Skip to content
Exploitative Patternsin Games

Consent

Also: informed consent

Valid agreement requires the player to perceive the mechanism, be competent, and have a real exit.

Opting into a magic show licenses deception within that frame — but consent is undermined when the mechanism is covert, the user is not competent to consent (e.g., children), the ‘consent’ was itself produced by a dark pattern, or exit is blocked. Consent obtained under aggressive dark patterns can be legally voidable, and awareness does not equal resistance.

See also

References

  1. Nguyen, J.; Ruberg, B. (2020). Challenges of designing consent: Consent mechanics in video games as models for interactive user agency. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376827 · citing patterns
  2. Luguri, J. B.; Strahilevitz, L. J. (2021). Shining a light on dark patterns. Journal of Legal Analysis. doi.org/10.1093/jla/laaa006 · citing patterns