Enumerating Deceptive F2P Design Patterns.

Fun 2025 academic paper I stumbled across: enumerating ‘deceptive F2P design patterns.’ 🕵️‍♂️

“Over the last decade, the free-to-play (F2P) game business model has gained popularity in the games industry. We examine the role of deceptive design during a game’s transition to F2P and its impacts on players. Our analysis focuses on game mechanics and a Reddit analysis of the Overwatch (OW) series after it transitioned to an F2P model. Our study identifies nine game mechanics that use deceptive design patterns.” – Hilda Haden et al

“Deceptive designs are user interface design practices that trick users into doing things to benefit businesses. When used in games, such designs can cause negative player experiences, such as distorting their sense of time, swaying how much money they spend playing the game, and influencing their behaviour through psychological and emotional manipulation.”