04-17-2003, 11:26 PM
I have to agree here that rushing, while it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, is not cheating. It's unfortunate that it's so prevalent in the game, and I have much less respect for characters (my own included) who were rushed than those who did the work themselves. However, let's face it. In public gaming, solo, act 1 normal is boring. It sucks. Seriously. Particularly softcore. I mean, I'm a bad player. I don't play HC often (read: ever) because my characters would probably not make it past act 3 normal without dying. But even I can make it through normal difficulty, with virtually any skills, untwinked (again, SC).
I like the challenges in this game -- but the challenge of agonizing through act 1 normal because blizzard decided that every single character MUST be spoonfed the early acts to "earn" the right to play in nightmare and hell difficulties is not a challenge I want to deal with every time I decide to start a new character. Is this cheesy? Absolutely. It's pathetic. But it allows me to truly enjoy my character.
Now I understand that it's easy to come up with good reasons for any kind of cheating. However, you have to draw the line somewhere. Not everything is cheating, just because it's cheesy.
As a side note, I was thinking the other day about how the game is almost designed as if blizzard wants you to rush your characters. I mean, regardless of the "sliding scale" for experience based on character level, we all know you can earn more experience in one 90 second hell cow game than an hour of playing almost anywhere else in the game, even if you don't touch a single monster in the process. Furthermore, the clvl-mlvl curve, the bane of all melee characters who try to solo the game without repeating areas for experience, changes from a hindrance to a benefit after enough cheesy leveling. Blizzard simultaneously made the game so dependent on character level (thus making a characters power increase exponentially as his character level increases) AND made it unbelievably quick and easy to level characters (particularly low level characters) by rushing as opposed to actually playing the game. It's as if they noticed that the vast majority of D1 players always used duped items (the "instant gratification" crowd), and purposely threw in loopholes (and we're not even going to touch the "cheat-proff realms" here). Then they boast about how "no character can solo-8 hell any more." Right. *cough cough*
For the purposes of "cheating" vs "cheesy," I propose the following devide. Quite simply, anything not allowed by the game is cheating. That means hacked/duped items, 3rd party programs, etc. Loopholes in the game are cheesy. So rushing is not cheating, although it isn't really "playing" the game.
Obviously everyone is entitled to their own opinions about this. However, if we start saying that rushing is cheating, where do you draw the line? Is partying with any characters more than 5 (or even less) levels than you cheating? It makes the game a whole lot easier than soloing. On that note, partying at all makes the game much easier. Should we all play hostile towards each other, all the time, in order to keep up the challenge? (NB// there is a team variant called the "friendly fire party" or some such, that does just this. Sounds hard but fun!).
The point is that while we may not approve of abusing certain loopholes in the game, calling them cheating is the first step on a very steep, very slippery slope. For that reason, I think we need to be willing to allow others to play as they see fit -- providing they are no "cheating." And while we may never agree on what is or is not cheating, let's all remember than nit-picking doesn't help anyone. Let's all be williing to give people the benefit of the doubt.
That being said -- all you dirty cheaters: darn you all to heck. That's right. You know who you are.
I like the challenges in this game -- but the challenge of agonizing through act 1 normal because blizzard decided that every single character MUST be spoonfed the early acts to "earn" the right to play in nightmare and hell difficulties is not a challenge I want to deal with every time I decide to start a new character. Is this cheesy? Absolutely. It's pathetic. But it allows me to truly enjoy my character.
Now I understand that it's easy to come up with good reasons for any kind of cheating. However, you have to draw the line somewhere. Not everything is cheating, just because it's cheesy.
As a side note, I was thinking the other day about how the game is almost designed as if blizzard wants you to rush your characters. I mean, regardless of the "sliding scale" for experience based on character level, we all know you can earn more experience in one 90 second hell cow game than an hour of playing almost anywhere else in the game, even if you don't touch a single monster in the process. Furthermore, the clvl-mlvl curve, the bane of all melee characters who try to solo the game without repeating areas for experience, changes from a hindrance to a benefit after enough cheesy leveling. Blizzard simultaneously made the game so dependent on character level (thus making a characters power increase exponentially as his character level increases) AND made it unbelievably quick and easy to level characters (particularly low level characters) by rushing as opposed to actually playing the game. It's as if they noticed that the vast majority of D1 players always used duped items (the "instant gratification" crowd), and purposely threw in loopholes (and we're not even going to touch the "cheat-proff realms" here). Then they boast about how "no character can solo-8 hell any more." Right. *cough cough*
For the purposes of "cheating" vs "cheesy," I propose the following devide. Quite simply, anything not allowed by the game is cheating. That means hacked/duped items, 3rd party programs, etc. Loopholes in the game are cheesy. So rushing is not cheating, although it isn't really "playing" the game.
Obviously everyone is entitled to their own opinions about this. However, if we start saying that rushing is cheating, where do you draw the line? Is partying with any characters more than 5 (or even less) levels than you cheating? It makes the game a whole lot easier than soloing. On that note, partying at all makes the game much easier. Should we all play hostile towards each other, all the time, in order to keep up the challenge? (NB// there is a team variant called the "friendly fire party" or some such, that does just this. Sounds hard but fun!).
The point is that while we may not approve of abusing certain loopholes in the game, calling them cheating is the first step on a very steep, very slippery slope. For that reason, I think we need to be willing to allow others to play as they see fit -- providing they are no "cheating." And while we may never agree on what is or is not cheating, let's all remember than nit-picking doesn't help anyone. Let's all be williing to give people the benefit of the doubt.
That being said -- all you dirty cheaters: darn you all to heck. That's right. You know who you are.
"Life is sacred and you are not its steward. You have stewardship over it but you don't own it. You're making a choice to go through this, it's not just happening to you. You're inviting it, and in some ways delighting in it. It's not accidental or coincidental. You're choosing it. You have to realize you've made choices."
-Michael Ventura, "Letters@3AM"
-Michael Ventura, "Letters@3AM"
