Mia Consalvo is an invited speaker at the Gaming the Game: Tweaking, Cheating, Hacking, Creeping Conference being held April 12-13 at UC Davis. She will be presenting a talk titled “Cheating 2.0: Reconsidering Player Advantage in the Era of Social Network Games”.
Cheating 2.0: Reconsidering Player Advantage in the Era of Social Network Games
Player definitions of cheating in videogames can vary widely, although one constant has been that cheating confers an unfair advantage on the cheater. Types of cheating have included using guides, bots, codes, and engaging in real-money trade. One of the reasons that players give for cheating is that it can ‘fast forward’ them through difficult, boring or unwanted elements of gameplay. Yet with the rise of social network games, the fast forward cheat has been neatly incorporated, and monetized, into the game’s design. How do players react to that change? Do players still consider such fast forwards to be cheating, even if they are authorized (and designed) by a game’s developers? This talk explores the shifting landscape of cheating in videogames, and how players continue to engage (or not) in such activities.
For more information, visit the conference website.