Anyone who has played friends in person or online in a competitive game has had the argument. One person will accuse the other of cheating/glitching/numerous other slang words that the kids use. Sometimes it is warranted, sometimes it is not...and sometimes it falls into the gigantic grey area of personal preference.
Take Madden NFL for example. A perennial best seller...an easy seller considering it is A) based on the most popular sport by far in this country and B) EA Sports long ago bought its way into being the sole company allowed to make an NFL game. Another story entirely which I will like to talk about in the near future.
So many people play this competitively. And it along with other sports simulations create the most heated arguments as to what is fair or not fair. "Sim(ulation)" or "Freestyle." This is because there is a direct point of reference to look and point out flaws in the video game simulation..that of course being the real life sport being simulated.
This is as opposed to an unrealistic fighting game like Mortal Kombat..which has no real life activity it is trying to mirror.
In Madden there may be an over effective animation that allows the WR to catch passes in traffic over and over again. But in real life the infinite variables that Madden's animation system can't duplicate will make that pass much harder to complete.
Is triggering the overeffective catch animation in the game "cheating?" Or is it simply accepting the videogame as a videogame and playing it as such. There's that grey area again.
Is going for it on 4th down "cheating" in a football videogame? The defense still has a chance to stop you. There is not a digital offensive coordinator who's job will be on the line if the offense fails in key situations. Even in real life now some teams go for it once a game on average. Not often but sometimes even in seemingly illogical situations. It's just all a matter of seeing something in the defense that you have confidence in exploiting.
But at the same time...what if that same catch animation breaks the VIDEOGAME? What if that catch animation is used to convert the 4th down? Every year things like this arise in sports videogames...and every year they create these same old arguments.
The logical solution to unite and make everyone happy is a perfect real life simulation where nothing is deemed "over effective" or "unrealistic". But until that is possible.....I guess the Red Sea will stay parted.
A look at the interactive entertainment industry from someone who has never lived without it.
