Gaming the system

This article is about the strategy of gaming the system. For the Wikipedia-specific guideline, see Wikipedia:Gaming the system.

Gaming the system (or bending the rules, playing the system, milking the system or abusing the system) can be defined as "[using] the rules and procedures meant to protect a system in order, instead, to manipulate the system for [a] desired outcome".^[1]

According to James Rieley, structures in organizations (both explicit and implicit policies and procedures, stated goals, and mental models) drive behaviors that are detrimental to long-term organizational success.^[2] For some, 'error...is the essence of "gaming the system", in which a gap in protocol allows for errant practices that lead to unintended results'.^[3]

Finance

Hank Paulson, considering that 'the late crisis demonstrated that our financial markets had outgrown the ability of our current system to regulate them', saw as one necessity 'a better framework that featured less duplication and that restricted the ability of financial firms to pick and choose their own, generally less-strict regulators - a practice known as regulatory arbitrage'^[4] that enabled widespread gaming of the regulatory system.

A similar, contributing effect has been identified within corporate rating systems, where 'gaming the system becomes virulent when formalization is combined with transparency...Reactivity'.^[5]

With respect to global exchange rates, many have 'attributed China's large trade balances and huge capital reserves to its currency policy' - have seen its efforts to 'maintain an artificially weak currency that prevented market forces from helping China rebalance its economy'^[6] as a form of "gaming" the dollar hegemony.

Online

Designers of online communities are explicitly warned that 'whenever you create a system for managing a community, someone will try to work it to his advantage...Gaming the System'.^[7] Accordingly they are advised from the start to 'think like a bad guy' - to consider 'what behaviors you are unintentionally encouraging by creating some new social rules for your community'^[8]

Others however would valorise the libertarian implications of the "loophole", arguing that 'gaming the system, for all the harm it presents to the collective endeavour of a project such as Wikipedia, likewise marks a potential in its own right': emphasises the continuing role of 'agency in the singular event'.^[9]

Clinical

Eric Berne identified a kind of "gaming the system" in a clinical context through what he called the game of "Psychiatry", with its motto 'You will never cure me, but you will teach me to be a better neurotic (play a better game of "Psychiatry")'.^[10] 'A few patients,' he noted, 'carefully pick weak psychoanalysts, moving from one to another, demonstrating that they can't be cured and meanwhile learning to play a sharper and sharper game of "Psychiatry"; eventually it becomes difficult for even a first-rate clinician to separate the wheat from the chaff'.^[11]

Jenny Diski tells an illustrative story of the problems posed by a (Sixties) patient at a group therapy clinic who claimed not to have any problems: 'He certainly wasn't pretending to be mad. But was he pretending not to be mad?....And what the hell if he was playing the system?....Finally, he was expelled. The danger that we were being taken for a ride (even though, or because, we couldn't be sure what kind of ride we were being taken for) was too great'.^[12]

Child-rearing

Parental divisions on child-rearing will always 'give the child plenty of opportunity to play one parent off against the other...it's just the way the system works'.^[13] Object relations theory stresses, however, that while, 'if a child finds one parent easy to get round, compared with the other who is trying to set limits, it is likely to take advantage of that split...this is always a hollow triumph'.^[14] What the child is really hoping is that 'such parents will eventually begin to see a need to get togther on the issue of limit-setting'.^[15]

On the particular point of contingent feeding - offering treats on condition that a certain unpopular food is eaten - it has been specifically noted that 'contingent feeding encourages children to argue and practice "gaming" the system...fighting over the fine print'.^[16]

No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)

Main article: No Child Left Behind Act

The system of incentives and penalties sets up a strong motivation for schools, districts, and states to manipulate test results. For example, schools have been shown to employ "creative reclassification" of drop-outs (to reduce unfavorable statistics).^[17]

Critics argue that these and other strategies create an inflated perception of NCLB's successes, particularly in states with high minority populations.^[18]

See also

• Abuse of process
• Alcatraz coup
• Campbell's law
• Corruption
• Creative accounting
• Deception
• Filibuster
• Jurisdictional arbitrage
• Letter and spirit of the law
• Loophole
• Machiavellianism
• One-upmanship
• Pettifogging
• Rules lawyer
• Tax avoidance
• Tax noncompliance
• Technicality

References

1. ^ Joseph Potvin. "The Great Due Date of 2008, slide 5". http://www.organicks.net/attachments/9/TheGreatDueDateOf2008_8dec08_gnufdlPDF.pdf. 
2. ^ James Rieley (April 2001). Gaming the System: how to stop playing the organizational game and start playing the competitive game. ISBN 9780273654193. 
3. ^ Mark Nunes, Error (2010) p. 188
4. ^ Hank Paulson, On the Brink (London 2010) p. 441
5. ^ M. Lounsbury/P. M. Hirsch, Markets on Trial (2010) p. 147
6. ^ Paulson, p. 82
7. ^ Gavin Bell, Building Social Web Applications (2009) p. 274
8. ^ Bell, p. 274
9. ^ Nunes, p. 188
10. ^ Eric Berne, Games People Play (Penguin) p. 136
11. ^ Eric Berne, Games People Play (Penguin) p. 136
12. ^ Jenny Diski, The Sixties (London 2009) p. 125
13. ^ Robin Skynner/John Cleese, Families and how to survive them (London 1994) p. 221
14. ^ Patrick Casement, Further Learning from the Patient (London 1997) p. 114
15. ^ Casement, p. 114
16. ^ Roy Benaroch, Solving Health and Behavioral Problems from Birth Through Preschool (2008) p. 132
17. ^ (2004) Bush Education Ad: Going Positive, Selectively. FactCheck.org. Retrieved June 7, 2007.
18. ^ Haney, W. (nd) Evidence on Education under NCLB (and How Florida Boosted NAEP Scores and Reduced the Race Gap). Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Education Policy. Lynch School of Education. Boston College. Retrieved June 7, 2007.

Further reading

• Bevan G, Hood C What's measured is what matters: targets and gaming in the English public health care system - Public administration, 84 (3) Pages 517-538.
• Figlio DN Getzler LS Accountability, ability and disability: Gaming the system - NBER working paper series Paper 9307 October 2002
• Johnson RN, Mosqueda C, Ramón A, & Hunt DM Gaming the system: inflation, privilege and the under-representation of African American students at the University of California - Bunche Research Report Volume 4 No 1 January 2008
• Kralovec E Buell J High-stakes testing, homework, and gaming the system - The Humanist May-June 2005
• McKenzie KB Pragmatism or Gaming the System? One School District’s Solution to Low Test Scores - Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership December 2009 Volume 12 Number 4 Pages 17-28
• Mankin J Gaming the system: how Afghan opium underpins local power - Journal of International Affairs Volume 63 No 1 Fall/Winter 2009 Pages 195-209
• Morreim EH Gaming the System Dodging the Rules, Ruling the Dodgers - Archives of Internal Medicine 1991;151(3) Pages 443-447
• Regis C Physicians gaming the system: modern-day Robin Hood? - Health Law Review Volume 13 Number 1 Pages 19-24 (2005)
• Rieley JB Are your employees gaming the system? - National Productivity Review Volume 19 Issue 3 Pages 1-6 Summer 2000

External links

• Adams S Dentists 'overcharging NHS patients hundreds of pounds' - The Telegraph 23 May 2011
• Barkham P Asylum-seeker charities are just playing the system, says Woolas - The Guardian, Tuesday 18 November 2008
• Lister S NHS dentists play the system to put income before care, Tories claim - The Times May 4, 2010
• Rayner G MPs' expenses: Ten ways MPs play the system to cash in on expenses and allowances - The Daily Telegraph 8 May 2009