TY - GEN

T1 - A Game of Dark Patterns: Designing Healthy, Highly-Engaging Mobile Games

AU - Aagaard, Jacob

AU - Knudsen, Miria Emma Clausen

AU - Bækgaard, Per

AU - Doherty, Kevin

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - 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

AB - 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

U2 - 10.1145/3491101.3519837

DO - 10.1145/3491101.3519837

M3 - Article in proceedings

SN - 978-1-4503-9156-6

BT - CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts

A2 - null, Simone Barbosa

A2 - null, Cliff Lampe

A2 - null, Caroline Appert

A2 - null, David A. Shamma

ER -