All video games should have an easily accessible "god" mode in them.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Well I typed up a long OP and hit a button by accident and deleted it so I will make this short and sweet.

I think all games should have a toggle, that is not hidden, that does not have to be unlocked, that will open up every facet of a game to its owner immediately.

I believe that I should not be denied finding out the rest of the story in a game just because I can’t get past a guard or make a diffcult jump. If I paid $50 for it I should not be denied any features of the game.

I am stuck in Splinter Cell right now and am just too busy to keep trying over and over in this one level. I am a casual gamer and I enjoy the story and am too old to brag to my friends about beating a video game. I want to know the rest of the story but will not because I can’t get past a guard without setting an alarm off. IMHO my $50 is not being recouped because of this. The game is great, no doubt about it, but a comsumer should not be denied every benifit of a product that they pay for.

Someone who does not want to use god mode does not have to and can enjoy the game playing the normal way.

The only exceptions to this rule I think should be for MMORPG or any online multiplayer games where one person has an advantage over another due to god modes. In single player games there is no loser if the player wants to use god mode. It should be thier choice.

So, I think that there should be an option that turns on god mode in every single player game availible. It should not be hidden and should not be “unlockable”. If others can’t exercise the self control neccessary to not use god mode if they don’t like it then that is there problem.

Anyone else have a veiw point on this?

2

Yep, and those bar puzzles made from wood and iron or whatnot should come with pliers. Crossword puzzles should have the words pre filled in. The net at the local park should be lowered to 9’ so I can dunk behind my back.

Whew! These debates of cosmic importance really take it out of you.

3

My son has a Game Shark cheat device (and some other ones, not sure what they’re called). He keys in all thses codes for unlimited power, or weapons, or free dental care or some other goddamn thing. Seems to take away the point, but at least he’s not running a meth lab instead or something (wait…what’s that smell?)

4

My god, won’t anyone think of the children!!

5

I think there is a serious difference between your pussles and basketball and the video games. None of your examples have sny sort of story to them, so if you don’t win you aren’t missing anything, AND you probably didn’t pay $50 for them.

If I am into a story on a video game then why shouldn’t I be able to see it to completion just because I am not twitchy enough to make the jump or “get the power up”?

6

I totally agree. For me, the game in question is Grant Theft Auto 3.

I admit freely that I don’t really play the game in order to complete the levels. I just run around hitting people and stealing cars. I like it - it’s fun just driving around like a freakin’ maniac! (In a game setting, of course.)

But it’d be great if I could just have access to the other island that you apparently get to move to once you’ve completed more levels.

I mean, heck, when Doom first came out I spent at least 90% of the time in God mode with All Weapons because it was SO MUCH FUN! Back then it was easy to get into these cheat modes.

Another question though: If they put this God Button straight onto the Controller, what would it look like?

Peace out.

7

That’s what I liked about Deus Ex. There were usually two or three ways to deal with any obstacle: frontal assault, tricky fighting, electronic mojo or just plain sneakiness. If something wasn’t working, you could usually find some other way.

8

I don’t think so. Buy a movie if you don’t want the challenge.

I don’t doubt there’s a built in cheat mode. It will surface.

9

Near the sarcasm armour there’s an entrance to the IMHO level.

Unless there’s a theological point here that I’m missing, in which case GD it is. If satisfaction is found in becoming rather than being, does that mean “full ownership of the game” is meaningless unless one is eternal as well as omniscient?

Is this true if one resists temptation? Or even if one resists temptation? How could one truly know regret?

What a time for Polycarp to be offline. Are the pixels greener there? What of ennui? It can’t be fully rendered on my system, but the game seems so dull without it.

10

I agree. Cheat modes should definitely be built into all games that a person is forced to buy.

Games that they can choose freely to purchase or not to are a different story entirely.

11

I’ve never bought a game only to find, “Doh! I’m not invulnerable.” You purchase any of those items, including the basketball and puzzles I mentioned, with full knowledge that they are meant to present a challenge.

To take this a bit more seriously for a moment (and only for a moment) game developers may have good reason to believe that if an element of challenge is removed from the game, it is a less satisfying experience, and therefore less marketable. I don’t often see reviews exclaiming, “Two in-opposable thumbs up! This game is so easy I finished it in twenty minutes.”

12

So, you’d advocate God mode for Freecell, Minesweeper and The Hearts Network?

“i PWneD YoU, dUd3! E4T kw33N of 5Pade5 D3@TH!”

13

I’d like to have god mode for MS Access.

“[] 5uxxoR, 3@T |^|y q[]3@Ry!!!”

14

Cheat codes are a bad Idea IMO. Those built in and are easily accessible anyhow. In my gaming past, there had been countless times when I put blood, sweat and time in beating a game, and was damn proud of the accomplisment. When I would comment on it, there was undoubtedly some jerk off saying that it was no big deal, he beat it easily. (with cheat codes) :rolleyes:

I am appalled that so many people want the easy way out, because they don’t have “time”. This isn’t just a debate about video games IMO, this is taken further.
People want to lose weight without taking the time and trouble, people want to be good at sport without the time it takes to practice, want their black belts without the 20 years to master it, the list goes on and on.
I don’t know if this is an American phenomenon, but I wouldn’t doubt it.
I have cheated at my share of games. I have blasted my way through doom, wolfenstien, half life, et al, by using god mode, and to tell you the truth, it took all the fun out of it. With God mode sitting in front of me, in easy reach; the slightest provocation made me type it in. Pretty soon I just said the hell with it, and played the whole game that way.

If they handed out Law degrees and Doctorates to anybody that wanted them, it would make the challenge and difficulty of getting them null. The challenge is beating the odds and acquiring them regardless of how difficult they are. The same goes for sports, video games, bodybuilding, money, etc.

If you don’t have the time to dedicate to something, for fun or whatever, then DON"T do it. Don’t ruin for those that are willing to actually work for it. Don’t trivialize life just so you don’t have to actually work at it. That is the jerky thing to do, and punishes everybody because only a few are too lazy to put in the effort.

If it is easy to get, it isn’t worth having, if it is nearly impossible to get, the joy of even almost getting it is enough for me.

15

I believe life should have an easily accessible “god” mode.
But only for me.:smiley:

16

I don’t care about God mode.

There should, however, be federal legislation requring all games to have in-level saves. :smiley:

 -- Dewey, who has been pissed off about this since *Dark Forces*.
17

I’ve never actually been forced to buy Windows.

Granted, there was that bit of brinksmanship some years back where Bill Gates was going to put Windows 98 in the water supply, but he was backed down. But if the current plans for an airborne version of XP2Plus! go through, Minesweeper should have God mode.

18

I’m a senior game designer for Sony. Believe me, within the industry the save/no save and god/no god issues have been at the center of some fierce debates. It’s not just developer laziness (or cussedness) that prevents all games from having an easily accesable god mode and in-level saves. Often there’s a gameplay reason.

Consider saves. There are really two reasons why people save: Either they want to leave the game and come back later, or they want to lock in their progress in case something bad happens. As for the former, sure, let them save anywhere – no one should have to keep playing just so they can reach a save point.

But as for the latter, it gets more complicated. If it’s too easy to lock in your progress gameplay can converge on the quicksave-and-creep cycle common in first-person-shooters. Because most of the players are quicksaving their way through the levels, the difficulty level is tuned to support it, meaning lots of death and lots of retries and (IMHO) lots of boredom.

It’s easy to say “well nobody is forcing you to save”, but the truth is that people are weak and if you give them a tool very few individuals can resist picking it up and using it, even if it lessens the play experience.

Why does it lessen the play experience? The same reason that people gamble with real money. There’s a big thrill that comes from knowing that if you screw up you’ll lose something valuable. Choosing when and how the player gets to save is as much a design decision as boss design – both are about shaping the experience.

Back to the OP. The problem isn’t that Splinter Cell needs a god mode. The problem is that it’s too hard. Providing a god mode would be a cheap fix for a deeper problem.

(For the record, on the game I’m working on now we’re shooting for 10-15 hrs of play for a novice player to get from start to finish in the story. No god mode but the easy setting will be really easy. The challenge for expert players will come from all sorts of side missions and extra challenges. Anyone should be able to finish in 15 hrs, but finding and unlocking everything will take much longer.)

19

No, you see, if you buy windows, it comes with Freecell, Minesweeper and Hearts. It wasn’t “forced to buy an OS”, it was “forced to buy a game”.

20

**