Dark patterns are intentional design choices to manipulate players into spending more time or money. It is not only in online gaming and can be found in many everyday places such as shopping centres or online stores.
In online gaming, it means sneaky design tricks used in games to manipulate players into spending more time or money without realising it.
Examples of dark patterns:
- Daily rewards - used to entice players to keep coming back to the game.
- Repetition - tedious tasks that the player must complete to progress, often times with an option to pay or watch an ad to skip.
- Waiting - the player is forced to wait to unlock certain aspects of the game. These are also often accompanied by an offer to ‘pay to skip’.
- Foot in the door - a player’s first purchase is made as tempting as possible, often labelled as a ‘beginner’s pack’ or ‘starter pack’. The idea behind this tactic is once the first purchase is made, others will follow more easily.
- Currency - a fake currency in a game that is bought using real money. The currency does not match real world value and blurs the real cost of what players buy. Link to currency card when it is unlocked?
- Decoys - sales options which are designed to be unrealistic and will usually be the cheapest and most expensive purchase options. These decoys will make the middle options seem like better deals. Common labels of these middle ‘deals’ are: ‘popular’, ‘best value’, +20%, and so on.
- Loss aversion - this tactic plays on the feeling of losing something. It could be that a player has some game currency left, but not enough to actually use, and are presented with a limited time offer to solve the issue.
- Loot boxes - an undefined purchase which is only revealed once the purchase has been made. The ‘chance’ aspect of potentially gaining a valuable item after the purchase utilises the psychology behind gambling and can be extremely addictive. Link to loot box card when it is unlocked?
Dark patterns encompass many tactics that will be brought to light during the AdWiseOnline campaign. Follow the hashtag #AdWiseOnline and our posts on LinkedIn, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) to learn how you can help bring dark patterns into the light.
Dark patterns are intentional design choices to manipulate players into spending more time or money. It is not only in online gaming and can be found in many everyday places such as shopping centres or online stores.
In online gaming, it means sneaky design tricks used in games to manipulate players into spending more time or money without realising it.
Examples of dark patterns:
- Daily rewards - used to entice players to keep coming back to the game.
- Repetition - tedious tasks that the player must complete to progress, often times with an option to pay or watch an ad to skip.
- Waiting - the player is forced to wait to unlock certain aspects of the game. These are also often accompanied by an offer to ‘pay to skip’.
- Foot in the door - a player’s first purchase is made as tempting as possible, often labelled as a ‘beginner’s pack’ or ‘starter pack’. The idea behind this tactic is once the first purchase is made, others will follow more easily.
- Currency - a fake currency in a game that is bought using real money. The currency does not match real world value and blurs the real cost of what players buy. Link to currency card when it is unlocked?
- Decoys - sales options which are designed to be unrealistic and will usually be the cheapest and most expensive purchase options. These decoys will make the middle options seem like better deals. Common labels of these middle ‘deals’ are: ‘popular’, ‘best value’, +20%, and so on.
- Loss aversion - this tactic plays on the feeling of losing something. It could be that a player has some game currency left, but not enough to actually use, and are presented with a limited time offer to solve the issue.
- Loot boxes - an undefined purchase which is only revealed once the purchase has been made. The ‘chance’ aspect of potentially gaining a valuable item after the purchase utilises the psychology behind gambling and can be extremely addictive. Link to loot box card when it is unlocked?
Dark patterns encompass many tactics that will be brought to light during the AdWiseOnline campaign. Follow the hashtag #AdWiseOnline and our posts on LinkedIn, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) to learn how you can help bring dark patterns into the light.
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