Sea Sick: Handling in-Game Community

This study focuses on the search, analysis, and deconstruction of deviant behavioral patterns in video games, also referred to as "counter-gaming." Despite the noticeable variability in interpretations of the term under consideration, which in many scholarly studies is divided into "counter-gaming" and "counter-play," this study predominantly operates with the term "counter-gaming" in its broad sense, reflecting user behavior that deviates from what is intended by the developer or gaming community. The applied part of the research, in turn, proposes dividing the phenomenon under study into three categories: counter-gaming, counter-play, and counter-commune. The classification of derivative elements of these three categories is aimed at helping developers more accurately determine the motivations behind players' violation of mechanical and social rules, the impact of these violations on in-game and external communities, as well as existing or potentially applicable tools to counter deviant behavior. The toolkit proposed by the research is aimed at tracking and preventing unplanned in-game scenarios initiated by the user. The work analyzes the psychological, technological, and socio-cultural aspects of counter-gaming in the context of session multiplayer and MMO video games released from 2004 to 2023. In addition, the research discusses a range of common strategies and approaches used by developers to effectively counter counter-gaming, taking into account the genre and structural diversity of the developed product. The aim of the research is to provide recommendations and solutions for contemporary game studios seeking to create a seemingly free space for the player, while in fact, it will be maximally controlled by the developer.