There's a question that's been on my mind for a while now.
Are these so called cheating devices just that? A device for cheating?
I decided to investigate this question with a bit of 'cheating' myself.
The most obvious way is to use FMM (Football Manager Modifier). The program modifies certain information in the game. ie; You can change the value of a player to suit your budget or even better, change your budget entirely.
I nearly couldn't even write this article as when I tried to load FMM, I got an error message saying, "File access denied." After asking about, turned out that Vista users have to run the program as administrator. I just assumed Windows didn't want me to cheat. Anyway, immediately upon loading, I have found that this is without a doubt the best way of cheating. Both budgets can be changed, bank balance can be changed. Abilities and potential abilites can be changed. After spending literally about 5 minutes looking at the various features for this popular cheating device, I decided enough was enough. This is a clear way of cheating as it gives you an unfair advantage against other teams. You can either make your team a team of players that has every statistic at 20, or you can seriously damage other teams in your league by changing all their player's stats to 1. You can also change player's reputations to suit your clubs. In other words Ronaldinho could end up signing for Peterborough. I have save games where I want to eat the disc but I will never resort to this program as it makes the game just a little too easy.
Other popular forms of cheating are certain scouting programs like FM Genie Scout or Mini Scout Editor. Now the latter has a search option where you can find the best young talent on the game, plus it's a very basic version of FMM. You can only change the CA, PA, value, sale value, morale and fitness etc of a player. You cannot change anything on a team. Genie Scout on the other hand doesn't have any features so you can change statistics in the game instantly like the former two programs I have mentioned so far but it should still be classed as a cheating device. It allows you to perform searches for players of your choice. Kinda like the player/staff search on the game with a significant difference. It gives you the current ability and potential ability of each player, not to mention their values and how much you'd have to part with in order to buy the player you are after. I have read that some people see this program as a must have in order to play the game but in truth, it's just like FMM, if it gives you an unfair advantage, it's cheating. Although, people can be forgiven for using this program as it can be hard to find 'next Cristiano Ronaldo'.
These are the only three programs I have come across that helps a gamer cheat in order to progress in the game, but there are actually many forms of cheating inside the game itself. The actual editor you get with the game could be used to cheat. It's not hard to open it up and give your beloved club the best players and £200m to spend in the first transfer window.
Another way, which I admit to doing during Sports Interactive's time with Championship Manager is saving the game before each match, then reloading it if you don't get the desired result. This can turn out to be very tedious and I don't think it's a favourite way of cheating to be perfectly honest, because you have to have the patience of Jesus to cheat this way. Especially if you want to get a result against the likes of Chelsea if you are Hull City. Alternatively, you can take control of your opposition for match day and make them deliberately throw the game, therefore guarenteeing the result you want.
I actually have a mate that takes control of Real Madrid and Arsenal and sells all of Madrid's players to Arsenal for free. Again another form of cheating as it gives the gamer an unfair advantage. That particular way of cheating can be used both ways by selling a crap player for £50m to someone like Chelsea, therefore recieving £50m for yourself to spend on other players. Although, I don't see the point in this way of cheating. If you can get players for free by using this method, why would you need to sell a poor player for a ridiculous amount of money so you can buy better players? Then again, why do some people use FMM and claim they got Exeter City to the Premier League in four years?
Also is the infamous £40m 'trick'. I don't think this is a cheat as such. It's a loopole that allows you to sign a good player for a minimal fee after settiing up a structure of around £40m using certain additional fees like after 50 league games for your club.
Now, I'm going to risk being slapped about and called an idiot.
Can you class downloading other people's tactics as cheating? Some people would say it is. I have other people's creations on my PC as I type this and in my current game with Newcastle, I am using Fedorico's awesome tactic. But it could be construed as cheating. I didn't make the tactic. I know full well that Fed has had success with Sunderland using his creation so I downloaded it, therefore giving me an advantage with one that works. Then again, it isn't giving me an unfair advantage like the above methods.The definition of cheating is, "an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. Cheating characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one's own interest, and often at the expense of others." Where in that definition would you put downloading a tactic? Like I said, it's an advantage having a tactic that works, but it's not an unfair advantage because teams can still counter this tactic and it's not 100% fool proof (as I found out against Manchester United with Everton, cheers Fed).
The same can be said for using other people's training schedules or shortlists.
The corner trick can be classed as a cheat as well. This 'cheat' was founded by Skacel. It basically allows your tall, strong centre backs to score regular from corners, hence the title. Again, it gives you an advantage but does it really give you an unfair advantage. Despite what some members think. Again, I don't think it is. You see I've used this trick myself and it doesn't guarantee a goal every game and my mate actually found a way to stop me scoring against him from corners so theoretically it's not giving me an unfair advantage as you can counter it.
If we say that the last three things are cheating, then where do we stop? Can we ask people about players without being accused of cheating? Or are we allowed to read people's guides on players on this wonderful site without being accused of cheating? If it wasn't for people writing the guides, then you may never have found out about certain players. It can go on for ages. The madness would never stop.
The only certain ways of cheating are the suggestions above, before the tactics. I'm not so certain using other people's tactics, schedules and shortlists can be classed as cheating. It's merely getting a little help from your friends.
Now, I don't condone cheating in any which way or form but there are some people that do cheat because they feel they have to to enjoy the game. Let's not all jump the bandwagon and say that cheaters don't deserve to play the game or continually ask why do you feel the need to cheat? It's their choice and as long as I'm not playing them online, they can do what they like. Although, I've read that these devices don't work on online games so it wouldn't matter anyway. Oh and I don't actually use any of these methods. I play the game and that's it.
Although, just for a laugh I have given Liverpool £200m to spend before using the in-game editor but let's keep that between me and you.
Here are the links to all the cheats I have mentioned in this article.
Corner Trick FMFormation.net - Football Manager - FM2008 - Downloads - FM Modifier 2.25 FMFormation.net - Football Manager - FM2008 - Downloads - FM Genie Scout 2008 for v8.02 FM Scout - Mini Scout Editor (MiniSE) The £40m Trick Article written by liveru for FMFormation. NOTE: This article wasn't written to bash those that use these methods, so please don't do it yourselves.
Football Manager - Cheating 
Linear Mode
