Gaming the Dynamics of Online Harassment / Progress in Mathematics (PDF)

- Paul Booth, DePaul University, USA, author of Digital Fandom and Board Games as Media

"A well-cited and considered account that internet malcontents could only dream of having their own version of. Great background reading for anyone interested in activism in online space, and the death of the disingenuous online troll."

- - Leena van Deventer, RMIT University, Australia; Creative Producer, Dead Static Drive; co-author of Game Changers: From Minecraft to Misogyny, the Fight for the Future of Videogames

"The monetisation of hate and the weaponisation of the internet are key challenges facing humanity in the digital age. This important book traces the evolution of online harassment and 'hatemobs' while revealing a startling truth: the very design of our networks fosters hate. And we can change it."

- David Shanks, Chief Censor, Office of Film & Literature Classification, Aotearoa-New Zealand

This book argues that online harassment communities function as Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) where the collective goal is to ruin peoples' lives. Framing these communities like ARGs highlights ways to limit their impact in the future, partly through offering people better ways to control their own safety online.

The comparison also underlines the complicity of social networks in online harassment, since online harassment communities use their designs as tools. Social networks know this, and need to work on minimizing the problem, or acknowledge that they are profiting through promoting abuse.

Kevin Veale is a Lecturer in Media Studies for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Massey University in Aotearoa-New Zealand. His work focuses on storytelling across media forms, and exploring the ways that different forms of mediation shape the affective experiences of the stories they mediate.