Normative Transgressions of Cheaters in Online Competitive Games

作弊是游戏中普遍存在的现象，在学术界一直缺乏关注。尽管作弊现象很普遍，其负面影响也已被认识到，但人们对如何在社区层面上分享和促进作弊资源缺乏了解。以下研究考察了网络多人游戏中作弊社区的治理机制。这是一项探索性研究，旨在识别和分析支持网络游戏作弊的因素。主要的研究问题是：作弊社区是如何治理自己的？我们根据从社会科学和政治学领域现有的自治概念中汲取的框架来设计我们的研究。我们的方法包括定性和定量的数据收集和分析方法，作为获取社区中相关用户和资源的一种方式。本研究首次将社区视角应用于游戏作弊现象的学术研究。它关注的是作弊如何演变为一种系统的、共同的工作的产物，而不是作为一种个人行为。这一发现将揭示作弊的更广泛的社会影响，并为正在寻找创新方法解决作弊问题的私人公司和执法人员提供信息。他们还将指导未来在人机交互方面的研究，这些研究分析本质上是隐蔽的在线社区。

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.