Is The Best Way To Play Games The Subversive Way?

[Kugyince]

From the moment I broke Mario through the ceiling of Super Mario Bros. World 1-2 to bypass the next few levels of that game, I've assumed that an essential part of playing video games is being subversive.

I've assumed that not following the rules was part of following the rules.

I've believed that to play a game partially involves playing with a game, shaking it to see if it breaks, poking it with a stick to see how it reacts, and, of course, always shooting the character who is talking to you in a game to see if they even pause their speech (usually, they don't).

The people who use cheat codes or exploit Modern Warfare 2 to fight dirty surely agree that subversion is a valid arrow for the gamer's quiver. So does anyone who likes to take a shortcut in a racing game or use a single play that works every time in Madden.

I recently had reason to wonder, though, if defying the directives of game designers is the "right" way to play. (Not that the makers of Super Mario Bros. didn't actually program the ability for Mario to escape the borders of World 1-2 and head to the warp pipes, but you get the idea.)

Is The Best Way To Play Games The Subversive Way? - Will Wright - Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5501908/is-the-best-way-to-play-games-the-subversive-way)

[Dudebro]

The people who use cheat codes or exploit Modern Warfare 2 to fight dirty surely agree that subversion is a valid arrow for the gamer's quiver
Let them think it all they want it's still cheating. The morons who are altering MW2 are modding their Xbox(or some other kind of tampering) to get a completely unfair advantage. They are not playing the way the designers intended and they are getting banned in huge numbers for it. Some people are even getting console bans for it(have to buy a new one to go online).
This is nothing like finding hidden easter eggs by poking and prodding. It's like they altered Mario Bros to let them warp from anywhere instead of finding the warp zones themselves.

Besides the MW2 thing I agree with this mentality. I always test the limits of the game to see what happens.

[Mareeps]

When I first joined RU, I played Link's Awakening to play around with the screen warp. There are some fun things to find doing that.

[Seahawk]

I think it depends on the setting.

When you are playing alone, or really casually with friends (in a non-competitive way), it's all ok, and this distinction between 'cheating' and fair play doesn't really matter. Also, sometimes this is really entertaining, watching tool-assisted runs of games blows my mind usually =).

It's when games are played in a competitive setting that this is important, especially now that online play is becoming the norm.

The best applicable personal experience I can think of is in the original Super Smash Bros., when stealing lives from your own team members resulted in the fight moving offscreen XD. Usually then, some pressure (like crying to mom) usually kept players at bay.

Now with online though, you have no control over who you are playing against, if someone uses a hack, you cannot stop them, it becomes really frustrating and kills the enjoymentof the game. Again, another personal experience here, this time from Smash Bros. Brawl, a random match I played was hacked, everyone was transformed into Giga Bowser, but smash balls were still active, grabbing one froze me completely for the rest of the match, it was actually kind of funny, but it sitll sucked not being able to play.
Strangely enough I won that match because I got enough kills before I got stuck, and no one scored enough before the match ended XD.

[Dudebro]

Yeah I only care about cheating when it's online multiplayer. If people wanna cheat in an offline game then more power to them.

[Slime Slayer]

I don't think hacking the game falls under this umbrella, this "subversive" method is referring to exploiting the game for all its worth, for example: pinning bosses, repeatedly bouncing on turtle shells, hitting pause repeatedly so enemy fire passes through you, ect. ect.
I'm all for it and thinks it's entirely acceptable, bottom line is that it's you versus the game, the game's not gonna go easy on you when you mess up, so you shouldnt go easy on it when it messes up.

[Tails]

It's because of Mario I found out the same applied to Tiny Toons Adventures, basically makes the Forest level easy as crap.