8 Ways Video Games Punish You For Breaking Their Rules
7. SimCity
In the SimCity games, there are a few different cheat codes that allow you to get some free money and build expansive cities with little to no effort.
Unbeknownst to most players though, several of the games have lots of different negative side-effects that come with abusing these cheat codes too often.
In the original SimCity, using the "FUND" cheat code several times made it more likely that a disaster would strike your city and level or your buildings. In SimCity 2000, the FUND code was changed from a free cash injection into a loan, with a whopping 25% rate of interest (which stacks every time you use the code)
In the Windows 95 version, instead of giving you a loan or increasing the likelihood of disasters, it would immediately lead to a nuclear meltdown and destroy your city. A similar code, CASS, would give you money instead... and also result in a massive firestorm appearing out of nowhere.
Just in case you wanted to get a little spicy and type a swear word out of anger, all of your residential housing would be transformed into churches... which seems like a harmless punishment, until you realise churches don't pay any tax.