Singleplayer do whatever you like, multiplayer do not cheat.

The point of games is to have fun, "cheats" are essentially just difficulty options.

It's only really cheating if you cheat someone else. The point of video games is fun and entertainment. If "cheating" improves that, have at 'er.

Cheating in multiplayer games is lame and defeats one of the main reasons people play games with each other.

There is nothing you can do to cheat in a single player game. You decide how you play single player.

Only single player games -- and usually only after they become monotonous playing the intended way.

In single player yes, who cares, mods are fun too. In co-op, fine, as long as everyone is on board with the change. In PvP, never, thanks for fucking ruining the fun.

I don't, because I find that as soon as I do, the game feels permanently pointless. It's like grinding to get some random chance item, and then someone gives you a magic menu enabling you to just put any items you want in your inventory whenever you want. Items mentally become zero value. And then any game mechanics built around scarcity and the intended emotional impact of that scarcity become permanently meaningless too.

It's pulling back the curtain. You can't unsee what's going on back there. Any further interaction with the game just leaves me feeling "this is just a video game, the rules are pointless and with that menu I can get it to do whatever". Even partial cheats, like infinite ammo with no reloading needed, break the illusion for me permanently and leave further gameplay even without cheats feeling unsatisfying and pointless.

For me, it's rare that a game can survive its mechanics or overall gameplay loop being destroyed by cheats when those are what make games...games. You're left with either a creative mode sandbox, or a movie, neither of which I care for in a video game format.

Back in the day my friend couldn't get through the MOH level with snow. It would just freeze and crash. So I showed him how to cheat and bypass the level.

If it's single player then do whatever you want. It only affects you.

no, I mod them

there is no such thing as cheating in a personal game

don't tell the people on Don't Starve forums, but save mods are totally okay and not at all "cheating and ruining the game". you know what ruins the game? losing my several hundred days of progress because I didn't actually pause the game when my dog started making puking sounds and I ran away from my computer

also, Minecraft automation - sure, I could let my server run overnight, or I could just directly give myself the materials the farm would have produced in 12 hours and save the power consumption. ofc I validate all my farms before I do any of that, and I don't give more resources than they produce.

If you cheat in a single player game you do you. You can do whatever you want. If you do the same in a multiplayer online game: fuck you, you are ruining it for the rest of us.

Edit: To answer the question: No, I don't cheat. Neither in single player nor in multiplayer games.

I play games to have fun, which is the reason I don't play multiplayer games (unless local). I also have a very limited amount of time to play games after work.

I cheat with WeMod on openSUSE Tumbleweed for every game I can. I've just recently beaten Resident Evil 2+3 and am currently on 4 right now, and am having a blast getting to play these games!

The number one reason I am having a blast is BECAUSE of the cheats. Every game is different for me, so I only use the cheats that will minimize the amount of time I have to do silly shit like collect X amount of this material or whatever other stupid grindy stuff they come up with that doesn't respect my time as a player. Using the RE games as an example, I don't turn on every single cheat. I don't want to worry about inventory management (not fun to me, personally), so I turn on No Reload. This means my weapons will never need to be reloaded, which means more space in the inventory for the story important items. Win/Win for me. What I don't do, for these games in particular, is use the infinite/god mode cheats. I still want to get damaged and try to recover if it happens, so I leave that one off.

People get... really fuckin' weird when you talk about how much fun you have using cheats in a video game. "You can't be having that much fun, or else you wouldn't cheat!", "You shouldn't cheat on video games because it takes the fun away!", "WOW, YOU NEED TO GET GUD SCRUB. ONLY LITTLE BABIES CHEAT IN VIDEO GAMES!!!!!111!!". And here I am just having fun and completing game after game after game to get through my monumental Steam library. :P

I save scum my rolls in BG3 to get desired outcomes

I don't get it in multiplayer games. Why ruin it for everyone and why cheat? Your not actually that good. I just don't get it.

And then what is cheering is watching/reading a walk through cheating? Single player so what you want.

It's hard not to in 4 player GoldenEye :D

single player games? yeah, especially if I've already beaten the game

other times I'm just skipping tedious grinding

definitely never in mp games

I wrote a scripts that automates artillery for me in Hell Let Loose. It uses a webste that does the calculation. Providing degree and elevation. I input the target on the website, then scrape that data and use computer vision to auto adjust the gun to that position, load then fire. I can saturate an area, or just fire shots on target. It works about 60% of the time because the OCR (Optical character recognition) isn't super reliable. So it often is worse and slower than had I not. I did it last week so until then I had never cheated. Tomorrow they are releasing an updated that overhauls artillery, so I'll have more work todo. I'll probably just let it die xD

you can't cheat on a blow up doll. solo play is not cheating.

I do not, as a rule, play games where my enjoyment affects others. When I do, no, I don’t cheat. The rest of the time? I’m not above taking a shortcut if it brings me more enjoyment if the product I paid for. I occasionally cheat at Animal Crossing. Look up treasure islands. I don’t abuse them but I definitely make use of them.

Depends on the game and platform really.

Been using game cheats since IDDQD and IDKFA. I've never used a cheat in a multiplayer competitive game, that's like cheating at golf. No one really cares what your fucking score is, and cheating ruins any and all accomplishment and personal validation from competing. At that point, you're just being an asshole to other people for imaginary clout, and you should really consider what is gratifying about playing in the first place.

If I find a game too tedious and I'm about to drop it then sometimes I cheat whatever currency the game uses by editing RAM values which is braindead easy. Single player only. If it makes me want to keep playing. I have less patience for poor pacing as I get older.

Except Wreckfest if it counts. I had zero interest in the shitty single player campaign. I just wanted to race online but the game locks most cars behind a crappy uninspired single player grind. I gave myself enough money to just buy everything and then soley focused on online play.

Edit: oh and carry weights are my second most cheated thing. I get no joy out of shop runs. I don't give a shit if my pockets being unlimited is "unrealistic" so is carrying whatever artibrary capped number it is like 250lbs everywhere without a backpack. Takes nothing away from the fun to cheat this waste of time shit.

Infinite Weapon durability in System Shock 2 and Zelda BOTW also come to mind. Stuff like that.

Only if it's single player and there's some bullshit time consuming part I don't want to deal with or some bug fucks me over. I wouldn't in multiplayer. I can't even bring myself to murder people in arc raiders unless its self defense.

I was getting ready to rant until you mentioned Terraria. Then I read the last line of your post.

Shoot, if I'm playing against the computer I use the game the way I want. It's not cheating if your opponent is non-sentient.

I especially feel that way in games where ridiculous stuff happens at random (e.g. Rimworld). If I'm 2h into building a new colony and somehow get wiped out by 1 rabid squirrel, I curse, laugh my ass off for a minute, then load an autosave.

Almost never. I've stopped even changing difficulties for difficult boss fights. Gives me more satisfaction and makes me feel better at games than I actually am. If I die 24 times and manage to get it on the 25th, then at least I was actually able to do it eventually. Just more fun imo. No shame in it though, just a personal preference.

I used to back in the late 90s-early 2000s in StarCraft: BroodWar when I was a kid. Mainly because I was absolute trash and was trying to compete.

My favorite hacks were map hacks (removes fog of war) and stack hacks (construct buildings on top of each other to fit more in your base). I also used a no-CD crack (glad those days are over), and a disconnect hack so that I would never have a loss on my record.

Even with these hacks I was still trash at StarCraft, and always will be. Gave up on RTS games a long time ago. Hacks can't save you from poor resource management and low APM.

Haven't hacked in a game since. I heard that they cost money these days. I couldn't possibly imagine paying real money to cheat. The closest I get to cheating in games today is playing mobile shooters in an Android emulator on PC. That way I can take advantage of mouse & keyboard + playing on a larger 4K HFR screen for smoother framerates and better visibility over a phone screen. But that's allowed (Tencent even has an official emulator for this very thing), and many mobile shooters will detect M&KB input and try to only match you with other players using the same input method, so I'm not sure if you can really call that cheating.

It does give me an advantage, though.

IDKFA, IDDQD

DNKROZ, DNSTUFF

I had a game genie for my nes. Highly recommended. But for modern games? Na. I'll look up a boss if I'm having a hard time, but I don't really feel the need to cheat, outside of carry limit on stalker.

It's fun cheating in single player games after you've already finished them the normal way.

Cheating otherwise robs you of the experience.

Cheating if the game is simply too hard or unplayable, is also acceptable.

Cheating in online games? Especially against other people? You're an asshole.

Not so much anymore because I haven't figured it out on my Steam Deck but ABSOLUTELY with PC games. Strictly a solo player though.

These days games often allow you to individually change the difficulty which I make use quite often when I feel a game is becoming too much of a hassle than a joy and I still want to know how the story continues or see what might be coming.

I don't think I have used a classic cheat in a long time. The last time I actively remember was The Sims 3 (I guess) and it kind of killed the game for me because suddenly everything was possible without any challenge and even a normal playthrough felt like I was missing something.

Only in single player games and typically only when it’s too challenging like that mission/quest that is just really frustrating.

Or if I’ve already beaten the game and lost progress and just want to quickly get back to where I was.

Other than that, not really much. Maybe once in a while just to fuck around, but that’s about it for me. I don’t think it should be that big of a deal for single player offline games and you’re not trying to hit a leaderboard. It’s annoying seeing those on some games’ leaderboards and it’s obvious they’re there just because they cheated.

Not in the typical sense, but I do use mods that may alter the vanilla experience to be less grindy.

For example in Sacred 2 remaster I use mod that doubles the quantity of enemies making it more challenging but also more challenging.

In Incredible adventures of Van Helsing I made set and godlike items drop from special mobs with 1/10th of chance of epic items or something as without mods you'd have to grind for keys to open offline lootboxes.

I do also like exploits that may trivialize the game. Especially in rpgs where they may allow mevto create ridiculously powerful builds.

i do in minecraft. ive done the song and dance of cutting tree, making table, making wood pick, getting stone farrr too many times. i cheat in a stone set, turn on warp/tp, and turn keepinventory on. makes it a less stressful game when my true intention is just to mine and decorate with friends high after work.