A Game of Dark Patterns: Designing Healthy, Highly-Engaging Mobile Games

Gaming is a more accessible, engaging and popular past-time than ever before. Recent research highlights games as strikingly effective means of capturing and holding our attention — so effective, some argue, to the point of deleterious effect. An impassioned CHI2021 panel discussion directed these efforts towards the ethics and adoption of dark patterns. And yet, we know little as to how dark patterns are perceived and arise in the design, development and use of games. This paper seeks to address this knowledge gap by recounting findings from a design-led inquiry comprising interviews and workshops conducted with mobile game players, designers, developers, and business developers. We contribute an understanding of how dark patterns arise in the development, use and commercialisation of mobile games, their effects on players and industry professionals, and means for the consideration, negotiation and navigation of these strategies for gamer-engagement by design — in support of healthier, highly-engaging game experiences.