Optimising against the rules as implemented rather than the activity the rules were meant to constitute.
The player's version of Goodhart's law. Any competitive system produces a metagame, and design that ignores it treats optimisation as cheating rather than as the predictable response.
In practice
- A chess club whose ratings determine seeding sees players choosing opponents rather than improving.
- A university that ranks on research income finds departments buying grants that produce nothing they wanted.
- Standing
- Goodhart's law as observed by players rather than by economists.
- Subject
- Games & Strategic Interaction
- Essay
- What is provable, and what people actually do