The Temptation of the Cheater
This article was submitted to us by regular contributor John Hummel. Check out his YouTube page for his new series “Comparative Gaming 101”.
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I admit. I’m a cheater. But you don’t understand the temptation. It’s a grind, day in, day out, the same thing. The banality gets to you. You just want to move on. To be done with it, so get that release that you crave.
So I start looking for how to get around the rules. Those ways to keep undetected, shuffle some things around so I can get my fix. After all, nobody has to no. Nobody will be hurt as long as I keep it to myself, right?
Yet - even if all that is true, why do I feel like a schmuck for trying to edit the save game on my copy of Pokemon Emerald?
Off and on for years now, I’ve been playing through all of the Pokemon games. Earlier this year, I played through Pokemon Yellow - the original Game Boy Color game, and then played through Pokemon Red, then used the save game and an old tool to copy over my Pokemon Red save game file over to my Pokemon Blue cartridge instead of playing the game for a *third* time, so I could catch the last few Pokemon I needed. Other than that shortcut, I didn’t use any cheats (I did use a glitch to capture Mew). No Gameshark, no other codes - just playing the games, go to each location to find each Pokemon, using all of the tricks and tools to capture those hard to catch legendary Pokemon - and finally using my MasterBall on the powerful Mew2 himself.
So why with Emerald is the challenge to stay “pure” so hard? I played through both Pokemon FireRed for the Gameboy Advance and Pokemon LeafGreen for the same - no cheats, just going through the game. But something about Emerald has just been rubbing me the wrong way. Maybe it’s the higher level of backtracking in the game, or how it feels like a bigger “fight lots of Pokemon to level up really high to take on the gym leaders” kind of game.
It feels more grinding, more repetition in fighting enemies over and over and over again to become powerful enough, and it’s wearing me down.
The temptation to cheat in other games has always been there. I’ll confess - I used the “God Mode” to get through the last 25% of the game Doom 3. Not because it was that difficult, but because it was a kind of boring game. I just wanted to get through the end.
I recently finished playing Fallout 3, and actually started the game 3 times because the temptation to cheat and enhance my character was so strong. The start of the game was so difficult I found myself typing in those tasty tasty cheats and giving myself a little pick me up, then just a little more - and next thing you know, I was sprawled out in my office chair while my character had leapt to nearly godlike status.
Ultimately, I’m glad I played the game “pure.” After awhile, I either got better, or my character got strong enough to handle the challenges. Over time, the temptation went away.
So I know as tempted as I am to just cheat at Pokemon Emerald - I’ll leave it as it is. Maybe it’s even best to take a break from the game for awhile, let it stew, and then come back to it and go the final slot to defeat the Elite Four. I already know it’s going to be a hard battle, that I’ll want to throw my old silver Game Boy Advance across the room when I get wiped out by a flying dragon type using *Earthquake* of all things on my electric type Pokemon -
But I also know victory will taste that much sweeter when I *do* win.