Is this the message we are sending today's youth?

In the era of console-game's huge popularity and multi-billion dollar annual revenues, are the kids being sent this message: That not only is it okay to cheat but doing so makes the game more enjoyable?

Developers started putting secret codes put into them after the trend might have started on the personal computer game products. Now, there are hundreds of sites that not only tout the best reviews for current games, but they have the largest selection of downloads and cheats. Ever time I visit one, it's sensory overload for the sheer amount of chaotic graphics that appear to be fighting for space. And the word cheat is on the front page of every one of them... or almost all.

The site gets users to register to learn the strategy hint's and basic game tips. Originally, that may have been where the word cheat began. If a player read the entire manual and everything they could find online, they had an advantage just by knowing all of it's inner-workings. Now, you don't have to leave your game of "The Sims" up and running for days to earn the in-game money. There is a key combination that you hit a few times and it runs it up into the hundreds of thousands in short order. Grand Theft Auto allows you to enter a few button sequences and wa-lah! You have access to vehicles and weapons as never before (plus the money cheat being in this game as well).

Now is that fun to people? The children today pick up so quickly on computers and games that they'd be able to unlock it within the 2-4 days solid they do not come out of their room. That's an extreme case, but it's close sometimes. Now they just go online and find out the best way to get everything they want without having to complete the goals within the game itself.

And it's probably carrying over to real life. They may be getting the message that it is okay to cheat in person... and not only in games, but sports and even within school and any jobs soon after. Are these some of the reasons there are more hot checks written? Is this spurring the trend of high-school and college atheletes using performance-enhancing drugs? I watched the movie "Friday Night Lights" recently. Yes, Texans do take high-school football that seriously! I'd been to a few games and you wouldn't believe how much the parents/coaches scream at the players on the field. Did they learn it was good to win at any cost by the past brain-washing of doing 'whatever it takes' to get it done? We know how badly they want to compete and how much more so they are wanting to win.

In free poker, the younger crowd often steals chips. They grab them, take them home and keep them until the next time they come to play. To me, it's not fun or funny. It doesn't make the game more enjoyable. Maybe they have pride in knowing they took home $10,000 in play-chip value. I'm sorry, even in the days of questionable behaviour (such as when I used to shop-lift), it wasn't so much as feeling it was cheating anyone, but it exemplifies the point to the tune of the song with the lyrics "I want my M-TV...".

"Something for nothing.... and the cheats for free".

Game cheats are like dessert (sp: I know better >_< ). You should try eatting your main course first.

They're suppose to be more of a bonus. A lot of them don't even offer REAL advantages, things like skin cheats and the like you can't get any other way.

If I rent a game, I'll use the cheats before I return it because I don't have unlimited time to spend playing it.

I agree with Z, about it being the "dessert" and all. Thats why I love it when alot of coumpter games make it so you have to go into the program file, create a new pathway, and all that for the game in order to use cheat codes. It keeps most people from using them right away.

But I do have to point out, Rancer, that yes, it is fun. After the game is done, I always go back an insert some cheats and play it again. It tons of fun being able to use both light and darkside powesr in JKII. Its fun being able to run through a Goldeneye level with a Moonraker Laser.

Its not fun to say you completed it just using those types of things, it takes the fun out of "winning." But it is awesome to do after, and just experiment.

Yes, you should at least try to win the game on your own. I use cheats only in GTA because I screw around on that game and if you ever played GTA weapon cheats and such have no effect on missions really, any other game I try to beat without them, it's usually pretty easy when you get the hang of it, it's not like these cheats are mandotory to win the game. I agree with Delta about how it takes the fun out of winning and the feeling of accomplishment.

If people don't play through the game first without using cheat codes, that's their loss. As long as they don't act like they earned or accomplished something, I don't care.