Authors Jacob Aagaard Kevin Doherty Miria Emma Clausen Knudsen Per Bækgaard
License CC-BY-4.0
A Game of Dark Paterns: Designing Healthy, Highly-Engaging
Mobile Games
Jacob Aagaard Miria Emma Clausen Knudsen∗
j-aagaard@hotmail.com mclausenknudsen@gmail.com
Technical University of Denmark Technical University of Denmark
Lyngby, Denmark Lyngby, Denmark
IT Minds ApS
Copenhagen, Denmark
Per Bækgaard Kevin Doherty
pgba@dtu.dk kevdoh@dtu.dk
Technical University of Denmark Technical University of Denmark
Lyngby, Denmark Lyngby, Denmark
ABSTRACT 1 INTRODUCTION
Gaming is a more accessible, engaging and popular past-time than Gaming is today a source of pleasure and joy for many more among
ever before. Recent research highlights games as strikingly efective us than ever before; an activity, hobby and culture at the same time
means of capturing and holding our attention — so efective, some relaxing, stimulating, social and uplifting. The now near-ubiquitous
argue, to the point of deleterious efect. An impassioned CHI2021 nature of mobile devices in particular has transformed gaming from
panel discussion directed these eforts towards the ethics and adop- an activity bound in large part to the home console or computer, to
tion of dark patterns. And yet, we know little as to how dark pat- a means of passing the time accessible to many, anywhere and at
terns are perceived and arise in the design, development and use of any time. Mobile gaming has proved a means and medium of en-
games. This paper seeks to address this knowledge gap by recount- gaging all ages and demographics[41], accounting for a signifcant
ing fndings from a design-led inquiry comprising interviews and percentage of all screen time, and in turn gaming market share;
workshops conducted with mobile game players, designers, devel- generating vast profts for game development studios, and driving
opers, and business developers. We contribute an understanding new, highly-engaging and lucrative game design paradigms, ‘gacha,’
of how dark patterns arise in the development, use and commer- ‘casual’ and ‘hyper-casual’ in nature [41].
cialisation of mobile games, their efects on players and industry While much research points to the benefts of gaming - as a past-
professionals, and means for the consideration, negotiation and time like many others, relaxing, social, educational and even thera-
navigation of these strategies for gamer-engagement by design — peutic - others have highlighted the capacity of highly-engaging
in support of healthier, highly-engaging game experiences. games to induce harm; adversely impacting individuals’ wellbeing
in terms economic, social and psychological [9, 46].1 Recent public
CCS CONCEPTS and policy attention has focused on game mechanisms considered
• Human-centered computing; to place players at increased economic risk; including in particular
micro-transactions and loot-boxes now designated gambling in cer-
KEYWORDS tain legal jurisdictions [6, 38, 59]. This public attention has equally
HCI, design, mobile, games, dark patterns, wellbeing, engagement, highlighted the capacity of highly-engaging games to adversely
development impact particularly vulnerable populations [9, 46]; surfacing numer-
ous accounts of young children’s spending of tens of thousands of
ACM Reference Format: US dollars on casual mobile games [3, 14, 32, 39, 48, 50, 55], and the
Jacob Aagaard, Miria Emma Clausen Knudsen, Per Bækgaard, and Kevin Do-
description of certain players as ‘whales,’ enthusiastically sought
herty. 2022. A Game of Dark Patterns: Designing Healthy, Highly-Engaging
after by game studios for their vast monthly spending [16]. Many
Mobile Games. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Extended Abstracts (CHI ’22 Extended Abstracts), April 29-May 5, 2022, New of these critiques can be related to broader criticisms of digital tech-
Orleans, LA, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 8 pages. https://doi.org/10. nology as detracting from daily life, reducing autonomy, serving
1145/3491101.3519837 as distraction, and manipulating thoughts and behaviour — often
∗ Both
leading to polarised discussion of personal, social and corporate
frst and second authors contributed equally to this research.
responsibilities across public media, online fora, and the academic
literature alike [43–45, 49].
Human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers attempting to
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International understand the design and impact of mobile games have turned
4.0 License.
to the identifcation and description of ‘dark patterns’ employed
CHI ’22 Extended Abstracts, April 29-May 5, 2022, New Orleans, LA, USA
1 The concept of technology - including gaming - addiction, although not our focus here
© 2022 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-9156-6/22/04. and remains intensely debated, is broadly considered an unfounded and misleading
https://doi.org/10.1145/3491101.3519837 narrative by many HCI researchers [28, 29].
CHI ’22 Extended Abstracts, April 29-May 5, 2022, New Orleans, LA, USA Aagaard et al.
by designers and developers, collectively game creators (GCs), for 2 RELATED WORK
the engagement of players — design strategies yielding experiences This work takes place at the intersection of three key HCI research
against users’ best interests and often eluding their awareness or threads; concerning design for user engagement, the implementa-
consent [58]. Prior research has focused on the development of tion and ethics of dark patterns, and digital wellbeing.
defnitions and ontologies of dark patterns [21], including not only User Engagement. Much HCI research in recent years has focused
loot boxes but playing by appointment, grinding, reciprocity, and on the engagement of users [15]. With respect to gaming alone,
many more. These design patterns are often posited as a result of researchers have applied psychological theory to persuasive game
the nature of game development as not only a creative but com- mechanics [31], studied engaging collaborative play [60], and ex-
mercial process comprising practices of design, implementation plored players’ motivations for gameplay [23]. Within the gaming
and user testing driven by quantitative data and business metrics industry, the realisation of highly-engaging game experiences is
including retention rates and lifetime value measures [7, 53]. The the ultimate aim of most game creators, for reasons both creative
adverse efects of highly-engaging game experiences are often then and economic. And it is through games, and strategies of gami-
described as an inevitable consequence of the adoption of dark fcation, that we have often proved most successful at engaging
patterns in the pursuit of a proft motive. A richer understanding of users [44]. User engagement design is supported by a wide vari-
the adoption, implementation and use of dark game design patterns ety of strategies, measures and theories, including and often most
may yet however allow us to facilitate and prioritise the ethical prominently, self-determination theory [17, 27] and fow theory
design and development of digital technologies of all kinds. [24, 26, 35]. Cowley et al. posit that games are particularly suited to
And yet, we currently know little as to how we might design generating experiences of fow, noting that “games give immediate
to support healthy, highly-engaging game experiences. This is a access to their inherent potential for optimal experience, and that
challenge signifcantly complicated by twin ethical dilemmas at potential is facilitated by the structured nature of further game-
the heart of the experience and adoption of dark patterns. The frst play” [11]. Gaming is therefore a domain in which we have proved
pertains to the degree of personal responsibility and autonomy strikingly successful at designing for engagement.
granted to players in weighing questions of ethical engagement. Dark Patterns. So successful in fact that some have begun to
As one indie game designer put it; “diferent kinds of experiences worry about the ethical ramifcations, and practices of ethical decision-
are meaningful to diferent people, and . . . we shouldn’t judge peo- making, entailed in the process of game design. Recent years have
ple for what is meaningful to them” [12]. The second, less studied, seen increased attention devoted, in particular, to the topic of dark
concerns the involvement of multiple stakeholders in the design, patterns [42]. Much of this work has focused on identifying, defn-
development and commercialisation of mobile games. While some ing and categorising strategies considered misleading, manipulative
have argued that the only solution to the adoption of manipulative or even coercive. And yet developing an ontology of dark design
design patterns is to “shame the developers away from using them” patterns is itself far from an easy task; the efects of these strategies
[34], such moralising in practice tends not only to lead to polarised dependent on a wide variety of individual characteristics, and their
conversations but may also serve to mask the complex combination defnition morally-contingent. Zagal et al. comment, for example,
of values at play in the process of highly-engaging game design — that game design patterns are best thought of as ‘value-neutral
an industry practice into which researchers currently possess little tools’ yet admit that this “does not necessarily make them useful
insight. Industry professionals have commented that the “responsi- for identifying problematic or unethical design choices made by
bilities (for digital wellbeing, ed.) lie everywhere and with everyone” designers” [58]. Recent eforts by HCI researchers to further our
[33]. To what extent is this the case, and what might this look like understanding of the relationship between GCs’ intentions and
in practice? players’ experiences include assessment of the impact of dark pat-
This paper seeks to address this knowledge gap in support of terns on users [13, 20, 36, 56] and the creation of new guidelines for
the design of healthy, highly-engaging game experiences, by devel- GCs [1, 34, 47]. Lukof et al. suggest new design norms as means
oping an understanding of a) how dark patterns are experienced by to mitigate the efects of dark patterns; including shaming compa-
mobile game players, b) the role of diverse industry stakeholders nies which employ dark patterns, requiring GCs to articulate the
in crafting dark patterns, and c) how we might in fact design to ethical values underlying their design practice, and incorporating
shape the adoption and experience of dark patterns in support of material concerning dark patterns into design curricula. Fitton &
wellbeing. We recount fndings from a design-led inquiry compris- Read similarly ofer a framework to support critical consideration
ing interviews and design workshops conducted with a diverse of dark patterns in the creation of free-to-play games, to be em-
sample of mobile game players, GCs and business developers (BDs); ployed during game design to “help creators of free-to-play apps
contributing an understanding of just how dark patterns arise in focus on the experience and wellbeing of younger users even when
the development, use and commercialisation of mobile games, their monetization is essential” [18].
efects on players and industry professionals, and means for the Digital Wellbeing. Questions of ethical user engagement and de-
consideration, negotiation and navigation of these strategies for sign then hinge on conceptions of what it means to be well. And
gamer-engagement by design — in support of healthier, highly- much HCI research has focused on the topic of digital wellbeing
engaging game experiences. in recent years, producing new measures [25, 37], implications for
design [8, 19, 22, 40], and the application of new lenses to gam-
ing research, including emotional regulation [10, 51, 54] and life
satisfaction perspectives [57, p 16]. Signifcantly, studies suggest
A Game of Dark Paterns: Designing Healthy, Highly-Engaging Mobile Games CHI ’22 Extended Abstracts, April 29-May 5, 2022, New Orleans, LA, USA
Figure 1: The Design Research Process Followed
that both positive and negative emotions alike shape and aid in Table 1: Participant Demographic Characteristics (in order
producing good player experiences [30]. of participation)
These overlapping research threads then together surface the
question: Is it possible, and how might we, develop game experi- Time spent
ences both ‘healthy’ and ‘highly-engaging?’ ID Age Gender Location
playing daily
3 METHOD PL1 33 Female N. America 3-5hrs.
Through this work then, we aimed to develop an understanding PL2 22 Male Europe 1-2hrs.
of players’ and GCs’ experiences of dark patterns, just how these DV1 26 Male Europe 5-10min.
design patterns come to exist, and how we might support and DS1 29 Male Europe 1-2hrs.
practice design to realise healthy highly-engaging mobile game PL3 24 Female Europe 30-60min.
experiences. DS2 30 Male Europe 10-30min.
To generate and leverage insight into these complex problems, DV2 25 Male Europe 10-30min.
we adopted a design research approach entailing stages of quali- PL4 37 Male Asia 5-7hrs.
tative research, divergent ideation, convergent prototyping, and DS3 35 Male Europe 30-60min.
testing; inspired by the Stanford d.school’s fve-stage model (See DV3 28 Male Europe 1-5min.
Figure 1). First, 16 individual semi-structured interviews allowed PL5 28 Male Europe 3-5hrs.
us to empathise and identify common themes across participants. PL6 36 Female N. America 30-60min.
Divergent brainstorming and mind mapping exercises then enabled PL7 40 Male N. America 10-30min.
the generation of concept solutions to the challenge of designing PL8 25 Other N. America 30-60min.
healthy, highly-engaging games. These were expanded and iterated BD1 30 Female Europe 10-30min.
upon together with stakeholders during the co-design workshops of BD2 30 Male Europe 30-60min.
phase 3 - four workshops conducted with participants in pairs - and PL9 32 Male Asia 5-7hrs.
then further developed and refned using knowledge and insight PL10 29 Male Europe 3-5hrs
from these interactions during phase 4. In phase 5, stakeholders PL11 24 Female Europe 5-10min.
were again consulted during workshops for the iterative co-design, PL12 24 Female Europe 10-30min.
testing and validation of these concepts. And fnally, we added a PL13 28 Male Europe 1-2hrs.
sixth phase, during which a coherent strategy to support commu-
nication and translation of the outputs and design implications of
the research project at scale and in practice was developed.
Participants for this project included 13 mobile game players and BDs played games occasionally. Players, on the other hand,
(PLs), 3 professional game designers (DSs), 3 game developers (DVs) all played multiple times a day, with the exception of three; two
and 2 BDs, recruited through social media (Reddit, ResetEra, Twit- playing once a day and one only occasionally. All GCs and BDs
ter and Facebook), LinkedIn, university intranet, and convenience resided in Europe, while only three players did so, four living in
sampling of personal, professional and academic networks (See Ta- North America and one in Asia. All participant interactions took
ble 1). This was a diverse sample of stakeholders, the engagement place over Zoom, and were organised using email and Discord,
of whom we considered an equally important design challenge in as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We employed the virtual
the planning and conduct of this research. work-space tool Miro to support the creation and use of several
Participants ranged in age from 22 to 40; with an average age of novel visual research methods for the reciprocal activation and
30. On average, GCs and BDs played mobile games for 31 minutes creative engagement of participants in co-design. This included, for
per day, while players played an average of 136 minutes per day. example, an ice-breaker and needs-fnding exercise entailing the
Two GCs described playing games once a day, while the other GCs sorting of dark patterns (See Figure 2), and another involving the
CHI ’22 Extended Abstracts, April 29-May 5, 2022, New Orleans, LA, USA Aagaard et al.
Figure 2: Absolute Ranking of Dark Patterns’ Impact (showing the average ranking across all 4 workshop participant pairs)
interactive placement of initial concept solutions according to axes The patterns most often identifed and discussed by participants
of perceived value and feasibility. included Pay to Win mechanics, Playing by Appointment, Daily Re-
Interviews and workshops were envisaged to last an hour al- wards, Artifcial Defcit, Invested Value (Sunk Cost Fallacy), Gacha
though often ran longer, participants eager and willing to share mechanics, and Loot Boxes [52]. Many participants spoke of these
their insights. All data captured was fully anonymised, and par- mechanics as frustrating, eliciting a sense of being cheated, and
ticipants provided an information sheet communicating the re- situated in the context of an adversarial relationship between game
search procedure, objectives, and handling of data as well as a professionals’ striving for proft and players’ desiring to avoid ma-
short and anonymous demographic questionnaire in advance of nipulative monetization. And yet, participants also commented
each study phase. Digital notes were taken by both participants that not all patterns were equally ‘dark,’ and some only so when
and researchers during these workshop exercises, interviews audio- implemented in combination with other mechanics, otherwise sup-
recorded, anonymised, transcribed in full, and analysed using a com- porting positive and fun experiences; “there’s not a moment when
bination of visual network analysis and Braun & Clarke’s method of like this is good and this is bad. The small tricks you make, and the
thematic analysis entailing the inductive and iterative generation small economy changes you make to the prices and to the timing,
of codes followed by cross-cutting themes; as comprise the key etc. [defne] how exploitative or harmful these things are” (DS3).
fndings articulated in this paper [4, 5]. Participants unanimously agreed however that gambling mechanics
including loot boxes and practices of impersonation were among
4 FINDINGS the darkest patterns in mobile game experiences (See Figure 2). And
The fndings of this work highlight three themes in particular; yet, many players admitted to willingly and often engaging with
players’ experience of mobile games and dark patterns, industry loot boxes in their favourite games, enjoying the time spent with
professionals’ perceptions as to how dark patterns arise and who’s these mechanics while warning others away.
responsible for them, and how knowledge of the presence of ten-
sion, confict and conversation at the heart of mobile game design 4.2 The Road to Dark Design Is Paved With
practices might enable us to move closer towards the design of Good Intentions
healthy, highly-engaging game experiences. This raises the question then as to how dark patterns arise, and
who’s responsible for them. Some GCs argued that dark patterns
4.1 Gaming; A Guilty Pleasure could simply be ‘stumbled’ upon or ‘fallen’ into, whereas others
Players spoke of mobile gaming as part of everyday life, past-time, spoke of these patterns as intentional, immutable and inescapable
and identity; engagement motivated by social connection, relax- design choices driven by market forces beyond their control; “We
ation, and a desire to escape reality. Many participants commented have ads every 30 seconds. That’s a lot, right. We do it because
on the accessibility of mobile games as generating broader ap- that’s what everyone else does. I cannot aford to only show an ad
peal, bringing “a lot of other people into gaming that otherwise every minute” (BD1). This trend was therefore described by GCs
wouldn’t” (PL7), and even extending the target audience for hyper- as motivated not by greed but a desire to remain working in the
casual games to “everybody from 10 to 90” (DS1). Although almost mobile game industry. GCs and BDs also spoke of dark patterns as
all participants spoke of positive and fun experiences with mobile arising as a result of data-driven engagement metrics, as surfacing
games, many shared also negative perceptions of the medium, com- inevitably over time, as related to other drivers of engagement, and
menting on manipulative practices, ‘industrial greed,’ exploitative as a consequence of a culture of disposable experiences; “I’m going
monetization and a feeling of ‘burnout,’ leading to a felt need to to do everything I can to make sure that you stay here and you
limit playtime. Players then spoke as knowing, yet also striving to click on [our game] again . . . I know that you don’t actually care
distinguish in practice, between healthy and unhealthy game expe- about this stuf I’ve made, you just try to distract yourself” (DS2).
riences; “I wish I were playing them less. I’ve tried . . . I’m trying” When it came to the attribution of responsibility however, percep-
(PL1). tions varied signifcantly among stakeholders. For some, including
Asked about dark patterns, many players expressed a lack of players themselves, ‘dark patterns exist because they work,’ and
familiarity with the term, although were able to easily identify would only evolve if players were to stop engaging with such games
mechanics meeting the defnition encountered during game play. or legal frameworks were instituted against these practices. Some
A Game of Dark Paterns: Designing Healthy, Highly-Engaging Mobile Games CHI ’22 Extended Abstracts, April 29-May 5, 2022, New Orleans, LA, USA
BDs defended certain patterns, including in-game purchases, as voices heard, and in relation to the game economy in particular; one
increasing the options available to players; “It makes it possible to designer describing “the majority [of mobile games]” as “healthy
create deeper layers inside of the game” (BD1). Others returned to . . . just wrapped in unhealthy wrapping paper . . . in order to make
the inevitability of dark patterns given market forces, refecting money” (DS1). Monetisation practices adverse to creators then in-
a difusion of responsibility possibly attributable to a bystander evitably drain creativity and detract from the felt meaning of GCs’
efect [2]. A small minority of GCs however counted themselves work; “you sorta lose the passion when you’re making those games”
responsible, and expressed deep discontent with “very exploitative (DV3). This suggests the value of weighing monetization as a design
forms of game design” (DS3). DV3, in particular, spoke of a consis- process and practice in itself, and of striving to create value through
tent pattern of what they considered ‘trickery’ in game design as monetization — enabling game developers to innovate new, more
motivating their departure from the industry, “sick of developing creative and potentially less predatory monetization strategies.
those games.” For the majority of participants however, respon- Several participants commented that monetization elements
sibility was to some extent shared among players, parents, GCs, could even enhance the game experience, or add new aspects to a
and industry fgures, noting that it was not always a design pat- game, as in the case of the ‘battle pass’ model which allows play-
tern that was itself dark by nature but rather its implementation. ers to pay money to gain more rewards while playing, providing
Prior defnitions of dark patterns tend to relate their presence to “constantly a feeling of earning something” (DS2). Players then also
intentional decisions autonomously made by technology creators should equally not be excluded from these conversations — ethical
[58]. Participants’ comments suggest however that we might also game development a user-centred process in itself.
fnd value in defning the ‘dark game design pattern’ as a pattern
or combination of patterns implemented in such a way that it drives 5 DISCUSSION
players towards experiences negatively afecting their wellbeing. Dark patterns then shape not only players’ but GCs’ and BDs’ expe-
riences of mobile games and their development. And, we undertook
4.3 A Lack of Communication Leaves Us All In this user-centred design research process with the aim not only
The Dark of generating insight into these strategies and practices, but of en-
abling and practising design to support healthy, highly-engaging
This process of research and design provided insight into the inner mobile game experiences.
workings of the mobile game industry. And the development of
hyper-casual games in particular was found to present a variety
of highly-unique features. These are games often developed in a
5.1 Practising Design to Support Healthy
period as brief as two weeks (DS1), each kept as simple as possible in Highly-Engaging Game Experiences
terms of theme and gameplay, and focused around only one or two The early phases of this process led to the proposal of numerous
gameplay mechanics; allowing these games to be easily understood, unique tools, methods and materials in support of this goal. Discus-
and immediately satisfying to play. Such games were described by sion, interaction and evaluation of 6 of which with stakeholders
creators as the result of a ‘super data-driven’ approach designed to led to the selection and refnement of 3 fnal concept solutions
keep players in a hyper-casual loop, and easy to play to the extent deemed feasible, valuable, and which might realistically be adopted
that winning becomes trivial. and implemented in practice — each approaching the problem of
Many hyper-casual game studios work under a publisher, which healthy highly-engaging game design from a unique perspective.
additionally helps developers to inform their design choices using A Dark Pattern Badge. Our frst concept entails an illustrated
data gathered from the “successes and failures of thousands upon badge system, integrated across app stores to inform players of
thousands of games” (DS1). This further enables not only the dis- the dark patterns present within a game before its download — en-
solution of responsibility for design choices, but makes it difcult abling players to make more informed choices and preparing them
for individual stakeholders to make their voices heard. This was for the mechanisms to which they are likely to be exposed. This
refected most starkly in participants’ comments as to the implemen- concept then provides increased transparency around the design
tation of monetization in mobile games as a point of tension and and impact of dark patterns, inspired by players’ comments as to a
confict between diferent professional roles within development lack of awareness of the dark design patterns a game could contain
studios, as between studios and players. Many game designers and (See Figure 3). Considerations in the design of this concept included
developers spoke openly of their games and gaming as being ‘cor- prioritising core principles of glanceability and legibility, enabling
rupted’ by their colleagues in business development, and of fghting access to multiple levels of information, and avoiding explicit moral-
against the inclusion of these practices; “every game . . . started out isation. A unique icon was created for each dark pattern; the type
as people with a passion for a thing . . . and as it keeps going, it of pattern (temporal, monetary, social or psychological) denoted by
turns into a company thing, ‘how do we make more money?’ ” a coloured border, and these icons displayed as a stack. Clicking an
(DV2), “it was ‘us against the business guy’ ” (DS3). Although the icon would result in the presentation of a more detailed description
implementation of dark patterns might therefore be characterised to users, facilitating the education of players over time including
as a conversation, it is one in which GCs described themselves as in regard to the efect of multiple patterns in combination — an
having little voice; “you know what I would say if they invited me. interaction highlighted by players as key to their impact. By simply
That’s probably why I’m not invited” (DS2). listing those patterns present, this concept attempts to refrain from
The creation of healthy, highly-engaging mobile game experi- granting weight to the often-polarising nature of the public and
ences then hinges in part on each stakeholder’s ability to make their professional debate regarding dark patterns.
CHI ’22 Extended Abstracts, April 29-May 5, 2022, New Orleans, LA, USA Aagaard et al.
questions posed to players and considered useful by developers as
means to both generate knowledge and foster empathy with play-
ers. During workshops, participants were asked to rank a variety
of emotional states in regard to their value for informing game de-
velopment. GCs selected as most valuable the negatively-valenced
emotions ‘annoyed’, ‘disappointed’ and ‘manipulated’, and the pos-
itive emotion ‘interested’. Participants highlighted ‘interested’ as a
felt experience “very unique and hard to achieve,” (DS3) and there-
fore an indicator of healthy engagement, and the negative emotions
chosen as among “the most unintentional things that might happen
in the game,” (DS3) noting that a game would never strive to entice
such feelings in players, whereas other negative feelings, such as
‘frustrated,’ could often be intentionally elicited to drive further
investment from players.
5.2 Translating Insights & Implications into
Practice
The value of these three concept solutions lies not only in their fnal
form but in the shared vision of ethical game design they promote
and support; to empower players through increased transparency of
game mechanics, educate and raise awareness among GCs of dark
Figure 3: The Final Dark Patern Badge System Design. Top: patterns, and better inform GCs of players’ experiences, through-
The stamp when no dark patterns are present. Middle: The out the conception, creation and consumption of mobile games.
store page when dark patterns are present. Bottom: The dark We advise researchers seeking to support such practices by design
pattern badge information pop-up. to; a) elevate game players’ capacity to transparently weigh the
presence and impact of game design patterns, as a means to combat
A Healthy Game Design Course. Findings of this work highlighted manipulative monetization mechanics, b) empower all stakeholders
GCs’ striving to create and participate in conversations around more of game play and design to make their voices heard, overcoming
ethical practices of monetization, yet also a lack of confdence and siloed mentalities and adversarial relationships, in support of the
knowledge among GCs in contrast with BDs. Our second concept development of an ethical gaming culture, and c) increase GCs’ ca-
takes the form of a Healthy Game Design Course designed to grant pacity to access rich and diverse forms of knowledge about players’
GCs the knowledge, tools and skills to implement new and alter- experiences, beyond data driven-design. The fndings and refec-
native monetization design patterns in co-operation with other tions of this work are best considered one contribution to this very
industry professionals. This concept was communicated drawing conversation, in support of new opportunities to realise healthy,
inspiration from standardised university course descriptions. Our highly-engaging mobile game experiences.
workshop participants envisioned a workshop format as most ef-
fective, during which students would learn about dark patterns and 6 CONCLUSION
possible alternate monetization strategies, actively engage in design This work is not only about gaming but about how manipulative
problems, analyse games containing dark patterns, and work on patterns arise in technology design, shape our experiences, and
healthy alternatives in groups. This course would additionally make might be surfaced and navigated through practices and processes
use of real-world examples to simulate production conficts, pro- of communication, conversation, and co-design, bringing players,
viding creators the tools to participate in such discussions on more developers, designers and business developers together, elevating
equal terms, and in this way contributing towards more ethical consciousness of each stakeholder’s responsibilities, and in turn
practices of monetization. supporting healthy, highly-engaging mobile game experiences by
An Emotion Assessment Toolkit. GCs and BDs all agreed that design.
it is core gameplay which ultimately comprises the heart of any
highly-engaging game experience, and that although mobile game ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
design is often a ‘super data-driven’ process, GCs often lack insight
into the impact of their choices on players; which can lead to the We would like to thank all of our participants for your time, energy,
inadvertent implementation of dark patterns. Our fnal concept expertise and enthusiasm. This project is supported by the Novo
comprises an Emotion Assessment Toolkit designed to elevate de- Nordisk Foundation, Grant Number NNF16OC0022038.
velopers’ knowledge of players’ experiences, leveraging not only
interaction logs and retention rates but ecological momentary as- REFERENCES
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