experience.
1. Cheats Don’t Limit Gaming; Often, They Lead to Discovery
Imagine discovering a new shortcut in a racing game. Imagine realizing that additional ammo allows you to “push” yourself to a new, hidden area of a given game. Likewise, a particular button combination or passcode could open up a new mini-game.
Patches can activate scrapped coding developers glossed over the prior releases, and the list continues. Some cheats lead to discovery. For more background on that, check out this article from Looper about games that are great, and cheats that are better.
2. Not All Cheats Are Illegitimate; Programmers Design Them
If you’re designing a level and you want to see that some new edit works as intended, it’s pretty time-consuming to start from the beginning and push your way through to the end. A cheat code fixes that.
Some programmers add cheats to games for this reason. In some situations, a game designer’s level won’t be approved by the game company, but they’ll be able to leave it in through cheat-initiated access. Some cheats are pretty deliberate.
3. There’s More Than One Type of Cheat
Check out Guided Hacking’s Cheat Codes for a broad representation of standard cheat options. You have many alternatives; we’ve already glossed over a few. There are button combination cheats, there are password cheats, there are patch-rooted treats that are based on code, and there are “glitch” cheats as well. Don’t just get caught up in one variety.
4. Cheats Won’t Always Help You Win
Some cheats make gameplay harder. There are a few reasons for this. For one thing, certain cheats may mod out your character, making the avatar you’re playing look hilarious. The fun of such mods is worth it, even if you have no advantage. Some cheats similarly change the gaming environment.
This has been the case in games since games were invented, so don’t only focus on cheats that give you an advantage. Look into frauds that are just plain fun. Explore your options—play around a bit. See what there is to see. You might discover something novel. Recently, speed runners figured out how to rush through FF8 and FFX, for example.
5. Hacking Cheats Exist on More Than Just PC Games
Have you ever heard of the “Game Shark”? This was a piece of gaming cheat tech primarily for old nineties consoles (up to the Xbox in the early oughts) that you could use with games specific to a given console. A cartridge was attached to the “Game Shark,” and suddenly, you could hack games much like a PC gamer would.
The Game Shark had options on other consoles and provided a way to get into the “guts” of a game that was more qualitative than button combinations or passwords.
Getting More Out of Your Gaming Experience
If you want to experience the full scope of a game, you want to understand what cheats are available and what that means to you as a player. Frauds lead to discovery; some are legitimate, come in multiple varieties, are sometimes just goofy, and won’t help you win. They’re available in different iterations for more than just PC Gamers.
Understanding where myth and fact can be separated as regards gaming cheats helps enhance your experience in the future. You might be missing out if you’re not familiar with gaming cheats.