Normative Transgressions of Cheaters in Online Competitive Games

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Cheating is a widespread phenomenon within gaming that has lacked attention in academia. Despite the prevalence of cheating and its recognised negative impacts, there is a lack of understanding in how the cheat resources are shared and facilitated at a communal level. The following research examines the governance mechanism of cheating communities in online multiplayer games. It is an exploratory research that sets out to identify and analyse the elements that support cheating in an online game. The main research question is: How do cheating communities govern themselves? We design our studies based on the framework that we draw from the existing concepts of self-governance from social and political science spheres. Our methods encompass both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods as a way to access relevant users and resources present in the community. This research embarks the first academic investigation to apply the angle of community on the game cheating phenomenon. It focuses on how cheating evolves as a product of a systematic, communal work rather than as an individual act. The findings will suggest wider social implications of cheating, and inform private companies and law enforcements who are looking for innovative ways to tackle the issues arising from cheating. They will also guide future studies in human-computer interaction that analyse online communities that are covert by nature.