Gaming the system is manipulation or exploitation of the rules designed to govern a given system in an attempt to gain an advantage over other users. Art's most radical quality is that it's useless. People have used art for lots of purposes throughout history, but artists have to protect its uselessness—it serves as a shield against corruption, manipulation, exploitation. Making things with zero utility—and emphasizing that trait, within a system that always tries to gain advantage over other people — is certainly one way to keep paintings from turning into the creative equivalent of pork bellies.