"No One Cares, Apostolate": What Social Cheating Reveals. (November 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Thompson, Kathryn
• Other Names: Trammell Aaron guest-editor.; Gilbert Anne guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Games and culture. Volume 9:Number 6(2014)
• Page Start: 491
• Page End: 502
• Publication Date: 2014-11
• Subjects: new media -- work/play -- social cheating -- community policing -- Reddit; Games -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Video games -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Computer games -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Interactive multimedia -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 303.4834
• DOI: 10.1177/1555412014552521
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1555-4120

Abstract

This piece examines the relationship between cheating, play, and work on the social news site Reddit.com. Using cheating as a point of rupture that reveals explicit and implicit game rules as well as ideological parameters of the game itself, I explore the humorous community backlash to the perceived "social cheating" of a prolific user (Apostolate). The backlash seemed to indicate that Apostolate was working excessively at the supposed "play" of Reddit, yet individual users put significant work into creating their playful chastisements, complicating a widespread community understanding of Reddit as "not work." Thus, I argue that just as cheating cannot be considered the "other" of play, neither can work be considered the other of Reddit. Both are points of rupture which reveal the underlying mechanisms of the systems they are purported to "ruin."