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

In My Humble Opinion
41

Roadfood:

So the last game you bought did have cheats. And yet you stopped buying games. That makes it sound like you stopped buying games because there were cheats.

And even if that wasn’t your reason, it is a good reason not to include cheats. If a game designer feels that adding cheats will cause the people who don’t like cheats to stop buying games, then of course they shouldn’t add cheats. The game designer wants to make money. It’s pretty ridiculous to suggest that they should put cheats in if it will cause them to lose money.

Personally, I would have much less desire to play a game if I saw someone tearing through it with cheats.

This is a faulty analogy. You are comparing a subtraction (the ability to bounce the ball) with an addition (cheats). A better analogy would be to complain that the basketball does not come with a magic spell that makes you the best basketball player in the world.

42

“I just think it’s silly to think that every book should have them”
Yes because adding these things add to the per-unit printing costs of books. Adding some cheat code adds barely adds anything to the per-unit costs of producing a game. In fact they barely add to the fixed cost either especially since the game will already have the cheat codes hidden somewhere.

Besides if you get stuck in a game you can’t move forward. With a book you can just skip a difficult bit. Your analogy might hold if you couldn’t access later chapters unless you finish earlier chapters. In that sense one of the things we want is that games be more like books or DVD’s where if you find a particular part boring you can just move forward.

43

The main problem I see is that when there is an easily accessible “god” mode it may become too tempting to use it and cheat when you are stuck. Personally I enjoy the challenge (and reward) of getting past a difficult area that I must work at, a God mode would ruin that for me. Then there is the entire issue that i find most current games too easy to begin with. Now this brings to question perhaps having "god’ versions and “non god versions” but of course I don’t think any game company would put out that much effort.
So you just have to ask what you want, a computer program or a game?

44

I think a few of the soapbox-standers in here didn’t understand the point of my OP. Some very poor and weak analogies have been made to compare to wanting god mode in video games.

I will make my own and hopefully those who didn’t “get it” the first time thru the thread will understand my point now.

Imagine you are watching a movie, lets say Predator for example. You are watching it on DVD and have never seen it before. You get to the part where Arnold is covered in mud and the Predator is looking right at him. At this point (in fantasy land) you are required to hit the right sequence of buttons on your DVD remote in a small amount of time in order to see what happens to Arnold. If you fail to hit the buttons fast enough, or hit the wrong one, you are forced to go back to the last chapter and watch thru that scene again and make another crack at the button sequence. You fail again, wash, rinse repeat over and over. Now, you bought this movie (game) for the story and you want to see the rest of it but you can’t because your thumbs aren’t fast enough or your brain isn’t fast enough, whatever. So now you have a movie (game) that you bought for the good story and you can’t watch the rest of it due to your inability to complete the requirements of the DVD (game). You never get to see that Arnold gets blown to bits by the Predator and his skull is made love to by a pack of wild antelope.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could set up this DVD so that you go go straight to the chapter to see what happened to Arnold? You did pay for it after all.

My point is that there are alot of good games that have good stories now adays and I should not be denied the whole story just because I suck at the game. Especially if I paid for it.

I never said that games are more fun, more satisfying, or that they even SHOULD be played using god modes. Sports games and stuff like that really doesn’t make sense to have god mode, but maybe some other players wanna see the big graphic endeing when they win the big game or whatever.

I am saying that casual gamers, like myself, who want to see the story to completion should have the option.

45

If that’s how movies were, and if I knew this going into it, I wouldn’t have any reason to complain. If you want a movie get a movie. If you want a game, get a game. What you seem to want is more analogous to requesting that all movies allow user input because you don’t always like where the plot is going. That is, it’s expecting a standard that applies to one media to apply to another.

It’s one thing to say, “I appreciate it when MediaX is more like MediaY.” It’s another thing entirely to try to make the case that MediaX should always be similar to MediaY in a particular way.

I’ve used god mode in StarCraft: Broodwar to defeat the final level. (I’ve since beat it without the code.) I sometimes like having the option. But I would never tell a programmer that his game should have one. Maybe it’s just me. I hope to be a programmer someday soon. Saying that all games should have a particular feature seems to me like saying all books should have an index. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s unnecessary or even counter productive. I leave that decision up to the author of the book or program.

46

Oh please, who buys a game for the plot. If you want a plot read a book or watch a freaking movie. Games are to PLAY and be challenging. To pass the TIME. You know, the opposite of what you are wanting.

You are asking to take the color out of an orange.

The game industry caters to the majority, because that is where the money is. If the game industry thought that they would make more money YOUR way, they would do it. Unfortunately, casual gamers don’t buy the most games, so they don’t cater to them. If you don’t like it, don’t buy games, read a frickin book. Be a casual reader. Write your own books, whatever.

Just because you spend money on something, doesn’t mean it has to be whatever you want. I payed 12k for my car, damnit, I want it to be a viper. Wah, wah.

47

I still haven’t read a good reason why I shouldn’t be able to save whenever I want to.

As for cheats well, as a member of that apparently loathsome class of casual/ not hardcore player, my question is:
Why put them in at all?

Cheats are just cheating. (Note: I’m not talking about finding that hard to reach secret door and a whole 'nother place behind it thing. I’m talking about having to put in any type of “code” to “unlock” a different mode of play)

Just follow the motion picture model. A hot new game is released, everyone picks it up and loves it- but with no cheats accessible…just straight forward play skill baby! Then after six months or so the “cheats” version comes out with all the cool extra stuff included…kind of like the extended DVD home collectors edition with 18 hrs of footage held back from the original cut.
Just like movies, some games will be released with cheats directly…the ones the company doesn’t expect to be a blockbuster. They just don’t tell anyone and cycle the marketing back through at the six month mark to snag all of those who wait for the "cheat’ version to come out.

Just a ten minute thought on the matter. I await to be torn limb-from-limb by the gaming loyal :slight_smile: .

48

I really don’t like the idea of god mode but would like ajustable difficulty levels. I have only seen this is vey few games but in games where there is lots of things to explore I often get into the situation where the diffuculty is too hard to continue or too easy to be interesting (mostly RTS games). Many times a RTS game will start out very easy on ‘normal’ level but the difficulty will be much harder at the end. ( would like to be able to switch from hard to start with then drop to ‘normal’ in the middle and possibly easy at the end (when I’m just trying to finnish the thing’) with an occational switch to ‘even a monkey can do this one’ mode.

There is soo much more satifaction using the ‘even a monkey can do this one’ mode then using god mode.

Just my humble O

49

(bolding mine)

You answered your own question. Make your opinions heard by the developers as much as you can, but accept that the creators get to decide what goes in the games; you get to decide which games to buy. That’s the dynamic, and that’s how it has been for a while now.

If you are paying someone to make a game for you, fire them when they don’t include god mode; as far as the pre-made games go, find out if they include god mode before you buy them.

50

I play a lot of games, and when I come across a point that takes too many tries to get past, I’m going to cheat past it. The only “gaming experience” I’m cheating myself out of is the chance to play the same scenario over and over and over dozens of times. I’m suppose to like that?

I will never knowingly buy a game without in-game saves or without a cheat mode. I despise having to try the same goddam thing over and over.

51

Actually, there are games out there have very intricate and interesting plots.

Planescape Torment is one, Final Fantast Tactics is one. There are times I will buy a game for the plot, and often I am not disappointed.

And not everyone reads books, watches movies or plays games to pass the time, but rather for the experience they offer. Wether that be the experience of solving puzzles in a graphical environment or driving over a (Insert enemy group here) attack force.

Most of the time I will go without cheats, though I have reached points where I had to resort to them to continue, usually becuase of a section or boss that is too difficult to beat by other means. Or because I just frankely want to finish the game and move on to the next one.

So I’m more in the “okay with cheats” camp even though how much of them I use depends a lot on the game.
Of course, that only applies to Single player. Anyone who uses Cheats on mutiplayer should be shot.

52

There are some of us that like to play games, are not really damn good, don’t have a hell of a lot of time, and do buy a lot of games. Granted I haven’t bought a game in a long time now because they take to damn long even with the cheats.

I’ll tell you what I really hate though and that’s damn near impossible jumps or timed crap that if you don’t do perfectly you die. I give up on games if I spend three f’ing hours trying to make one jump. I bought Indiana Jones a year or so ago and got through it pretty easy til I needed to push a crate under a hole in the ceiling and jump up. Easy huh? I never got through that part. I even got a cheat book to make sure I was doing it right and I was and still it wouldn’t let me though. I’m a huge Indy fan and just couldn’t stand it after that. Even with the cheats I didn’t finish it.

I say that cheats for a lot of people make the game more fun, I wouldn’t play at all if I need to start the game with a pistol and shoot 50 guys in two seconds with it. Hell it still takes me hours to play a game with cheats on.

53

I don’t care if they offer cheats on every game that comes out, I won’t use them. I have friends that buy the cheat manual at the time they buy the game. One of them came by one day and was watching me play Final Fantasy 7. Then looked puzzled and ask me where the book was. I told him that I didn’t have one, and he had the nerve to look at me like I was crazy.

And yes, I finished it, without the book. If I’m paying $50.00 for a game, I want it to be a challenge. I want it to be tough. I want to have to work at it.

54

One of the temptations of cheating is that you don’t JUST use it for that one scene. Once you have discovered god mode, you go back to it again and again. I usually try to play through a game at least once all the way through without cheats and THEN whip out cheats to have some fun. IMHO, it completely ruins all the tension when you blithly walk right through a carefully scripted event without batting an eye.

One example that comes to mind would be the big 3 headed mostor thing in the pit in Half Life. That damn thing took me 3 hours to get past but if I had just turned on god and finished it in 5 mins, I would have lost a lot of valuable gameplay.

55

me too but if I get stuck I want a way around it so I can continue the game

56

Whew, lotta issues here. All of which I’ve tackled to some extent ever since I got my first Game Genie.

Let’s start with the obvious one…

Re. challenge
Okay, there’s something you all have to understand…there’s a difference between real challenge and fragged-up challenge.

Swing Away Golf has a plethora of events and contests, and it’ll take you years before you’re close to beating them all. That’s real challenge.

The Gradius games kill you off once every few seconds, and several bosses are completely impossible. That’s fragged-up challenge.

Klonoa 2: Lots of ingenious, layered puzzles, tricky bosses, and hidden surprises. Real challenge.

WWF/WWE (any recent game): Opponents do attack after attack after attack after attack on you, you can do almost nothing to respond, and certain matches are completely unwinnable. Fragged-up challenge.

Myst: Start with absolutely nothing, story revealed to you in bits and pieces, lots of exploring to do, and the final choice determines everything. Real challenge.

Bard’s Tale: Never have any idea what to do, ever, completely blind half the time, and some of the tougher monsters can beat you with their pinkies. Fragged-up challenge.

It goes on and on. The point is, challenge should not equal torture. And I don’t feel the slightest twinge of guilt in using my Gameshark 2 or whatever else is available to change or eliminate a torturous part of any game, which as far as I’m concerned doesn’t belong there in the first place.

In my expereince, games which sacrifice anything and everything for challenge, challenge, challenge, challengechallengechallengeCHALLENGECHALLENGE are the worst pieces of dreck I’ve ever been subjected to. Challenge is never enough. There has to be an actual game there.

Re. “Too easy”; expect everything handed to you etc.
Look, guys…it’s a game. Not law school. Not an emergency rescue. Not running a household. Not serving as mayor. A game. And as such, it should be fun. And if it isn’t fun, I take it upon myself to make it fun. I see games as an escape from the endless worries of day-to-day life…if it can’t even succeed at that, what’s the point?

Re. Getting what you pay for
Yes. Hell yes. No free rides, dammit. I’m not shelling out $45 for torture. Yes, this actually happened to me once (Graidus 2), and I’ve never felt more ripped off in my life. I’m mystified as to how so many of you are willing to absolve game makers of all responsibility because “you don’t have to buy”. Let me remind you that most places have strict return policies, and some computer stores won’t even give you store credit if you open the box. If there’s something I can’t return, I expect to get some value out of it…that’s where the Gameshark comes in.

Of course, if you’re a programmer who doesn’t mind the thought of alienating legions of players and preventing a lot of customers and potential customers from ever buying your works again, be my guest…

Re. Replay value
Three words…or rather, one word and two acronyms. NFL Blitz, PSX.

Without cheat codes, this is a screwy, gimmicky, broken game that’s fun for maybe three days. Tops.

With codes, it opens up a world of possibilities. No first down! No punting! Same side always has possession! Hey, let’s set a real touchdowns-in-a-game record. Or if you want a challenge, how about turning on super CPU players? A world of options that’s just not possible playing it “straight”.

And if your game has to be ridiculous, painfully, gut-wrenchingly hard to have any replay value, then as far as I’ve concerned, you’ve plain messed up. Even worse is the game that’s that hard but doesn’t have replay value. (I remember Mega Man for NES. Painful. Torturous. Made me want to throw heavy objects through the TV. Finished in two days.) I mean, look at Klonoa 2. And Capcom vs. SNK 2. And the entire Bemani line. Those people know what they’re doing; why can’t you?

Re. manhood, honor, blood, guts, sweat, etc. etc.
Good effin’ lord. The fact that some people in the video game community actually care about these stupid issues says a lot.

There used to be a huge flap over players who hung onto the bar in Dance Dance Revolution, usually for the really fast songs (Max 300 and Maxx Unlimited were the most common). Some players loathed this practice and called it “bar rape”. That’s right, rape. An incredibly loaded term for something many players did out of necessity (hey, you try either of those songs lately?). Well, guess what, we now have a consensus, which is “Shut up and let them play.”

And that’s what I’m saying to all of you. Look, if you want to turn every video game session into Army boot camp, fine, but don’t ruin it for the rest of us, dammit. You think codes are the work of the devil? Fine. Don’t use them. I’ll continue to do what is necessary to avoid turning into a screaming mass of rage, thank you.

Re. having to put of with annoying braggarts who use codes
This isn’t an argument against codes. This is an argument against loudmouth jerks (many of whom play completely honestly, I might add). I have no problem with this. If I ever post mindless drivel about how I’m 1337 and everyone else suxors and crap, regardles of any extenuating circumstances, feel free to run me outta town on a rail.

Now if you’re upset because someone thinks he’s all that after using codes…well, get a damn life. If you can’t even tolerate the existence of unusual points of view, YOU’RE the one with the problem.

Re. being able to see the whole story
Hell yes. It’s one of my primary objectives of owning a game, for crying out loud. When I put good money on a game, I want everything. Period.

I’m patient, however, and I want the complete experience, so I’m happy to unlock things one item at a time. Like for the Tekken games. I’m not going enter a “get everything” code…that takes the enjoyment out of getting it all. What I will do is enter a code or two which makes it a lot easier to get everything the “correct” way. Even then, it’s not a cake walk (having infinite health in Tekken Force is worth jack squat if you run out of time), so I achieve an appropriate level of challenge. Hey, that’s a good thing! :slight_smile:

But I’m not going to condemn anyone for “getting everything in a day”. If that’s what they consider fun, more power to them. I’m not going to ruin it for anyone else.

Re. Unlimited save feature as a crutch
Tell you what. When game companies stop releasing games with certain areas, enemies, or stages that are COMPLETLEY IMPOSSIBLE and which SEND YOU BACK WAY TOO FAR when you get stomped, then I’ll stop using save states for that purpose. Until then, lay the hell off. I’m trying to protect what remains of my sanity here.

Think I’m kidding, right? Why don’t you play, in no particular order: the Graidus series, the Bust-a-Move/Puzzle Bobble series, World Heroes 2, Aero Fighters 2, anything named “Track and Field”, Xybots, and Fightingmania: Fist of the North Star. I guarantee that before it’s over, you’ll be begging for at least something as good as save states.

And, in summary:

  • More choices are better than fewer choices.
  • If you don’t want cheat codes, don’t use them. No one’s forcing you.
  • I think a lot of game are too damn hard, and I’m not stanidng for it.
  • I don’t want anyone forcing their views onto the games I’m going to play.
  • I won’t force my views onto anyone else’s games.
  • Games should be fun.
  • Different players find different things fun.
  • Ridiculous strawman arguments aren’t going to dissuade anyone.

I’ll be happy to defend any and all of my points. In fact, considering how strongly I feel on this issue, I almost feel a duty to.

57

Half life I usually through most of it playing normally, but by the time I get the bouncing levels on Xen, on go the cheat codes just becuase I want to get the end and it’s hard enough without playing like this is a 1st person, heavy-armed verion of Super Mario Bros. with Aliens.

58

And Certain platform action games I really have no probkem with using cheats. If I play contra(or any one of the 20,000 incarnations to date), I want to finish in about an hour or so, not a week. This is considering there are no save points, just continues and if I screw up, I go all the way back to the beginning of the damn game, not just the beginning of the level.

59

Contra? Contra was not hard. I never owned the game (it was a rental) and I got to the point where I could finish the entire game without losing a single life, and I’m not terribly good at those kinds of games.

60

No, I don’t think every game should have a God Mode. I do think every game should have a walkthrough for when you’re stuck, and they do. I don’t mind a cheat here and there tho. A little extra armor, health or ammo here & there doesn’t diminish the game play for me at all. W/out it, I wouldn’t last long. I still get hours & hours of fun.

I read the reviews before trying a game. If the game is really hard and not for the casual gamer, someone will say so. If I’m not sure, I rent it first. I don’t want to rent a game, use God Mode to play through it in a couple days and move on. I just want to rent it to see if it’s worth $50 to me. If I’m going to pay $50, it better keep me engaged for months, and most good games do, at my playing level. I’ve had Resident Evil for months now, and I’ve got months & months of play yet to go. I finally made it through Mario Sunshine, with a lot of help from walkthroughs and it was still hard as heck in places. My cost per playing hour comes out to practically free, and I had a lot of fun. A lot of fustration at times too, but geez, put the game away for awhile.

As for unlimited in-game saves, there have been a few times when I saved at the wrong time and found myself with too little health, the wrong equipment, etc. At that point I’ve screwed myself & had to play the whole level through from the beginning, anyway. A well designed game will have saves where you really need them, or limit the number of saves to force you to think about what you’re doing more carefully. What’s wrong with that? It’s a game! So what if it takes you 50 tries to get past a certain point? Think how satisfying it is when you finally do?

If a game really sucks because it’s impossibly hard, well you’re the one that shelled out $50 for it. Buyer beware.