Haxor and Life Lessons
I have no ability to relate to people who derive joy from cheating in a MMOG...
It is just as unstimulating and lacking in productive challenge as reading the 'hint book' before playing an adventure game, but with the added bonus of ruining the game for people who actually like to play the game as it was designed.
I also have trouble relating to people who play only to win, and use underhanded or cheap tactics to pull it off, but how is it even remotely fun to win because you actually cheated? Where is the challenge? Where is the mental stimulation? Where is the freeking GAME?
The answer is 'nowhere'... These people are not playing a game anymore. They might as well write themselves a little program that just lets them push a single button, which activates a "You win" message!
I can even understand the person who makes a 'hack' for these games. He's playing a totally different game, not against the other players, but against the designers of the game. The people who then use these hacks are not playing a game against anyone, they're just pushing the 'I win' button...
Frankly, the attitude is entirely alien to me. I can barely stand to win competitive games at all, because I know that it means others are losing.
Here's the thing:
I've been playing games my whole life, and computer games have been my primary hobby for about twenty years. My favorite games are those that allow me to work with and/or against other players instead of the computer. I always have respect for my opponent, and try to help them with pointers and new strategies. Even when my opponent is a complete stranger, I love to see someone who was at a loss a few minutes ago, suddenly understand and learn to counter my strategies. Even in simple games, a complex dialog occurs between opponents from which both emerge victorious because they were able to learn from their opponent(s), and have become a better thinker, and better problem solver, or even just a better judge of timing and spatial accuracy. This is the true wonder of games in any medium, and is why I love them so much: They teach the most important lessons: How to think and solve; how to communicate; how to win, lose, and live graciously; how to be a real, complete person.
All of this is undone, and even reversed when one cheats. All of the value of gaming is utterly lost, and the person is less for the experience, learning nothing.
I'd say that this aspect of gaming is much more dangerous than violence or sexuality. I'd implore all parents: Observe your child's gaming habits. Ensure that they are not downloading hacks and cheats, especially in games where they are competing with other real people. If they have these bad habits, please take them aside and explain the concepts of sportsmanship, and gaming for fun, rather than for the win. If possible, expose them to a real gaming environment. Teach them Stratego, Backgammon, Pente, and Battleship. Show them how to win and lose with a smile, and play the game for the challenge and for the social connection to other people. Don't let them grow up without a sense of what gaming should be.
It may seem like a little thing, but imagine these children as adults:
Who would you rather do business with: The man who laughs and congratulates you when you put under PAR, or the man who drags his club when he putts?
Who would you rather marry: The woman who revels in the challenge of the strategy of Pente, learning from every game, or the one that moves the tokens when your back is turned?
Who would you rather have as a friend: The guy who whoops and hollers at every frag, no matter the team it comes from, or the guy that sulks and makes excuses when he looses then rubs it in your face when he wins?
Good sportsman ship is a bigger part of everyone's life than they think it is, and how any one can bring themselves to cheat, especially in an environment where it truly makes the game unplayable for those who do not cheat, is completely beyond my understanding.
Then again, there are a lot of things that people do which I simply cannot understand the motivations behind.
Cliffnotes: The prevalence of cheaters in MMOGs upsets me, and makes me fear for the future of our society. The post is long and disjointed, showing both my passion for the topic, and the late hour that the post was written.
Also:
Gunbound is dead to me, now. This is thru no fault of the game designers, who are good at what they do.
It is just as unstimulating and lacking in productive challenge as reading the 'hint book' before playing an adventure game, but with the added bonus of ruining the game for people who actually like to play the game as it was designed.
I also have trouble relating to people who play only to win, and use underhanded or cheap tactics to pull it off, but how is it even remotely fun to win because you actually cheated? Where is the challenge? Where is the mental stimulation? Where is the freeking GAME?
The answer is 'nowhere'... These people are not playing a game anymore. They might as well write themselves a little program that just lets them push a single button, which activates a "You win" message!
I can even understand the person who makes a 'hack' for these games. He's playing a totally different game, not against the other players, but against the designers of the game. The people who then use these hacks are not playing a game against anyone, they're just pushing the 'I win' button...
Frankly, the attitude is entirely alien to me. I can barely stand to win competitive games at all, because I know that it means others are losing.
Here's the thing:
I've been playing games my whole life, and computer games have been my primary hobby for about twenty years. My favorite games are those that allow me to work with and/or against other players instead of the computer. I always have respect for my opponent, and try to help them with pointers and new strategies. Even when my opponent is a complete stranger, I love to see someone who was at a loss a few minutes ago, suddenly understand and learn to counter my strategies. Even in simple games, a complex dialog occurs between opponents from which both emerge victorious because they were able to learn from their opponent(s), and have become a better thinker, and better problem solver, or even just a better judge of timing and spatial accuracy. This is the true wonder of games in any medium, and is why I love them so much: They teach the most important lessons: How to think and solve; how to communicate; how to win, lose, and live graciously; how to be a real, complete person.
All of this is undone, and even reversed when one cheats. All of the value of gaming is utterly lost, and the person is less for the experience, learning nothing.
I'd say that this aspect of gaming is much more dangerous than violence or sexuality. I'd implore all parents: Observe your child's gaming habits. Ensure that they are not downloading hacks and cheats, especially in games where they are competing with other real people. If they have these bad habits, please take them aside and explain the concepts of sportsmanship, and gaming for fun, rather than for the win. If possible, expose them to a real gaming environment. Teach them Stratego, Backgammon, Pente, and Battleship. Show them how to win and lose with a smile, and play the game for the challenge and for the social connection to other people. Don't let them grow up without a sense of what gaming should be.
It may seem like a little thing, but imagine these children as adults:
Who would you rather do business with: The man who laughs and congratulates you when you put under PAR, or the man who drags his club when he putts?
Who would you rather marry: The woman who revels in the challenge of the strategy of Pente, learning from every game, or the one that moves the tokens when your back is turned?
Who would you rather have as a friend: The guy who whoops and hollers at every frag, no matter the team it comes from, or the guy that sulks and makes excuses when he looses then rubs it in your face when he wins?
Good sportsman ship is a bigger part of everyone's life than they think it is, and how any one can bring themselves to cheat, especially in an environment where it truly makes the game unplayable for those who do not cheat, is completely beyond my understanding.
Then again, there are a lot of things that people do which I simply cannot understand the motivations behind.
Cliffnotes: The prevalence of cheaters in MMOGs upsets me, and makes me fear for the future of our society. The post is long and disjointed, showing both my passion for the topic, and the late hour that the post was written.
Also:
Gunbound is dead to me, now. This is thru no fault of the game designers, who are good at what they do.
0
Comments
Really though, cheating is for low life cowards. I like finding glitches and exploring levels(like in halo) but I would never use them against another person for a win. People take it to far to see the "You win."
It's just an online reflection of offline personality problems.
myg0t
exactly
People are cheating in Gunbound. It's worse than any MMOG that I've ever played. It's completely impossible to play the game in it's current, corrupted state.
GH: It wasn’t a specific event as much as a change in the way the game runs that made the decision for me. The devs try to stay one step ahead of the cheaters, but the programmers are in Korea, and so have trouble making constant updates, or even knowing what is going on in the US servers. The straw that broke it for me was when I lost several games in a row in different rooms, because people were essentially farming money by cheating wins...
Here's what happened:
As in most games, there are rewards for winning. You get experience and money for winning, and you can use these rewards to obtain status and upgrades for your Avatar. I've never worried about this aspect of the game, because all of the upgrades are so expensive, that they might as well not exist. I've been playing the game for a long time now, and I've never earned enough money to even buy one upgrade, despite being pretty good at the game. The reason that the upgrades cost so much is because the Devs know that a lot of players cheat, and this takes more of their money out of the game. As I said, I just don't even worry about that part of the game, I play to have fun, and don't even care if other s download money-generators for themselves. Doesn’t really effect my fun.
Anyway, the devs finally stopped this from happening with a small addition that resembles 'punk-buster' for CS, if you've seen that. Once people stopped being able to cheat with external programs, they started doing it within the game:
You earn more money from winning than you lose for loosing, quite a bit more. So people started playing games against their friends, or themselves on another system, taking turns jumping off of the level to generate money for each other. This was also fine with me. A lot of people did it, but it didn't effect my games.
The devs fixed this by eliminating the reward for winning a 1v1 game. That's when the trouble started.
What happened the night I got sick of it?
I joined a 2v2 room and began to play, and my teammate killed me (it's real easy to kill a teammate in this game), and jumped off of the level so that the opponent would win... I didn't understand at first. I thought the guy was just a fool. I went to a new room with different players, and it happened again.
That's when I figured out what they were doing. Three people were taking turns earning money for each other by waiting for a fourth to join, then sabotaging the match to earn money... I decided to join a larger game, 4v4 this time, and it happened again! except that three of us were taken by 5 people working together.
After that, I quit the game and started this thread. I was so mad!
WTF are wrong with people?
*Glare* :mad2:
That is why I stopped playing Halo 2 on Live.
It's why I don't like sport. In the UK winning at sport seems to be everything, every match is 'crucial', it's always 'us and them'. I know so called sports fans who actually hate supporters of the other team. There is so much BS surrounding sport that enjoying it or having fun is no longer part of the equation, win at all costs. I live in a totally sport free zone, I even turn the news off when it gets to it. I see fanatic fathers buying football kits for two year old kids, I worked with a guy who hated another worker because "they beat us in the cup", it's all very sad and destructive. I don't want to come first in every game, I don't want to come last every time either, anywhere in the middle and I'm happy.
Winning isn't everything after all, it's not even the point, it's just a bonus.
I agree with what bothered said on gaming. I'm happy just playing the game. I don't care if I win. Shoot, I've played many games where I've had more fun and come in dead last.