What's good about bad play?

Here I examine the semiotic form of some common and conventionally accepted notions of "bad play" -- particularly as these are most relevantly applied to computer games, gamers, and gaming. To do this, I employ a formal method of analysis that treats bad play as play that, without regard to any specific cultural or normative context, plays with -- and often against -- the rules.Within this analysis, digital games and their rules are positioned as a subset of a formal and cognitive mechanism guiding a broad set of behaviors in games, sports, and play. Identifying formal similarities between rules-based sports and games and less obviously rules-based (i. e., "free") play allows the analysis to be extended beyond the relatively narrow domain of computer games.Conclusions find that bad play in digital games -- prominently including cheats, griefs, and exploits -- is formally similar to and, in fact, a logical extension of good, proper, and socially acceptable play. The analysis further concludes that, when defined as functioning in opposition to existing rules structures, bad play is not only a common but a necessary component of human play associated with creativity, insight, and change.