Dark Patterns

An Introduction to the Darker Side of Engagement

One of the tricky things to come to terms with is that our desires aren't often genuinely our own. As ominous as it may sound, forces around us constantly influence our decisions without us realising. The source can be anything from ads on TV and scenes in movies to a post made on social media or a comment made by a friend, but manipulation has become massively invasive in one industry in particular: gaming. It's not always intentional, nor is it often intentionally malicious, yet it is still prevalent.

Furthermore, it is possible that gaming, due to its interactive nature, makes manipulation much more effective. Advertisements on television or billboards may never catch the eye of potential viewers, even if they pass by. But our engagement in gaming makes manipulation far more potent than if it were passive. This manipulation used on us in gaming is known as dark patterns.

What are dark patterns?

Dark patterns are elements included in games to create a negative outcome for players while producing a positive result for the developer. While many designers and developers do not intentionally create exploitative mechanics, our goal is to focus on the final product rather than the intent.

The role of game designers and developers is to become more aware of dark patterns and adjust their business and design practices to ensure that they do not intentionally or unintentionally include them in their games. A lack of knowledge, i.e. "I didn't know this was a dark pattern, and I had no idea it was malicious", isn't an excuse.

There are many ways these opposed interests can manifest themselves in a game's design. Mobile games are some of the most famous examples - their mechanics encourage us to spend more time than we'd like playing the game to continue getting their feelings of achievement or accomplishment. This is a positive outcome for the developer as they can make more money on ads or in-game purchases from a more engaged audience or help ensure that there is content in a player-versus-player game, i.e. other players.

There are many dark patterns, each with different adverse consequences for players and various positive results for developers, often intertwined in different ways. Many temporal dark patterns, for example, are associated with monetary dark patterns as developers charge gamers money to skip timers. By effectively using a gamer's psychology to their benefit - through their desire to accomplish and complete elements of the game - developers can milk gamers for as much profit as possible. This can lead to gamers spending more money than intended on games while developers reap the financial benefits.

Meanwhile, the problem is often individualised, with those who fork out more cash than they should receiving ridicule for failing to resist the temptation. While we aren't born with the innate yearning to spend money on progressing through a game, between marketing and the increasing acceptance of consumerism in contemporary culture, it often feels as though we may as well be.

However, there are often many subtleties involved in identifying dark patterns. Sometimes they present themselves much more obviously than in other, much more ambiguous cases.

Why are dark patterns a problem?

In a wild twist, even doing what these manipulations want us to is marketed to us as owning our genuine selves and unleashing our inner desires -- letting FOMO control parts of our decision-making process has become living our best lives. Because of this, dark patterns are a complicated moral issue to address. They touch on both the concepts of individual responsibility and consent.

We live in a society that assumes that every individual is fully informed when making decisions. We believe that by partaking in any activity, a person gives their full consent to the outcome. Our economics even teaches us that if the consumer consents to pay a certain amount for something, that is what that something is worth (at least to that person).

We also learn that all entities need to make a profit; otherwise, they wouldn't be able to exist. That's just the way things are. But that reveals that this individual responsibility obsession is a convenient excuse to allow those who benefit from holding any responsibility -- the responsibility always lies on the individual to protect themselves. What's worse is that society tends to shame those who fall for such practices for failing to engage in activities in a healthy manner.

Fortunately, in recent years, we've finally begun considering that the "how" matters, and there's a more significant push for companies with ethics.

Types of dark patterns

So what are some types of dark patterns, now that we've talked around them so heavily?

Temporal

Temporal dark patterns want us to spend more time than we intended on the game. There are a few ways developers can accomplish this. For example, the game could get us to play by its schedule to unlock certain items or more tasks to help us level up. In addition, the developers can make specific tasks or items only available at certain times of the day. Another way is by giving awards for logging in daily, convincing players they need to play the game daily instead of whenever they get the urge to or have free time. Players who log in daily are more valuable from an advertisement perspective and as content for other players.

Monetary

Monetary dark patterns manipulate players into spending more real-world money than they intended on a game. There are many ways games coerce players into spending money. For example, putting levelling up behind a paywall or creating timers for tasks to charge players to skip, both of which count as what is known as exploiting pain points.

Pain points are mini hurdles in a game's progression where the player feels just stuck enough that they aren't going to quit but just annoyed enough that they might spend money.

Alternatively, the came might have an in-game premium currency that hides how much money in-game items cost. Also, the game might offer limited-time offers on items, loot crates/boxes, and monthly or weekly game passes/subscriptions, whic grant more rewards. While these techniques approach players from different angles, they all have the same outcome: leveraging the player's interest in the game to encourage them to spend more to keep playing without interruption.

Social

Games that reward us for inviting others to play have been around for a long time. Usually, the scenario goes that if someone accepts an invite from us and plays the game, the game rewards us with things that can improve or progress our gameplay. This, in turn, encourages new players to invite even more players, working similarly to a pyramid scheme. Thus we have an example of a social dark pattern. But there's more to social dark patterns, including making us feel that we will miss out on what others receive if we don't play, using the competitive nature of some to bait them into playing more or rewarding them for bragging about their achievements on social media.

Psychological

Lastly, games can manipulate gamers psychologically by making players feel more invested in the game. For example, giving the players rare or custom items, a list of achievements, or a collection of badges creates a false sense of investment and accomplishment. Another tactic is to create fake tasks to keep a player playing a game, such as "collect 100 of such and such items" or "kill 100 of such and such enemies" to continuously give the player something to do despite how repetitive these actions might be. However engaging the tasks may seem, collection for collection's sake is not enjoyable.

Another psychological dark pattern is randomised loot. When players know notable loot is possible, they may spend hours grinding away to pursue better loot, increasing engagement. If the pursuit of the loot itself is not enjoyable but merely something the player feels they must do, the outcome is harmful to the player who feels pressured to engage.

The toll of dark patterns

Dark patterns hurt gamers in many ways. Financially, they lead us to spend far more money on games than we may have budgeted for entertainment. Some gamers, referred to as whales, spend upwards of thousands of dollars on games, becoming the primary revenue source for a game's profits while only making up a tiny portion of the player base.

These practices are capable of causing gamers to fall behind financially and ruin their social lives or careers. Some justify this spending behaviour based on whether the player can "afford" to spend such amounts or not. However, whether intentional on behalf of the developers or not, the outcome is often the same - players spend more money to achieve certain goals.

Another way dark patterns can take a toll on gamers is that they can hoard our free time. Games that encourage players to play constantly could end up making our free time cause more stress than not, cause us to neglect our health and wellbeing, and harm our relationships. In addition, some games are so addictive that players may have a hard time staying away from them even while at work, potentially resulting in troubles within the workplace.

Worst of all, dark patterns prey the most on those with addictive personalities and other traits that make them susceptible to these patterns. Developers don't know and can't control what kinds of gamers play their game, but dark patterns inherently aim to exploit as many gamers with addiction issues as possible.

For example, someone susceptible to the same tricks and reward mechanisms used in gambling could get sucked into video games with loot boxes and crates, spending amounts they can't afford. And let's not kid ourselves here -- loot boxes and crates are very much so gambling features. However, a lack of regulation in the area prevents their perception as such, despite studies such as one by Qustodio, which found that 12 out of 13 studies suggest that loot boxes are heavily associated with problem gambling behaviour. Since gaming is far more accessible than a casino, it can create a horrifying situation for those susceptible to addictions.

Furthermore, loot boxes can lower performance at work or school and increase the likelihood of developing depression. This is because of the way they present the player with "loss" after "loss" followed by the occasional "win" -- it's a classic gambling tactic that preys on how our bodies respond to going through hardship and eventually receiving a rewarding outcome. To make matters worse, many of the targets of these loot boxes are children, creating a moral dilemma, and many countries are still struggling with handling the situation.

How to avoid dark patterns

No one's suggesting we bring out the pitchforks and torches just yet.

As a consumer

While dark patterns are prevalent across the video game industry, they are not impossible to avoid. There are still games that do not prey on us to exploit us. Unfortunately, most of these games are single-player offline games without any online features, so fans of multiplayer online games may have more difficulty avoiding dark patterns. These games typically have an old-school DLC, a one-time fee upfront, and do not have microtransactions. They will also not have any pay-to-win elements.

Avoiding dark patterns is harder on mobile, where most games are "free", but developers depend heavily on dark patterns to profit. But even on mobile, there are free or single-purchase games without timers, loot boxes or crates, in-game currency, or other manipulative tactics. Gamers can avoid dark patterns by researching the elements of each game first before playing them, especially for those with a history of addictive behaviours.

For a more straightforward approach, there are a couple of questions we can ask ourselves to determine whether or not something is good for us, and these questions work in all realms of life, not just gaming. First, if we do what we feel like doing at this very moment, does this result in us spending money? Secondly, does doing so benefit our lives (or someone's life) beyond a temporary good feeling? Thirdly, does thinking about this potential action feel compulsive, i.e. do we feel as though we need to continue or we won't be able to relax? If we answer yes to more than one of these, we know we must be careful.

However, these solutions still leave it up to the player to make their own informed decisions. Ideally, we take a step back and begin to regulate the industry to protect players who cannot protect themselves from manipulation. Unfortunately, one such group of players is children, who are the most vulnerable to these manipulation tactics and picking up these behavioural patterns during their formative years will likely set them up for a lifetime of the same. In the meantime, the parents of children, the families of gambling addicts and others with addictive personalities must remain vigilant and be aware of these dark patterns in the hopes that they can prevent them from spiralling into a new addiction.

As a designer or developer

From the perspective of many companies, they're merely doing more of what works and what "works" is often measured by what keeps players coming back. The profit motive drives businesses to accumulate more profit so that they may grow and accumulate more profit, hopefully paying their employees better along the way.

So while criticising individual creators won't solve the problem as a whole, that doesn't mean that individuals do not hold any responsibility for their actions. Claiming ignorance of the existence of an issue isn't enough, and there is demand for companies to behave more ethically, to the point that doing so can help their reputation and ability to profit in the long run.

Furthermore, those creating games are in a more significant position of power than the players, for they determine what gets made. There's an idea that people vote with their wallets, but what's good and acceptable is then determined by who has the more considerable disposable income -- that is not how a fair system works.

But, at the same time, we get it -- not many people set out with the intent to ruin the lives of others. Therefore, we need to facilitate discussion regarding values in games and the role designers and developers have in this process. We need to build awareness of the existence of dark patterns, what they are, how they work, why they are morally corrupt, and what we can do instead.

What is a Game?