It wouldn't surprise me if this has been posted before, if so go easy on me. But it is something that has been troubling me lately and I'd like to see it put to a vote.

I've always beleived that cheating in a multiplayer game is morally wrong, that you are ruining the experience for everybody else. My natural asumption was that everybody else thought the same, but my recent discussions with some people have pointed me in the other direction. Some people think its not a big deal, "if you don't like it; move server" that they "are just trying to have a laugh".

Your opinion and why please.

EDIT: Cheating as in http://callofduty4hacks4u.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/280.jpg

There's no satisfaction to be had if you're cheating in a multiplayer game. unless you like being hated. I like an even playing ground. It allows me to see how crap i really am, if someone's cheating it spoils the fun.

Cheating in an online game with other people? I see it as a massively douchey thing to do. "Morally" wrong is another matter I'm not sure about, but I certainly dislike it.

Cheating on a singleplayer game that only you're playing is your choice though, knock yourself out, it's your game.

Of course it is. Cheating ruins a game. I had my fair share of cheaters or aka aimbots on cod4 and let me tell you, having some random idiot on top of a building with a machine gun shooting half-way trough the map and head shooting everyone in his path is not fun.

I can't cope on why these morons do it, is it really just for a laugh? Or are their life so pathetic that they have the urge to be good at least in something in life?

Anyway people like that shouldn't be allowed in multiplayer games or even to breathe for that matter.

In a multiplayer game? yes.
Even if it's not something that causes you to be miles better than the other players, you're ruining the gaming experience for them. It's not fun when someone stands on the highest point on the map with a high powered sniper rifle shooting at you mere miliseconds after you respawn.
It's not fun when you are playing xbox live and the gravity on 2fort suddenly dissapears (okay it was pretty fun at first, but then engineers built turrets on the roofs. Not fun.)

By the way the fact that i was a telling a story about a od4 deush on top of a building with a machine gun, is totally unrelated to the image the thread starter linked! ;o

Well it's always fun when someone on starcraft types a cheat. Always the first to die by zerg rush.

If glitching is included in cheating... ugh yes. SO obnoxious to those of us who consider it fun to win fairly. Granted, overcoming the adversity of someone who is glitching is an amazing feeling as well...

I want to see the story of the 1 guy who voted "No".

I wonder it there's a moral imperative to playing fairly in games. On one level, everyone is ideally having more fun if no one cheats and the general level of fun is increased. Then again, cheaters are clearly cheating for a reason. I wouldn't just say, "Because they suck my ass they cheat!" I don't understand why people cheat, I wouldn't have fun that way. But some people do.

I guess the question is, do we have the right to say they're having fun the "wrong" way? It's shitty for the rest of us, but that cheater is having the time of their lives. At least, I assume so because they are running the risk of being banned and ostracized from the gaming community. Think about it, cheaters put a lot more on the line when they cheat than a virtual life, they are risking real world consequences. There must be a great reward for that. (To them, at least.)

But I still despise them.

Depends. MMO? Not at all. I know a guy who got sick of WOW but couldn't find a place on their site where he could quit. So instead he decided to have some fun and started hacking it. Wrote some code that watched the watchdog, created some super speedy hacks, etc.

Eventually he got careless and got caught by the watchdog thread, but it was fun in the mean time. :)

but couldn't find a place on their site where he could quit.

Is your friend unable to read a) The actual site and b) the game manual?

Amnestic:

but couldn't find a place on their site where he could quit.

Is your friend unable to read a) The actual site and b) the game manual?

Or c) Use a scalpel.

I hate when playing on the same counsel, my opponent hits me or knocks the controller out of my hand.
The worst trick is when someone brought a game that he had already beat to a party.

When we started, I asked him how to play. He paused the game and showed me the buttons. As soon as looked down at the controller, he used his other hand to unpause the game and kill me with the other hand. I lost first round without touching the controller. (Since I hadn't pleyed the game before, and I hadn't played a Playstation in months there was no he could have lost if we played fairly)

Does screenpeeking count as cheating? I always assumed it doesn't since both players have the same opportunity but some really disagree.

Pseudonym2:
I hate when playing on the same counsel, my opponent hits me or knocks the controller out of my hand.
The worst trick is when someone brought a game that he had already beat to a party.

When we started, I asked him how to play. He paused the game and showed me the buttons. As soon as looked down at the controller, he used his other hand to unpause the game and kill me with the other hand. I lost first round without touching the controller. (Since I hadn't pleyed the game before, and I hadn't played a Playstation in months there was no he could have lost if we played fairly)

Haha! I actually do stuff like that sometimes. But I won't deny that I can be quite a douche :)

Actual cheatcodes for multiplayer is just really lame. One weird thing I found though, is that there is actually a cheat for Freecell in Windows XP! Push Ctrl-shift-F10. What the hell? Who would cheat at that?

I cheat in CTF games (Defcon anyone) and in LAN multiplayer games. (Edit: If you could call in 'cheating' in a 'hacking' competition)

However I would never ever cheat in an online gameor a LAN where I didn't know every member I was up against.

The LAN's I play at are a combination of DoS attacks, exploits (you know... what everyone calls "hacking" in the news) and actual gaming. He who cometh out on top wins the day.

"Always cheat, always win"

So IMHO not always wrong, but definitely only in certain situations.

Is it morally wrong to jump around outside making angry ape noises?

Not really, but you're bound to upset people and be a nusiance.

Similarly, cheating in multiplayer is a good way to confuse and anger people, though I doubt it's so serious a transgression that I'd start talking in terms of morality. That said, if you were doing so in a multiplayer game with a big cash prize, then I'd say it would become a moral issue.

If you're just playing socially online I wouldn't go as far as to say it's morally wrong, but it ruins the game for other people, so it's just a dick move.

However, if you're cheating in some sort of tournament where there's money and fabulous prizes at stake then yes, that is morally wrong.

Solo508:
I've always beleived that cheating in a multiplayer game is morally wrong, that you are ruining the experience for everybody else. My natural asumption was that everybody else thought the same, but my recent discussions with some people have pointed me in the other direction. Some people think its not a big deal, "if you don't like it; move server" that they "are just trying to have a laugh".

In this case it depends on the server. You join a server that allows cheats...then cheat or expect to get cheated on (not too sure if that the right terminology but what the hey). Join a normal, average, skill based server and cheats will be out (and banned) on their ass before you can dirtycheatingbarstedscumbagcabbage!

Morals are reactionary. People invent morals because other people piss them off and they want to stop it. So, in that way, cheating in multiplayer is not against-morals, it creates morals, by being something that pisses people off.

To all you cheating bantha poodoo: It pisses me off. Good thing i never play online, good thing I live in a country that's far away from more English-speaking time zones.

Gitsnik:
I cheat in CTF games (Defcon anyone) and in LAN multiplayer games. (Edit: If you could call in 'cheating' in a 'hacking' competition)

However I would never ever cheat in an online gameor a LAN where I didn't know every member I was up against.

The LAN's I play at are a combination of DoS attacks, exploits (you know... what everyone calls "hacking" in the news) and actual gaming. He who cometh out on top wins the day.

"Always cheat, always win"

So IMHO not always wrong, but definitely only in certain situations.

So basically you play the game of "Who can cheat better"? Intriguing.

Amnestic:

Gitsnik:
I cheat in CTF games (Defcon anyone) and in LAN multiplayer games. (Edit: If you could call in 'cheating' in a 'hacking' competition)

However I would never ever cheat in an online gameor a LAN where I didn't know every member I was up against.

The LAN's I play at are a combination of DoS attacks, exploits (you know... what everyone calls "hacking" in the news) and actual gaming. He who cometh out on top wins the day.

"Always cheat, always win"

So IMHO not always wrong, but definitely only in certain situations.

So basically you play the game of "Who can cheat better"? Intriguing.

Pretty much.

When you reach the point that you're all really great at fighting each other, you move on. Happens every day in games, you level up and go after harder challenges.

There's only so much "levelling up" you can do in UT matches at LAN's though, so we introduced something else.

It's pretty insolent that anyone would consider cheating "ok" in a public multiplayer environment, but I guess that's a good commentary on the maturity level of some gamers.

Morals are subjective so I would say no, but there are those who would say yes.

seriously...its called CHEATING....kind of answers its self.but like mods, no those are cool and if you go into a room knowing there is cheating taking place thats your own damn fault and i really have no problem with it.

Ranked matches:Hell NO, you better not cheat
Player Matches:eh...do what you want

Cheating in anything where you are competing against someone else is wrong. By cheating, I mean using means other then those within the rules of the game to improve your odds of winning. For instance, back in the old days of Quake, when one person could easily cheat and and walk through walls/fly by simple typing "god" and "noclip" into the console, if you were playing against someone, then it is wrong to use those things.

If you're playing by yourself however, cheat as much as you want, just don't expect to experience the full experience of playing the game, and expect the game to get old really fast.

I have a friend who cheats on every game he plays. Somehow, he finds that fun. That's all fine, except when he's playing with or against someone else, then he has to man up and not cheat.

I think if you're doing it to get ahead in a game then yes it's wrong. However, if you're doing it to mess with friends then I don't see the harm in it.......then again, that probably falls on the side of messing around with friends rather than cheating.....

I use hacks in Starcraft, but mostly for Comic Mischief, not for winning serious matches. Hell most of the time I sabotage myself for the sake of humor. Like using the worker hack to make all my workers randomly explode. It's hilarious.

Does using hacks for hilarity's sake really count as cheating? Even when I don't use it to win?

Limos:
Does using hacks for hilarity's sake really count as cheating? Even when I don't use it to win?

As long as you dont use it to win serious matches then there is no harm done.

geddydisciple:

Limos:
Does using hacks for hilarity's sake really count as cheating? Even when I don't use it to win?

As long as you dont use it to win serious matches then there is no harm done.

Usually I just sit back and make snarky comments about the layout of everyones defenses. Or sometimes I use the mineral exploit to build a whole buch of really random stuff and make the map more interesting.

Other People: "Why did you leave groups of Zerglings all over the map?"
Me: "They're Random Encounters, keep going and you'll gain a level."
Other People: "What happens when we gain a level?"
Me: "I start sending Ultralisks."
Other People: "Fuck."

Morally wrong? No.

A really douche thing to do and you're a coward for stooping to using cheats to get an advantage? yes.

Seriously, I don't understand the reasoning behind it. Its like Olympians using drugs and hormones to get ahead, except they try to get the gold because that will likely be their main/only accomplishment in life.

Gamers just cheat to get high scores? Or annoy other players? I don't know. For me that's a sign of a weak personality.

snowplow:
Morally wrong? No.

A really douche thing to do and you're a coward for stooping to using cheats to get an advantage? yes.

Seriously, I don't understand the reasoning behind it. Its like Olympians using drugs and hormones to get ahead, except they try to get the gold because that will likely be their main/only accomplishment in life.

Gamers just cheat to get high scores? Or annoy other players? I don't know. For me that's a sign of a weak personality.

What if the Olympian used durgs to get super speed but then used it to dick around during the race and then didn't actually finish? Does that still count?

And I don't do it JUST to annoy other players, I do it because when I started cheating hilarity ensues. And I so love it when hilarity ensues.

Limos:

snowplow:
Morally wrong? No.

A really douche thing to do and you're a coward for stooping to using cheats to get an advantage? yes.

Seriously, I don't understand the reasoning behind it. Its like Olympians using drugs and hormones to get ahead, except they try to get the gold because that will likely be their main/only accomplishment in life.

Gamers just cheat to get high scores? Or annoy other players? I don't know. For me that's a sign of a weak personality.

What if the Olympian used durgs to get super speed but then used it to dick around during the race and then didn't actually finish? Does that still count?

And I don't do it JUST to annoy other players, I do it because when I started cheating hilarity ensues. And I so love it when hilarity ensues.

Well that's different from what I'm talking about. If you're just screwing around, then its fine. If its funny, even backstabbing can be okay.

But lets face it, most people don't dick around, they actually use cheats to get an advantage or to get angry responses from people. That makes you an ass, no other way around it.