Ground Glitch in PUBG, questioning competitive integrity
After reading a few definitions of a glitch, the definition given in Matthew Fuller’s Software Studies: A Lexicon is the one I agree with the most. Olga Gorlunova and Alexel Shulgin wrote the chapter “Glitch” in the book and state: “Glitch is often used as a synonym for bug; but not for error. An error might produce a glitch but might not lead to a perceivable malfunction of a system. Errors in software are usually structured as: syntax errors (grammatical errors in a program), logic errors (error in an algorithm), and exception errors (arising from unexpected conditions and events)” (Gorlunova, Shulgin 111). So while some glitches may in fact be made on purpose for glitch art, many glitches come from unexpected system functions. These glitches can then either be harmless or hurtful. Harmless glitches include visual glitches that don’t affect story or gameplay while hurtful glitches could make the game unplayable or question game functions.
An example of a glitch that questions game functions is the ground glitch in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). This glitch occurs when a player is downed or prone on a sharp slope of terrain, the downed/prone person can turn into the ground and clip through it to see through the ground and anyone above. In the shared video, a downed person can be seen using it as a chance to give information to his teammate that an enemy is pushing. This clip was actually submitted to the admins of NA Pro Hub, the scrim discord for the competitive NA PUBG scene, because use of glitches such as this ground glitch is forbidden. This brings up a bigger topic of competitive integrity within esports: if it’s part of the game, is it cheating? There are actually many instances of glitches being banned in competitive play because it’s deemed unfair/as cheating, showing that glitches can in fact be harmful to video games even if it wasn’t intended in the first place. This particular glitch in PUBG has been around for a while, meaning that devs aren’t going to fix it so it’s up to the esport scene to uphold competitive integrity and not use it or catch those who do.
Gorlunova, Olga, and Alexel Shulgin. “Glitch.” Software Studies: A Lexicon, edited by Matthew Fuller, MIT, 2008, pp. 110–119.