8 Ways Video Games Punish You For Breaking Their Rules

Video games and cheating have gone hand in hand since they were first created. In fact, the very first recorded instances of video game cheats came about as a result of handy codes that were added in to aid playtesters in completing games with ease.

It didn't take long for cheating to become a marketable product either, as the 1981 release of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord spawned at least two unofficial cheat programs that were sold without the developers permission. Later in 1996, the very first GameShark line of cheat cartridges were launched for the Sega Saturn and the PlayStation, proving that cheating had become profitable enough that it had suddenly developed brand recognition.

Some developers don't mind a bit of cheating. Some even encourage it. Probably one of the most famous examples of this is the Grand Theft Auto series, which loves encouraging players to input cheats that spawn tanks, turn on god mode, or launch yourself fifty miles into the air.

Others, however, aren't too fond of it - doubly so when it comes to online games. After all, if you cheat in a single player game, you're only affecting your own game, but when it comes to online games, having a unearned leg up on the competition isn't good sportsmanship.

Most of the time, punishing players for cheating is a pretty straightfoward affair, usually resulting in your account getting banned, but in the entries on this list, developers decided to get a little inventive with their punishments.

Valkyrie Profile 2, a tactical RPG released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006, is notorious for its particularly punishing difficulty. Naturally, instead of trying to get good, several players tried to use cheat devices, like GameSharks, to make things a little easier.

Turns out, developers tri-Ace didn't just think of a way to counter said cheating, but instead decided to come up with one of the most savage punishments ever devised.

If the game notices you're cheating, it will flag your save file. Attempting to use the save file will cause Valkyrie Profile 2 to crash. No biggie, right? You can just create a new save file and start again, or revert to a previous save file instead... right?

Turns out, nope, Valkyrie Profile 2 doesn't just flag that one save file - it flags EVERY save file on your memory card, including the save files of other games. If you want to play the game again, you'll have to delete every single save file on your memory card. Even if you use a new memory card, somehow Valkyrie Profile 2 will infect that too, if you haven't deleted the save files on the previous memory card.