As children everything seemed wonderful, mystical, surreal. Ask any 5-year-old, they'll believe that it's still possible to fly. Robots? Yeah, they transform. You can even pilot them after you get certification. No no, that's not an airplane up there, that's a UFO... Wonderment is something we all begin to miss as we grow older. Suddenly we are thrown into a world of responsibility, bills, and tax forms -- real life. When you've come home from another long boring day of work at your mundane job you've had for years now, you think back to the days where you could erect armies of toy soldiers fighting off the evil forces of your arch nemesis. Cobra Commander had nothing on you.
There's a magical quality to childhood that we all remember, but can't seem to muster up enough -- well, childhood -- to bring it back. Sometimes I force myself to see things as a kid would, but frankly, it's kind of hard. The power of children is their imagination. Everything becomes a game to them. As grown ups we lose the power of imagination. Nothing's a game anymore. It's all just work, work, work from now until we die. Not fun, is it?
We use an outlet for this imaginative deficiency, and that outlet is computer games. Whether you are a mage slaying dragons, a soldier in World War II, or a buxom blonde bombshell with a huge rack playing volleyball, games are the way we grown-ups escape reality. An ability to whisk away players to otherworlds while relieving the stress of everyday life, what else can we ask for? In these game worlds, things seem mystical again. That feeling of magic has returned: Throwing fireballs from your hands, killing a few hundred enemies with your minigun, and piloting spaceships in far off galaxies, you're back to being that kid with a wild imagination. You're suddenly enveloped in a huge elaborate illusion, an illusion you don't want to stop because it's so fun.
But in some cases illusions are ruined. Sometimes you can see the strings holding Superman up when he flies through the Grand Canyon. You snap out of that moment and begin to realize he's just an actor. He's not really flying, he's in front of a bluescreen. Superman isn't so cool anymore. Cheats have the same effect on games. The instant there is doubt in a player's eyes, the magic is gone in a flash. You snap out of the mystical illusion you had of a Superman, and realize that he needs strings to fly.
It's a saddening sight these days. Anytime anybody makes a nice play, there has to be at least one player who screams "CHEATZ!!!" in the chat screen. It reminded me of a time when I first began to play. I joined a server with Dangerous Crossing as the map. I made my way to the inventory station, gearing up with my repair pack and extra grenades. I guarded my base from the outside, so that I could kill any incoming cappers. I was pretty successful, fending off enemies with my blaster. Suddenly a speck appeared high in the sky. "A scout?" I asked myself. "Wait, Dangerous Crossing has no vehicle pads..." The speck grew increasingly larger. I looked closely as that speck became a blob, which then became a male armor. "How in the heck..." The player landed on top of the base, and dropped down to grab the flag. (Nobody at that time did that. It was a common approach to use a shield pack and walk through the flag stand to grab it, hoping your shield pack would keep you alive as the turtle turrets pounded you.) He popped back up through where he dropped down. He lightly jetted up, and skiied down the hill, and flew off faster than anybody I had ever seen at the time. I fired a few blaster shots at him as he sped away at insane speeds, and decided I couldn't hit him. I activated my repair pack to repair myself as I convinced myself I wanted to be like Fallen|KI one day. It was great... No, it was magical.
Cheats destroy the innocence of any game. There no longer exists mystical players. They become subject of ridicule: "You use autoaim!" "You're using flag finder!" Players begin to live in a world of doubt. They become the cynical adults they loathed becoming. Their childlike imagination is mocked, because they can do nothing else but question what they see. Imagine if I were a newbie in this day and age with rampant cheats? Imagine if I saw another Fallen|KI? Do you think I would really think he was just a great player, or maybe that he was using some cheat to help him grab the flag and jet off?
I don't want to see Superman's strings. I'd rather try to fly like him.
There's a magical quality to childhood that we all remember, but can't seem to muster up enough -- well, childhood -- to bring it back. Sometimes I force myself to see things as a kid would, but frankly, it's kind of hard. The power of children is their imagination. Everything becomes a game to them. As grown ups we lose the power of imagination. Nothing's a game anymore. It's all just work, work, work from now until we die. Not fun, is it?
We use an outlet for this imaginative deficiency, and that outlet is computer games. Whether you are a mage slaying dragons, a soldier in World War II, or a buxom blonde bombshell with a huge rack playing volleyball, games are the way we grown-ups escape reality. An ability to whisk away players to otherworlds while relieving the stress of everyday life, what else can we ask for? In these game worlds, things seem mystical again. That feeling of magic has returned: Throwing fireballs from your hands, killing a few hundred enemies with your minigun, and piloting spaceships in far off galaxies, you're back to being that kid with a wild imagination. You're suddenly enveloped in a huge elaborate illusion, an illusion you don't want to stop because it's so fun.
But in some cases illusions are ruined. Sometimes you can see the strings holding Superman up when he flies through the Grand Canyon. You snap out of that moment and begin to realize he's just an actor. He's not really flying, he's in front of a bluescreen. Superman isn't so cool anymore. Cheats have the same effect on games. The instant there is doubt in a player's eyes, the magic is gone in a flash. You snap out of the mystical illusion you had of a Superman, and realize that he needs strings to fly.
It's a saddening sight these days. Anytime anybody makes a nice play, there has to be at least one player who screams "CHEATZ!!!" in the chat screen. It reminded me of a time when I first began to play. I joined a server with Dangerous Crossing as the map. I made my way to the inventory station, gearing up with my repair pack and extra grenades. I guarded my base from the outside, so that I could kill any incoming cappers. I was pretty successful, fending off enemies with my blaster. Suddenly a speck appeared high in the sky. "A scout?" I asked myself. "Wait, Dangerous Crossing has no vehicle pads..." The speck grew increasingly larger. I looked closely as that speck became a blob, which then became a male armor. "How in the heck..." The player landed on top of the base, and dropped down to grab the flag. (Nobody at that time did that. It was a common approach to use a shield pack and walk through the flag stand to grab it, hoping your shield pack would keep you alive as the turtle turrets pounded you.) He popped back up through where he dropped down. He lightly jetted up, and skiied down the hill, and flew off faster than anybody I had ever seen at the time. I fired a few blaster shots at him as he sped away at insane speeds, and decided I couldn't hit him. I activated my repair pack to repair myself as I convinced myself I wanted to be like Fallen|KI one day. It was great... No, it was magical.
Cheats destroy the innocence of any game. There no longer exists mystical players. They become subject of ridicule: "You use autoaim!" "You're using flag finder!" Players begin to live in a world of doubt. They become the cynical adults they loathed becoming. Their childlike imagination is mocked, because they can do nothing else but question what they see. Imagine if I were a newbie in this day and age with rampant cheats? Imagine if I saw another Fallen|KI? Do you think I would really think he was just a great player, or maybe that he was using some cheat to help him grab the flag and jet off?
I don't want to see Superman's strings. I'd rather try to fly like him.
