Do you *abuse the system* in games?

[CylieDanny]

So essentially what I mean is, manipulating the game's original system, for your desired outcome.

Essentially like rolling a dice for a jack pot.

The game originally only intended for you to roll twice, but the option to keep rolling infiently is there, and you just keep rolling and rolling until you get your jack pot.

Ive seen it alot in video games of all kinds, mainly mobile, but other games too. I always get curious if people ever break the system if the option is unintentionally there. Or do you just let things come naturally.

Example, in the start of AC:NH. You can keep regoing through the sign in process reapetidly until you get the desired jock, and/or sisterly you want. Though the original intention was to just go with who you got. The option is unintentionally there.

Note: I sometimes break the system too. Most notably in Danganronpa.

 

[Belle T]

It depends.

For games with a linear beginning, middle, and end, I will usually try to play the game as intended on my first go, and if I enjoy the game, I might see what I can break on subsequent playthroughs, just to see what happens.

I don't really have the patience to keep resetting on something like Animal Crossing, but I wouldn't be opposed to it if I were doing a very specific type of game with it.

 

[Romaki]

Definitely. At least for Animal Crossing.

But I also liked to save and reload to win gambling in GTA San Andreas.

 

[Bluebellie]

Yes, with animal crossing I reset many times until I received the map/airport and fruit I wanted. I didn’t want to just let the game decide for me. I also chose all my villagers, and when they stay and go. I didn’t let the game decide which villagers would appear for me to adopt. I just bought or made the amiibos.

I think everyone more or less abuses the games a little bit. Ive seen people who time travel, go to other islands, and use hundreds of bait to catch the critters they need to complete the museum Instead of just waiting for the game to bring those along.


With other games as well. In Pokémon everyone saves the game before you meet the legendaries, to make sure you’re able to catch them. If you dont have the master ball, its process of many tries and resetting as well.

 

[BoonyBoo]

Heck yeah. I cheated the game to fish up and catch rare creatures like the golden stag, or the barreleye. The spawn rates for those creatures are so low, the game deserves its own medicine by the players cheating lol

 

[Belle T]

With other games as well. In Pokémon everyone saves the game before you meet the legendaries, to make sure you’re able to catch them. If you dont have the master ball, its process of many tries and resetting as well.

I don't know, I think that's an intended feature.
GameFreak could easily just rework the games to only allow players to save at select areas or disable it in select locations, like in Final Fantasy. But allowing players to save before pivotal moments, even optional ones, to get the desied outcome (and experiment with branching narratives) is typical for RPG's.

 

[Croconaw]

I have for Pokémon. I save before every elite four member and reset the game if I lose. I’m not going through everyone again if I lose on the final member. I don’t give two craps about shiny Pokémon, though, so I don’t abuse the system there.

I also do not save before legendaries. I only capture them if I like the Pokémon. I never use them for competitive play. It’s annoying when people use only legendaries for battling.

 

[Bluebellie]

I don't know, I think that's an intended feature.
GameFreak could easily just rework the games to only allow players to save at select areas or disable it in select locations, like in Final Fantasy. But allowing players to save before pivotal moments, even optional ones, to get the desied outcome (and experiment with branching narratives) is typical for RPG's.

I still see it sort of like cheating the game though. I like to compare it to animal crossing. I feel like using amiibo cards is sort of like cheating the game because the game is meant to just go about the days and enjoy the villagers you meet along the way. Except in my case I just skipped all of that and brought in all the ones I wanted. Just like saves, Amiibos were an intended feature in the game.

In Pokémon, you can save in pivotal moments, but I feel like it still a little bit of cheating the game. You turn off the game and restart after you receive a bad outcome. So in a way, you cheated the game and altered the outcome to a desirable one. I dont see it as a bad thing at all, and I do it all the time, but I do consider it still cheating.

 

[Groovycat64]

I've done the same thing Croconaw does for the Elite 4 back in the day. I think the only time I really struggled was Gen 4's Champion fight (no surprise there) and one of the Elite 4 in White 2 (can't remember who).

I'm also guilty of time traveling in Animal Crossing City Folk and New Leaf. Just got bored and wanted some more excitement in the game, be it new seasons, new neighbours or an event or something.

 

[broolow]

Yes. I mean, it depends. There's this other game i play on the 3DS called Kingdom Hearts 3D where the combat system is so easy to abuse that i only remember a couple of spots where i couldn't autopilot my way through every enemy encounter. But i didn't care because it was still really flashy and satisfying, like the video-game equivalent of stuffing your face with birthday cake.

I don't like time-travelling in Animal Crossing because in my mind it's not really a game designed to be played for hours on end. Like, once you're done with all your errands, pretty much all you can do is wait for stuff to happen and i'm ok with that. The inconvenience is the content in AC and taking that away would be like taking away the scoring system from golf, it's just not the same.

And honestly, i'm just way too lazy to constantly change the system clock just for one game, i don't like messing with my timestamps.

I used to play Pokemon quite a lot and i don't know if this counts as abuse, but i am one of those people whose party consists entirely of one disgustingly overleveled Pokemon and 5 other really weak ones. If spamming the same strong move even when i'm at a type disadvantage hasn't failed me once then why shouldn't i do it?

 

[CylieDanny]

Yes. I mean, it depends. There's this other game i play on the 3DS called Kingdom Hearts 3D where the combat system is so easy to abuse that i only remember a couple of spots where i couldn't autopilot my way through every enemy encounter. But i didn't care because it was still really flashy and satisfying, like the video-game equivalent of stuffing your face with birthday cake.

I don't like time-travelling in Animal Crossing because in my mind it's not really a game designed to be played for hours on end. Like, once you're done with all your errands, pretty much all you can do is wait for stuff to happen and i'm ok with that. The inconvenience is the content in AC and taking that away would be like taking away the scoring system from golf, it's just not the same.

And honestly, i'm just way too lazy to constantly change the system clock just for one game, i don't like messing with my timestamps.

I used to play Pokemon quite a lot and i don't know if this counts as abuse, but i am one of those people whose party consists entirely of one disgustingly overleveled Pokemon and 5 other really weak ones. If spamming the same strong move even when i'm at a type disadvantage hasn't failed me once then why shouldn't i do it?

Thats actually pretty intetesting take on Time skipping, and I do agree. It is kinda like an app you check through out the day, isnt it. I guess thats why they made pocket camp lol

Like you said, going and doing all that you can, then wait for the next day. Esspecially if Im finished decorating. Hm. I mean all I do now is basically chat with everyone, clear my island of rocks, shells, weeds, branches, (because they'll complain) then go off and usually mess around. Unless I feel like decorating. But treating it more like an app seems far more accurate.

I mean aside from hhp, after your done decorating, theres not much more to do because by then you probably have all your dreamies, and their photos.

Cool. I like that.

 

[Neb]

In visual novels I’m one of those people who saves before selecting an option. If it leads to a bad ending I just reset the game and click the other option.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I save before certain bosses or objectives in games. With Smash Bros Ultimate I do abuse fighters that have moves that do massive damage just by holding down a button for a bit. I KO Fighters all the time with Kirby’s Hammer Flip and Sephiroth’s fully charged B special will usually KO anyone if it isn’t a stamina battle and a few other special conditions are in play. I mean even the bosses take massive damage from that one move.

 

[Seastar]

I didn't have to reset New Horizons because I was immediately given two villagers I wanted, but I was definitely expecting to.
I got a third copy of New Leaf and reset it until I was absolutely tired of trying for villagers, lol. I also did some time traveling but stopped when I became far too tired to handle doing "extra" dailies.
I am also one of those people who saves before fighting the Elite Four and resets if I lose.
Another thing I've done is save at the Game Corner in older Pokemon games and reset if I lose too many coins. Definitely not how gambling works.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I reset whenever I have to choose a starter Pokémon. I do it repeatedly until I get a female in at least one of my games. Sometimes I get one right away and other times it takes a few resets but I rarely have to reset more than twenty times to get one.

 

[~Kilza~]

I will admit that I save scum in a lot of games, whether via the game's save system or save states. Ideally I wouldn't save scum at all, but I have no problem with doing it, since if going for the better outcome saves me some time that'd be lost by having a worse outcome, then it's beneficial to me in the long run.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

The only time I’ve ever exploited a game was with Pokémon Red and Blue with the MissingNo Infinite Items/Any wild Pokémon off of the Cinnabar Island coast/instant Level 100 Pokémon glitches. I usually did the item cloning for rarer TMs and Nuggets. A few times for the Master Ball.

 

[ParabolaBeam]

There's a saying in game development: if given the chance, the player will optimize the fun out of anything.

Especially for customization-heavy games like this, I wish that they would make certain things just choosable from the start. Things like starting town fruit, starting villagers, and resident services positioning.

 

[dude98]

I tend to save scum in Ace Attorney mostly because its obvious if you get it wrong (music still playing and Phoenix saying something generic)

 

[LadyDestani]

Sometimes I will, but it depends. I don't like to make things too easy because that's no fun and I'm usually okay with playing the game the way it was intended to be played. But there are a few exceptions.

1. In Pokemon, I must collect them all including the starters. However, since I don't seek out strangers for trades I cheat the system to get all the starters. I get one copy and my husband gets one copy. I start my game, pick a starter, trade it to him, then restart and do the process all over again. On the third time, I pick the last starter, get my other two back from my husband and now I'm free to carry on with all 3 starters from the very beginning. We also trade version exclusive Pokemon, but that is an intended part of the game.

2. I wouldn't necessarily call it time-travelling, but I do keep my game in a different time zone for Animal Crossing. I mostly play late at night so I always set my game/system clock a few hours back for the shops to be open.

3. Very rarely, I will time travel in Animal Crossing. For instance, on New Year's Eve I'm not going to stay up until 3:00 or 4:00am to see the fireworks (because of the way I set my time zone) so I'll log in and do my dailies, then exit the game, jump forward to the real time and enjoy the countdown with my villagers. Then, I set the time back before the next time I play.

4. I do save before major battles or events so I can reset if something goes wrong. I don't mind so much if I just lose and have to start the fight all over, but in some RPGs there are battles that you only get to do once and if you don't do things the 'right' way you will miss out on an item or a skill even though the game still progresses.