I don’t find shame in cheating in video games. It was a stigma to hear about growing up, that cheating in video games meant you prefer the shortcuts in life or that you didn’t know what earning anything was. When, that was all just bullshit talk.
I cheat in video games, when available to on some games, to give me a little kick of fun. Sometimes I don’t have the patience to tediously go through the standard way. Other times, I feel I’ve earned it anyways, because of having undergone the stresses and frustrations or the time I’ve played of certain games to go through the normal way.
Like in Terraria, it’s a game I’ve clocked in upwards of 900 hours. I felt like I had done everything in the game prior to the content that added the Moon Lord and many other things. At that time, it was 850 hours.
So the point of the matter is, yeah I don’t find it that big of a deal to cheat in video games. If I cared to and want to, I’m decent enough to handle games without cheats, given enough time.
Multiplayer of course I never cheat in those.
IDDQD, IDKFA, ⬆️⬆️⬇️⬇️⬅️➡️⬅️➡️B,A,Start, are the ones I know off the top of my head. Tons of people don’t want to grind, just sandbox, so you get city and people sims with infinite cash codes.
I guess what I’m getting at is, if they weren’t called cheat codes, would it even be considered cheating? Cheating usually involves someone being harmed or cheated out of something (money, love). Are there any victims in this case (strictly single player, of course)? I’d argue that you even lose out if you aren’t using codes, cuz you might say ‘fuck it’, and just move on to another thing (like your Terraria example).
Heck, we might as well tie this up with something modern and political, like right to repair. If you bought the software, you should be free to manipulate it, all the way up to (but not including) distributing your version for money. Single player cheating is about as harmful as a nice masturbation sesh.
Literally every time someone says the words “Cheat Codes”, my brain says to me “IDDQD”. Then I answer it back with “IDKFA”. Cause I talk to my brain. Those are in there forever. Rent free.
Its more fun to use IDDQD and then IDCHOPPERS. you still have to play and find the keys/weapons but you get a chainsaw immediately. Running around invincible with a chainsaw is a good memory of that game for me.