There was a post the other day about dark patterns that linked to a website that I felt did a terrible job presenting dark patterns. My main fear was that such information risked creating a moral panic that could encourage bullying people who enjoyed certain types of games.

In this video, Chris Wilson, former director of Path of Exile, speaks in depth on dark patterns. In the latter half of the video, he makes some clear distinctions about game systems versus meta systems, and how dark patterns manifest. I believe such distinctions are very important when making such moral judgements about video games.

The entire thing is worth watching, but some of her concluding thoughts:

And the truth is [...] As with all modern famines and all genocides, what this boils down to right now is a very small group of people in positions of power needing to make different choices, basically needing to be different people, which won't happen. So the reality is there is not much we can do. But I do not want that to be mistaken for saying that we should not do what we can.

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Second, I don't think constant international attention, the increasing international attention is doing nothing. The fact that focus has stayed on this issue in the news could make the difference in saving a lot of lives. In the words of one Holocaust survivor:

Today's marches are having a very hopeful aspect. It is so large, so persistent, so global, that eventually the Western leadership, which are trying to deny what is actually going on, will be forced to face up to it. And I think we are not far from that.

[...]

I am personally exhausted that the fact that this even is a controversy in the first place, that we here in the US are in the position of having to claw back rights that most of us took for granted our whole lives, but it must be done. We can't do everything, but we must do what we can.