Why So Many In Game Cheats?

With this thread I'm running the risk of looking like an idiot,but that's never stopped me before,so here it goes.Why do some programmers feel the need to add such a huge list of in-game cheats to a lot of today's games?The "GTA" series is a good example of this.My best guess for all the in-game cheats in the "GTA" series is because almost every title in the series are wicked hard to beat. Thoughts?


Godspeed.
Kaz

Makes some people actually want to buy a game.
And really, I haven't seen many games with cheats this generation of consoles, not like there used to be, anyway. Probably because of all the online, Trophies, achievements, etc.

ThravRande said:

Makes some people actually want to buy a game.
And really, I haven't seen many games with cheats this generation of consoles, not like there used to be, anyway. Probably because of all the online, Trophies, achievements, etc.

Click to expand...

Good Point(s).

I mean, I've never been into the GTA series, but a friend of mine bought it purely for the free roam, and used cheats to make it fun without doing hardly anything in the game.
Kinda like how I like Just Cause 2. I've played the Steam demo for 38 hours, because I have an infinite time cheat, infinite money cheat, and buttloads of extra cars in my black market menu. I may very well have had more fun playing the demo than the actual game. I just wish there wasn't a boundary, so I could go out and explore some more. It's just fun for me to be able to spawn a helicopter as soon as the game starts, fly to the tallest mountain, parachute out of the copter onto the mountain, spawn a bus, and drive it off the mountain eventually crashing into the ocean. Then I swim to shore and shoot it with a rocket launcher. That's fun. But not possible without cheats.

Hmm I never found any GTA's that hard to beat, I think they are just perfect on the difficulty level. As for the cheats I really can't imagine games like GTA without them. They add so many more hours of entertainment once you have beaten the game. Same with Goldeneye, the cheats really added a lot to that game.

Because some people find it fun to mess around with them. Also, sometimes it's helpful when your fustrated with a game and just want to progress forward, though I doubt that's why cheats are left in the first place. I admit to using cheats but it's my enjoyment that counts for me, not if I can impress others with my gaming skills.

Also, now some games "punish" you for cheating. In Red Dead Redemption, if you cheat you can't save your game or get achivements. Saints Row 2 prevents you from getting achivements and it marks your game to state you've cheated, like a bad boy.

In fact, I would say that cheats in games has drastically fallen since the 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit era, which not saw lots of games have cheats (whenever via commands or passwords) but devices such as Game Genie, Action Replay and CodeShark were widely avilable for you to "hack" your games to give you infinite lives, infinite health, etc. (of course, you could a few times find codes in those devices to make games harder).

PC games are where you'll find the most cheats, especially Western RPG's, even today.

If you don't like cheats, don't use them. Sure developers could leave them out but if they leave them in, it's not like they are forcing you to use them. If you give in, use them and than complain they make the game "boring" then you only have yourself to blame. As ThravRande points out, cheats can be used to create some wicked fun.

http://www.egameaddiction.com/forums/index.php?topic=18081.0;topicseen

^ that

Or, programmers add cheats in the programming stage to assist with bug fixes and speed up the gameplay so bugs can be discovered.

Sometimes cheats are added as "easter egg" bonuses.

I actually think that most games have a serious lack of cheats lately. It seems most mainstream games don't have them like they used to.