But what if the glitches are not programming errors, but are left there on purpose? Let us revisit Morrowind. Morrowind is a long game. Even if your only objective is to go from one side of the game map to the other and see everything in between, you are in for the long haul. Even that seemingly simple objective would require some degree of character development, which means hours of leveling up. Morrowind is not a game you can beat in a week. (Although one guy did beat it in seven minutes, without using cheats no less. And I ask you: what was the point?)

And many gamers are busy, either with jobs or family or other games. What if the developers realized this, and as a sort of courtesy decided to put these loopholes in to accommodate the gamer? After all, even if your Luck is 1,129 you still have to complete those quests the old-fashioned way. I’m sure some gamers even incorporated these glitches and loopholes into their evaluation of the game, passing along the info to their friends. Considering that exploiting these glitches is completely voluntary I wouldn’t be surprised if these accidents were in fact on purpose, designed to accommodate gamers with tight schedules that can’t spend endless hours making their character strong enough to just tackle the first quest. And even if they aren’t on purpose (though they do seem awfully convenient), a game as massive as Morrowind is bound to be a royal pain when it comes to bug testing; things no doubt slip through the cracks.

And what if the same could be said for multiplayer games? What if the developers of Halo 2 left the game just as it was to make the competition among gamers more intense? After all, new tactics call for new counter-tactics. There’s no better way to keep game play fresh than getting your buddies together to devise a strategy to take down the head-hopping sniper.

And even more so (and I’m sure most if not all non-gamers share this sentiment) why bother with all the fuss about cheat codes and exploiting glitches, even in a multiplayer game? If it’s a single-player game, the most damaging thing that’s going to happen to you is being thought of as a wimp by your gaming peers. If it’s multiplayer, well it is just a game. Nobody takes Monopoly so seriously that they call Milton Bradley and ask for clarification on the Free Parking space rule, so why should gamers get so up in arms about a player-character jumping on his buddy’s head?

I am not exactly fond of online gaming, but I will admit one thing: it is legitimizing gaming as a competitive event, even for single player games (think the Master Ninja Tournament for Ninja Gaiden). I don’t think it’ll be long before we start seeing gaming leagues, maybe even pro or semi-pro gamers. These issues will come up, and people will start taking them very seriously. It’s best to deal with gaming ethics sooner than later, because there will be new problems and we don’t want to have to solve the old ones along with the new ones.

Meanwhile, as your jump on your teammate’s head to reach that sweet sniping spot in Halo 2, if a hardcore frag-head calls you on it just say into your headset “Sorry man. For a moment I forgot he was on my team, and I thought we were playing by Mario rules.”

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