As (almost) always, I'm using Counter-Strike as an example. Even though it has been mostly replaced by Team Fortress 2, there are still die-hard fans that play it. (or got so good at it that they're no good at anything else and just call it gay so they don't have to play it and lose)
When Counter-Strike first came out, you could do all your usual things like walk, run, shoot, jump, etc. Everything you expect from a first person shooter. However when you jumped you seemed to travel forward marginally faster than when running. Avid games started misusing this fact in what became known as "bunny hopping", when a player moves faster than usual by continually jumping, like a bunny rabbit. Because it also makes you harder to shoot, many people see this as a trick used by the elite, and thus acceptable. Others see it as cheating or unsportsmanlike.
In most variations of Quake 3 Arena, you can bunny hop, but there's an added trick: Rocket jumping: A player fires a rocket straight into a nearby floor or wall and uses the shock wave to push them further, higher, or in some cases to unreachable sections of the map.The question is: If the game allows it, is it really cheating? Or are you simply exploiting a vulnerability? Some argue that because the glitch is available to any player who cares to use it, it is legal. Others argue that it goes against the original spirit of the game.
In Dungeons and Dragons, there's nothing preventing you from studying the map before you start playing, especially if you're playing from a pre-written book of quests. But it would have a negative effect during play, because you have a rough idea of where in the dungeon you are. Is it considered cheating? Yes. Why? Because it's unsportsmanlike and just plain spoils the game for the other players. Does that stop you from reading tips and tricks for that specific quest? No.The same argument applies to any sport or game. You're there to have fun, not just to win. If the other players complain that you're camping or bunny hopping, stop it. Can you even play the game if you're not allowed to hop around like an insane person?
How about pool? An integral part of the game is snookering, where you place your own object ball between your opponent's object balls and the cue ball, preventing a clear shot. That's not the cheating I'm referring to. I'm talking about a jump shot, where the player would force his cue between the cue ball and the table surface, effectively scooping the ball into the air and over the snookering ball. Most, if not all (I'm no expert) cue sport authorities prohibit this type of shot. Some even go as far as prohibiting massé (hitting cue ball from above, making it spin, effectively curveballing it). But I've played in many bars and pool halls where this shot is perfectly legal and even considered a talent. Is it part of the game or are you cheating?You can win by exploiting the rules, but is the win quite as sweet? Will you laugh about it with your friends over a coupla beers afterwards? Or will they ditch you and go drink on their own?
I guess the only conclusion I can come to is that all affected parties must decide beforehand whether certain things are allowed, and adjust the rules of the game accordingly, such as prohibiting jump shots in pool. The assigned dungeon master can keep the quest a secret until the sitting. In the case of Counter-Strike the bunny hop was removed by forcing the player's model to regain his balance after jumping (has to take a few steps, then continue running), effectively removing the advantage gained by jumping without preventing the player from jumping. In the case of Quake 3 Arena, it has become part of the game. In War§ow it has become part of the game's core design.
So let's attribute it to evolution. No game developer or board game creator can think of every possible condition of gameplay, nor do they want to. If the rules were complicated enough to be fill a book large enough to be sold separately, would the game still be fun ? (did I just insult D&D?)
Words:
"Genius lurks in everyone"
-Crash, Junkyard Megawars
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It's a whole different story if the object of the game is to cheat, in other words if everyone decides that cheating is allowed and to what extend cheating is allowed. (plugging someone's network cable out or interfering with another player's packets is not fair, hacking the environment might be considered fair in the context we played)
ReplyDeleteMe and a couple of buddies used to take it so far that we modified the default skins of first person shooters to be completely invisible or melt it in with the surroundings by designing skins that look like crates or weapons or swapping the dead and alive skins which means a dead person looks alive while a living person looks dead, very confusing, but all in the name of good fun!
The idea was to cheat as much as possible just for the sake of laughing your ass of, frags rarely matter when you play for the sake of cheating.
With strategy type games, the cheating came in with the forming of alliances, but forming alliances with multiple people and then backstabbing them eventually, especially in Starcraft Broodwars, the not knowing when somebody will turn their back on you ads another dimension to the game.
With racing games, we also formed teams, one person in a team gets elected to kamakazi on the one leading the race or simply blocking him off as much as possible, a lot of fun :-D