Mike Beversluis

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

You Are Forgiven

What kind of Game Cheater Are You?
by Clive Thompson, Wired 4/23/07

A month ago while playing Final Fantasy XII, I fought my way to Tiamat, a vicious, huge-clawed dragon -- and couldn't get past her. No matter how many ways I threw my team at the beast, she ripped us to ribbons. Screw it. I decided to check an online FAQ for some hints defeating this thing.

"That's cheating," a friend of mine scoffed. "Really?" I wondered. Personally, I've always figured that using a FAQ might be lame -- like reading the Cliff's Notes version of War and Peace -- but it isn't cheating. It's not like I'm hacking the game with a Game Genie to illicitly acquire extra lives, right?


I always thought you should never do terribly wrong things, obviously, because they are terrible, but you should never do trivially wrong things because they aren't worth selling out over.

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posted by Mike Beversluis at Wednesday, April 25, 2007

9 Comments:

  • Wise words. Also, it unfairly undermines the credibility of those who triumph at the trivial. Three years ago I did minesweeper in one second. Selective surfing led me to discover the record to that date appeared to be three. I still haven't reset the score so I can prove it to doubters, but no one has asked. Just who I think would be interested or what glory would be mine if they were are questions I've been content not to explore too deeply.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 26 April, 2007 08:58  

  • Great, there goes my two second record! Cue my slightly too early midlife crisis.

    See also.

    By Blogger Mike Beversluis, at 26 April, 2007 10:26  

  • Peter, you can never replace that computer. Like George Costanza's Frogger console, it is your key to immortality. Maybe you can work a deal with that company that keeps Ted Williams frozen head to keep your PC powered up for the ages.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 26 April, 2007 10:47  

  • Better yet, Peter, have a friend take a photograph of yourself next to the screen holding up todays New York Times, and then have this photograph engraved into a platinum plate.

    Mount that plate into a space craft and have NASA shoot it out into the universe. Five hundred years from now, it will be developed into the center of an advanced alien ship. The ship will then return to Earth demanding that we present it to "ETR BRNT".

    By Blogger Mike Beversluis, at 26 April, 2007 11:45  

  • Oh god!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 26 April, 2007 22:31  

  • FTW!? That's almost a complete non-sequitur and you know it.

    By Blogger Mike Beversluis, at 26 April, 2007 23:44  

  • And that's my job.

    By Blogger Mike Beversluis, at 26 April, 2007 23:44  

  • Peter:

    What size grid?

    By Blogger Brit, at 27 April, 2007 05:03  

  • What size grid? Brit, since when did you start believing in miracles? I said one second.

    BTW, has anyone of you ever succeeded at the expert level with any reasonable degree of speed?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 27 April, 2007 09:04  

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