Definition: A gaming dark pattern is something that is deliberately added to a game to cause an unwanted negative experience for the player with a positive outcome for the game developer.
Learned about it from another lemmy user! it’s a newer website, so not every game has a rating, but it’s already super helpful and I intend to add ratings as I can!
While as an adult I think it’ll probably be helpful to find games that are just games and not trying to bait whales, I feel like it’s even more helpful for parents.
Making sure the game your kids want to play is free of traps like accidental purchases and starting chain emails with invites I think makes it worth its weight in gold.
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Interesting. I was chatting with a lot of big name AAA designers and indie designers discussing dark patterns, and they’ve got a very different opinion on what constitutes a dark pattern. To them, largely, it needs to be more technical deception - like having a fake “X” button, or immediately popping up an ad over where a button was to trick you into clicking it, or bait-and-switching pricing before the user notices.
I tried to raise these kinds of patterns as problematic, and it was a mixed bag. The general vibe from them was that they’d only call it a dark pattern if it deceives the player to get more money than they were prepared to spend (or similar for ads). If the player knows what they’re getting into, and they are presented with a choice to stop or continue, it’s on them.
And I’ll admit, while I don’t go that far (and there were designers in both camps), I can at least understand how all game design is manipulation, in the same way that teaching and storytelling is manipulation, and drawing the lines can be very hard. Your job is to convince the player that they are having fun and want to keep playing. Resources in a game have no real value, only valued by the scarcity and utility of them, which the designer intentionally assigns to convince the player it’s more or less valuable.
Curiously, the examples listed in the OP were exactly the patterns I see designers discuss, but don’t seem to be the patterns on the website (like “illusion of control”, artificial scarcity, which is like, game designs while thing).
Either way, nice to have this as a resource because honestly a lot of these elements are what I’d put in the “bad / abusive design” category rather than purely dark patterns, but still great to highlight, but I can agree that we should probably be careful blanket calling these dark patterns; examples: It mentions illusion of control being separating you into shards of leader boards so that you can be in the top 500 of a shard rather than top 200,000 world ranking or whatever, or claw machines choosing whether you successfully grab an item rather than relying on skill. How does this compare to Uncharted not letting enemies successfully shoot you in the first few seconds of an action sequence to give you time to ground yourself, or Resident Evil spawning different loot and enemies based on how good/bad you play?
I’d say, is it to extract money from you in the short term, but it’s more grey than a non-designer might read into from lists like these.
I’m shocked that the people who stand to benefit from it have a different definition than we do.
i’m sure they’d be fine with it if it were their kids on the receiving end, right?
It’s sad that the most unhealthy games are the ones ranked as most played on the google play store 😮💨
It’s not sad, there is a direct connection.
They are the top games because of the psychological manipulation being successful.
I mean… It’s also sad
It can be both…
Back in uni, most of these dark patterns were taught as “game design fundamentals”.
Now as I work on my indie games, I avoid using what I learned in uni.
Game design all boils down to “is it fun?” and anything else is bullshit sales tactics.
I wish the site also focused on real games, and not just mobile games.
What games do you make? If you’re actively working on games that are anti dark pattern then that’s the type of game I want to hear about
I’d argue that unfun design elements can be useful in games if used with care and purpose. For instance, “suddenly all of the characters you’re attached to are dead” is not exactly fun but one of the Fire Emblem games used it to great dramatic effect at the midway point.
Of course the line between an event or mechanic that players love to hate and one they just hate is thin.
I think the focus on mobile is due to the fact that very few people would choose to make a fun game on mobile unless they were deliberately chasing money. Indie devs don’t want to use and make customers use an inferior device with more hoops to jump through. Publishing for PC is easy, publishing for Console has a higher bar to clear for quality. Publishing for mobile is more difficult than PC and makes it more difficult to build a quality game, so the majority of mobile games are unrewarding trash so the only incentive to make them is pure monetization.
Also because the install base for mobile devices is just about everyone everywhere, and yes, a fair amount of people, particularly young people, would much rather play something on their phone than a PC or even console.
The difference in potential customer base is orders of magnitude larger.
Tbf, last time I checked the site it had stuff like ”random loot” listed as a dark pattern. Gacha sucks, but random loot from a boss is IMO valid game design.
I mean it is a dark pattern. It drives us to play more even when we’re not having fun. How many times have we all done a dungeon 10+ times, not because it’s fun, but because we want it to drop the thing?
But at the same time, if that’s the “only” dark pattern, that’s probably fine! And it’ll most likely get a high score of 3+ on the positive side. But if you combine the random loot with time gate, pay to skip, pay to win, etc. then the score rightfully craters.
I think the site is good because it empowers us to pick what we actually want to deal with.
There’s a spectrum, but if I were to map all and every dark pattern, random loot surely qualifies.
If a fight is compelling it has its own reward, random drop chances (especially abysmal drop-rate) will have you mindlessly repeating it no matter the quality of the boss design.
I like the strategy most Terraria bosses go for: You always get something good, it just might not be exactly what you’d wanted in that exact moment, but the re-spec to use it effectively will be pretty easy.
Boss fights definitely, your sentiment reminds me of Warframe. Don’t miss farming bosses. However, there are a lot of ways randomized loot can be implemented, and I wouldn’t call all of them dark patterns
If you want games just to play games I recommend downloading from f Droid. Pretty much every other game has ulterior motives be it ads or microtransactions. I haven’t come across a game on f Droid yet that has either of those.
Fair. Just that the selection of quality games is rather limited.
IMO monetisation is fine, after all we all need to earn a living. To goad people into spending money is the issue. Enter dark patterns.
A one-off purchase after testing the first level? Awesome! Wait a few hours - or days - for a building to finish? Watch a deceptive ad for a meager reward over and over? No, thanks.
It’s the difference between a theme park and a casino. Both are legitimate forms of entertainment for many people, and both do need income to maintain their operations.
One of them charges for entry and then you enjoy the park, only paying for additional but ultimately optional things like merchandise or food.
The other is designed so you have to spend small amounts consistently, and it is designed in incredibly manipulative fashion, literally employing tactics that trigger addictive responses.
The people designing the theme park are designing something entertaining, the people designing the casino are perfecting a skinner box.
One is more deserving of income than the other.
As a former gacha addict I totally agree. Nowadays when I get the urge to play on my phone I’ve been doing Open Sudoku, Fruity Game or Ricochlime. They don’t scratch that same itch quite right but I’m definitely wasting less of my time and money.
The list of “Healthy Games” is a great resource to have!
Mobile only. Lovely resource.
