You Cheated The Game Meme
Nobody expects to see themselves trending online.
You probably have seen a few of the 'You cheated the not only the game, but yourself' memes by now. Whether you're confused by them, curious, or even if you just don't give a crap, here's how it started. An editor for PC Gamer wrote an article about how he beat Sekiro's final boss with cheats, and he feels fine about it. But no chapter in the ongoing controversy over whether the video game requires an easy mode (or whether your relationship with it really says anything meaningful about you as a human being) has.
But when one person waded into a debate about difficulty in video games, his somewhat hyperbolic tweet united both sides of the argument.
After a long period of suspicious thoughts, a man finds his wife cheating on him. He found out this when he sneaked into the house and found the two in the a. When you're in the game cheating - Coub - The Biggest Video Meme Platform by selevan.
His words have been re-posted thousands of times on Twitter alone, spawning spoofs and parodies created by everyone from regular gamers to Sega of America.
And all of this came from a response to a gaming journalist who admitted he had cheated to beat a video game.
It all started with FromSoftware’s 2019 game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which has such a steep difficulty curve that PC Gamer’s James Davenport admitted he used cheats to finish the game.
This fact did not sit right with Crunch, a Twitter user who probably had his tongue planted somewhat in his cheek when he told Mr Davenport in no uncertain terms what he thought of his accomplishment.
Over the next few days, the words reappeared in popular posts as gamers poked fun at the hyperbolic statement, using it to call out well-known cheats in popular games such as Persona 5, Crash Bandicoot and Super Mario 64.
It was soon labelled the latest “copypasta” – a term to mean a block of text that is “copied and pasted” frequently online.
More and more gamers were posting the wall of text with famous ways to cheat, ranging from in-game level select screens to using an “action replay” cheating device. Cheat codes june's journey game.
The meme developed further, with technically skilled gamers modifying some of their favourite games to include the text within them, including clever edits of Animal Crossing and Link’s Awakening.
And one video featuring a literal shortcut in Super Mario 64 was viewed more than 1.65 million times.
And at this point, it was so popular that even Sega of America tweeted its own parody on the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account – which Sega often uses to engage in internet culture with memes and jokes.
You might be forgiven for thinking that the original tweeter would be upset by the way his words were twisted for humour – but Crunch has embraced his new-found fame.
“When this all jumped off,” he told the BBC, “I was a bit upset that people weren’t understanding my point, but as I saw it I had two options.
“I could try to fight it… or I could lean into it, have fun, and see where it takes me. It’s a matter of perspective.
“I absolutely love that I got to create a new meme that’s part of the internet tapestry.”
His positive attitude has seen him receive plaudits online, to the extent that a meme he made parodying himself with Metal Gear Solid character Liquid Snake was professionally recorded by the character’s original voice actor.
Crunch called this recording his “favourite part of the past week”.
“It really blew me away,” he added, “and I was genuinely moved to tears.”
Content warning: Harassment, threats.
I’ve been writing online for many years. My initial focus primarily centred on issues of ethics, since it was what I studied and taught at the time. It gave me an excuse to tackles issues I found interesting, while improving my writing ability. The themes I chose were considered “controversial” outside the semi Ivory Tower I operated in, but they generated discussions with students and peers, resulting in lively conversations and thoughtful take aways. Capital punishment, God, drugs, sex work, torture – these and more were all part of the conversations. I wrote and put my name under many of these and received furious replies — but only infrequently, and, even then, primarily from religious readers who were concerned for my immortal soul.
I then started writing about games and, since having a tiny bit of success from a few articles, I’ve become a central target of forums, reddit threads, and other dark tunnels running through the internet. Even my favourite readers do not care for me as much as online stalkers who, despite being blocked, still keep tabs, run to their creepy friends, to rat on what I said about a video game.
If you’re not digitally stalked, your swarmed, with anime avatars conveying horrific levels of anger and animosity, who require you to be silent and to take the punishment; or who, when you respond, engage in bad faith discussions about their alleged oppression or you faking or you lying or you being sensitive. (I’m a cishet man so I don’t receive anything comparable to those who do not identify as such; the focus, however, does tend to be on my race and threats to my “terrorist” self and family and what have you.)
The lesson I learned is: You are a perfect target because you can never be the perfect victim. Nothing you do or say to those attacking will ever be “good” enough to get them to stop because:
1. They aren’t seeking an answer, they’re seeking a bullseye and bullseyes are meant to be silent and still.
2. Even if they did, each one hates you for different reasons, meaning satisfying one would only anger another.
When I was in the firing line, no matter how many were expressing support, I felt isolated. People, even supporters, were having conversations around you.
This is what I was reminded of recently when this Tweet went viral for how ridiculous it was.
You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
You didn't grow.
You didn't improve.
You took a shortcut and gained nothing.
You experienced a hollow victory.
Nothing was risked and nothing was gained.
It's sad that you don't know the difference. https://t.co/upkhLSNQNO
— Fetusberry 「Ass Bastard」 Crunch (@Fetusberry) April 6, 2019
This ridiculous statement and its incredibly serious but equally ridiculous follow-ups, all concern… a video game.
Yet, they also are targeting PC Gamer writer, James Davenport. As evidence, you need only look at the responses to the original PC Gamer Tweet (CW! I do not advise it, for your mental health).
I beat Sekiro's final boss with cheats and I feel fine https://t.co/Fj4i8d6sUbpic.twitter.com/N38RL5zxZO
— PC Gamer (@pcgamer) April 5, 2019
You Cheated The Game Meme
People like the original ridiculous poster whose Tweet went viral are not operating in isolation. If you see an article get that kind of vitriol, you can imagine the kind you don’t see: emails, DM’s, etc, that the author and colleagues have to deal with it.
Bullseyes must be silent and take it.
But we, who care, shouldn’t let that be the case. There might be an argument to be had that showing how ridiculous this original Tweet was helps to combat the normalisation of it. Yet, that still lends itself to promoting someone’s harassment above their work. This was confirmed by another PC Gamer staffer.
Every round-up that ends with 'teehee, what's it like for this guy to get meme'd on!?' could have instead thought about the author who was actually dealing with the bullshit, instead of meme dude who also tweeted 'They were paid for the review they wrote'
You Cheated The Game Meme Images
— Wes Fenlon (@wesleyfenlon) April 10, 2019
We can and must do better than this. I’m not saying don’t laugh at the ridiculous, angry people, who treat video games like it’s their life – but don’t let that stop you considering and prioritising the well-being of targets of these angry gamers’ harassment, the kind of awfulness targets have to go through, all in this weird landscape they’re just trying to make a decent living out of. I don’t blame anyone for laughing at this – hell, I laughed at the copypasta because I’d rather focus on laughter than harassment (since I was being targeted, too, recently). But again, we can do better.
You Lost The Game Meme
In short: I’d rather more people read the words of Mr Fenton than one of his harassers.