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June 2003
Before I begin, I thought I'd remind all of you out there that in July many of your CT staffers will be in San Diego, California for this year's Comic Con. I have a couple of interviews tentatively lined up, and others here on the staff will be wrangling up conversations with prominent folks in the comics and gaming worlds. If you're at the Con, watch for some of us, and don't hesitate to walk up and introduce yourself if you see me. I'd love to meet some of our readers in person. I'll be easy to spot as I'm planning on wearing my wizard costume that's displayed on my staff bio page. If you can't make it out to the Con, watch these pages starting with the August issue for our reports, interviews, and hopefully some cool photos.
This month, I'm going to turn my attention to a slightly ranting discussion of something that will affect any gamer sooner or later, namely, cheaters. In any game, whether it's a physical sport, or a board game, a computer game, or what have you, rules are established to be sure that the outcome of the game is determined by the parameters of the competition. That could mean skill, strategy, the random "roll of the dice", or a combination thereof. Rules keep the base runner in baseball from carrying the bat with him and beating the first baseman senseless to avoid getting tagged out. Instead, the base runner must hit the ball well enough, and run fast enough, to avoid the "out".
Cheaters, though, seem to have this idea that rules do not apply to them. Rather than work on improving their gaming abilities, they try and go outside the rules to gain an unfair advantage. The thrill of the competition isn't what matters to them. The only thing that matters to them is the façade of winning. Seriously, though, as I've mentioned in this column before, unless there is a chance that you could lose, there is also no thrill in winning.
In the on-line game we play, cheaters will exploit bugs to gain things that they haven't earned, either by stealing the items from other players, or by bypassing the "challenge" to get them. Not only are these cheaters detracting from the effort put out by those players who accomplished things in the game legitimately, they're also stealing some of the fun away from the players who keep the rules. While so many of our game "items" are simply "virtual" and not real (whether it's loot acquired in a DnD game, or loot acquired in an on-line game, or dollars "earned" in a Monopoly game, it's all "make believe" when you come down to it), it still represents the time and effort of playing the game and overcoming the obstacles of the contest. When someone cheats, it can rob us of enthusiasm for the effort we put into playing. After all, who wants to play Monopoly with someone who constantly slips money out of the bank rather than "earning" it the way the game intended? I know I don't.
The ultimate outrage in all of this is the attitude that I've seen some of the cheaters take. Not only are they cheaters, but they're PROUD of being cheaters. Some of them seem to think that it's some accomplishment to figure out a way to cheat, and not just by finding a "loophole" in the rules, but by flagrantly disregarding the rules. When challenged about their cheating, they act as though anyone who doesn't cheat is simply too stupid to figure out the system they used to subvert the rules. In short, they add insult to the injury.
Cheating is nothing to be proud of. The world is not impressed by those who cheat, and "winning" by breaking the rules is not winning at all. Cheaters are, in fact, the biggest losers of all, because they not only rob themselves of the real accomplishment of competing, they also make themselves odious to other people. Cheaters aren't welcome in gaming groups, and while they can migrate from one to another each time they're caught and expelled, sooner or later they'll start running out of venues where they're not known. Even if they change their ways and no longer cheat, the reputation will follow them for a long time, and anytime they win they will be eyed with suspicion by those who knew of their former proclivities.
We game to have fun, and if you're cheating, you're not fun to have along. Don't be surprised when you fail to get invited to the next session.
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