Countergaming is a concept proposed by media theorist Alexander Galloway in Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture (2006). It describes an avant-garde strategy that treats games as algorithmic machines and politically reconfigures their rules and mechanics in order to disrupt player expectations. In Galloway’s account, video games contain a form of power that subordinates players to the game system: players may feel autonomous, but in practice they are governed by algorithmic rules. Countergaming responds to this structure by disabling what Galloway calls “gamic action” — actions that follow the game’s intended goals and rules — and introducing “radical action,” which seeks to overturn the system’s functions from within.
In media art discourse, countergaming is associated with practices that make the game’s hidden structures visible, such as exposing the UI, system, or code, and with works that reject imitation of real-world physics in favor of invented or deliberately broken rule systems. Examples cited in this context include JODI’s glitch-based art and Untitled Game, which dismantles the visual integrity and interactivity of Quake. The term is also related to forms of tactical intervention and counter-use, where existing game functions are used correctly but in ways contrary to their intended purpose.