Unfair Play Rules: Cheating in Single-Player and Multiplayer Games

Every game has its own rules, which means there will be those who want to break them to gain an advantage. In computer gaming, this is called cheating, and such players are called cheaters. In this article, we explore how cheating originated, how it has evolved, and whether it's always a bad thing.

Are cheats always evil? The short answer is simple: no one likes cheaters in competitive games. Games like Counter-Strike (18+) or Call of Duty (18+) multiplayer modes attract players because they allow them to prove in a fair match that their knowledge of the game, reaction time, tactical thinking, cunning, and resourcefulness are superior to their opponents. Therefore, conscientious players rightly condemn cheaters, and developers ban them with varying degrees of success.

In single-player games, the attitude toward codes and auxiliary programs is more relaxed – this is a historical development (who didn't have a notebook full of GTA cheats as a child?). In such titles, the player can't ruin the mood of others; codes help overcome difficult moments, and sometimes simply make the gameplay more fun. Cheats as a concept emerged precisely to make life easier – not for the player, but for the developer.

Help code

Cheats liike Stalcraft Cheats were originally intended for developers, who could use them to test games more quickly. If a programmer needed to check whether a particular section of the game was working correctly, they simply had to enter a combination and be transported to the right place, gain invulnerability, or other advantages that would eliminate the need to replay the game according to all the rules.

The first such tricks can be found in projects from the 1980s. In 1983's Manic Miner, you could enter the combination 6031769 to open a cheat mode (the sequence of numbers, by the way, wasn't random; it was taken from the driver's license of the game's programmer, Matthew Smith).

In 1986, Gradius, a game in which the player controls a spaceship and battles enemies, was released. The NES version of the game debuted the legendary "Konami Code." It consisted of a key combination of "up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A."

This code became so popular that it appeared in dozens of different games. One of the most popular examples of its use is the iconic Contra (16+), in which the "Konami" code gave the player 30 lives. Sometimes it's used as an Easter egg, as in the third Assassin's Creed (18+). There, you could press against the wall of your estate and whistle, which summoned a common turkey to Connor. But if you then entered the code, the bird's image was augmented with the familiar Assassin's hood.

Cheat codes themselves have long been an integral part of the gaming industry. They were exchanged, written down on pieces of paper to avoid forgetting, and published in gaming press.

In some games (such as Bethesda titles), you can enter console commands that change game parameters. For example, you can enable invulnerability, disable collision, allow the player to walk through walls (which can be very useful if the character is stuck in textures), or add any item in any quantity.

Whether or not cheating is a good idea in single-player games can be debated endlessly, but the fact that even developers eventually started adding humorous features to their games shows how popular the phenomenon was.

In Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (18+), completing challenges unlocked various gameplay additions: some of them granted the character immortality, while others were simply funny - for example, turning enemies into rabbits from another franchise.

Sometimes cheat codes can mislead players. For example, in the legendary DOOM (18+), there were two equally legendary codes: IDDQD granted Doomguy invulnerability, and IDKFA gave him a weapon. Later, in the game Heretic, also developed by id Software, these codes worked in reverse: IDKFA took all the player's weapons, and IDDQD instantly killed them.

Other options

Cheat codes allowed players to bypass difficult moments that could otherwise waste hours. The feeling of overcoming a challenge can certainly boost mood and self-esteem, but not everyone is willing to pay the price with dozens of failed attempts. This explains why cheating in single-player games was such an important element of gaming. Unsurprisingly, databases emerged where one could find codes for the desired game. The most famous of these was CheMax, a cheat archive whose interface is familiar to many gamers of the 2000s and 2010s.

Codes aren't the only way to cheat in games. The cheating industry developed alongside the games themselves. Gamers learned to manipulate game saves, resorting to dedicated devices that edited memory.

Trainers—special programs that edit game code and achieve the desired effect—are worth mentioning separately. In the 1980s and 1990s, pirates embedded such utilities directly into games, allowing them to enable desired options immediately before launch. Nowadays, such programs are usually installed separately.

Another well-known attribute of gaming in the 2000s and 2010s was the ArtMoney program, which allowed single-player games to be modified, providing an infinite supply of video game currency, ammo, or lives.

Cheaters in matches

Cheating in online games is much simpler. Here, the community of law-abiding players is more unequivocal than ever: cheating in matches is frowned upon. Developer studios strive to eliminate cheaters from their games using anti-cheat software, the most famous of which is Valve's VAC.

Those who seek an illegal advantage in online games can use software that offers a variety of features. In shooters, for example, this could include wallhack (seeing through walls, allowing you to track opponents), aimbot (aiming assistance), or noclip (the ability to walk through walls).

Cheating is prohibited in esports, as in any other competitive sport. But no one is immune to cheaters—and sometimes, match participants don't even need to resort to unfair methods themselves. This happened during an Apex Legends (16+) competition, when players were hacked and remotely cheated, disrupting the match.

You don't have to play in the top league to constantly encounter cheaters. Many fans of competitive online games know what it's like to get headshotted from the other side of the map or encounter an opponent where they physically shouldn't be. Reports and anti-cheat software don't always help rid a beloved game of cheaters—then the players themselves take up the warpath.

In 2020, a player nicknamed GamerDoc, who was dubbed a cheater hunter, caught the community's attention.

He began his crusade in 2018, creating a Discord server. He set himself the goal of exposing Overwatch (16+) players who were fixing matches to artificially boost their ratings. His success in this endeavor inspired GamerDoc to continue his fight against cheaters in Overwatch and Valorant (16+).

The player gained the trust of cheat vendors to obtain valuable information or even actual cheat samples, which he then passed on to developers at Blizzard and Riot Games. His Discord channels were filled with people complaining about cheating in their favorite titles. Naturally, such a fervent desire to root out cheaters in games earned GamerDoc many enemies, some of whom even sent him threats. But he's extremely useful to studios and honest players.

Incidentally, banning isn't the only way to punish cheaters. The developers of the battle royale game Fall Guys (6+) created a "cheater island"—separate servers where only cheaters could play. Hackers seeking to gain an advantage over honest players by cheating were placed into matches where everyone else was cheating.

There are other approaches to online gaming that are highly controversial. For example, exploits. An exploit is the use of errors and bugs in a game for one's own gain. This is a more complex topic, as it doesn't involve using third-party software but rather exploiting the game's own features, albeit unintended ones. Nevertheless, many criticize this approach because it gives one side an unfair advantage.

Another contentious issue can be found in MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game - editor's note) discussion threads. Many of them have similar farming mechanics (gathering useful resources). To craft armor or a powerful potion, players spend hours searching.

Not everyone is willing to break away from the core gameplay of missions, dungeons, or duels with other players to grind, but they still want to earn resources. That's when bots come to the rescue, performing all the routine work while players can focus on their own. This approach is called botting and is often prohibited by the game's rules, with botters subject to penalties.

Notebook with codes

There's no doubt that cheating in online games is a practice hated by all honest gamers. In single-player games, however, the attitude toward cheats is more lenient. In this section, we'll look back at the most famous cheat codes from video games.

• Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A —that's the Konami code mentioned above. It first appeared in Gradius, but has since appeared in several other projects.
• IDDQDis another iconic character set from DOOM. It grants the character invulnerability. The ID in this code is part of the developer's name, id Software, and DQD stands for "Delta-Q-Delta," the name of a fraternity house for one of the developers.
• HESOYAM, BAGUVIX, and WANRLTWare codes from GTA: San Andreas (18+). The first one fully restores health and armor and gives the player $250,000, the second one gives infinite lives, and the third one gives an infinite supply of ammunition.
• tgm, tcl- console commands for Bethesda studio projects, can be used in The Elder Scrolls (18+) and Fallout (18+) series. The former enables "god mode" with invulnerability, the latter allows walking through walls.

MOTHERLODE is the ultimate cheat for those who love to customize their dream home at the start of The Sims (ages 16+). It adds 50,000 currency units to your character's account.