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skilliard7 t1_jcfkige wrote

Reply to comment by cwesttheperson in FTC Finalizes Order Requiring Fortnite maker Epic Games to Pay $245 Million for Tricking Users into Making Unwanted Charges by redbellx86

Dark patterns are essentially a form of user interface design where you make the buttons you want the user to press more prominent than buttons you don't want them to press. For example the "buy now" button will be big and bright in the center, whereas the "no thanks" button would be in the corner and small in a less eye-catching color. The idea is users generally take the path of least resistance, so you can manipulate behavior by making it easier for the user to spend money.

In the case of Fortnite though, I'm not sure what in their interface is a dark pattern, I find it pretty clear that I'll be charged. But it's possible they may have changed it in response to the lawsuit before I started playing. Or maybe kids were just playing dumb to avoid getting in trouble for impulsively charging their parents cards. "I didn't know I was spending money!"

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PizzaPeePee t1_jcfttod wrote

They changed it. But before iirc one of the things was that opening a item preview on console and purchasing the item are the same button, so if the ui is slow and you double tap X you might have bought something. With also no option for a refund and banning accounts if players or parents of players did chargebacks on their payment method

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guri256 t1_jcgdi0e wrote

This is partly true, but kind of misses the point. Pushing users towards the path you want isn’t bad. If the options are “Wipe my Hard Drive” and “Nevermind” it might be good to put up enough roadblocks that the user needs to think to get through.

A “dark pattern” is when you are being evil/deceptive by pushing or tricking users into doing something they probably don’t want to do or is against their interest.

Of course this definition would include almost every single EULA. Those don’t count though, because corporate lawyers are very good at their job.

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