Is this ethical?

[Shido]

I bought a pre-owned copy of Fire Red today to complete my collection - and when I checked the existing save, I found that the previous owner had traded with someone who had obviously cheated for various rare pokemon - Jirachi (unless the American one has a trainer name of AAAAAAA?), Lugia (at L14), Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Ho-oh and Celebi.

I already have legit versions of all of the above - minus Celebi. The one on the cart couldn't possibly be a legit Japanese one as it has an English name and a trainer name of James.

My question is, would it be ethical for me to keep the Celebi to have it in my pokedex until I can actually get a legit one?
Keeping in mind, of course, that I live in the UK no-where near the chance to get to a tour? I even missed Deoxys, regardless of how much I tried

 

[MetalMario]

I don't see a problem with using the Celebi for Pokédex. There's a possibility that trading it over may flag your game, but this is unconfirmed.

 

[killerjaw01]

I wouldn't. I know what it's like to not have Celebi etc, but there's no point risking your game for it.

 

[mrmimeykai]

i think that if you WERE to trade the pokemon over than you should at least tell others what happened
but personally i would trade all of the good pokemon that you have on say your emerald verson to your leaf green then see whan happens when you trade the cheated pokemon on your emerald.

 

[Levski]

Well, if you really want it, you can keep it. I wouldn't like any cheated Pokemon though, but it is your choice.
Just some advice: if you're planning on restarting your game, instead of clicking 'New Game' you should clear your save file with A + B + UP. That way you get rid of the evidence (flags) that the game has been cheated.

 

[GeminiDragon]

I bought a pre-owned copy of Fire Red today to complete my collection - and when I checked the existing save, I found that the previous owner had traded with someone who had obviously cheated for various rare pokemon - Jirachi (unless the American one has a trainer name of AAAAAAA?), Lugia (at L14), Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Ho-oh and Celebi.

I already have legit versions of all of the above - minus Celebi. The one on the cart couldn't possibly be a legit Japanese one as it has an English name and a trainer name of James.

My question is, would it be ethical for me to keep the Celebi to have it in my pokedex until I can actually get a legit one?
Keeping in mind, of course, that I live in the UK no-where near the chance to get to a tour? I even missed Deoxys, regardless of how much I tried

how do you know that the celebi is fake it could be legit

 

[Shido]

how do you know that the celebi is fake it could be legit

Because of what I said -

The one on the cart couldn't possibly be a legit Japanese one as it has an English name and a trainer name of James.

We've certainly never had the Celebi download over here, and if I remember correctly the trainer name and ID# most certainly wouldn't be the same as all of the other cheated pokémon.

I wish I could believe it was legit, but unfortunately not

 

[Zera]

If you want to keep your game untoughed[if it is] from any cheating what so ever, i wouldn't trade anythnig from it over. i personally feel that having pokemon that aren't available to the majority of the public was a poor mve on nintendo and GF. having said that, i would have no problems trading a cheated celebi over to my games for the pokedex data. even if it would be flagged, i dont go to JAA events or anything like that anyway.

 

[Eszett]

Ethics in video games? It's not the most rattling moral crisis, but I'll give my stance on this anyway...

As a gamer, I appreciate the work that goes into games, but nevertheless I will not hesitate to exploit any advantage a game offers me on the condition that I can do this without any external devices, except for cable cords and whatnot. If I need to use a game enhancer to do the trick, then I won't use it.

Thus, I'm going to get oodles of Rare Candies using my friend Missingno., but I'm not going to accept a Celebi borne from the bits of a AR.

 

[~Shining-Metagross~]

There has never been any proof that trading cheated Pokemon to you're game has any negative effects. I often hold my friend's GS Pokemon while he starts a new Game, and my Ruby/Emerald has never had a glitch to date.
Keep Celebi, and any shinies/rare pokemon little kids would kill for, and delete the rest.

 

[Praetor]

u didnt cheat so u have nothing to weigh on ur conscience
and it doesnt do u any good just deleting these pokes when you could only benefit

 

[Shido]

I think I will keep the pokemon - again, purely for 'dex reasons - mainly because half of them are L100 already, and partly because I don't use the ones that's there as a team anyway.
Not that I ever get the chance to battle competitively anyway...*sigh*

Thanks for everyone's opinions and advice!

 

[Lint]

Well, i hope I'm not to late, but, the same thing happened to me, but with my ruby. although, I did get a legit Deoxys. but i could see other evedince of cheeting (ie. many pokemon were cought using masterballs). so i did a couple of tests and asking around to see if the Deoxys was real and it was. I personally would say to look at what balls the pokemon were cought with and how many were cought with a masterball. there are ways in game to get more masterballs though, such as the lottery in Lilycove. I mean, two pokemon cought with a master ball is possible, three is pretty darn lucky, four your pushing me believing, and five or more, no way. but there i go rambeling on again.

But in a sense, i have my own moral standards. such as i will never deposit my starter in the box (They never seem to like me afterwards, although people say their feelings don't change like that) and i will not excessivly use TMs (If the pokemon was ment to learn the move, the Game makers would have made it learn it. Such cases like Growlithe and Arcanine with Flamethrower is different. any questions with that, PM me)But thats just me. go with what you think is right.

 

[Missingno. Master]

If the Celebi says it was obtained within the FireRed version and gives a route or area, it's definitely hacked. If it seems to be traded from R/S, it could be from the Celebi Glitch.

 

[nachocheeez]

I don't think it's unethical in any way really, unless you're trying to finish the game without trading over rare Pokemon etc... I wish when I got my FireRed second-hand it had better Pokemon. He was up to Silph Co. with only 3 Pokemon. Charmeleon, Pidgey and Rattata... you lucky man getting a Celebi.

 

[DarkSpectrum]

Well the game has obviously cheated on via the lugia... LVL 14 WTF?!
If you EVER plan on using your cartridge to ever partcipate in official battles i'd say don't do it because even just trading it over to fill the dex could flag your game with a hidden marking making participation in the battles undoable.
If you just plan on trading it for the dex spot I say no.... that's not enough reason IMO because legendaries aren't necessary to "completely" complete your dex because most dex's only care to encompass the pokemon upto like the last 2 and those last 2 are just "bonuses".
If you absolutely love celebi and want him... go ahead.... just watch out for obedience errors.

 

[Liam-Kun]

i don't see the problem, if you want to have it, why not?

 

[Pikamiki]

there's no point in risking your games just for a celebi.

 

[Shadows Follower]

Boy do I know that feeling - Uk never gets any tours. I would just play it safe and wait for the real thing. I know it sucks but they'll have to come to the Uk eventually...and I'll get them for making us wait so long.

 

[Shido]

If the Celebi says it was obtained within the FireRed version and gives a route or area, it's definitely hacked. If it seems to be traded from R/S, it could be from the Celebi Glitch.

I did consider that, but after checking the other pokémon from that ID, it was pretty unlikely that it was from the Celebi glitch - what with Charizard, Blastoise, Lugia, Raikou, Ho-oh, Suicune, Entei and Celebi being in Masterballs, Lugia being at L14, and Ho-oh, Entei, Raikou and Suicune all being L15, I thought it a bit unlikely.

I'll probably send 'em to Colos when I get a chance to, see where they were all caught. It would be nice to hope someone had gotten the Celebi glitch, but I don't think it is in this case.