Deceptive design, or dark patterns, in user experience has been the target of extensive attention in recent years, especially within the context of video games. Dark patterns are UX paradigms designed to manipulate users into making unintentional decisions. The motivation to use these design paradigms is often a misalignment of priority between business benefits and player psychological well-being. The video game industry notoriously implements these patterns and business success is often measured without regard to the psychological impact of these practices. While their usage often leads to increased profits for the studios, their ability to potentially deceive or harm players brings the ethics of their usage into question. This research aims to understand, identify, classify, and mitigate deceptive design patterns in games because of their ethical and psychological implications.
Not only does this paper present a critical review of the ethical consideration of deceptive design practice and its impacts within this industry, but also a framework through which deceptive design practice can be evaluated and scored. Given how contentious of an issue dark patterns in user experiences have become as of late, this study, at a high level, addresses the ethical responsibility that designers, both in and out of the video game industry, have to create experiences that are transparent, respectful, fair, and with the best intentions.
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