[Z]

Originally posted by Arryn:
Gandalf, he's referring to cheats so he can win already-started games.

Yes, I want to fiddle with things mid-game, rather than just at the start.

{rant}
I'll never understand the rationale for going through the bother of playing a STRATEGY game, which is designed to make you THINK, and then use cheats so you don't have to think your way out of problems. What's the point of playing a strategy game if you cheat at it? It results in very hollow "victories". You learn best by making mistakes, and then working around them. (I learned this lesson 35+ years ago at chess.)
{/rant}

(As an aside, let me point out that I don't always use them, so not all my "victories" are "hollow")

More to your point, though, if I *really* wanted to master the game, and if I really felt that victories proved something to me, then I would likely agree with you.

But, to be honest, I have a career, a wife, and 3 very young children at home, which all means quite limited playing time available to me, and *very* few games (of any type, not just strategy) capture my interest enough to motivate me dedicate the time and effort required to aspire/reach the mastery level of play. For the majority of the rest of the games, this isn't really a knock on them; it's just a function of my personal tastes and available free time. And it's for this majority of games that cheat codes let me enjoy/explore them at my own pace, without needing to dedicate myself to "master" them, and without needing to feed my ego over "victories", which I have no desire to do for those games. To put it another way, cheats allow me to get some semblance of "my money's worth" out of a lot of games that I would otherwise return to the store (back when stores took returns) or just abandon (making it a huge $ waste) from lack of interest, if they didn't have cheats.

Here's an example: I bought the RTS game "Battle Realms", based on some very positive reviews. When I got it home, I quickly discovered that I really didn't like for its particular specifcs of play (even though I am a big RTS fan in general). If cheat codes were available for it, I would have used them to more or less cruise through the game at a level of difficulty that matched my interest level, and to be able to watch the cut scenes and follow the story, and been relatively satisfied with the game. Instead, I discovered on the Battle Realm forums that the company refused to provide cheats, and that many posters there royally flamed the heck out of anyone who asked for them just for single player games. (I do appreciate the maturity here on these forums!) So, anyway, the next day, I returned BR to the store.

Nowadays, returns aren't generally allowed, and I've been burned so I've decided that premptively
verifying that cheats are available for a prospective game is my best bet.

Anyway, Dominions 2 seems quite deep, and potenially even be one of those games that might capture my interest long enough to want to work towards mastering it. But, I don't know that for sure, and can't decide it based on a couple of days with the demo.

Wow, that was long! I hope it lends some understanding, even if you don't agree.