Training,Sharing or Cheating? Gamer Strategies to Get a Digital Upper Hand

Abstract

Digital game-players devote a large amount of their time to discovering rules hidden in the code and discoverable through empirical study, experiments, and developing or rediscovering the mathematical formulae governing the code. They do this through their own independent play as they test areas, gear and abilities, through data mining using ‘add-ons’, and through joint efforts outside of the game where they analyse and discuss the results from different gaming situations and create theories on how their game world works. This article shows how gamers are attracted to solving of the code puzzle and share their efforts in sites dedicated to efficient gaming, and also discusses the activity gamers call ‘theory crafting’ – ‘rule mining’ –, in the light of gaming as a learning strategy.