Using Console Commands in an AAR

[JSB217118]

Is using console commands in an AAR considered cheating? I'm thinking of using them to make some of the dumber things the AI does make sense. For example in my Kingdom of Jeruselum game, one of my chaste barons married a lustful Muslim woman. Such a development might make more sense if they were lovers. Likewise in other games, I could use them to give character traits more reflective of their historical counterparts.

 

[coz1]

I have never and will never deny that I have used console commands to effect the desired outcome I wanted for a particular game. Is it cheating? Likely. If one considers the literal application of AARs...that they are After Action Reports...then yes. In representing a game in which one has altered the results, the claim of cheating could be raised. That said, I have long considered what we do here is storytelling as much as game reports. The game should suit the story more than the story should suit the game. Of course, try to adhere closely to what the game provides as that is the interesting aspect each of these games gives us, but when it goes off of verisimilitude, then sure...make all the alterations needed so the story makes sense. I would be open and up front about it to your readers, but there is nothing wrong with cheating if it serves the story.

 

[Mr. Capiatlist]

"Cheating" is a gameplay term. You can't cheat in fiction, but you can cheat in non-fiction.

What I mean by that is: if you're writing an AAR as a work of fiction (e.g. narrative AAR, historybook AAR) there's no such thing as cheating. If you're writing an AAR as a work of non-fiction (e.g. gameplay AAR, tutorial AAR) then you are cheating unless done transparently and for a particular reason (e.g. adding diplomatic points to specifically show the affect of a option you couldn't afford).

 

[JSB217118]

Thank you so much for your advice and affirmation.

 

[Idhrendur]

I'll affirm those replies. I've even agreed events that were heavy-handed in fixing things for the sake of the story.

 

[Eurasia]

Cheating? Heck no...how do you think I started Road of Queens? I had to use console commands at least twice to set it up properly. No, story is more important than anything else. If it will help you tell a good story use them!

 

[DensleyBlair]

I’ll add my voice to the chorus and put down my support for console commands. Even if I didn’t use console commands outright, Echoes of a New Tomorrow wouldn’t’ve been possible without some incredibly “selective” gameplay decisions. I had to just straight up disregard the fact that the UK was being overrun by 500k communist rebels, and once they’d taken over I just equally straight up ignored all subsequent counter-revolutions to fit with the story I wanted to tell. With an AAR, in many ways the game is just another tool you can use to help tell your story. Don’t feel like you have to stick too closely to the rails in the name of purity. What’s important is having fun and getting what interests you out of the game.

 

[stnylan]

"Cheating" is a gameplay term. You can't cheat in fiction, but you can cheat in non-fiction.

What I mean by that is: if you're writing an AAR as a work of fiction (e.g. narrative AAR, historybook AAR) there's no such thing as cheating. If you're writing an AAR as a work of non-fiction (e.g. gameplay AAR, tutorial AAR) then you are cheating unless done transparently and for a particular reason (e.g. adding diplomatic points to specifically show the affect of a option you couldn't afford).

This articulates my position entirely clearly.

 

[Captured Joe]

As long as it makes sense in the story, it should be fine I think. Console commands can be very useful to get a more complete picture of the in-game situation by the way; I certainly used it to tag-switch to see what my allies were doing.

 

[Wraith11B]

Speaking as someone who is running an AAR on six computers in a LAN arrangement, I've had to do a fair amount of save game editing, which basically has been nothing but console commands taken to a logical extreme...

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

I mean...unless you do as Pip does and play the whole game first and plan your story afterwards, the fact is that trusting paradox with your story is a bit risky/insane depending on what type of AAR you're writing. Cheating is impossible with fictional AARs of the narrative or history book type, and often can improve comedic ones. Only hardcore how tos and gameplay challenge write ups are really tainted by console commands, and even then on these AARs you often find at some point a discussion between the player and readers on where to just fudge the supid game thing that just happened to allow the game to continue.

 

[El Pip]

Just to play devil's advocate, forcing yourself to work around a terrible/inexplicable event without resorting to the console / editing to fix it can be an excellent creative challenge, a sort of constrained writing.

So in case quoted at the start - why would a chaste baron marry a lustful Muslim woman? A sudden rush of blood to the head (or somewhere else...) undoing his years of chastity and causing a crisis of faith? Blackmail perhaps, forced to take her in lest a terrible secret is revealed. A cunning plan to gain the trust of the woman's family and clan, using that to gain access to their stronghold before capturing them all in the name of the Cross? Many possibilities.

Or if you don't want to write any of those, then just use the console and write the story you do want to, as others have said it'll be fine. Writing time is too precious to be wasted trying to hammer out a tale you don't really want to tell.

 

[JSB217118]

@El Pip I understand your points and am trying to use them, relatively, sparingly. Also, lots of people have Pip in their screen name. Why is that?

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

So in case quoted at the start - why would a chaste baron marry a lustful Muslim woman? A sudden rush of blood to the head (or somewhere else...) undoing his years of chastity and causing a crisis of faith? Blackmail perhaps, forced to take her in lest a terrible secret is revealed. A cunning plan to gain the trust of the woman's family and clan, using that to gain access to their stronghold before capturing them all in the name of the Cross? Many possibilities.

To be fair, that is exactly the sort of chaotic mess that led to Secret the Bear, so I can also recommend that an AAR can take a turn for the bizarre and be aided and abetted by an insane game system running itself...

 

[El Pip]

Also, lots of people have Pip in their screen name. Why is that?

I've been using this name for a couple of decades now, so I can only assume that other people are desperately copying my trailblazing style due to a lack of originality.