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Exploitative Patternsin Games

Patterns Mechanisms Player Costs When is it harmful?Glossary References About

Patterns Mechanisms Player Costs When is it harmful?Glossary References About

Topics/hidden costs

hidden costs

1 pattern tagged with this topic.

Hidden costs

The true cost of a purchase is revealed late, or never.

Sneaking / HidingEvidence: ModerateServes business

Exploitative Patterns in Games

A research-grounded primer to exploitative, deceptive, and harmful design in games. Claims are anchored to resolvable scholarship and primary sources.

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Content licensed underCC BY 4.0; code under MIT. Contributions welcome onGitHub.

Shaped by the 2026 Dagstuhl Seminar working group.

Not legal advice. Severity and evidence labels reflect the cited literature as of 2026 and are versioned.