View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Software institutes' Online Digital Archive Dark Patterns in the Design of Games José P. Zagal1 Staffan Björk2,3 Chris Lewis4 1DePaul University 2Gothenburg University 3The Interactive Institute 4University of California, 243 S. Wabash Avenue Dept. of Applied IT Lindholmsplatsen 1 Santa Cruz Chicago, IL 60604, USA 412 96 Gothenburg, SE 417 56 Gothenburg, SE 1156 High St. +1 (312) 362-7115 +46 (0) 31-7721039 +46 (0) 702-889759 Santa Cruz, CA, USA
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT examine those elements of a game’s design whose purpose can be argued as questionable, against a player’s best interests, and Game designers are typically regarded as advocates for players. perhaps even unethical. Rather than focus on particular games, we However, a game creator’s interests may not align with the identify common design elements and implementations we have players’. We examine some of the ways in which those opposed identified across several games. Our focus is on gameplay, interests can manifest in a game’s design. In particular, we meaning that we look at systemic properties of games – and how examine those elements of a game’s design whose purpose can be players interact with them – rather than thematic or argued as questionable and perhaps even unethical. Building upon representational issues (e.g. racist depictions of non-player earlier work in design patterns, we call these abstracted elements characters). Building upon earlier work in design patterns, we call Dark Game Design Patterns.