Definition: A gaming dark pattern is something that is deliberately added to a game to cause an unwanted negative experience for the player with a positive outcome for the game developer.
No it hasn’t. Some site not knowing their dark patterns from their anti-features (or deliberately mushing them both together for marketing purposes) doesn’t mean it’s not a misnomer.
I mean, I’m open to it becoming the new standard at some point. There is no coming back from the incorrect meaning of “metagame”, or at least of “meta”, so it’s no longer a misnomer.
But this? Nah, it’s gonna take a minute, if it ever happens. “Anti-feature” has become a buzzword in midcore techie spaces itself, so I don’t know that extending “dark pattern” to (incorrectly) include every undesirable feature will ever take. Plus, what would you call actual dark patterns at that point?
But I can call it out before it evolves for being used incorrectly in a confusing manner. Particularly when used in a conversation regarding technical guidelines for age certification, or when calling for outright banning specific creative products out of concern for their impact on children, both of which seem to be very serious things that at the very least benefit from some precision about what exactly we’re talking about.
For video games, the definition on this site that catalogs them has become the common meaning.
https://www.darkpattern.games/
No it hasn’t. Some site not knowing their dark patterns from their anti-features (or deliberately mushing them both together for marketing purposes) doesn’t mean it’s not a misnomer.
I mean, I’m open to it becoming the new standard at some point. There is no coming back from the incorrect meaning of “metagame”, or at least of “meta”, so it’s no longer a misnomer.
But this? Nah, it’s gonna take a minute, if it ever happens. “Anti-feature” has become a buzzword in midcore techie spaces itself, so I don’t know that extending “dark pattern” to (incorrectly) include every undesirable feature will ever take. Plus, what would you call actual dark patterns at that point?
Lol you’re just wrong. Language evolves and you can’t stop it
I can’t.
But I can call it out before it evolves for being used incorrectly in a confusing manner. Particularly when used in a conversation regarding technical guidelines for age certification, or when calling for outright banning specific creative products out of concern for their impact on children, both of which seem to be very serious things that at the very least benefit from some precision about what exactly we’re talking about.