To Glitch or Not To Glitch: That is the Question

Whether it’s Halo 3, Half-Life 2, or Call of Duty 4, all of us have experienced the hair-pulling frustration that is “respawning into death.” You die nobly in a blaze of glory, only to take your first step with your next life directly into the crosshair of an enemy sniper. Words cannot describe the fury that ensues, and most of us cannot understand how someone can kill us in a matter of seconds. The truth is, you may have fallen victim to a glitch in the system.

If you play any type of first-person shooter online, then you know that glitches exist; but are players using them implementing legitimate strategies or simply cheating? Call of Duty 4 is a good place to start this debate, as it has a very large population of online gamers and has sold over 10 million copies. Of the thousands of players that compete online each day, there are always some who choose to use the game’s glitches to give themselves an advantage over the rest of the players.

These glitches are discovered by “exploring” the game’s maps in private sessions. Players examine every inch of the map, looking for small crevices, invisible walkways, and fences to traverse a la tightrope walking. Using these tools, they can study parts of the map that weren’t designed to be used in game play, but rather as a backdrop or scenic portion of the landscape.

A lot of the problems begin once these specific areas are found. Players post tutorials on how to utilize each glitch during gameplay on specific forums, blogs or video sites. After they are shared amongst the masses, countless numbers of players employ these tactics in their gameplay.

Some of these glitches allow players to climb to the tops of buildings or walk outside the edges of the map, enabling them to shoot the proverbial fish in the barrel as their opponents “respawn into death.” So what is to say about these tactics, are they an intelligent strategy or just your good old-fashioned for-nothing swindling?

You’ll of course have those who say that using these glitches is just utilizing the maps the designers provided as efficiently as possible—and yes, this is true. Climbing through an invisible wall to the top of a building that doesn’t exist on the map is using everything you’re given, but don’t you think these “secrets” would have been designed into the game if they were supposed to be used? In my opinion, glitching is cheating, plain and simple. If you aren’t playing the game using the map as it’s designed, then it’s just not fair to everyone else. There are countless numbers of arguments on each side of this issue, so let yours be known. Leave a comment and let the debate begin.