dark patterns
Blizzard promises a fix for Diablo IV’s season battle pass ‘dark pattern’ after widespread player complaints
Among the many complaints that players are leveraging against Diablo IV, one of them is arguably far more serious than class nerfs: a bit...
FTC finalizes fine for Fortnite’s dark patterns as Epic talks up NFT ‘games’ on EGS
Usually when people says things are going "pretty well," your first sympathetic instinct is to ask about what might be troubling them; those words...
Canadian court rules lockboxes aren’t illegal gambling, ‘deceptive acts’ suit continues
Back in October 2020, we reported on a class action lawsuit filed in Canada against EA that covered over 70 different titles that used...
EU Parliament adopts resolution to regulate games industry harms from lockboxes to manipulative design
Call them lockboxes, lootboxes, gambleboxes, or gachapon: The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution "ensuring a safe online environment for online...
FTC orders Epic Games to pay $520M for privacy violations and deceptive ‘dark patterns’ in Fortnite
Epic Games has just received a walloping from the US Federal Trade Commission in the form of two massive payout settlements for violating the...
Danish Center for Gambling Addiction warns parents about Diablo Immortal’s monetization tricks
The monetization model for mobile ARPG Diablo Immortal made plenty of headlines leading up to and during its launch. The costs of capping out...
Diablo Immortal players uncover a ‘hidden’ third form of legendary crest lootbox
It's already been well documented that Diablo Immortal's monetization is off the wall, whaling players for as much as $50K-$80K to earn best-in-slot -...
Kids MMO developer Age of Learning must pay the FTC $10M to settle ‘dark patterns’ complaint
The US Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on the purveyor of kids game ABCMouse this week, having alleged that the company "made misrepresentations...
The Daily Grind: What’s the most annoying ‘dark pattern’ in MMO gaming?
I've been kind of obsessed with dark patterns - that is, intentionally deceptive or annoying interface design - for kind of a while now,...
