Review Bomb: On the Gamification of the Ideological Conflict

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon of review bomb, which occurs when an abnormally large amount of information is submitted to a rating system in a very short period of time by an overtly anonymous mass of accounts, with the overall goal of sabotaging the system’s proper functioning. Because review bombs are frequently outbursts of social distress from gaming communities, gamification theories have proven useful for understanding the behavioral traits and conflict dynamics associated with such a phenomenon. A prominent case is analysed quantitatively. The methodology is discussed and proposed as a generalized framework for descriptive quantification of review bombs. As a result of the study, considerations for technological improvements in the collection of rating data in systems are proposed too.