What is a glitch and why to they happen?  A glitch has many different meanings for different things.  Although a glitch is now used to refer to a malfunction or failure in a given situation, it was first used by astronauts to describe a change of voltage supply to an electrical system.  This could also be referred to as a power surge.  It is basically a short lived fault in a system and usually doesn’t cause harm.

Glitches result in actions during a computer function, game, or other program that was not intended by the programmer or programmers.  In computers, it usually the hardware causing the glitch.  They can also be caused by software bugs, errors in communications, viruses, and hackers.  In video games, glitches can be caused by incorrect displays in graphics, game freezing, and data corruption.

The act of ‘glitching,’ usually used in video games, is exploiting, or causing glitches in the game.  These are used for the player’s advantage.  This can be just part of the game, or it can be considered cheating.  The player can cause the glitch to occur by simply clicking a button, or buttons, at a certain point in the game, performing certain key strokes, or moving the character in the game a certain way.  

Glitches in any system are usually not a good thing.  They can cause systems to go down temporarily, which can cause a loss of data, data corruption, or system failure.  Glitches can have advantages, usually in video games, which help in getting extra points or lives for your character.  In such games as online tournaments or playing against other people, they are probably ‘illegal’ and could result in disqualification from the game.