Why were they cheating? In her book, Consalvo describes an idea called “gaming capital”. Being good at a game brings a social cachet that elevates you within the community. Good players want to maintain their statuses and be sought out as experts.

“There’s this knowledge that you get from deep play of a particular game… and that’s something that you can share with other folks,” says Consalvo. “The idea is that you have a kind of cultural capital.”

But to maintain this status, sometimes players might need to cheat. Curiously, it might be the case that better players feel the need to cheat more than players who are worse than them. The fear of losing something appears to be a greater motivator to cheat than the lure of a gain.