Choice overload / option flooding
The interface floods the player with too many overlapping options, currencies, bundles, settings, or offers to compare meaningfully.
- Code
- I13
- Category
- Informational / interface
- Severity
- Medium
- Evidence
- EmergingNamed in Gray et al.'s ontology; game-specific evidence is emerging through shop, bundle, and settings-interface analyses.
- Purpose served
- Serves businessPrimarily serves the provider's revenue, retention, or data — the most suspect.
- Mechanism family
- Interface interference
- Platforms
- Mobile / F2P · Live-service · PC / console
- Player costs
- Autonomy / choiceFinancialTime / attention
- Modes
- Manipulative
- Target Audience
- developers
- Tags
- choice overloadoption floodingshopsettingscomparison preventionserves businesslow transparencyconsent underminedmonetary pressurecognitive pressurevulnerability exploitation
- Also known as
- option flooding, offer overload, choice overload
How it works
A shop, event screen, or settings flow presents dense, shifting, and partially incomparable options. The resulting cognitive load makes the default, highlighted, or most urgent option more likely to be accepted.
Why it can be harmful
Choice overload undermines informed consent without hiding every detail. Players technically see options, but the volume and structure of information make meaningful comparison unrealistic, especially under time pressure or during play interruption.
Examples in the wild
- A live-service shop with dozens of time-limited bundles and currencies
- Game settings split across many screens with repeated prompts to accept the default
- Event reward screens with many exchange rates and upgrade paths
- A game consent or account-linking flow with dense toggles and unclear tradeoffs
Illustrative genre examples to aid recognition — not allegations about specific titles.
References
- Gray, C. M.; Santos, C. T.; Bielova, N.; Mildner, T. (2024). An ontology of dark patterns knowledge: Foundations, definitions, and a pathway for shared knowledge-building. Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642436 · citing patterns
- Mathur, A.; Kshirsagar, M.; Mayer, J. (2021). What makes a dark pattern... dark? Design attributes, normative considerations, and measurement methods. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445610 · citing patterns
- Gray, C. M.; Chen, J.; Chivukula, S. S.; Qu, L. (2021). End user accounts of dark patterns as felt manipulation. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW2). doi.org/10.1145/3479516 · citing patterns
Related patterns
Comparison prevention
Making it hard to compare prices, odds, or options so players can't judge value.
Accidental-purchase / default-to-purchase UI
Purchase is the default or easily mis-tapped path, so spending happens without express, informed consent.
Bad defaults / preselection
The provider-preferred option is already selected or treated as the normal path, so inaction becomes consent, spending, or data sharing.
Feedforward ambiguity / unclear consequences
The interface fails to make clear what a button, prompt, or action will actually do before the player commits.
Language inaccessibility / complex copy
Important purchase, privacy, odds, or consent information is presented in language the player cannot reasonably understand.
Trick wording / misleading copy
Confusing, ambiguous, or expectation-violating wording makes the player take an action they did not mean to take.