I’ve been blatantly cheating at foursquare for the past week … At some point last week, I devolved into a 12 year old hacker, and I spent many spare hours (and my computer’s spare cycles) abusing the system with a set of scripts operating fake accounts. Not only did I add new venues like the North Pole, but I started persistently checking into coveted landmarks, like the Statue of Liberty. – Jim

I would have thought that cheating at 4sq was so easy as to not invite this kind of concerted effort. Afterall cheating is implicitly allowed in the social contract of the site, a fact that may or may not have gotten lost as it expanded beyond the ex-Dodgeball early adopters, and the game mechanics forefronted.

I assume that Foursquare are carefully monitoring the return they get on the game mechanics, and at some point they’ll burn down the game, which was necessary to get the early adopters in the door, but which will forever strand the product on one side of the chasm, and move to a more utilitarian product — critical mass reach, social cascade ignited.