Is RNG Hacking?

How is this still a debate when RNG has been around since gen 3 and neither Pokemon or the community can agree. So I bring it to Pokebay to answer this apparent life long pokemon question.

I've personally always had 2 things in mind that would determine whether something is hacking, or makes a pokémon illegal.

1. Is the pokémon obtained using a third party device?
If yes: It's hacking. The pokémon is illegal.

2. Has Nintendo/Gamefreak confirmed that this way of obtaining a pokémon is illegal?
If yes, pokémon obtained with this method are illegal. Ex. The pokémon company has stated that pokémon bred from illegal parents are illegal too. (RIP 6IV dittos)
If no, it's fine. Kind of.

I'm not sure if part 2 would make abusing RNG hacking as I haven't seen any info on whether any official source has stated that RNG abuse makes pokemon illegitimate, so...by my definition, RNG abuse isn't hacking. It's not done with an external device, and no official source has said (to my knowledge) that it's a no go. If that changes, my stance on this changes.

"RNG abuse" seems like kind of a misleading name. If I have understood right how RNG abuse works, it's just knowing how the game code works and using it to your advantage. I don't see how that's any different from knowing in some other game that after your opponent has finished animation A, the enemy will begin animation B in roughly 5 seconds and during those 5 seconds you have a window to attack. RNG, as I have understood it, is just knowing that when you do thing X, the game will do thing Y, causing Z. It's not really the way the game is meant to play, however, so I would probably personally turn up my nose if I were offered a RNG abuse obtained pokémon. It's more of a moral question, almost rather than a 100% fact whether it's hacking or not.

I think everything Ultra just said is exactly what I think. Obviously if a third party device is involved it's hacking, period. Same stats as a legit pokemon? Shinies and special Poke Balls don't effect the battle? 100% true. But it's STILL hacked. Period. And yes, glitches and manipulating IS hacking in a sense and I think that should be acknowledge. BUT... As far as what I understand about RNG, it's more or less a kind of glitch, which I also don't necessarily consider hacking if it all takes place in the game. In the original Gen 1 games for example, if I just so happen to have caught an Abra, and just happen to hit the start button right when that trainer around Cerulean City wants to stop me to battle and I just so happen to Teleport to that area and do blah blah blah whatever else is a part of the Mew glitch, it's just me "happening" upon a set of sequences that the game then allows for me to utilize! It's all ingame and if the makers didn't want that to be taken advantage of they should have made sure it couldn't be found. If random hackers can find it, the makers of the doggone game itself should also be aware. Period. I don't even think it's a moral issue, personally. But yeah Ultra literally summed it all up perfectly.

As long as its something you can do normally in game without a cheating device I'd say its not cheating

I wouldn't say RNG is hacking, rather it's manipulating the game. If you were to bring a RNG pokemon to an official tournament it would pass a legitimacy check as no outer code or device was used directly on the cartridge. Therefore it's legal. However, this metho was not intended to be used by Game freak and it still involves things like an rng calculator (or at least you did back in gen 4).

So imo RNG is not considered hacking, but if your moral code is against genning pokemon I'd say steer clear of this method as it's not what Gamefreak intended.

Not only that, but it takes the fun out of the games. Half the fun is catching or shiny hunting and finally finding a powerful/shiny Pokemon. But yes, it is legitimate.