Complicity

The Concept

Complicity is a game-based study that investigates how taking on different roles, the "Victim" or the "Exploiter", shapes a person’s understanding of exploitative design. While most research views Dark Patterns from the user's perspective, this project asks a different question: Does acting as the architect of manipulation create a deeper level of awareness than simply being its target?

The Dual-Perspective Gameplay

The project features a mirrored quest system where the core mechanics are identical, but the framing changes entirely based on your assigned role:

• The Victim Path: Players navigate through a series of mundane task where they encounter various dark patterns.
• The Exploiter Path: Players act as the designer, actively configuring and deploying the same deceptive interfaces to meet "HQ" goals.

Research Goal

The thesis aims to discover if the "Exploiter" role leads to a deeper, more durable awareness of dark patterns compared to traditional victim-side learning. By forcing players to engage with the logic of manipulation, the study explores whether active complicity fosters a more critical eye toward real-world digital systems.