A research primer
Deceptive, exploitative & harmful design in games
A clear, source-anchored reference to the design patterns that extract money, time, data, and attention from players — what they are, how they work, and the conditions under which they become harmful.
- 57
- named patterns
- 9
- mechanism families
- 7
- player costs
- 81
- cited sources
Deception ≠ harm
Games legitimately deceive — bluffs, fog of war, plot twists. We classify by the conditions under which a pattern becomes harmful, not by the label.
Exploitation is the target
The gravest harms — loot boxes, whale-targeting — are often fully transparent. We foreground exploitation, not just deception.
Evidence on the surface
Every entry carries an evidence level and resolvable sources, with scholarly evidence distinguished from primary documentation.
A three-axis model
Each technique is described by how it works, what it costs, and where it sits in the catalogue. The map below is interactive — hover any node to trace its links; click a technique to open it.
Hover a mechanism, technique, or cost to trace its links — click a technique to open it. Prefer a list? Browse all patterns.
Highest-severity patterns
All patterns →Loot boxes / gacha
Paid, randomised reward containers whose contents — and often whose odds — are unknown before purchase.
Personalised spend-optimisation
Silently using a player's behavioural data to tune offers, prices, odds, difficulty, or matchmaking to maximise that individual's spending.
Accidental-purchase / default-to-purchase UI
Purchase is the default or easily mis-tapped path, so spending happens without express, informed consent.
Can't pause or save
Designs that prevent safely stopping — no pause or save, or progress lost (or attacked) when you leave — so players can't quit on their own terms.
Disguised ads / content
Ads are styled as gameplay or rewards so the player cannot tell promotion from play.
Forced registration / data disclosure
Access to play, rewards, or social features is made conditional on creating an account, linking an identity, or sharing unnecessary personal or contact data.