Dark Patterns, Online Gaming, and the Pocket Panopticon

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Daily login rewards are routine in varied cell hits resembling BGMI and Free Fire. Log in every day, acquire a bonus, preserve the streak — and a missed day can reset progress. In a predominantly mobile-first market, that is the pocket panopticon: a cellphone that nudges behaviour by means of notifications and timed rewards. The time period panopticon comes from Jeremy Bentham’s 18th-century prison design, later developed by Michel Foucault to explain methods by which behaviour is formed not by means of power, however by means of steady cues, surveillance, and self-regulation. In the cell period, the watchtower might now be within the pocket, with notifications, timed rewards, and loss-framed incentives imperceptibly structuring routines.

The Economic Survey 2025-26 notes that web connections rose from 25.15 crore in 2014 to 101.8 crore by September 2025, and that 89.1 p.c of households now personal no less than one smartphone. Among 15- to 29-year-olds, cell and web use are near common. Online gaming sits inside an always-on bundle, delivered by means of software (app) shops and push alerts, made frictionless by Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-enabled one-tap funds. The Survey places gaming revenues at round INR 232 billion in 2024, with development pushed largely by cell platforms and digital funds. Industry estimates put India’s gamer base at round 568 million in FY23, underscoring how large the publicity is.

In on-line gaming, these ‘dark patterns’ embrace day by day rewards and streaks, pay-to-skip timers, premium currencies that obscure actual costs, limited-time shortage, reward adverts, and guild obligations. While latest regulatory motion has centered largely on real-money gaming and monetary threat, the Survey is express that digital hurt extends effectively past playing.

The deaths by suicide of three sisters in Ghaziabad in February 2026, now below investigation amid reporting that has repeatedly invoked on-line gaming habits alongside broader misery, have heightened public nervousness. The debate on on-line gaming mustn’t, nevertheless, default to the often-advocated method of blanket bans or ethical panic. Instead, it ought to deal with ‘dark patterns’ — which India’s client regulator defines as deceptive designs that impair autonomy and trick users into unintended selections — and on how these mechanics can amplify vulnerability and hurt.

In on-line gaming, these ‘dark patterns’ embrace day by day rewards and streaks, pay-to-skip timers, premium currencies that obscure actual costs, limited-time shortage, reward adverts, and guild obligations. While latest regulatory motion has centered largely on real-money gaming and monetary threat, the Survey is express that digital hurt extends effectively past playing. It requires broader public well being responses, together with school-based digital literacy, parental steering, Tele-MANAS, specialised clinics such as NIMHANS’s SHUT programme, and more healthy defaults throughout digital platforms.

Persuasive Design Turns Online Gaming into Pressure

The debate in India about gaming hurt typically narrows to real-money gaming and playing, captured in essentially the most dramatic headlines. That focus is comprehensible. It can be incomplete, as a result of it leaves out a extra on a regular basis design downside. Many of the methods that gas compulsive play and impulsive spending sit inside bizarre free-to-play cell video games as effectively, not simply in fringe betting apps. The actual query is whether or not sure interface and reward selections are steering customers in direction of behaviours they didn’t got down to undertake. Not each function offered under in Table 1 is inherently a darkish sample, however every can change into one when it depends on opacity, coercion, or manufactured friction, and collectively they present how on-line video games could make disengagement tougher.

Table 1: Engagement and Monetisation Mechanics which will change into Dark Patterns

Theme	What It Looks Like	What The Mechanic Does
Time and Attention	Daily login rewards; streak mechanics; vitality methods or time gates; rewarded ads	Encourages return visits; penalises breaks by means of resets and loss-framed progress; introduces ready after which sells reduction by nudging customers into loops, making consideration really feel like forex.
While none of those mechanics is inherently unethical, their accumulation can scale back person autonomy and enhance time spent in methods related to behavioural well being dangers.
Monetisation Patterns	Premium in-game currencies; random merchandise drops; chance-based crafting	Obscures real-world costs; limited-time presents create synthetic urgency; and pay-to-win design creates spending strain.
‘Gacha’ and Loot-Box-Like Design	Paid “pulls” for fascinating characters or gadgets	Resembles loot-boxes. Although typically not legally categorised as playing, these methods operate in gambling-like methods as a result of fee buys an opportunity slightly than a predictable product.
Spending	‘Whales’	A small minority of excessive spenders can account for a big share of income, sharing traits related to problematic gaming, and elevating questions on enterprise fashions that depend on escalation amongst weak customers.
Large survey research hyperlink loot-box spending with downside playing severity; a assessment hyperlinks microtransaction engagement with gaming dysfunction and playing dysfunction, with loot-boxes showing to pose a better habit threat than different microtransactions.
Social Design Patterns	Guilds; clans; crew occasions	Can foster real group, however might remodel social bonds into obligation by means of scheduled raids.
Social Acquisition Patterns	Referral ladders; invite rewards	Converts gamers into acquisition channels.
Social Psychology	Metaperception considerations	Evidence suggests givers fear about how the motivation makes them look to receivers, shaping what they share and the way they share it; described as smooth coercion leaning on social ties and standing, potent for adolescents and younger adults.
Lock-In	Sunk-cost results; progress framing	Long development arcs, collectable units, and near-complete bars can preserve customers chasing closure.
Casino-Adjacent Presentation	Randomised reward presentation in Gacha methods	Near misses, animated reveals, and rotating banners heighten the urge to attempt simply as soon as extra.

Source: Compiled by the Author from a number of references > Whales, FOMO, Referral Rewards, Microtransactions, Gacha, Loot-Boxes, MMORPGs, Dark Patterns

The United Kingdom (UK) Government’s evidence process on loot-boxes captures the policy tension, with debate over whether or not they meet authorized exams for playing, whilst considerations about hurt and client safety stay. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission’s action against Epic Games over Fortnite points additionally highlights how regulators are starting to deal with manipulative interface design and undesirable in-game expenses as client safety points slightly than merely parenting issues.

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission’s motion in opposition to Epic Games over Fortnite factors additionally highlights how regulators are starting to deal with manipulative interface design and undesirable in-game expenses as client safety points slightly than merely parenting issues.

These design levers should not distinctive to video games. The similar household of techniques will be seen in infinite-scroll social media feeds, autoplay options, and streak-driven engagement loops. Naming them issues as a result of it provides regulators one thing concrete to behave on. India can then transfer past a pendulum swing between bans and laissez-faire approaches, and in direction of focused guardrails that shield autonomy and psychological well-being with out treating play itself because the enemy.

Protecting Wellbeing Without Demonising Play

India’s on-line gaming debate has been pulled between two instincts. One is prohibition, often triggered by a disaster headline. The different is complacency, justified by the concept that gaming is ‘just entertainment’. Both miss what the Economic Survey is attempting to reframe: that India has largely solved for entry and now wants to unravel for behavioural well being and digital hygiene. The proper coverage response is due to this fact neither blanket bans nor a slim fixation on real-money video games. It is a public well being and client safety agenda that makes manipulation tougher.

1. Regulating design

India ought to explicitly deal with darkish patterns in video games as a client safety subject. This would shift the goal from “gaming” as a tradition to particular mechanics that degrade autonomy.

2. Extending safeguards past on-line cash video games

India’s latest regulatory motion has centred on monetary harm and wagering-style formats. However, the compulsion mechanics that drive sleep loss and misery additionally sit inside mainstream free-to-play video games. The subsequent step must be a gaming-specific steering word that applies to all on-line video games distributed in India, not solely cash video games, setting minimal requirements on darkish patterns which are unacceptable for minors and high-risk for all customers.

3. Borrowing China’s design perimeter, however not its surveillance mannequin

China’s approach reveals that states can push platforms to change mechanics inside their jurisdiction, however its laborious time caps for minors depend on intrusive enforcement. India mustn’t import that playbook. What is beneficial is the precept of specializing in inducement and retention mechanics. China’s regulatory route has signalled constraints on incentives resembling day by day login rewards and repeated recharge inducements. India can implement related design guardrails by means of client safety guidelines and app retailer compliance with out constructing a surveillance-heavy structure.

4. Mandating transparency

Randomised monetisation shouldn’t be allowed to cover behind premium currencies and ambiguous odds. India ought to require likelihood disclosures for gacha– or loot-box-style methods, clear rupee equivalents, spend dashboards, and cooling-off friction for repeated late-night purchases.

5. Making digital hygiene a college life talent

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020’s emphasis on holistic improvement and wellbeing gives a legit coverage dwelling for a sensible curriculum on persuasive design and behavior loops, slightly than moralising. Schools can use easy, commonplace prompts and brief modules modelled on public well being communication to elucidate streak mechanics, FOMO (worry of lacking out) occasions, gacha odds, and autoplay options, in addition to why sleep and a focus are foundational well being inputs.

6. Building help-seeking pathways

When gaming turns into dangerous, the response pathway ought to resemble every other behavioural well being intervention, comprising early identification, counselling, and accessible assist. The World Health Organisation’s ICD-11 classification frames ‘gaming disorder’ round impaired management, prioritisation, and continuation regardless of unfavourable penalties, with purposeful impairment because the diagnostic threshold. India ought to scale and normalise providers already cited by the Survey, together with Tele-MANAS, and join them to varsities and first care referral methods.

Schools can use easy, commonplace prompts and brief modules modelled on public well being communication to elucidate streak mechanics, FOMO (worry of lacking out) occasions, gacha odds, and autoplay options, in addition to why sleep and a focus are foundational well being inputs.

India is simply too massive, well-connected, and too digitally adept for bans to be the default response. A rights-respecting coverage package deal ought to as a substitute make on-line gaming simpler to exit, tougher to overspend on, and safer to make use of, whereas guaranteeing that when play ideas into misery, assistance is accessible. That can be the distinction between regulating a product class and constructing a public well being response for the pocket panopticon.

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Ok. S. Uplabdh Gopal is an Associate Fellow with the Health Initiative on the Observer Research Foundation.

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