An Empirical Investigation of Deceptive Patterns in Video Games

Abstract

Deceptive patterns– deliberate, manipulative user interfaces have been studied extensively across application domains. However, video games remained severely underexplored, despite having a billion-dollar entertainment industry that impacts billions of consumers (players) globally. This scholarly gap is concerning because deceptive patterns in video games pose unique identification and regulatory challenges, particularly in immersive environments and internal economies. Moreover, the industry’s shift to video games as live services and free-to-play business models has obscured deceptive designs, making conflation with legitimate game designs a gray area for regulation.

To date, the existing literature on deceptive patterns in video games primarily focuses on deceptive monetization practices, such as Loot Boxes and microtransactions, while overlooking the potential manifestations of other deceptive design types. Additionally, the literature has quantified players’ behaviors regarding the perceptions and impacts of deceptive patterns while analyzing regulatory interventions and their effectiveness. Nevertheless, the literature falls short in identifying the factors that drive the emergence of deceptive patterns in the gaming ecosystem. Existing research has yet to capture and comprehend the evolution of such design practices across the gaming industry, while the question concerning responsibility and accountability remains unclear. Thus, it makes video games a relatively less-examined yet critical domain to investigate as compared to others.

This thesis aims to conduct a ground-up analysis of deceptive patterns in video games and address some significant gaps that lead to various research questions. This thesis focuses on the empirical inspection of deceptive patterns in video games by investigating (a) the factors that contribute to their manifestation, (b) their evolution and prevalence over time, (c) the responsibility and accountability to address them, and (d) outlining design guidelines and an evaluation framework to mitigate them. This thesis employs a mixed-methods approach and engages with different key stakeholders to conduct the empirical inspection. The empirical work in this thesis establishes a theoretical framework to unravel underlying factors; provides empirical evidence on the presence of 35 deceptive pattern types along with various manifestation techniques, evolution, prevalence, and 23 negative impacts across 34 video games from a range of categories and genres; and determines how responsibility and accountability diffused among players, professionals and regulators. The thesis synthesizes these findings to develop game design guidelines for professionals and an evaluation framework for regulatory oversight.

This work is significant for providing the first comprehensive, theoretical, and empirical foundation for understanding deceptive patterns in the gaming ecosystem as a systemic problem, examining beyond isolated instances to uncover interconnected factors that contribute to the perpetuation of deceptive practices. Thus, it contributes to creating effective consumer protection, fostering ethics in digital immersive media, and transparency in gaming environments.

Date of Award	9 Dec 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Awais Rashid (Supervisor) & Ryan McConville (Supervisor)