Gaming The System

Description
This pattern occurs when a user sees an opportunity to "win" or be in the lead in some way, even though the system is not necessary designed for competing.

Examples
On Amazon.com there is a leader board listing users who have done the most book reviews. The leader, Harriet Klausner, has an average of reviewing seven books a day, and has a total number of reviews that are much higher than the other users on the leader board. There is a theory that she is so determined to keep the number one place that the intended goal (making good reviews) is forgotten and replaced with making as many as possible. (Crumlish & Malone) (http://bokardo.com/archives/is-harriet-klausner-for-real/)

A Twitter user is determined to get as many followers as possible. She starts to follow other users in hope of them "returning the favor" and Re-Follows her.

Pros and Cons
The pros and cons are somewhat related to which competitive element the user has found. If the competitive element is the number of book reviews (as the example above), it might lead to low-quality reviews. If the user wants to have as many followers as possible, she might do the opposite and try to make quality content that many other users are interested in.

Relations
The main mechanic that might lead to Gaming The System is Reputation (Crumlish & Malone), with subcategories. A dynamic that might lead to this behavior are Attention Seeking. Also Maintaining A Facade is related to this pattern. It can lead to One Site, Multiple Accounts.

Contributors
Created by Malin Mattsson.