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

TL;DR

Dark patterns in mobile games manipulate spending and engagement, raising ethical concerns. The authors employ a large-scale quantitative analysis of $1,496$ games from $52,111$ listings on darkpatterns.games, classifying patterns into temporal, monetary, social, and psychological categories based on Zagal et al.'s taxonomy. They find widespread dark-pattern presence across both 'dark' and 'healthy' games and show strong associations between monetization models (free-to-play, ads, IAP) and dark-pattern prevalence ($p<0.001$ for pricing and IAP/ads). The study highlights the value of community-driven data for surfacing harmful design, discusses implications for design guidelines and policy, and calls for regulatory and design interventions to promote healthier gaming experiences. Overall, the work provides robust, large-scale empirical support for dark-pattern frameworks in gaming and motivates concrete steps to mitigate their impact on players.

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.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: This figure presents a mock-up example based on Zagal et al.'s zagal_dark_2013 "playing by appointment" dark pattern in the form of quests that require users to play the game on a daily basis. The displayed graphic is the original work of one of this paper's authors and does not violate any licensing.
• Figure 2: This figure presents bar charts for the revenue analysis of a game's price, contained advertisement, and in-app purchases between "dark" and "healthy" games.