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 Forum index » Meta » General META Discussion
Cheat Codes and Walk-thrus...
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jlr1001
Decorated

Joined: 06 Jun 2006
Posts: 210

 		Cheat Codes and Walk-thrus...
I was just sitting here thinking about past discussions of whether decompiling flash files, using ip/domain reg searches to discover undisclosed in-game sites, and other similar player activies were "valid" or not.

This led me to the (sorta) video game analogs of using cheat codes and walk-through guides. Since there's something of an industry around publishing those gameplay "aids" and you never hear the developers crying "foul"--or I haven't heard any crying, anyway--I'm left to think that those are considered healthy forms of player engagement.

Could the same be said when ARG players game the game?

Above, I said that my examples were kind of analogous. I hedged there because the only obvious distinction between the two genres of games is that releasing info from decompiled code or what not has a direct impact on how everyone else plays...

With that being a given, can any make the case that it's still healthy to game the game?



-jlr1001

PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:47 am
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catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA

 		In the old days, before people expected strange websites to be a game, our job was to DIG until we found the truth about what was going on. Digging was how you found out it was just a game and who was behind it.

Now we begin with the knowledge that a strange website *is* just a game, with authors behind it. There is no need to dig to establish that fact. Now digging becomes a way to plow thru the game to accomplish the game's goals, not our own. This is where the gray area lies.

I say go for it, but put what you find in spoiler tags.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:33 am
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thebruce
Dances With Wikis


Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 6899
Location: Kitchener, Ontario

 		Re: Cheat Codes and Walk-thrus...
jlr1001 wrote:
This led me to the (sorta) video game analogs of using cheat codes and walk-through guides. Since there's something of an industry around publishing those gameplay "aids" and you never hear the developers crying "foul"--or I haven't heard any crying, anyway--I'm left to think that those are considered healthy forms of player engagement.

It's an interesting analogy really. As you said, cheats and such for games are 'fair game' on a personal level - they allow you to experience the game however you like. But we see when the game becomes a community one - online games, MMO's and whatnot, that the rules are hardened, cheaters are punished, crackers and hackers are blocked, etc. The point to a multiplayer game essentially is that everyone's on the same level.

So how does that follow through to ARGs? Players can't really be punished, in the meta sense, they effectively can do what they want - gamejack, mislead, break games, etc. Unfortunately, there aren't any 'rules' that can be enforced, so all we can do is encourage each other to be team players in a sense, respect the community, try to help maintain a level playing field.

On an ARG to ARG basis, that level can change a lot, depending on who's playing, on the skill and abilities of the puppetmasters, and other factors.

So when it comes to how players individually play the game, once again it's all fair game, IMO. But once you interact with the community, with no real authority to implement rules and consequences for 'cheating', players are left to hopefully play fairly and respectfully given what the particular community feels is fair.

In the matter of flash, there could be games where the PM is fairly new at programming, so decompiling a flash might give away the entire game. In that case usually it's pretty obvious that would kill the game for anyone else...
In some games, the PMs are very very advanced and skilled, and may expect players to decompile, possibly even leaving messages in the source for the players. In those games, it's likely that revealing the result of a decompile won't upset the community or other players, because the game itself isn't affected.

So really, there are no hard and fast rules, it just comes down to understanding and respecting your fellow players when it comes to 'uncouth' actions, and well, whether you even care about that Razz. You could argue that decompiling a flash and revealing steps in the game might encourage the PM to make it harder for others to 'cheat' in the future, in which case, I'd say what's the best way to accomplishing that result without potentially ruining the game for other people?

Even the action of brute forcing was at one point lauded as fair game, though generally it's frowned upon because of technical issues. A PM might build something expecting, or even requiring brute force. That's their choice. So whether a player decides to brute force something, it might take a little more contemplating, since generally it's not a good idea, but again, there's no rule against it (still, favour avoiding it, can't stress that enough, imo =)

I guess all I'm saying is, there's really no "cheating" in an ARG - if it's for yourself, then ultimately I say it's fair game. But once you include the community in any way (either sharing results, like getting a puzzle solution without solving it legitimately, or the action itself having an effect on game mechincs, like brute forcing causing a server crash), you need to weigh in additional factors about whether you either share the 'cheat' and results, or even do it in the first place.
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:33 am
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krystyn
I Never Tire of My Own Voice


Joined: 26 Sep 2002
Posts: 3651
Location: Is not Chicago

 		Assuming that you don't have to dig anymore is a pretty big assumption. I've seen "veteran" ARGers miss some pretty interesting plot things or puzzle pieces - only to be snapped up by newer peeps whose wonder is still fresh and curious.

I mean, it's not like I have an eye for designing stuff just to fool players, cos that's just sorta dumb unless there's a good in-game reason for it, but it's not like the old stuff just stops working because puppetmasters stop using it for a while. Domain registration and source code and flash decompiling and such can still be just as useful in the future. It just may not be in vogue, is all.
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PostPosted: Thu May 01, 2008 12:44 am
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thegreatpablo
Boot

Joined: 11 Jul 2007
Posts: 62

 		While I understand that digging around can cause some damage to a game, my understanding was that the entire genre (though it's still budding and developing) was that there were no "boundaries" to the game world so to speak. That all real life tools were fair game as long as they remained IG.

PostPosted: Thu May 01, 2008 1:10 am
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