A discussion about cheating

[Kingjad]

Hello there, I've been away for a while obviously but I feel like it'd be beneficial to share some thoughts and feelings I have had with everyone about the deceptive act of modding stunts and attempting to pass them off as legitimate.

This is probably a topic those who that have been active this whole time are somewhat tired about, as you've obviously been here to see discussions play out at the time. Returning to the scene I was looking forward to catching up with everyone from before as well as discovering new exciting stunters I'd missed out on. What I was not anticipating was the number of reported modders not only from while I was gone, but even when I was active and blissfully unaware of it at the time.

It's the age-old question - why do people do it?

Is it ego? Wanting to be seen as impressive to your peers? I question whether the deception is worth it knowing you're a fraud.

Is it a thrill from lying? Some people do enjoy that sort of thing, odd as it seems to me.

I've been blown away by the reception I've gotten coming back from folk, people sharing their memories and stuff. Thing is I know people usually remember me not because of my stunting - I've always accepted I've been average at best - but folk seemed to dig my personality, plus I was fortunate enough to be in TMS, a crew that genuinely meant a lot to people. I was one who let my personality try and define me, to make up for what I perceived as a lack of ability. I can't RAD for example, never learned. While I can think of creative stunt spots I tended to struggle landing them, and certainly wasn't a match for the creativity of guys like Kert, an actual genius. But I never felt like I had to be either.

I tried to leave TMS once. I knew my lack of abilities compared to the others in the crew. I felt like they were soaring higher and higher while I was an anchor pulling them back. This is kinda covered in the history topic on TMS sections too. But after a short while and talking to the guys they made me realise that they wanted the person, not the stunter, with them. My personality is what mattered to them and not my abilities to stunt in an old video game.

It's a situation where I think to be myself that I could've taken different approaches to. I feel others in similar situations might've contemplated cheating. I'm glad I never went down such a path but I imagine most cheat because they have been in situations where they felt like they weren't good enough, but desired to be.

It saddens me hearing whispers, rumours, even more, about stunters I respected who probably turned out to be cheating. But I just wanted to encourage people on here, if you feel like you need to do it - don't. Let your personality shine, don't cheat yourself by pretending to be something you're not. You're good enough just the way you are already.

So aye, stop cheating fuckers, please.

EDIT: Move this to general discussion if necessary as it covers multiple GTA games and not just VC.

[Aries]

I do it because, how else would I land stunts?

[Jason]

Everyone wants to be the man.

[ARS]

Yeah, just like Hay said above and here is no way to change it somehow, it depends of people same as in real life, someone work hard to get what he want and he actually enjoy his job, he just love what he do, but some others prefer to cheat and get the same feelings. They are not enjoy the job, they enjoy the fame, what people will say about them.

[DeathCobra]

What I would like to see is a bot that can try stunts for us, like TASbots and such do. Even if it has to be given many attempts, we could see what is possible pretty easily.

Thus, I propose we lock Aries in a basement for a few years to create such a tool 

[Artifex]

I tried to leave TMS once. I knew my lack of abilities compared to the others in the crew. I felt like they were soaring higher and higher while I was an anchor pulling them back. This is kinda covered in the history topic on TMS sections too. But after a short while and talking to the guys they made me realise that they wanted the person, not the stunter, with them. My personality is what mattered to them and not my abilities to stunt in an old video game.

We had the same thing going for us in SSU, even had good auditions get declined because we thought the person wouldn't fit in our group. Then again, idk why people cheat. It is a shortcut for making a good video (unless you get caught).

[Afterlife]

I always thought it had to be an ego boost to get validation from stunters you look up to, but such validation has no meaning to the stunter who modded since he only did it because of the mods he used, so it always seemed odd to me..

[jakuba]

At least you were in a team that liked you. I was a medicore stunter, accused WH members of cheating and for some reason Daffy thought "yeah we could use that guy".    to this day I dont know who cheated within the team and who didnt. If you try to be good at spotting cheaters you need to know what can be achived and what can be not. It takes skill which takes time. I think some of the Best cheaters were also great stunters before that. I know I accused Maci and Puzzle of cheating when i wss in WH but really how could I know? But it started to get into my head. How do I know if any of the especially big air stunts are clean if i can not get any where near landing the damn stunt. You begin to rely on others to tell you what is true and what is not. If its community members thats one thing. If its your teammates it can be unhealthy trust on their part. Or not! But if you suck and dont know the game Well enough how can you tell? My lack of knowledge and skill as Well as an increasing level of skill made me question every stunt. And if you cant tell whats real and not how can you enjoy it? Is this the most amazing stunt ever or is it a fraud? If I cant tell then im not gonna enjoy it. So its on me at least in part. That killed stunitng for me.

[Skuller]

Dunno why they did that / do it but one thing is sure for me: Throught the years I found out that there are way too much modders even some that I had respect for and that got me very dissapointed. Don't think I'd ever join this place if I knew that in the beginning. Btw great advices Kingjad but I don't think most of them mod to change their personality, more like exactly modding is a part of their true personality so they just be theirself.

[Lex]

If you're good at cheating do it

[NumeRo]

they wanted some "internet fame" 

[Sheep]

I used to lower gravity on SA engine when I started stunting. My computer was so shit back then and I couldnt land even a single bump.
All those spots are possible tho. I've seen all of them landed already.

That's my excuse

[Xtramus]

I think you probably summed up some pretty good reasons, but want to add that some stunters cheat because they feel the pressure to "perform". I recall Tackleberry saying that was the reason he modded and same goes for Fugitive I think (but less sure on the latter, I might have him mixed up with someone else). Generally there are some people that get a lot of praise for some stunts but then feel that it is necessary not to drop too much in terms of level, or that they always need to contribute to e.g. a crew video. I'd actually be inclined to say that this is probably the reason most "established" stunters turn to modding.

Another issue might be because they are afraid to lose a spot. If you know there are other people trying your spot or for some reason think this might be the case, you might be inclined to think they'll beat you to it. Rather than trying harder or accepting, one might instead give themselves a little "edge" to get it done and beat the others. I wonder how often this happens though. I've seen people do weirder shit over losing spots so I wouldn't rule this out either.

[Krypton]

Where is the fun in modding? There is no better feeling then when you finally nail a stunt you have actually worked your ass off on. Can't imagine you would get that from spending a few minutes to mod a stunt.

There could be hundreds of reasons as to why somebody would mod. But I think everybody is getting the jist of it, to get some clout.

[Ezraph2001]

I used to lower gravity on SA engine when I started stunting. My computer was so shit back then and I couldnt land even a single bump.
All those spots are possible tho. I've seen all of them landed already.

That's my excuse

With your admission to cheating, I had to recall the times...I remember before I even joined the forums, I used to mod the handling file without realizing it, and I realized it when I found the clips from about 7 years ago. I knew they were modded, but I made a short video with them anyway

I think the reason why GTAS cheaters exists is because they're impatient people (myself included, but like I said I admitted it but I never cheated from 2014 onwards)

Imagine you're at school and your parents are so high on their standards that whenever you top below #1 they'll kick you out of your parent's crib so you decided to "closet cheat" to get #1.

When I used the admin console I don't want to change the weight because that's cheating. I used it to help me with setting up PSMs, CSMs and all other shit that you can do with it.

They cheat because it's their intention, but they're breaking the rules of playing legit and if exposed to the public, they won't be getting away from it. They'll just be flamed by the internet unless they don't give a fuck about it and just keep cheating and cheating for the sake of clout.