A brief history of cheating in video games

History of cheating in video games

Cheating in video games has been around for decades. “Rules were meant to be broken” is a well-known saying. There is no such gaming community in which at least a few users do not want to overtake competitors by other methods.

However, the community’s attitude towards cheating is not always negative. In solo games, players often use this approach to create balanced gameplay. Websites like https://wh-satano.ru/en/cheats/marvel_rivals create special bonuses for perfect games.

Anyway, cheating has become a legendary phenomenon in the gaming community. In this article, we will tell you about it as a historical phenomenon and show what advantages cheating can give to smart users of the computer world. Have a pleasant reading!

Cheating in the game environment: balance of honesty and entertainment

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Namely, gaming or cheating. It became an evolutionary symbiosis. Developers create protection, and cheaters create ways to circumvent these measures.

Historically, cheating did not arise as malicious behavior in computer games. The first cheaters were not offenders but product testers. The root of all evil occurred in the 80s. When users break system limitations, developers get unique information. For instance, algorithms that are vulnerable to unbalanced gameplay mechanics. Thus, in the early years of computer games development, cheating played the role of unofficial testing of new products.

Ancestors of modern gaming

Today, users can download cheats for cheats for Marvel Rivals and other games directly from their smartphones. But a few decades ago, this opportunity was available to no one.

Gamers created early modes by interfering with the game’s memory. They discovered prototypes of functions that would later become official. Among them are maps, statistical panels, and prerequisites of development automation. Do you agree that it’s cool that the first UX solutions were created by cheaters? Today, they have become real gamedev standards.

Cheating in video games
Cheating in video games

Curiosity through violation

In the nineties, the gaming community became quite large. Computer users wanted to explore the in-game world of the particular project, not as intended by the developers. In those years, users learned to create inaccessible game locations and cut out story quests.

As a result of this approach, a trend has developed in society whereby users have started to treat games not as digital products but as a space for research.

XXI century: a new technical level of the community

Cheating evolves in keeping with the technological progress of humanity. If we look at it as a cultural-technical phenomenon, then for each of us, the brilliant pattern becomes obvious. Each era of computer evolution creates a new type of cheating.

  1. Computers remain primitive. As well as the games themselves. Cheaters operated in the logic of engineering trickery.
  2. The internet age gave us multiplayer games. Cheating turned into a network process. Cheaters started thinking about categories of network delay and client-server architecture. This period reflected the general technical rise of society, when the internet ceased to be a luxury.
  3. 2010’s. Democratization of cheating started. Code editors and debuggers became available to every skilled computer user. In addition, the forums are teeming with available instructions.

Today, artificial intelligence has filled the Internet. It has opened new ways for honest and dishonest cheaters. Let’s see what cheating will look like in the coming decade.

Conclusion

Many honest gamers despise cheaters. It is a phenomenon akin to piracy in gaming. However, it will never disappear. Today, cheating has become a kind of cultural code in the gaming community all over the world.

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