Glitching is a mode of play where instead of observing the game rules and goals, the glitcher aims to find, document, share, and ultimately exploit weaknesses in game code. It is a practice predominantly conducted upon unmodified videogame systems, and any glitches discovered should be replicable on any equivalent system and often across platforms. Glitchers, those who willingly identify with this mode of play, or those that have been labeled as such by the playerbase, are almost always configured as malign, destructive and antagonistic within mainstream videogame communities, the game press, and frequently game studies
literature. They are considered a problematic influence that justifies active management in order to protect the intended experience of a game. This framing of glitching as destruction foregrounds the authorial intent of the designer and the primacy of the game as product, yet it has meant that little importance is placed upon the practices, meanings and pleasures attributed to glitching and therefore very little is known about it as a gameplay experience.
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