For some, TGM is not cheating; for others, fast travel is an exploit. I know it's a personal choice but ... where do you draw the line?

Would you consider creating a full-set of armor with alchemy or smithing enchants cheating?

Do you consider consulting WIKI for dungeon clues cheating?

How about looking at a filled-in Map of Skyrim?

Glowing ore locations, vendors with lots of gold, making dozens of iron daggers?

It's a single player off-line game. Does it matter?

i consider "cheat" putting in codes of any sort that makes you immortal/invincible, not making overpowered stuff utilizing the actual game mechanincs, that's more like smart play

The fortify restoration looping trick is definitely cheating yourself. You can run around invincible without any gear or perks. Save yourself the time and just enter TGM in the console if you're that desperate.

I myself don't repeat the crafting gear either. I limit myself to use each crafting once per item. Ie: if I want to make fortify alchemy gear I'm allowed to drink a fortify enchant potion, and then craft it, but not go back and make a stronger fortify enchant potion to repeat the process.

Cheat is ignoring the gameplay mechanics for an advantage. Using the console, a debugging tool , may be seen as cheating. But since Skyrim is a single player game, I think it doesn't hurt anyone if people find alternative ways for enjoying their game. it their game and thier only. You're not ruining anybody else's experience by using the console.

The only person I can cheat is myself in this game.

I consider that I've done this once. My first character I quickly maxed out Smithing to make Dragon Armor. Basicaly ruined the character and cheated myself of an enjoyable gaming experience. Every character since then has been leveled evenly to balance the game for myself and make it more enjoyable to myself.

for me console commands are cheating. it's something I didn't have that I can make happen.

fast travel is just a way to avoid ME watching my character get somewhere so I don't figure it's cheating so much as just good time management.

It's a single player game, there's no such thing as cheating.

But to answer your question, anything outside the game mechanincs is cheating. Alchemy-Enchanting loop, crafting 1000 iron daggers, fast travel isn't cheating. Using console commands is. Technically, mods which alter mechanics are cheating too.

i would consider the ogmah infinium (sp?) glitch to be a cheat as you can get to lvl 81 and a half in no time flat (yes i did it on one playthrough when i first heard about it. It spoilt the rest of the game as i could kill ancient dragons with 1 arrow) so i deleted that save and started again.

Ah, yes, I forgot about that. I consider it cheating, just like other glitches (Speechcraft in Riften, for example).

If Bethesda allows it, it's not cheating.

QFT.

It's a SPMR game. If a person feels something is cheating, it's herself that's involved, no one else. I find that those who ask this sort of question over and over have some issues....

The only 'cheating' I do is changing how much I can carry.

Sometimes, when you are rewarded stuff and gear after completing a quest, it adds to your inventory automatically. Normally I try to stay 15 to 20 under the current maximum weight capacity, but it happens that when I get rewarded swords or mazes I suddenly can't run anymore. I hate that, so then I change how much I can carry. Am I a cheater now?

I have occassionally used TGM, but it really, really kills the game. Totally. Toggle God mode and you could as well exit and return to desktop. The sense of the game is totally gone.

Taking advantage of glitches (ie Oghma Infinium) is definitely cheating. Taking advantage of exploits (ie free house trick) is semi-cheating. Think of it as illegal (glitches) versus unethical (exploits).

Technically speaking if you consult anything outside what NPCs tell you it could be cheating. Even if you have a strategy guide that you purchased it would be considered cheating by a purist.

Since this game isn't a PvP MMO the damage from cheating is minimal or non-existent. There are a lot of tedious things some people want to bypass because they want to experience the story and don't feel like trying to find out the Eagle-Dragonfly-Walrus-Walrus door code etc.

Some people ask about quest outcomes because they don't want to playthrough multiple times on one character by reloading a previous save. This game takes a long time to experience everything and not everyone has the time to play 100+ hours on 4 different character class-lesses so they take some shortcuts.

That being said: I've done most of these things (I actually have not looked up door codes yet - been close, but haven't yet). Alas, I've even used the Ohgma Infinium glitch a little (just to get my Destruction up a bit so my weapons burn fewer charges - it was annoying, people!).

This
Theres things I choose not to do because they spoil my enjoyment of the game but I'm happy for others to play it there way
Mind you this morning I cheated. I knew where a healing potion and an iron dagger were, I knew from previous experience it would take me half an hour of jumping to reach it, I also knew me being me there was no way I was leaving without it, so I used TCL
Made no difference to the end result, saved me half an hour, justified in my eyes

edit: I wouldn't consider any of the things you mentioned cheating. I wouldn't do them either
It has to involve abusing the console like in my example to be considered cheating by me (and even then if people want to cheat like I have on ocasion thats their business, not mine)

To me if you are on the web using google with "skyrim cheats" in the subject line then you are not trying to play the game the way Bethesda intended and there for are cheating. On a side not it makes me laugh that while Bethesda is actively working on patch's for the game the amount of people that come here to a official forum and post "exploits" that they enjoy using. If my memory serves me that is how the arrow dupping exploit in Oblivion went away just something to think on.

I know, right? Bye-bye Oghma Infinium glitch. FWIW I'm OK with that one going away. I used it a little (see above) and might use it a little on future characters to get a headstart, but I'm not using it to hit 80 and I won't be devastated when it's fixed.

I don't think they can do anything about the house buying one (which I admit: I use the hell out of that one. ) because it would require major coding to change the way NPCs reward/charge us. Maybe a programmer can clarify/correct my understanding, but I think that would bee too much work that could possibly horribly affect other aspects.

I kinda' exploiting my Blocking by letting a Giant whale on me while I blocked and used health potions, but that was mainly to recover the 2 perk points I 'wasted' on the Blocking constellation before I realized that you can't block while dual-wielding.

Cheating matters even in single player games, because results and experiences cannot be reliably compared then.
Example1: I finished Skyrim in 2 min. You cant do that.
Example2: Fist damage is the best because it deals 100k damage per strike in my game.

Obviously the validity of the above statements relies on whether i cheated or not.


Cheating, ultimately, is what goes against common sense. And formally, everything what goes against set rules. First applies to singleplayer. Second applies to multiplayer.

What about strategy guides and asking questions on a forum? Bethesda either publishes them or authorizes the publication of the former and maintains/supports the latter? While not breaking any true rules at the base level it's cheating, right?

Cheating is a personal matter, the only one affected is you.

The reason to not cheat is that it robs you of a lot of enjoyment from a game.

It takes away all sense of accomplishment and challenge.

You get only a few moments of enjoyment, when otherwise you could of had a whole lot more, you pretty much just waste your money.

It stops becoming a personal matter is when you cheat, then come complaining on the forums about how boring/easy the game is.

Or when one of those obnoxious people who cheat and exploit decide to chime in on how awesome they are when someone who is playing legitimately and mention that they are having a difficult time with something.

tgm is cheating. I do cheat but only carryweight because I hate going back to dungeons to carry loot. Makes no sense to me. So I do a player.modav to change that but nothing more. No tgm for me or other. Oh, yeah, I do the setessential on Marcurio. Guess you could call that cheating but I like having him around and don't want to watch out for him all the time.

Unknown, since Bethesda hasnt release any rules, yet, lol. just the game. And even should B. forbid guides, it has no power to enforce it. So we are back to common sense.