Glitches in E-sports

Since we were on the topic of e-sports and the amount of money that is involved with the competition, this article lists many incidents where game bugs, rather than player skill, determined the outcome of such competitions. These bugs can include unintentional bugs, such as disconnects and glitched out physics or hitboxes, as well as exploits discovered and used by the players. These raise many interesting legal issues that simply cannot arise in non-video game competitions.

In terms of unintentional glitches, how liable are the game companies in providing a reasonably glitch-free game? In sports and other such events, if the soccer ball spontaneously turned to dust due to a production defect while flying towards a near-certain goal, or if part of the basketball court suddenly became friction-less during a game there will definitely be legal consequences to the manufacturer of the ball and owner of the court, independent of any danger to the players. Should the same liability apply to game manufacturers?  What about the internet providers for high stakes online professional games?

And in regards to exploits used by players to gain an advantage that was unintended by the game developers, do e-sport competitors have any duty to not engage in these tactics? Or is it the case where the discovery and application of in-game bugs form part of the “meta” in gaming and constitute valid strategies? And if it is the latter case, how would patches and updates play into the professional e-sports environment, as it can be seen as the game companies actively undermining player efforts (which goes back to the previous post on the “Publisher vs Pro” dynamic)?