I hadn't seen this post prior to now:
Here's the problem, you seem to be insulted when cheats are used in your games, you can put them in but people don't have to use them which is exactly the point.
Besides why do you even care when someone else does something with your game?
I also find it interesting that you seem to think that I'm hurling insults at you but you fail to realize that you were the one that came swinging over my comments total gungho in the first place and I had to defend myself and call you out on your behavior which you somehow find that "insulting" to you which sounds like psychological projection here.
All I thought I was doing was asking if cheat codes WERE possible. I'm just saying that having options are nice, doesn't mean I'll ever need them, but it's just nice to know they're there if I want and/or need them. You can put in all sorts of options to make the game(s) easier for those of us with disabilities of any kind, or those of us who are having trouble, but guess what, it's just that, an option, nobody has to use them, but the people who do will surely appreciate it.
I came in swinging because the way you worded your original premise suggested that you wanted to sequence break to hell and back because you were too impatient to play a game quote-unquote "properly" (quotes because this term's meaning is subjective as hell and I'm only mentioning it for the larger point--debating what it actually means is another discussion for another time). It would appear that you're far more reasonable than that first impression might've suggested and that I swung too hard out of the gate. For that, I am sorry. I will make no denials of any hypocrisies, but I will instead try to phrase my perspective better than I have thus far in the hopes that a more common ground can be reached, or at the very least
seen.Arguing whilst angry is the same kind of problem as shopping while hungry, and I really don't like being angry or want to be so about this anymore.
I don't have a problem with codes--be they infinite health, get items, start later, play as secret character, max stats, whatever. Those are something that I would put in
myself and would be at each player's
discretion to use them or not.
But going in and editing a save file to get everything is another story
entirely. That's not something I would plan for or put in myself, nor is it something which I as a developer can plan around like I can with codes. File editing is a very deliberate attempt at the ultimate extreme of sequence breaking, and it suggests the player doing it doesn't even
care about what efforts I or the team went to to provide a balanced difficulty and acquisition curve.
That's what I have a problem with and feel insulted by.
And it's like I said previously already: if a player's beaten the thing fully, I don't care
what they do after that. Hack it, break it, go in and edit all the graphics to be Mr. Saturn in a funny hat, I don't give a shit. You've beaten it "properly" already, you've experienced all of what we set out for you to experience, so if you wanna have a bit of fun tearing it all apart after that, go for it. It's tearing it apart
without being immersed in the full experience that bothers me.
To continue the chef-lasagna metaphor: it's like me wanting to be a chef for years, scrimping and saving and busting my ass to afford to go to cooking school and struggling through that to learn all the ropes and bells and whistles until finally settling down and making a success for myself at a nice restaurant. My specialty at said restaurant is a gourmet lasagna, one which calls for a meticulous and carefully-crafted recipe that I put my heart and soul into for the enjoyment of the diners. Now let's say a diner orders it, and when they realize it's going to take a little while for me to properly prepare it, they storm back into BOH and tell me to fuck off, they're just gonna go get a 3-minute microwave lasagna instead because they don't feel like waiting for me to cook theirs.
That would feel an insult to my pride as well as all the time and sweat and hard work I put forth in becoming that chef, right? Because someone would rather take the quick-and-easy route and blow off the hard work I would've gladly expended to give them an enjoyable meal?
That's more or less the reason I snapped at you so fiercely (which I will apologize for the delivery of--I can't say I'm sorry for feeling the way I do, so I won't bullshit you and say that I am, but I do feel sorry for how heavily I bit back, and I will not request its acceptance nor bear ill will should you choose to reject it).
I'm over here working my ass off to ensure an experience that is enjoyable and fair for as many people as I can humanly account for. I don't
expect to please everyone, but I'll be damned if I don't try. So to be over here working really bloody hard to that end behind the curtain, and then get blown off and treated like I
don't care, like I'm
not accounting for player perspective, or that wanting players to experience all that our worn and tired hands have wrought with antihacking/antipiracy measures is somehow evil or selfish or sadistic or inconsiderate, is certainly more than a little hurtful.
I can't say being compared to abusers, rapists, and all sorts of other things over simply disagreeing with you and defending my opinions, work, and pride as a developer (albeit more vehemently than might've been necessary) has been particularly pleasant, either. So now you (hopefully) can see why that last lash was
particularly fierce, and why I realized rather quickly that it was too far and altered it. I won't say I've been a saint here, but just as I've crossed a few lines with how hard I've been biting, so too is dropping very real and infinitely more serious and severe terms and insults like that over what really amounts to an Internet disagreement over game design. Things like swearing a lot in your general direction and being a sarcastic smartass in replying to you
really aren't comparable to the kinds of problems you decided to bring into it. Rape and abuse and
actual victim-blaming ruin
lives. Internet forum arguments and suggesting someone just might not be very good at a video game, not so much.
To answer your question, I care what people do with my work because it's
made for them. If I built a bicycle for my kid, I'd be concerned and invested in their not fiddling uncaringly with its mechanisms and risking injury or causing damage and ruining what would otherwise be a fun experience, no? It's kinda the same thing here. I care because I'm thinking of them
all the time, we're having arguments and deliberations beyond count on how best to cater to them
all the time, and it would be a huge shame and waste of effort for them to want to hack their way to victory instead of experience what we've worked so hard to craft for them.
I don't have delusions that I'll stop it entirely. Anyone who wants to break into the files badly enough will find a way to do so regardless of what security measures I install on them. But I value my work and the time put into it, and I wish to protect its integrity from people who don't
want to experience all that we've carefully planned out for them (things like a badly balanced or broken game are another matter entirely and ones I care about resolving just as much--simply wanting to break everything out of impatience is what I have a problem with here). Is that a little selfish? Probably, but I don't think it's to an
unreasonable degree, at least no more so than
any artist or crafter wanting to protect that which they have created.
People care about what we put our time into, and don't want to see all our hard work crumble at our feet. Especially when we can plan contingencies around those things which would cause it to crumble.
I
don't care about ingame codes. Not in the slightest. I have a whole list of ones I want to implement as it stands, from progress boosters to goofy shit like Goldeneye's DK mode. But deliberately breaking into data files to skip whole
massive sections of gameplay is something I cannot condone or justify. Not when
so much effort is being expended to give players as rich and enjoyable an experience as we can muster up. That kind of situation makes all our work having been in vain, and I'm
not okay with that. It's really not unlike spending all day preparing an extravagant meal for your family, only for the kids to throw it away and complain that they want McDonald's instead and throw fits when you tell them no--it'd piss off and annoy any parent or whomever in that situation, so it's only natural that it does the same for me in this situation. The kids might genuinely not be intending to slight the parents who slaved away cooking, they might just have an honest preference for fast food, but that doesn't make the slight or the parents' reactions and the message the kids' actions sent to them any less real or valid.
I'm really very sorry if you can't or don't understand this mindset. I'm honestly running out of ways to explain it without repeating myself, because I
do want you to understand. But I can't just up and make you understand--that ball's entirely in your court, and it's your prerogative to do with it what you wish.