Maphack question...

[Tal]

I have limited time to play in game, to increase the risk / reward I played exclusively Hardcore.  The use of maphack allowed me to maximize the rate at which I acquired items while simultaneously alerting me in advance to the MSLE (and their kin) bosses that could ruin days, weeks, months of play time in an instant.[right][snapback]85844[/snapback][/right]

This is a contradiction. You want to increase the risk and reward by playing Hardcore but use maphack to avoid those things that are the riskiest in the game. Its much the same as the guy who plays HC single player and backs up this character to restore it should he get eaten. Half the fun of hardcore is the sense of accomplishment from coming out on the far side of a encounter with the deadlier monsters alive.

Do I think that it is cheating, borderline.  Is it cheating in World of Warcraft to use a mod that self casts?  The game has the capacity to self cast through scripting and it is an enormous advantage for a player that uses it over those that don't (especially healer classes).  If/When Blizzard feels that this is an excessive advantage, they have the power to alter the game to remove this capacity.[right][snapback]85844[/snapback][/right]

I would argue that by making the individual levels and the monsters within random that Blizzard is dictating where the advantages should lie.

The next question is 'what impact does cheating have?'  This is a game, the intent of any game is to be fun for the user.  D2 (unlike WoW) is *not* a game with a real economy.  The prevelance of duped items, hacked gambling and the lack of true consumption prevented items from having any true value.  As such, as long as one's cheat does not impact other players 'fun' I cannot adequately make the argument that cheating is bad.[right][snapback]85844[/snapback][/right]

There is more to fun than the economy and items. A sense of pride and accomplishment in beating the game on the developer's terms NOT by using a third party program to show me the fastest way down and what mobs are coming. Whats more if we were in a party together and you guide me down or around the tougher mobs than by necessity you have impacted my play experience negatively.

If it's fun for a player to have all the items, and they use that advantage to kill Baal a lot, good for them, it wouldn't be fun for me, but it isn't my place to impose my ethics on others.  If they use a cheat to sell items on ebay, I still say 'good for them' as using real money to purchase items on ebay violates the EULA and Blizzard policies and therefore is an arrangement between two cheaters (the seller and the purchaser).  If they instead use a cheat to acquire items for trade in game, I still say 'good for them' as the lowered price of the items benefits me.  I can adequately determine the true market value of an item and make a choice, and I can always choose not to trade with those I don't know.

Where I have a problem is where a cheater uses the advantage to PK, disrupt online service or otherwise interfere in an *active* way on the fun of others.  This isn't the real world, this is a virtual world, the rules and ethics contained within must be viewed in that light.  Hacked items are not on an equal footing with counterfeit currency.

Thoughts and comments are welcome and encouraged.

-kersh
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You're right that maphack doesn't help you get the best items but it certainly gives you an advantage over a nonmaphack user. You WILL get your drops faster and if playing hardcore, safer than a nonmaphack user.