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Looking at the title you’ll probably be thinking that this topic is about people cheating in games. Using cheats for invincibility for example or manipulating something or other to give you extra power. Or something along those lines. Well that’s not what this topic is about. This is about the GAMES THEMSELVES cheating.
Mario Kart 64 is probably the best example I’ve seen of this. Have you noticed that when you use a mushroom or a golden mushroom, that you don’t get very far away from the computer players. If you haven’t noticed, go and play and see for yourself. You seen that? Good. Now there are two sides to this argument so I’m going to express both of them.
Firstly I could argue that this is extremely annoying. Which it is. The fact that you use a turbo boost only to get nowhere is extremely tiresome. I know it frustrates me greatly, it frustrates my sister as well when she plays on it.
But then again I could argue that the game only does this to add an extra incentive to the game. To make it more challenging. Which, of course, it does. If and when you win the race you feel a little bit better because you won even though the computer was cheating. In this sense it’s a good thing, but the fact is that the computers cheating.
You think this is the only time it happens? MK64 again, if the computer player gets hit with something they get blown up like you do, but then they speed off at full speed without needing to build it up at all. Whereas you have to build up your speed until it peaks again. This is VERY annoying to me.
It’s not only in Mario Kart that cheating occurs. In the original Excitebike on the NES, when you crash your rider gets flung from the bike and so has to leg it back and jump on again. When the computer players crash though, they stay on their bike and resume driving immediately. It’s quite disturbing to see cheating like this so early on the life of video games.
As I’ve said. This can sometimes be good, because it makes it tougher and so prolongs the lastability. But surely cheating’s wrong, I mean weren’t you told by your parents that cheating is bad and immoral when you were young? I was.
So why is it there? Do the developers and creators of the games put this in on purpose? Do they intentionally frustrate people by allowing certain privileges to computer controlled characters? Or is it merely a bug?
RBS
Mario Kart 64 is probably the best example I’ve seen of this. Have you noticed that when you use a mushroom or a golden mushroom, that you don’t get very far away from the computer players. If you haven’t noticed, go and play and see for yourself. You seen that? Good. Now there are two sides to this argument so I’m going to express both of them.
Firstly I could argue that this is extremely annoying. Which it is. The fact that you use a turbo boost only to get nowhere is extremely tiresome. I know it frustrates me greatly, it frustrates my sister as well when she plays on it.
But then again I could argue that the game only does this to add an extra incentive to the game. To make it more challenging. Which, of course, it does. If and when you win the race you feel a little bit better because you won even though the computer was cheating. In this sense it’s a good thing, but the fact is that the computers cheating.
You think this is the only time it happens? MK64 again, if the computer player gets hit with something they get blown up like you do, but then they speed off at full speed without needing to build it up at all. Whereas you have to build up your speed until it peaks again. This is VERY annoying to me.
It’s not only in Mario Kart that cheating occurs. In the original Excitebike on the NES, when you crash your rider gets flung from the bike and so has to leg it back and jump on again. When the computer players crash though, they stay on their bike and resume driving immediately. It’s quite disturbing to see cheating like this so early on the life of video games.
As I’ve said. This can sometimes be good, because it makes it tougher and so prolongs the lastability. But surely cheating’s wrong, I mean weren’t you told by your parents that cheating is bad and immoral when you were young? I was.
So why is it there? Do the developers and creators of the games put this in on purpose? Do they intentionally frustrate people by allowing certain privileges to computer controlled characters? Or is it merely a bug?
RBS
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How come in racing games you always start offf in 8th position, and when you clip a wall or barrier in say GT2 you slow down and suddenly all the drivers zoom past you??
Yea!
Strafex wrote:
> F-Zero X wasn't actually a cheater.
The computer players just had
> an unfair advantage, starting at the front of the pack.
Sorry, I meant F-Zero on the GBA. I it gets even more difficult knowing that one throw against the wall can break your GBA, iunlike with the N64's controller.
> F-Zero X wasn't actually a cheater.
The computer players just had
> an unfair advantage, starting at the front of the pack.
Sorry, I meant F-Zero on the GBA. I it gets even more difficult knowing that one throw against the wall can break your GBA, iunlike with the N64's controller.
Yes I find it quite disturbing that on many games that the ccomputer can stay on track and you can't.
Another example, F1 world grand prix. When do they ever crash????
Toca2 on the other hand gives you the light at the end of the tunnel because they do spin off and they do crash.
Why can't all games do this?
Another example, F1 world grand prix. When do they ever crash????
Toca2 on the other hand gives you the light at the end of the tunnel because they do spin off and they do crash.
Why can't all games do this?
hey, Gassy. Reply to my Global Gaming topic please... or read it at least!
F-zero maximum velocity is a real dastard when it comes to cheating, you can save up all of your boosts, get to the front, use ALL of the boosts and the computer still passes by you, it really p**ses me off!
GasMask wrote:
> Yes I find it quite disturbing that on many games that the ccomputer
> can stay on track and you can't.
Another example, F1 world grand
> prix. When do they ever crash????
Toca2 on the other hand gives
> you the light at the end of the tunnel because they do spin off and
> they do crash.
Why can't all games do this?
The riders in Excitebike 64 crash :-D
> Yes I find it quite disturbing that on many games that the ccomputer
> can stay on track and you can't.
Another example, F1 world grand
> prix. When do they ever crash????
Toca2 on the other hand gives
> you the light at the end of the tunnel because they do spin off and
> they do crash.
Why can't all games do this?
The riders in Excitebike 64 crash :-D
I think you're right RBS, and driving games seem to be the worst culprit of this. I don't think it's actually cheating most of the time, just that it's easier fo the AI to focus on a set course and speed, and lazy programming means that crashes and slow-downs are few and far between for enemies.
AI is quite difficult to program, especially when making enemies that fail at points where a human player would, one way is to let the game 'learn' by making the programmers play the game over and over again and using this data to run the AI of the computer controlled characters. Perfect enemies really annoy me, there's nothing worse that getting around a corner in a driving game and finding that someone who was a mile behind you has suddenly past you and whizzed up to the finishing line. This is why online gaming has survived the poor reponse time and problems it has, because people want to play other people rather than a computer controlled character.
AI is quite difficult to program, especially when making enemies that fail at points where a human player would, one way is to let the game 'learn' by making the programmers play the game over and over again and using this data to run the AI of the computer controlled characters. Perfect enemies really annoy me, there's nothing worse that getting around a corner in a driving game and finding that someone who was a mile behind you has suddenly past you and whizzed up to the finishing line. This is why online gaming has survived the poor reponse time and problems it has, because people want to play other people rather than a computer controlled character.
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