Cheats in Games

[Narj]

For a long time now, PC games have had quite easily accessible methods of cheating, typically from consoles, key combinations, launcher arguments and the like. I presume most of these are put in for QA departments/game testers so my question is: Why aren't they removed from, or at least trimmed down to the bare minimum in the finished product (ie: leave in console commands to fix bugs/being stuck etc?)

I'll admit it - I'm easily tempted and once I've cheated on a game, it loses its appeal and I get bored with it quickly. Victory feels a bit hollow afterwards in all honesty.

I think I'd have lasted a bit longer with a few games if I'd not got a bit frustrated and then found there was an easy way to cheat to get past the most fiendish parts. I'm not sure how others fell but I never download trainers as I simply don't trust them to not be malicious code.

What do others think?

Before anyone says "don't cheat then", I've tried looking for some willpower on eBay but failed.

EDIT: I am only referring to single player gaming here!

 

[Narj]

Dont cheat then

Example: M&B Warband a while back... accidentally fell off a castle wall and into a raging group of mobs... AAARGH... CTRL+H, run, CTRL+H.

Won the battle but afterwards my game felt spoiled so I started a new character.

I don't understand it because cheating back in the 8-bit days was a nightmare. Either typing in a POKE or trawling through machine code with a Multiface 2. I think I was much more patient back then....

 

[Narj]

I have done it once or twice, but only when I have got really stuck on a certain bit that I can't get past or an object I can't find for example.

As for multiplayer games online I have never cheated as it is my number one online gaming hate!

Edited my original post - I was only talking about single player.

For really difficult bits, I think I'd rather more games had an optional "hints" system that kicked in after a few dozen failures or a certain amount of time stuck on a section.

 

[Narj]

Quicksave/quickload ruined a few games for me. I'd just end up walking around with full ammo/health all the time saving every few seconds and quickloading if i used 1 bullet too many or if something scratched me. Was totally anal. Banned myself from using quicksave - got back to having fun

I must admit that Quicksave has spoiled gaming a fair bit for me. I must QS hundreds of times in a session. :/ If you think about the save system of Dead Space, it makes things a lot more intense.

There is the benefit of being able to put the game down whenever you want with QS though.