Is the Console Cheating?

[Master of Puppets]

Do you believe that using the console is cheating, and why?

I don't. The console was obviously intended for player use, otherwise it wouldn't be in the released game, and Bethesda would have taken it out before release.

[Argonanza]

If you use it to find someone who happened to fall through the ground, or use it for taking pretty screenies, it's not cheating.

[The Tom]

If you're going to use it exclusively to type 'player.additem f 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000' then yes, it is cheating. But I don't do that. I only use 'artistic' commands, like tfc and tm.

[Norroen Dyrd]

We all seem to uphold the same opinion. First of all, the console may prove more than useful when you get stuck somewhere like in a narrow gap between rocks that you can't jump out of, or when dropped items disappear in the unknown depths beneath the floor (Rosethorn Hall is particularly notorious for this, I think), when you are at your wits' end where you might have lost your horse (Shadowmere in particular) or your follower, when a
quest won't progress due to a bug, etc. In all these cases, the console is just a means of salvation. Moreover, one can use the console for, as Tom put it, "artistic purposes". The tfc command is essential for taking a decent screenshot of your character in picturesque surroundings.
However, I am inclined to believe that such commands as "additem" followed by a crazy amount of valuables are a means of cheating.
So, I vote for the second option

[Avron the S'wit]

First of all, the console may prove more than useful when you get stuck somewhere like in a narrow gap between rocks that you can't jump out of, or when dropped items disappear in the unknown depths beneath the floor (Rosethorn Hall is particularly notorious for this, I think)

Argh, there is nothing more frustrating than that happening when you're playing on a gaming system other than PC. I lost Umbra once as it disappeared beneath a small rise of snow outside the Bruma gate. Not a good time.

[The Tom]

To be honest, I never got into a situation on the PS3 that I couldn't resolve without the console even after 1000 hours total playing time. Maybe I'm just weird, but that's how I roll.

On the PC, I use the console a lot to help with developing the UESP mod, as well. The commands to check the validity of path grids and which paths NPCs like came in really useful when I was debugging the area.

[Jakarius321]

Depends on the circumstances! Without the console I would never have been able to take all my many screenshots!

Definitely second option

[KrisCrash]

I try to not use the console to give me an unfair advantage (beyond adding repair hammers and godmode for encumbrance ), but I use it extensively to explore the game and test how things work.

So.. sometimes it's cheating, sometimes it's just practical, sometimes it's to be nice to dead NPCs... whose permanent corpses you are sick of walking over all the time. And in a modded game it can be really necesary when things get messed up.

I would say.. I have mods that cheat worse. Like automatic herb harvesting? Cheating bad

[grumptastic]

Do you believe that using the console is cheating, and why?

I don't. The console was obviously intended for player use, otherwise it wouldn't be in the released game, and Bethesda would have taken it out before release.

If we're going by the literal definition of cheating, then yes:

3. to elude; deprive of something expected: He cheated the law by suicide.

To me it would only be cheating if it were a multi-player game. Oblivion is a single-player game that exists on a computer's hard drive in the privacy of your own home. If you own it then it's your right to do anything you damn well please with it, whether it be the creation of god items in the construction set, full chameleon gear, or cheat codes. When someone else starts buying your video games for you then they can whine about how you play them, and not one second sooner.

[Red Guardian]

You mean using some commands to your advantage? Like, adding 10.000 points to your magicka? No, this is not cheating. At all.

[Jeff]

I have used the Console many a times, to find a fix for others, or even myself. I use it to test things that people say, or to verify informations. The Wiki is very good about veryifying what information it puts out... Without the Console, a lot of the information on the Wiki would have been more difficult to verify.

I have been playing Oblivion since day one. I use it how I feel like using it at the moment. Sometimes I'll cheat, sometimes I'll make the game harder, depending on what type of Character I am playing.

Same goes for the Construction Set.

Don't think that Bethesda left the Console Gamers out of the Fun... think about how many of the Bugs/Glitches that can be benificial... think about how many have yet to be fixed... I'm willing to bet that they are intentional... so not actually a glitch/bug, but an Easter Egg of Sorts.

[Orzornn]

Depends on how it's used.

[Jeff]

...to add to the mix: What about Mods? Is using Mods Cheating?

[KrisCrash]

Well, it depends, as everything else.

Using many mods are just... cheating yourself because they actually make the graphics worse (HGEC cough cough)

Cheating really implies you have an adversary to cheat xP