Level Up or Game Over: Exploring How Dark Patterns Shape Mobile Games

TL;DR

This paper investigates the widespread use of dark patterns in mobile games, revealing their presence in both problematic and seemingly benign games, and discusses ethical implications and community-based solutions.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative analysis of dark patterns in 1496 mobile games, highlighting their prevalence and ethical concerns, and advocates for community-driven approaches to promote healthier gaming.

Findings

Dark patterns are common in both problematic and benign games.

Presence of dark patterns correlates with potentially harmful revenue models.

Community-based approaches can help identify and reduce dark patterns.

Abstract

This study explores the prevalence of dark patterns in mobile games that exploit players through temporal, monetary, social, and psychological means. Recognizing the ethical concerns and potential harm surrounding these manipulative strategies, we analyze user-generated data of 1496 games to identify relationships between the deployment of dark patterns within "dark" and "healthy" games. Our findings reveal that dark patterns are not only widespread in games typically seen as problematic but are also present in games that may be perceived as benign. This research contributes needed quantitative support to the broader understanding of dark patterns in games. With an emphasis on ethical design, our study highlights current problems of revenue models that can be particularly harmful to vulnerable populations. To this end, we discuss the relevance of community-based approaches to surface harmful design and the necessity for collaboration among players/users and practitioners to promote healthier gaming experiences.