Why do people pay for cheat code lists?
 

So I've been bidding on a game on ebay and I've noticed people selling lists of cheat codes for the game I want to buy. People are actually bidding on the items and some have gone as high as $25. These are just lists of the cheat codes, not the game and not some in-depth strategy guide. They are emailed to the winner of the auction.

I just can't believe there are people are pay some dude $25 for a list of cheat codes that they can get off of gamefaqs or other sites for free. Has anyone actually done this?

not that i have done it, but some games like toca2 by codemasters have complex cheat systems and you actually have to go to their site and buy the cheats.. going to cheat sites wont help at all. :( but buying cheats on ebay... thats just dumb

I can't imagine any game with a cheat code system so complex that no one has figured it out, or purchased and posted.

Tell me what toca2 is and I'll find the cheat codes for it.

Do you mean like a gameshark or just like a list of codes typed on microsoft word. If you buy a just plain list of codes, your just an idiot and deserve to get ripped off.

Props to the ppl selling the codes and exploiting said foolish ppl

more importantly, why do people cheat? :)

I remember in GTA: VC if you saved after using cheat codes it might keep you from getting 100%. I should start selling those lists on ebay.

because a sucker is born every minute. fact o'life

Magic Cheat System

Go to http://www.google.com/

Type in: (name of game) cheats

You're done...

TOCA Race Driver 2 generates a number somewhat unique to you. (not really unique, theres its only 4 digits) example, your #3587 then you have to buy the codes that will only work for that key.

there is ways of changing your key, by deleting the game from your HDD. and then it will generate a new one.
problem is that the cheat sites got lazy and only listed codes for like 10 keys...
i have tryed and tryed with no luck.. i must have deleted the game more than 50 times and i never got one of the listed keys. and.... ofcourse... lost all my progress.

Lack of skill ;)

I remember paying a guy $2 for a xeroxed copy of MK2 fatalities, waaaay back in the day. But I can't see anybody with a damn bit of sense doing something like that now, in the wonderful age of the internet.

Codemasters are Nazis when it comes to codes, they make great games, but crappy code systems. If you google, you'll find a TOCA 2 code generator, where you enter your code # and you'll get the codes.

More to the point, why do people buy $14.99 strategy guides when GameFAQs exists? I'm constantly perplexed by customers coming into the store and asking me if we have a strategy guide for some god awful (or ancient) game that nobody has any business playing, let alone cheating at.

As for the ebay auction, have a look at the auction. Is it writting in a misleading way that would lead people to believe they're bidding on the game itself?

Pretty pictures. I'll have to admit that looking at pics of locations of packages in GTA:VC makes a lot more sense in an illustrated strat guide than reading an ascii file and trying to discern what the author means.

gamesages is great for online strategy guides especially for Vice City. although sometimes they're kind of asshole ish and will make a game you need a subscription for them to see. although most dont

i never ever but the damn strategy guide. i once saw a shirt that said "NO! I don't want the F@#&ING strategy guide". wish i had it for every time i go into EB Games or other similar stores. Another thing about those places... they always tell you to pre-order or else... they make it sound like the company is only making 25 copies of the damned game and if you don't per order now, you'll never ever get the game. they once told me i need to pre order the GB: DS. EVERY DAMN STORE IN USA WILL HAVE IT!!!!! whew, sorry to get off topic. anyways gamefaqs is da shit! and they have every game i've never heard of!

OR to make a boring ass game fun.... :thumbsup:

Games like Red Faction / Farcry etc... they are fine for a while.. but damn do they get boring. Single player only, blah blah blah.

Those are some greedy-ass corporate bastards.

The Gamestop I work at was sold out of GTA (over 100 copies) before it arrived in the store. We turned away probably 100 people looking for the game in the first week alone, before getting our second shipment. The entire first shipment was reserve-only. We are also sold out of the entire first shipment of Halo 2. If you want one at all during the first week of release, you either reserve it, or you buy a copy for three times the retail price on ebay.

We were allocated a very specific number of GB: DS units to sell. If they get reserved, then there will be none in the store on 11/22. The number is a two-digit number that's less than twenty, and we're about 75% of the way to reserving them all out. I predict we'll be completely out two weeks before the release of the unit. According to Nintendo, chances are low that we'll get a second shipment in time for the holidays. Reserve one, or don't get one.

Nobody's yanking your chain. If I had my way, we would have had 500 copies of GTA in the store on 10/26, because we would have sold every last one of them. Why would any reasonable company turn away your business voluntarily? Take off the tinfoil hat, and if you want your DS, reserve one. Otherwise, you'll be one of the 100 crying faces I have to deal with the day after release who's cussing up a storm in the store because we don't have any more.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled thread.

I for one think that they should not be considered so much as cheet codes than codes to unlock your game.

It has gone too far this system of only letting you play 1% of a game you paid $60 for. If you buy a racing game for your young kids and they only get to drive 1 car on 1 track it will get boring quickly, and you spent $60 for 1 hour of fun.

Even worse, some games require you to buy and play other games from the same producer for it to unlock parts of the game you allready bought. This is on consoles where it can read the saves of the other games.

Though I can see the fun of unlocking features as you progress in a game, sometimes you just want the whole thing you paid for at once.

So, put all unlocking codes in the manuals instead of making people pay again!

(I know some codes are more of cheeting than unlocking, and I never paid for any myself)

Hmm, I never thought of it that way, but when someone that is good at certain games just cheats for no reason(I've had several friends do this) it's kind of awkward that you paid to cheat in a game and beat it in half an hour.

Just ever think they had fun doing it? You pay for somthing to have fun, if they wish to do that, by all means do not intervene.

Just never saw the sense in buying a game, finding the cheats, beating the game, never playing the game again.

Published strategy quides are superior to gamefaqs text guides. I didn't buy the guide for VC but I did for SA. It's nice to be able to see where the tag to spray is or what the jump looks like if you can't find it. The maps are really helpfull too.