In terms of video games, a glitch is best described as an often but not always unintended interruption that breaks the immersion and the intention of the game. I tried to define a glitch as an unintended addition or subtraction to the gameplay, but I realized that so many glitches do not add or subtract anything away, but rather change the form of what is already there. But while I would like to describe a glitch as a “interruption that shifts an object away from its ordinary form and discourse, towards the ruins of destroyed meaning,” the problem is that I do not think that the meaning is always destroyed, but rather once again it changes forms (Menkman pg340). That is the issue with absolute definitions, there is always exceptions to the rule. But describing a glitch as an “interruption” is perfect. While some glitches can still retain the original meaning of their un-glitched counterparts, all glitches are still unintended interruptions, things that occur unexpectedly and take the player out of the game, reminding them that in the end this is still a computer program.
I think my favorite example of an unintended interruption is WoW’s corrupted Blood Plague. A raid boss had a virus like mechanic that would spread to players and their pets. If a player dismissed their pet while they where infected, and brought them back once the raid was over in the over world, other players and even NPCs could get infected, causing a literal pandemic to occur in game. NPCs that where infected remained infected and would not indicate it, causing players to spread the infection by interacting with them. This led to full blown quarantines, and was a clear and obvious interruption of the intended game. Players with healing volunteered as in game doctors to prevent other players from dying, while other players would go around and purposefully spread the disease. The habitual gameplay loop of WoW was temporarily shattered as no one could actually play the game in infected zones, less they get infected by another NPC or player and die. This event is often used as case study by real epidemiologists to study how pandemics spread.
A link to the glitch in action
Menkman, R. (2011). Video vortex reader ii: Moving images beyond youtube. In 1197577671 894396024 G. Lovink & 1197577672 894396024 R. S. Miles (Authors), Video Vortex Reader II: Moving images beyond YouTube (pp. 340–341). Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures.
