Exploring Deceptive Patterns in Gaming Apps

Seya Tam – Graphic Design Senior Thesis 2022

AI-generated summary and notes. Check quotations, numbers, and important claims against the source video. Captions may contain errors.

Watch the source video on YouTube

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes for the text on this page.

Summary

In her senior thesis presentation, Seya Tam discusses the use of deceptive marketing strategies in mobile games that trick minors into spending real money on virtual goods. Her project centers on creating a game designed to educate children about these deceptive practices through engaging gameplay. Tam focuses on two common deceptive patterns: forced action and obstruction, with future plans to expand on more types. Her approach aims to make the learning process interactive and suitable for children, emphasizing the importance of parental awareness in digital habits. The fictional game, Ollie's World, serves as an educational tool against these misleading tactics in gaming apps.

Highlights

Seya Tam's game project highlights issues in digital marketing targeting children 📲.
The focus is on teaching kids about forced action and obstruction through gameplay 🕹️.
Ollie's World uses characters to guide children and expose deceptive patterns 👾.
The game presents dilemmas like forced membership sign-ups to educate users ✏️.
Tam's broader aim is to increase digital awareness and responsible gaming habits 🌐.

Key Takeaways

Seya Tam addresses deceptive marketing in gaming apps targeting minors 🎮.
Her thesis project educates children on 'forced action' and 'obstruction' patterns 🚧.
The game Ollie's World aims to teach kids about deceptive practices interactively 🤓.
Tam plans to expand her project to cover more deceptive patterns in the future 🌟.
The design considers both children and parents, ensuring broader awareness 🤝.

Overview

Seya Tam's senior thesis boldly tackles the topic of deceptive marketing practices in mobile games aimed at children. Through her innovative project, she seeks to illuminate how games often trick minors into purchasing virtual goods, a concern highlighted by incidents like the Facebook court case of 2012. Seya's focus is not just on the issues themselves but also on proactive education through gaming, using her creation as a tool for learning and awareness.

At the heart of Seya's project is a game called Ollie's World. The game is designed to engage children interactively by introducing characters like Oliver Otter, who guide players through scenarios illustrating deceptive marketing. The gameplay illustrates patterns such as forced action, where players might feel coerced into a decision, and obstruction, where processes are made unnecessarily challenging. Through this engaging method, children can learn about the traps set by these digital tactics in a safe environment.

With her sights set on future expansions, Seya plans to cover more deceptive patterns in her educational series of games. This project also extends its educational reach to parents, making them aware of their children's digital consumption and fostering a collaborative learning environment. The thoughtful design targets ease of understanding for young audiences, ensuring that even unsupervised playtime becomes an opportunity for critical learning and discussion about digital habits.

Chapters

00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Thesis Statement The chapter introduces the senior thesis of Saya, who uses she/her pronouns. The thesis focuses on how game applications employ deceptive marketing strategies to trick minors into spending real money on virtual goods of uncertain value. An example provided is the 2012 Facebook court case, where children spent thousands of dollars through their parents' credit cards, unaware they were spending real money. Saya mentions creating a game that demonstrates these deceptive patterns.
00:30 - 01:00: Description of Deceptive Patterns and Game Concept The chapter introduces the concept of deceptive patterns and focuses on educating children about them. In particular, it explores two common types of deceptive patterns: forced action and obstruction. The chapter describes how these patterns can influence behavior, encouraging curiosity and exploration of alternatives. The chapter also discusses a game, presumably aimed at teaching these concepts, known as Candy Block, which particularly employs the 'forced action' deceptive pattern. Future plans are mentioned to expand on these ideas through five different games addressing five different topics.
01:00 - 01:30: Game Development Considerations In the chapter "Game Development Considerations", the focus is on the user's experience and ensuring that both primary and secondary audiences are considered. The concept of 'obstruction' is introduced as a method to discourage users by making processes intentionally difficult and time-consuming. This is particularly relevant in scenarios where parents, characterized as the primary audience, might need to control children's access to digital devices. The chapter also discusses the challenges faced by parents who work full-time and cannot constantly monitor their children's digital habits, highlighting the need for developers to consider how language and interfaces need to be adaptable to different age groups, ensuring accessibility and ease of understanding for children, the secondary audience.
01:30 - 02:00: Walkthrough of Ollie's World The chapter introduces 'Ollie's World,' which is designed for third to fifth graders and does not require adult supervision. The onboarding stage presents the character, Oliver Otter, who is introduced to the child using a friendly, first-person narrative style, making Oliver seem like a friend to the audience.
02:00 - 03:00: Obstruction in Happy Dog In the chapter titled 'Obstruction in Happy Dog,' the narrative unfolds as an otter takes on the role of guiding a child through a game. Amidst the interactions, there's a deceptive undertone where Ollie is being tricked concerning financial matters. This chapter seems to explore themes of guidance, trickery, and perhaps a lesson in discernment for the child navigating the game under the otter's supervision.
03:00 - 05:00: Conclusion and Invitation to Play The final chapter titled 'Conclusion and Invitation to Play' involves a discussion about a set of tricks that children need to spot. The setting has been created, and the child is at the menu page. During the discussion, a QR code is provided for those interested in further play. The focus of this session is on the 'happy dog' pattern, which is a deceptive obstruction pattern inspired by a certain idea.

Seya Tam – Graphic Design Senior Thesis 2022 Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 hello everyone welcome to my senior thesis my name is saya she her product and let's get started my thesis statement is using deceptive marketing strategies game applications trick minors into paying real money in exchange for virtual goods of uncertain value this can be seen in facebook 2012 court case where facebook turned a blind eye they're receiving children spending thousands of dollars through their parents credit card and the child doesn't know it is real money so i created a game that includes these deceptive patterns engaging encouraging
00:30 - 01:00 them to be curious and explore alternative options by themselves this leads to an intervention moment giving a breakdown to educate the child about these patterns according to great owl there's five different types but with the time constraint i will be focusing focusing on the first two most common ones forced action and obstruction to expand in the future i hope to create five different games for five different topics so for candy block i used forced action forced action is creating a data for the
01:00 - 01:30 user where they feel obligated to comply for happy dog i used obstruction obstruction is purposely creating a difficult and lengthy process to discourage the user because parents give access to children they're my primary audience which leads to the child having access to digital device my secondary audience during the process when i created my game i consider about the parents who work full that aren't able to monitor the child's digital habits and for the child language varies age to age so for my
01:30 - 02:00 gain it does not require supervision and the lead the reading level is third to fifth grader now i will show you the walkthrough of ollie's world this is the onboarding stage introducing the character to the child the characters use first person like they're friends with a kid this is oliver otter the protagonist [Music]
02:00 - 02:30 only the otter is guiding the child through the game [Music] is tricking ollie for her money and the
02:30 - 03:00 child needs to spot these tricks [Music] after creating the setting the child is now at the menu page during our discussion portion i will provide a qr code if you're interested in playing further today i'll only go through happy dog which is the deceptive pattern for obstruction for happy dog i got inspired by a
03:00 - 03:30 variety of pet simulation game in the current app store making the child become invested there's three different activities there is giving a bone taking a nap as you can hear from the stores
03:30 - 04:00 and play with a soccer ball showing a level up should positively reinforce their curiosity this is where obstruction occurs the dog is now asking for a cake not showing on the screen so no matter where you click a pop-up will show up asking the child to join the membership i would like to ask the audience to shout out should i click on access the full
04:00 - 04:30 experience or the cross button crunches [Music] whatever the child chooses i'll even act correspondingly foreign
04:30 - 05:00 afterwards ollie explains the pattern and teach the children what to do [Music] hmm
05:00 - 05:30 [Music] we have completed the game if you're interested in playing further i can show you my presentation and scan the qr code thank you very much [Applause] [Music]