While playing cricket, carom or even ludo, people sometimes try to cheat their opponents. The effect has spilled over to video games too. Now you will say who needs to cheat in video games, but professional ‘cheaters’ say it has its own charm.

Demonspeed, Leave me alone, Nuttorloss, Thwack, Restart and Fly are just a few commands that are developed by game developers to test the game. In common parlance, these commands are known as cheat codes.

“Cheat codes are implemented by game developers as a tool to play-test certain aspects of the game without difficulty,” said Nitish Mittersain, chief executive officer at Nazara Technologies.

Cheat codes are usually included in the game itself but they are hidden. They are normally included to do some thing abnormal to the actual game or its mechanics. Cheat codes are life savers for a gamer. For instance, if the player has to die after taking 10 bullet shots from the enemy, cheat codes will keep the player alive even if he takes a large number of shots.

“Cheat codes do not affect the game but they will enable ‘god mode’ for the players. This means the player will never die or his ammunition will never get over so that he can finish the whole game in one shot,” said Surya Prakash, managing director at Backstage Pass, a professional gaming institute.

Cheat codes, which are included in the original game, can be unlocked by a password or by some code. The gamer usually gets the codes directly from publishers but there are hackers who are willing to help.

“Cheat codes are used for a lot of purposes like unlocking maps, acquiring special powers or skipping a whole mission or it can be anything. The wave length of describing cheat codes is enormous,” Prakash said.

Generally, gamers do not need a cheat code. Of late, it has been noticed that generic gamers are losing patience and have lots of games to play. The fast way for them to move to the next game is to use cheat codes and test all features and levels of the game at one go.

The game itself plays an important role in making gamers opt for cheat codes. For example, if it’s a multiplayer game that creates virtual currency and virtual benefits and if it has cheat codes, gamers will try to find out the same for their personal gain that may include ranks. We have already seen people tracking cheat codes of the popular game FarmVille, which is available on Facebook, a social networking website.

Experts say these codes definitely affect the way games are played because they are used to modify the game to experience unusual effects and gain advantage against rivals. In short, cheat codes could also prevent the game from becoming a hit, and developers seldom add cheats in multiplayer games.

“To some extent, it is necessary for game developers to test the game on different levels. But it is a general recommendation that once testing is over the mechanism should be removed from the builds,” Nazara’s Mittersain said.

rahuloberoi@mydigitalfc.com