The Game Name: A Taxonomy of Social Camouflage through Online Gamertags

• In Event: Scams, Frauds, and Fakes

Abstract

The research market firm Newzoo predicted that the 2018 global video games market could reach $137.9 billion in revenue (Wijman 2018), encompassing some 2.3 million gamers. All that gaming provides an excellent opportunity for the study of digital deception including the forms, techniques, motivations, and consequences of digital disguise. In this paper, we take a user-centered perspective to build on Roy R. Behrens’ (2002) camouflage categories of blending, mimicry, and dazzle to propose an extended taxonomy of social camouflage within the context of video games and online monikers. The findings from iterative coding of open-ended and semi-structured interviews reveal that players intentionally engage in camouflaging behaviors for the purposes of attaining rewards or of avoiding punishments and sanctions. In the process, players demonstrate an acute understanding of their positionality within larger ecosystems of platforms and communities. This work sheds greater light on the technical and social mechanics that allow digital malfeasance to succeed, generating insights that may be used to better understand subjects from spear phishing, ratting, and money laundering to the fake news, ads, and organizations used to manipulate voters and election outcomes – all of which depend on the success of camouflage behaviors.

Authors

• Yu Ra Kim, Indiana University

• AC Tally, Indiana University

• Christena Nippert-Eng, Indiana University