1. 'Glitching the Swing' represents a paradigm shift in the way a
player approaches a game and plays it. The term suggests a sense of apathy at a game's intended game-play style that leads to a pointless, impatient ramblng play that has no sense of direction or purpose and adds
nothing towards actual, measurable progress within a game.
2. The point in which a videogame's inherent game-world, features and storyline missions cease to be as exciting/fun and become too repetetive or predictable for the
player to feel motivated enough to play a game 'properly' anymore. They procrastinate play within the game-world, looking instead to the game's glitches and inconsistencies as a more enthralling form of entertainment.
The phrase originates from a disappointing experience some players
may have had when playing the single
player campaign of Grand Theft Auto IV. To some, the game's missions gradually revealed themselves to be quite repetetive, and the much-vaunted ability to go out with
friends eventually became a chore as the incessant pestering of the
player by phone hampered enjoyment. Discounting online play, the
player is then left with no alternative but to find other sources of enjoyment within the game away from the pre-set activities, a prime example being trying to exploit a glitch in a swingset in Broker/Dukes that if done correctly, will launch the
player or the vehicle into the air. This is a difficult thing to master, so if a
player finds themselves tired or deflated by the game's incumbent game-play dynamics and is more interested or thrilled at spending time trying to master the glitching of the swing than progressing through missions, the game/
player has 'glitched the swing'
This is somewhat comparible but not analogous to the exisiting terms 'Jump the
Shark' and the newer 'Nuke the Fridge', as a videogame can, in its own way still do both these things also.
Glitch the Swing is also just as subjective as these terms, however it is more dependent on any one
player's attention span, cynisism or ease-of-amusement, and even thier degree of experience playing games of much a similar style, as this could lead to early glitching of the swing.
Not only this, but a
player themselves can glitch the swing if they so choose. All they would need to do is overindulge in countless hours of play within a short enough space of time that overfamiliarity with the game-play mechanics prompt them to look for other ways to amuse themselves while playing the game.
A
player is particularly glitching the swing if they have not progressed that far within the game's story or missions by the time they reach this watershed moment.