31 ms·

It's pretty ridiculous for companies ban the alleged cheaters in single player modes too which shouldn't require any server dependencies.

phone8675309 4y ago
Blizzard's PC games, since Diablo III, all require an online connection to play even single player specifically to prevent privacy.
- blue039 4y ago
  > specifically to prevent privacy. I appreciate this typo on a spiritual level.
  - intelVISA 4y ago
    Freudian keyboard
- gambiting 4y ago
  Well, the argument with Diablo 3 was that the game had an in-game auction house on launch, where you could sell in-game items for real money. So the game had to be fully online to make sure items are only generated when really earned. Of course the auction house disappeared and the requirement to always be online didn't(having said that, the console versions of diablo 3 don't require being online - but from what I understand significant portion of the game was rewritten to allow the game to work online, on consoles, and with a gamepad)
incongruity 4y ago
And, tbh, wtf does it matter if I wanted to "cheat" in single player mode? Oh no - it would be unfair to some AI NPCs? At one point "cheating" in single player mode was called modding -- and it drove communities and made software publishers money by keeping games fresher longer.
- aranelsurion 4y ago
  Then you wouldn't buy the horse armor. [1] That's most probably why. Some companies sell XP boosters and other P2W crap for even SP games nowadays. [1] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/horse-armor https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/horse-armor
- hanafudafan 4y ago
  In the USA at least this could be a felony DMCA violation.
- cstrahan 4y ago
  I agree. What I find unfortunate is that most single player games are now designed to be incredibly grindy: the developers want player retention so there’s more buzz about the game, resulting in more purchases. I’m in my mid thirties, and I have career ambitions and hobbies and relationships that I want to nurture. While I would love something I can play and enjoy for 15-30 minutes every other day, I don’t have time for something that takes 5+ hours just to feel the slightest amount of reward. Cheats can take a game that’s designed to be grindy and addictive and instead make it something that can be enjoyed in smaller chunks. An excellent example of this is Breath of the Wild. BotW requires a ton of slow terrain traversal (at least until you’ve unlocked more fast travel points, and even then the walking/gliding takes quite a while). Playing the game with a mod to enable 5x movement speed makes it a game that I can actually enjoy playing for 15 minutes at a time. Also, it takes something like 45-60 seconds for the game to reload when you die, so temporarily having an invincibility cheat on makes it feasible for me to figure out an enemy’s move set, whereas without I would either have to cheese the enemies or give up on the game entirely: what I’m not going to do is sit down with a hard cap of 15 minutes, die fifteen times, getting a total play time of maybe a minute of actual game play plus 14 minutes or so of loading screen, and then come back the next couple nights to do same thing over again. A touch of cheats make modern games actually playable to someone who has a busy schedule, but still wants something to decompress with.
  - taink 4y ago
    Breath of the Wild has probably in part been designed the way it was because Nintendo knew you could take your switch with you during travel; 15mn seems like a difficult goal to achieve for an exploration-focused game. That said, I agree that anyone should be able to modify a local (that is, local coop/multiplayer or singleplayer) game's behavior to suit their needs.

phone8675309 4y ago

Blizzard's PC games, since Diablo III, all require an online connection to play even single player specifically to prevent privacy.

blue039 4y ago
> specifically to prevent privacy. I appreciate this typo on a spiritual level.
- intelVISA 4y ago
  Freudian keyboard
gambiting 4y ago
Well, the argument with Diablo 3 was that the game had an in-game auction house on launch, where you could sell in-game items for real money. So the game had to be fully online to make sure items are only generated when really earned. Of course the auction house disappeared and the requirement to always be online didn't(having said that, the console versions of diablo 3 don't require being online - but from what I understand significant portion of the game was rewritten to allow the game to work online, on consoles, and with a gamepad)

incongruity 4y ago

And, tbh, wtf does it matter if I wanted to "cheat" in single player mode? Oh no - it would be unfair to some AI NPCs? At one point "cheating" in single player mode was called modding -- and it drove communities and made software publishers money by keeping games fresher longer.

aranelsurion 4y ago
Then you wouldn't buy the horse armor. [1] That's most probably why. Some companies sell XP boosters and other P2W crap for even SP games nowadays. [1] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/horse-armor https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/horse-armor
hanafudafan 4y ago
In the USA at least this could be a felony DMCA violation.
cstrahan 4y ago
I agree. What I find unfortunate is that most single player games are now designed to be incredibly grindy: the developers want player retention so there’s more buzz about the game, resulting in more purchases. I’m in my mid thirties, and I have career ambitions and hobbies and relationships that I want to nurture. While I would love something I can play and enjoy for 15-30 minutes every other day, I don’t have time for something that takes 5+ hours just to feel the slightest amount of reward. Cheats can take a game that’s designed to be grindy and addictive and instead make it something that can be enjoyed in smaller chunks. An excellent example of this is Breath of the Wild. BotW requires a ton of slow terrain traversal (at least until you’ve unlocked more fast travel points, and even then the walking/gliding takes quite a while). Playing the game with a mod to enable 5x movement speed makes it a game that I can actually enjoy playing for 15 minutes at a time. Also, it takes something like 45-60 seconds for the game to reload when you die, so temporarily having an invincibility cheat on makes it feasible for me to figure out an enemy’s move set, whereas without I would either have to cheese the enemies or give up on the game entirely: what I’m not going to do is sit down with a hard cap of 15 minutes, die fifteen times, getting a total play time of maybe a minute of actual game play plus 14 minutes or so of loading screen, and then come back the next couple nights to do same thing over again. A touch of cheats make modern games actually playable to someone who has a busy schedule, but still wants something to decompress with.
- taink 4y ago
  Breath of the Wild has probably in part been designed the way it was because Nintendo knew you could take your switch with you during travel; 15mn seems like a difficult goal to achieve for an exploration-focused game. That said, I agree that anyone should be able to modify a local (that is, local coop/multiplayer or singleplayer) game's behavior to suit their needs.