The Primordial Economics of Cheating: Trading Skill for Glory or Vital Steps to Evolved Play?

Abstract

In a period marked by cultural, industrial and technological convergences of new media platforms globally, what constitutes ‘Situated play’? One of the key aspects of the global digital industries has been the increasing importance of locality in determining modes of game play. Far from homogenising game play, globalisation has resulted in “disjuncture” and “difference” at the level of the local. Take, for example, the considerable successes of the Massively Multiplayer Online scene; despite its movement towards the idea of the connected gaming civilisation model, many MMO are not global but, rather, played by certain communities that share linguistic, socio-cultural or political economy similarities. A considerably poignant example would be the way in which different aesthetics appeal to cultural contexts. The formulation of these distinctive taste cultures are marked by what Pierre Bourdieu noted as modes of cultural (productions of knowledges), social and economic capital. These types of knowledges effect and impact modes of game play as well as “appreciation” of types of skills and knowledges. So how can we conceptualise these productions of localised game play? One way to understand some of the nuances of the local and how it impacts certain modes of game play is through the rubric of “ethics”. Can we speak of right or wrong behaviour? Who determines it? Is it the companies, the producers, the gaming community, or the socio-political context that governs and moderates modes of behaviour? In this paper, I will explore the role of ethics in gaming and how it relates to cultural relativity and situated play. The paper will outline a compact historical account of the definitions of “cheating” within the realm of the digital and how online gaming has revolutionised some of these precepts. In order to do so I will explore the evolution of cheating and its newfound degrees of acceptance within the contemporary global online gaming community. I will firstly outline some of the ways in which ethics have been conceptualised in game play, following this; a look at a case study of Melbourne MMO players and their definitions of the “ethics” in games through the rubric of cheating. The case study of MMO users in Melbourne will consist of users from over 10 ethnic backgrounds. The sample study will ask users about their definition of cheating and right or wrong game play so that we may mediate on some of saliencies and nascent socio-cultural dimensions of play and locality.