Accessibility via Cheat Codes?

However, in the past few years console games have increasingly ignored cheats. There were once games that allowed the players to have infinite ammo, health and other things, but those games are steadily decreasing.

Many of the top tier games, including Halo 3, BioShock, Mass Effect 2, Killzone 2, and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, all exclude cheat codes. But why do they exclude cheats? What do they lose from having cheats in the game?

One might argue that having cheats might affect Trophies or Achievements, although this is not the case. Once a cheat is activated, the developer can make it nullify any Trophies or Achievements that would have been completed. But, even if a developer doesn't choose to do that, what's the difference between activating a cheat and using a strategy guide?

So if that's not the case, what is?  Perhaps it deducts from the game play experience?

Developers might not want to include cheats because it might lower the prestige of their game. No longer can only the elite players unlock all the Spec Ops levels in Modern Warfare 2, everyone can. One might argue that this equality takes away from the game.

When everyone is equal, why play?

It says something about you when you are one of the few gamers who have beaten a game on the highest difficulty, but when everyone is able to do it with ease, it detracts from your accomplishment.

We are so engrossed in being the best, racing to the top of the leader boards, and getting a high game score, that we forget what gaming is really about; having fun. If you don't like using cheats then don't use them, but put them in there for gamers who like them and need them.

There are cheats that can make the game so much more accessibly and enjoyable. Having an invisibility cheat in a shooter can mean the difference between inaccessible and completely accessibly. Even if there isn't a way to slow down the game speed, the game is now accessible to those with cognitive impairments because they can take all the time they need.

Another helpful cheat is of course, automatically beating a level. Certain levels are harder than others and require different sets of skills. One level might require the use of Quick Time Events while others use none. These inconsistencies make certain levels less accessible than others.

To salt the wound, some games rewards the gamer cheats for completing tasks in game. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare offers players some cheats that increase the games accessibility... although only after finding 30 pieces of intel.

There are cheats that make the game black and white, give the gamer infinite slo-mo ability, and one that gives the gamer infinite ammo. If IW could just let these cheats be unlocked from the start, the game would be much more accessible.

However, there are games with cheats that make the game more accessible. When it ships for the Xbox 360, Tropico 3 will have the same cheats as its PC counterpart; raising happiness, raising foreign relations, and raising money, all of which make the game more accessible. Why can't more games have them?

Maybe it's just the fact that they are called cheats and not help. This connotes that the player is cheating and beating the game in an unfair manner. What would happen if they were given another name? Would they still be frowned upon?

The bottom line is that we want cheats. They are easily programmed in, and can greatly increase gaming accessibility. While it’s not the preferred alternative to other accessibility options like a game speed slider, or a colorblind option, it’s certainly a welcomed addition.

What types of cheats or “additions” have you used to make a game more accessible?

Comments (3)

Mark C. Barlet

February 09, 2010

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Great story Jesse. It is a very good point you make. I have heard from people that accessibility options are always cheating... I think it is total BS.

Good job mate!

hand_shake

February 11, 2010

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hello i played dungeon siege 2 for quite some time then got deploy to iraq when i came back some months later i found that i couldnt play the game quite the same as i had lost part of my arm well to fix my love for the game i only used the mouse and did a key-bind for the pause button on the mouse and also found the auto-cast or auto-attack to be very useful there is accessibility in games but some times its hard to reach the esc button you are right slo-mo and other so called cheats would be nice then maybe i might be an ablegamer on a console game again love the site thank you for your hard work

Scott Puckett

February 14, 2010

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Great story as well. The example I most frequently think of is the Tony Hawk series of games which I played both before and after becoming disabled on the PS2 and Xbox 360. Even when I was more able, I often needed the codes to get through a challenge; now, I simply don't have enough manual dexterity to manage some of the challenges on the current-gen games and I didn't even bother with Tony Hawk Ride because of the skateboard peripheral.

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