Video games have exploded in popularity in recent years, and there are over 3 billion gamers worldwide. People play on consoles, computers, and even their phones or tablets today. There are many different types of games from RPGs, to sports games, to puzzle games and everything in between.
In particular, online games like Fortnite, Valorant, Call of Warzone, PUBG, and many others have become some of the most popular. While many people play these games legitimately and fairly by showcasing their skills, there are also others who will cheat to win.
Whether you are just a regular player, or one of the best Valorant streamers, playing against cheaters is never any fun and they can be impossible to beat.
When players run into these opponents, they will often say they are hacking. But is that really the case? Are hacking and cheating really the same? While often used synonymously there are some differences between hacking and cheating, and this article is going to go over a few of them.
Hacking Can be a Valuable Way to Learn
A lot of video gaming today is about learning and becoming better with things like helpful how-to guides. But if you want to learn about the inner workings of a game and learn what really makes it tick, hacks can allow you to do so. Hacking can let you access deeper parts of a game and learn why certain things in a game are the way they are.
Hacking can also let you change and alter something about a game such as the amount of health a character has, can allow you to change how a level is completed, and so much more. Hacks were often used by game developers themselves to test games and experiment with different options and changes, too.
They are simply a valuable tool for changing the experience a player has during the game and often present them with many more ways and options when it comes to how they play. Making hacks can be hard, and takes a lot of work, dedication, and knowledge. However, you can try Guided Hacking to learn about making unique and exciting hacks. Most people hack single-player games to change the experience or make a way for their favorite game to be played in a different way.
Cheating is About Gaining an Unfair Advantage
There is nothing inherently wrong with making and using hacks, but when it comes to cheating, it is done with the intent of gaining an unfair advantage. If you cheat, you are playing the game outside the way it was meant to, often to the detriment of others.
Cheating can be anything from using a known exploit or bug in a game to gain an unfair advantage, to using the hacks that other people have made in order to get aimbot, be able to see opponents through walls, become indestructible, and more.
Sure, some people can utilize hacks to cheat, but hacks are not inherently the same as cheating. People often buy their cheats or discover an exploit or bug in a game, and hardly ever make the cheats themselves, or even really know much about how or why they work.
Also, many games come with cheats already coded in, and it is up to the player to learn how to use them to make the game easier or provide a different experience. Of course, these cheats are ones the developers actually intended players to use, unlike things like aimbot in Fortnite or the ability to see through walls in Warzone.
The Idea Behind Each is Different
As briefly mentioned in the last few points, the ideas behind both hacks and cheats are different. Hacks are created by those with a lot of knowledge about how a game works, and are often used to take shortcuts in single-player games or change the experience people can have with a game. It takes time and effort to hack, and you are manipulating the game and how it plays itself.
Cheats are essentially using these hacks made by others for the wrong purposes or finding other unfair ways to gain the upper hand on their opponents. Cheaters aren’t creating or reworking anything, simply figuring out and completing an exploit, or downloading a software program that will run the hacks for them.
So while both terms are used regularly, that person who defeated you across the map with the seemingly-impossible aim is a cheater, and not necessarily a hacker.
In conclusion, we hope this article has been able to help you learn a little more about the difference between hacking and cheating in gaming. While they are similar in some ways, they are often confused for the same thing, which they certainly are not.