Be honest...

haha, I definitely use cheats.
I mostly use the needs one though. ( Testingcheats true and then shift click on sim: make happy)
When I am playing a challenge I obviously do not.

I try to only use them when necessary. The one I probably use the most is free real estate. Only for those families that I need to move in but don't plan on playing.

Just motherlode. No mods or CC either.

I don't use them.

When my husband bought me Sims 3 base game plus Supernatural pack I was excited to play what I imagined would be a completely free to do as you please digital dollhouse with fantasy elements. I was dismayed, upon exiting CAS and starting to play, to discover that sims have mundane constant needs (even the ghost had to pee! :confused: :joy: ), and that what house they could live in was restricted by money, requiring some sort of income if I wanted anything better than a boring starter home.

And because the day went by so fast, earning money and taking care of needs took up nearly all the time. It appeared to be nothing more than a really fancy time management game. This was a huge disappointment for me because I hate time management games. After a very short experimental play session, I quit the game in disgust, and did not attempt playing again for over a year.

It was not until I learned that with the "testingcheats enabled" cheat turned on I could drag the needs bars up when filling their needs didn't suit my story that I began to enjoy the game. The second cheat I tried (and used a lot for starting out new stories) was "motherlode". Basically, filling needs and earning money aren't fun for me. I only do them if they fit into my story. Over time I learned about and used various other cheats whenever something about the game design got in the way of how I have fun.

In Sims 4, I use UI cheats extension mod to do a lot of the stuff I used cheats for in Sims 3. It's more convenient and Weerbesu keeps it up to date and working smoothly, so it actually feels safer to me than using some of the cheat codes. But it's the same basic thing as the cheats I used in Sims 3, and it's the one mod I absolutely won't play without.

In build mode, of course, I use the moveobjects cheat so frequently that I almost forgot it's a cheat :lol: I just think of it as an alternate setting. And for making spellcasting aliens and vampires, I've used the cheat that adds the hidden spellcaster trait.

It's probably worth noting that, until Sims 3, I pretty much didn't play any computer games at all.

I use cheats all the time.

"So how often do you use cheats?"

Yes.

My legacy sims have been living in the house I "gifted" them for 23 (almost 24!) generations. I like to think of cheating as being like the unknown sponsor in Hunger Games.... But yes I definitely cheat

I cheat from start to finish but don't consider it cheating. I play solely for genetics and that is the only thing I don't cheat with. I will never alter offspring genetically - what I get is what I get. I don't care if they look a little awkward as teens because I know they will grow out of it. The only "challenge" that I want in my game is to raise big happy families. Even with cheats, raising a house full of toddlers is no walk in the park! :D

I only use cheats to set up families I'm not playing or to fix a bug or glitch.
I do use MOO for building and I'll unlock all the items for building, but I don't see that as cheating so much as the stuff is there and I should be allowed access to it. ;) Money or needs cheats in normal game play? Never.