Growing up when I was gaming in the 90s and on, I knew of the stigma of cheating in video games. You were seen as stupid, someone incapable of completing challenges on your own. You were seen as lowly, someone who can never go through life without cheating. Like, it was a pretty big deal as I grew up, hearing all of this for years on end.
I’ve been able to beat games without cheating, of course. But during my late teens and early adulthood, I just tried going past the stigma. Cheating in video games don’t necessarily reflect how you handle life and don’t translate. I’ve found it quite fun to cheat in video games. Probably not in multiplayer and especially on the receiving end.
I even use cheats just to beat games anymore, who the hell cares. People only care if you want to make a big deal about it, by showing it to everyone and boast how you’ve beaten a game in record times. I’ve tried beating some games head on without cheats but there just comes a point where you ask yourself if it is fun dying a hundred times at some part of a game. I don’t think so, personally.
So yeah, I don’t have the stigma anymore. I kinda like how gamers today only care about cheating if it was done in multiplayer or if you’re trying to beat a speedrunning record or some score record. Fun is meant to be how you find it.
Considering it’s very rare I am playing online outside of with friends, yes on occasion. With friends, I obviously don’t cheat because duh, but even for the one MMO I play, I don’t wanna risk being banned on a fan server for an MMO literally designed for kids. So, not for games against other players, though, unless everyone has the same advantages or an agreement is made.
As for singleplayer games, I see no harm, so at various points I might do it. Kinda game dependent, though. If speedup is considered cheating, then yes I cheat at Mindustry using a game speedup mod. Same with the mod that allows me to take control of and explode my units at will, which I barely use. Only ever need it to clear some units blocking my visibility when building in crampt sectors after capturing them, though.
Though, I heavily use cheats ( debug mode ) in the Pokemon Rejuvenation fangame jist because of how long and difficult it is on classic mode vs story mode ( normal vs easy difficulty ). Debug mode just speads so much stuff up it’s not funny. No need for me to worry about grinding EVs or wasting time if I have to run and grind exp candies to train another mon in my box.
Similar things can be said about other longer fangames that fall into the Reborn/Rejuv type very long and very story driven fangame category as well. I really like debug mode for those games because it just makes slogging through certain parts easier and less annoying in terms of not having to backtrack through an area to heal up.
Yeah, otherwise, I normally don’t cheat too much, but am not against it. Especially considering I really don’t care whether you cheat or not in a singleplayer game as long as you ain’t deceiving others about your usage/achievements using them.