Video Games Cheats
Like many other competitive industries, video games have to grapple with the issue of cheating. However, the definition of cheating varies among players, and even within the gaming community. Terms such as “cheat,” “hack” and “exploit” are often used interchangeably, but they each signify different things to gamers. In the world of game hacking, these terms are used to describe various methods of circumventing or bypassing certain aspects of a video game to gain an advantage over other gamers.
Cheating can be done in a variety of ways, from modifying controllers to automate rapid key presses to creating overlays that modify the field of view and aiming reticule of the player. Aimbots and autoaim are two common forms of game cheating, but there is also a third type of cheat known as a triggerbot that automatically fires when an enemy appears in the player’s field of view or aiming reticule. Some of these cheats involve modifying game software, despite the fact that most video game EULAs forbid modification of the program code itself. Other game cheats modify underlying system drivers or other hardware, which can be more difficult to detect.
While some game cheats are purposefully included by the first-party developers who created them, others are inserted through third-party software after a game’s been produced. Some of these third-party game cheats are created by simply experimenting with the game’s programming, while others are uncovered by accidental or unintentional bugs in a game’s source code. These types of cheats are typically called “exploits,” and they can make a game far easier to play than it should be.
In the 1980s, video game enthusiasts could create their own self-made cheats by modifying the hardware of an 8-bit video game console. These homemade “cheat codes” involved reprogramming the 8-bit computing systems to manipulate the game’s memory and change statistics such as lives, health or ammo. This trend was largely driven by the success of the Nintendo Game Genie, which essentially acted as a pass-through device between the game cartridge and the video game console. The Game Genie didn’t go over well with Nintendo, though, and the company began to include checksums in later games to try and defeat the device’s effects.
Today, many game cheats are created through the use of third-party software, or by modifying the underlying system drivers. Most of these exploits and cheats are sold by people who call themselves “paste-ers” (a reference to copying without changing) or by a group of individuals who collectively refer to themselves as the infamous “cracking crew.” While these third-party game cheats can be fun to play with, they often come with a cost, and some of them can be very expensive. A good way to avoid falling victim to these cheats is by ensuring that the developer of the software has a strong reputation in the gaming community and is a trustworthy businessperson. This can be done by checking for testimonials and reviews on any third-party website.