Dark Patterns

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What did Epic Games use to trick and influence users? How else is it used in e-commerce today?This week we talk about how companies get us to buy, try and spy on us. Dark Patterns are deceptive or manipulative design elements or interactions with the intention of tricking the user. Influencing purchases, engagement and privacy controls.

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This week the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is laying down one of the largest settlements in history charging Epic Games creator of Fortnite USD$520m.

The charges brought forward were two-part

1. $275m for collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 without parental consent and enabling voice chat for those users by default.

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) levies charges up to $43,280 per infraction. This is the largest settlement since 2019 when Youtube was hit with a $170m fine.

2. $245m for using 'Dark Patterns' to trick and influence users to make purchases. Of which will be paid as refunds to users that we're victims of these deceptive practices.

The latter is what we will be focusing on this week.

Overview of Dark Patterns

So what are Dark Patterns? Even if this is the first time you've heard of them, you've most certainly experienced the effects. Despite existing since 2010, it wasn't until 2021 that California defined legislation around dark patterns. Updating the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) with guidance around the use of the practice. Dark Patterns often influence the following- Buying a Product- Signing up / Closing a service - Disclosing personal information- Engagement It was coined by Harry Brignull a user experience (UX) designer and researcher, in 2010. Since then the concept of Dark Patterns has spread and efforts to regulate their use and education have increased.

Overview of Epic Games and Fortnite

Epic Games (Epic) really hit mainstream recognition with the rise of Fortnite and the release of the Epic Game Store but it's been an essential part of gaming culture since it was founded in 1991. In video game development there are 2 main engines that power most games. Unreal Engine is owned by Epic and Unity Engine from Unity Technologies.

Fortnite was launched in July 2017, leading the battle royal format in gaming. It has around ~80m monthly active users and over 4 million daily active players. Revealed through Epic's ongoing lawsuit with Apple we know that Fortnite made $9b in revenue in the 2018-2019 period.

Epic has raised $6.4b to date and remains private, having recently raised $2b in May this year led by Sony and KIRKBI (owners of Lego).  

Common Examples

Forced Continuity

Hidden costs have been used extensively by streaming services over the years. As they drew more attention they scaled back the efforts due to some of the negative sentiment it was bringing. When you go on Disney Plus, Stan, or Hulu you get greeted with a free trial with no other way to sign-up, forcing you to commit your card information.  

Then in small font, they will say, your card will automatically be charged after the trial has been completed.Epic Games also used this extensively by pre-saving credit card information on servers and allowing the purchase of vbucks and items in the game without a confirmation screen.

Bait and switch

This is a large aspect of what epic was charged in this FTC lawsuit. Bait and switch occur when users expect an action to do one thing but instead, it does another. The FTC says Epic used Dark Patterns and counterintuitive design for some actions in the games purchase screens. For example, switching the preview and purchase buttons from 🅧 (x) & ◾️ (square) depending on the game state. So players that just had the intention of previewing items were instead purchasing them with V-bucks Fortnite's in-game currency that is bought with Fiat. Another thing Fortnite does is place the preview and purchase buttons extremely close together on Mobile.

Roach Motel

This one is named after the trap that makes it extremely easy to sign up for a service but hard to leave. Epic was also charged for this by hiding the ability to refund purchases which is in their Terms and Conditions behind multiple screens and complicated "refund tickets".

It's become very much a meme that subscribing to the Wall Street Journal or New York Times is rocket science these days.

Hidden Costs

The best example of this in the modern-day purchasing stack is Airbnb. Ever click on a listing that you thought was perfect and affordable to be hit with an additional $300 cleaning fee, then after purchasing receive a .pdf asking you to remove the sheets, wash them and vacuum before you leave? Yeah... a dark pattern.

After many years of frustration though they are finally implementing a fix to this dark pattern and displaying full price upfront.

Trick Questions

This dark pattern tricks you into answering a question. Either by pre-checking a box or switching a box that one would assume says another thing like opting into a service. This is sometimes combined with Bait and switch. Netflix has used this to automatically opt-in users to email spam.

Sneak into basket

This is a Dark Pattern you'll often find in e-commerce, especially in the travel industry and domain space. Where they will try and opt you into purchasing extra insurance or add-ons that are not essential to your purchase.  

Price Comparison Prevention

Less commonly used today, but pretty self-explanatory. This dark pattern shows you different tiers or plans for a service without fully highlighting the benefits of each tier.

LinkedIn uses this dark pattern when comparing plans without actually showcasing how they are different or the true cost of each tier.

Summary

Over the years several other dark patterns have been used and invented. Misdirection, Privacy Zuckering and Disguised Ads.

The common theme behind dark patterns however is they often don't last. The negative sentiment that gets built around them forces a company to take a more ethical approach. Friction is a large point when it comes to design reducing friction as much as possible is often a driving principle however, confirmation and consent is also important part of the decision-making process. Epic didn't give people that confirmation prompt. Resulting in kids racking up hundreds of dollars on their parents' cards.

Web3

Why is this important for web3? UX is still one of the biggest friction points of onboarding new users in web3. Complicated wallet messages, confirmations and bridging to use current apps lead to loss of funds, confusion and hassle.

It needs to improve. What we can't let it do is bypass the checks and balances when people are in control of their own assets. Emerging markets and technology are dangerous waters, and ensuring users are crossing the Styx safely is as important as the technology itself.  

If you want to learn more about design thinking in web3 for trust & safety check out this article in hackernoon from Ryan Cordell published this article in 2019 which still remains relevant today.

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