The right to cheat.

[I_like_keys]

As I was playing good ol' FFR today, focusing on AAAing the horrible, terrible blue-note songs spawned by the devil himself, I did what I usually do to aid my sanity: pretend I'm ****ing awesome at this game. Now, before you go and judge me, did each of you not, perhaps out of boredom or just your massive ego, imagine to be saving the world via the medium of routine or tiresome work? Did each of us not, at one point, pretend that discovering the percent yield of that one equation was to help in deactivating the bomb about to take out the Eastern seaboard? ...just me, huh?

Yes, as embarrassing and pitiful as it may sound, I like to imagine that I am the greatest at this game and that everyone is cheering me on as I clack to one hundred percent on an easy-mode song. While AAAing all the abhorrent torrents of blue vomit, I could not stray from the idea that someone could think I'm a hacker. This, of course, was an idea that I quite enjoyed. Not hacking in itself but rather the idea of being called a hacker; somewhat a compliment in my eyes as one would be so good that their skill has to be equated to that of a machine. Alas, AAAing easy songs does not necessarily require the pinnacle of skill and hacking those would more accurately label me as a pillow humping basement dweller than the Terminator of DDR.

Well, I'm not going to bore you any longer and get right to the point. At which point is it OK to cheat? Surely, I do not speak of just simply finding a "hack" on the Internet or stealing someone else's source code. I speak of crafting your own from your own knowledge and ideas. I do believe that hacking in itself is a demonstration of knowledge, critical thinking, and thus skill. Is the first card counter, the man who set the time to calculate and pour over the formulas and study the cards, not entitled to his victory? Is the man who first discovered one can thieve quarters from payphones with a simple sound not entitled to his reward?

If indeed an individual can figure a way, as long as he receives no donations from any other, not accredited the free use of his creation? I for one feel that he is free to, as it is his own wit and intellect that has brought him thus far. That is the basis of evolution and natural selection; the greatest, no matter the means, are always victorious.

tl;dr cheaters: man or ******?