Ryan and cheating

[zocheret]

I find it really interesting that Ryan ascribes a moral value to cheating in games, or searching for system failures. On 179, she talks about cheats in the Sims and how gamers look for ways to make the system crack, then goes on to insist that in interactive drama, derailing the narrative isn't enjoyable. There's a real value judgment here, a

Comments

Spend Thrift in the Virtual World--Spender in the Real

[ammamc]

I agree that cheating in the virtual world does not have as much weight as it does in the real world, hence why people do it all the time. My little cousins are fanatic game players and they have cheat codes for everything--they want to get to the good, important stuff instead of wasting their time trying to complete missions and playing a level over and over again. Also, certain special button combinations and cheats give the game cool effects, almost as though the creator had put them in there on purpose

[digital_liz]

Oh God, I played with my Sims this weekend and was constantly using the "maxmotives" cheat. Because there just isn't enough time in the day for my little Sim-children to go to school, go to their after school jobs, do their homework, and have boyfriends if they're constantly in the red for exhaustion or the bathroom.

I feel like the cheats allow the player to click the hyperlinks in their own way of choosing, so to speak. Some people choose to follow the links one way and get one story, or play without cheating and have to run around and make sure all their Sims are constantly happy and fed and not wetting themselves. Other players follow the links another way and get a different story, or they use the cheats and focus more on the storytelling aspect of the game than having to cater to basic needs that the Sims can't just do by themselves.

By the way, I read an article about some of the things in development for Sims 3. Apparently they're going to make it less about constantly checking on your Sims' every basic need and more about