It’s A Good Thing They Nailed That Whole Watergate Thing…

…because when it comes to online gaming, the Washington Post is batting .000 on “having a clue”.

Remember “Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, (Select) Start”? If you grew up playing the shoot-’em-up game “Contra” on your Nintendo Entertainment System, chances are that cheat is forever frozen in your brain. GameFaqs.com, one of the most popular game-cheating sites, recently listed it atop its “top 10 most memorable cheats” in gaming history.

Says Jeff Veasey, an editor at GameFaqs: “I hate to admit it, but cheating is a part of playing games.”

But what constitutes cheating? Is cheating less objectionable when you don’t have to pay for it? As in, looking up a code on the Internet, where it’s free, versus dropping$16.99 for a copy of the strategy guide for “Madden NFL 2007”? When roaming the online “World of Warcraft,” is cheating warranted so long as the only one affected is you? For example, buying weapons on eBay instead of earning them in the game?

Yes, clearly there is NO DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER between buying a strategy guide and duping gold.

Can I write for one of the world’s leading newspapers? About something like, I don’t know, nuclear fission? I clearly know as much about that as the Post knows about my industry.

All bashing of that old whipping boy “mainstream media” aside, this article does have some worth in that it mirrors the clueless “wha…” of a large segment of the MMO userbase… they cheat on every other game they play, with no ill effect. Why should MMOs be different? (Hint: other people are involved.)