Cheating - when is it okay?

[The Corrupt Plague]

To an extent, yes. I cheat all the time to make clones without using that risky GTS glitch and to disscet the game and see stuff that Nintendo does not want me to see. I also use Pokesav to make some of my Pokemon because I do not have the time or patience to Breed for IV's or EV train. If I do use them in battle, I try to make them as legit as possible, that means no unobtainable moves, stats or abilities. I do have a problem however, if someone uses cheats to scam traders or to get an unfair advantage in a Wi-Fi battle that is not obtainable otherwise. I also cheat for infinite items because they can really be a chore to obtain if you wish to use them in mass quantities.

 

[Alternative]

Cheating is fine by me, if it's not to exploit the game too much. Cheating makes the game less fun and more boring.

However, back in the days of G/S/C I would "cheat" or exploit glitches, which I do not consider cheating. Glitches are where the developers screwed up, and if you can exploit them, then so be it.

 

[Musica]

Lost my interest on my old Platinum and Soul Silver game due to cheating. I restarted the game again, now with the legit way and made me interested more on the game. I say cheating has its limits. And what the others have said, cheating take the thrill away from a game.

 

[Sydian]

I was looking at this and started to wonder what it was doing in metal/color. Moving to GPG since this covers all generations.

The only cheating I do, aside from weird glitches in RBY, is for TMs and event Pokemon I couldn't get because of lack of Wi-Fi, such as Arceus, Darkrai, Shaymin, etc. But I don't use them against people. Ever. Just the novelty of having them is good enough for me. I refuse to battle people that cheat as well, unless I have a team readied up that I know can win. But at least hacking for extra TMs is acceptable. I mean...one per game, usually, is insane. Thank you for the unbreakable TMs, gen V<3 I do, however, cheat the hell out of my ROMs. Not for Rare Candies though, never. But I've hacked a Secret Key into my Platinum ROM (no wi-fi for the real key, so no Rotom forms pour moi! ;; ) and I have the shiny cheat set on my Emerald ROM so that I can raise shiny Pokemon I like. It just depends on what you're cheating for, really.

 

[Amore]

I voted "It's okay as long as you don't really abuse it".

By that I mean, it's perfectly fine in all situations if you play on a ROM (They're illegal anyway, so you obviously don't care if you're playing one, do you?)

But on the real games, I say cloning (of anything pokémon, items etc.) is as far as it goes. I'd never cheat, other than glitch abuse - I love the fact that my first game (Emerald) contains the last easily abusable cloning glitch.

If you don't have wi-fi, it doesn't really matter what you do as long as the products of your cheating don't spread out.

 

[mondays suck]

Alright, so I'd love to play through this game with a Jumpluff as a part of my team, but can't get any Hoppip until way after the Elite 4, and I hate trading (or I'm playing FRLG/E and it wouldn't work anyways). CHEATING TIME.
I also like creating some non-standard HM slaves. Because Silcoon and Cascoon being the team's slaves is way more interesting than the usual Tropius and Mudkip.

 

[PlatinumDude]

For me, cheating is okay in moderation. I only use it to get multiple rare items, but not to alter a Pokemon's stats/moves.

 

[ShivaDF]

You can cheat all you want on a game, in my opinion, until you fight real people. Cheating is NOT okay if you use it to gain an advantage over other people.

 

[ggctuk]

I say it's okay as long as you don't abuse it. Mainly I'd use it to obtain event Pokemon I cannot otherwise get since my home Wifi is WPA-protected and I have a DS Lite (thus it was the only way to get Giratina and spiky-eared Pichu in HGSS). And I have cheated to obtain non-legendary shiny wild Pokemon. Catching Trainer Pokemon is a bit further down the path to the 'dark side' but I'd never use it to catch legendary Pokemon. Hacking a Diglett to learn fly, as the example in the first post says, is a no-no, but I WOULD hack a Pikachu to learn Fly or Surf (since I cannot get one on Yellow Path).

 

[tkallab]

It's okay when you want it to be. It can be fun to, like, make your starter a Venonat or something. It isn't any fun to make a whole team of legendaries, but it can be fun to have a team of whatever the heck you want. If cheating can help you to have more fun, by all means, cheat to your heart's content!
Ever for competitive battling, I think it's okay to cheat anything that would be possible by normal gameplay. It'd take years to get the right nature and shininess, but eventually you'd get there. But you can make it take years shorter by cheating. It's just a way to skip time. Of course, don't cheat impossible movesets and stuff, that's just wrong.

 

[Weavile05]

Here's what I will probably do.
Hack in a Competetive Battling team to use ONLY while training my legit one. Once my legit one is complete, the Hacked Poke's will be released.

 

[RivalGator]

I don't believe it's okay.
To me it just shows off how weak you really are.

 

[zoo3891]

I was always the type to want ALL video games to make sense, and if they didn't i would make something up, i made up that gamesharks are a type of lab in the poke' universe that make synthetic items and pokemon. I think you should never cheat, it spits upon the name of those that attempted catch their selves that modest shiny rattata and train it to learn water gun. But for real don't cheat unless your very curious, want to @%$@ up your game, or catch missingno, and if you do, do it on a rom.

 

[Clark]

It depends on how you're cheating. Not all "cheaters" give themselves a team of Lv100 legendaries with ridiculous stats and sweep through the game. You can cheat in smaller ways, and in my opinion some cheats can actually make the game more fair.

Say you're building a team for battling online, and you need a few TMs. Unfortunately you don't have all the TMs you need. Some you've already used on other Pokemon. Some would take tons of BP or hours in the Game Corner to obtain. Some you'd have to completely restart the game to find again. For that sort of thing, I'd say an "unlimited TMs cheat" or whatever would be acceptable. Or hell, maybe you just want to nickname an event Pokemon. Not all cheats are extreme or game-breaking.

... When it comes down to it, though, it's always okay to cheat, so long as you aren't parading around beating people on WiFi with a team of hacked ubers or anything. You can (and should) play the game however you want to. Cheating in a video game isn't horribly immoral and wrong. It's just a video game.

 

[PKMwtfawesomeSAUCE]

I think it's ok to cheat if the person needed a pokemon for his Dex and didn't have WiFi or any other means of obtaining it. Or if the person really likes a pokemon that only comes in a event and they missed it. I however don't think it's right to make hacked pokemon for trade or try to rip people off.

 

[cozmo]

When I finish the game, I usually pop in my Action Replay and get insanely high levelled Pokemon, and make really powerful Pokemon.
I've gotten many legit shinies (I have 2 in Emerald). Still, I never use these Pokemon in battles and only use them for fun.

 

[Bleak]

I think it's fine if it's something like getting an event pokemon, or a similar situation.

When I was younger, I loved doing it because my friends couldn't figure out how they would be able to trade me a pokemon, and me have it level 100 the next day. Silly things like that :D

 

[Silmeria]

I suppose it just depends on how you feel about it. I mean, if you can't get your DS online, and no events are close to you, then what else are you supposed to do? If Nintendo didn't want people to cheat, they should make the Pokemon accessible, instead of keeping them back for events like this that don't even reach certain countries. If something is impossible for you to get any other way...well, why not? I wouldn't say there was anything wrong with that.

Similarly, if you can't be bothered to EV train Pokemon or shiny hunt - and it IS a very long, time-consuming and boring process - there isn't really anything wrong with cheating to get them. You're not hurting anyone but yourself (I know it'd drive me INSANE if I cheated to get anything I could get otherwise, I can't even accept Masterballs to catch Legendaries, I've had to build up a stock from previous games to use when I'm sufficiently aggravated) unless you make Pokemon with improbable stats and moves and then take them online.

Although I do know one thing...I'm liberating my friend's AR when I feel like starting HeartGold or SoulSilver again so I can play it from the beginning with the GB Sounds.

 

[aguinn99]

Yeah, exactly. I play in an emulator (because I misplaced my Game Boy) and all I really do is make certain Pokemon appear that don't appear in Crystal, but only at the right times, if it makes any sense. Like, once I made it to Cerulean City, I made a Mewtwo appear. All I did was make it appear and set it's level to 75; I caught it legitimately, but weakening it and throwing a Pokeball.

thats what i sorta think.

 

[Rou.Tsuki]

For competitions and trading, keep the cheating out of it. It's not fair when dealing with other people.
As for personal gain, I say, GO FOR IT! I have some hacked shinies because I've become tired of trying to get them legit (I do have a pair of Legit Shinies from trading: Latias and Eevee-evt) for my personal use. Just don't pass hacked stuff to others. It's not nice.