MCP 2024 - Whack-A-Button

Course: Media Computing Project 2024

In the future, there are humans and humanoid robots, which are indistinguishable from humans by looks only. The robots control the world due to their superior abilities, such as intelligence, advanced collaboration and rationality. Since they feel as the superior species, as the next step in evolution, they want to get rid of the remaining human population.

Nevertheless, some humans were able to live undercover as “robots” . To single out these remaining human beings, a series of tests, the deceptive dungeon, was developed. It includes dark patterns, which historically tricked humans in their decision-making. Our project, Whack-a-Button, is one of these tests in the story to assess robots’ ability to relate words to images.

Whack-a-Button asks the players to relate words displayed in the game to images that are printed onto buttons. At each round, players should press the corresponding buttons.

Our game contains and uses several Dark Patterns:

Interface Interference: We aim to confuse the players by lighting up (most of the cases) incorrect buttons.
Misdirection: We distract the players by incorporating misleading sounds that divert attention from the correct buttons.
Obstruction - Adding Steps: The players have to press the “Save” button to keep their points after each round. This is an extra, unnecessary step.
Hidden Information: We hid the "Save" button to the left side of the box. The button is not seen at the first look and the information that the users have to save the points is not directly given. The players can notice this during the game, as the earned points will disappear when moved to the next round. Otherwise, only some cues are given in rounds 5, 10 and 15 to imply the existence of the “Save” button.
Fake Urgency: We aim to create a sense of urgency with a fake countdown timer that lasts for five seconds for each round.

An AI wouldn't be tricked by these techniques (at least in the scenario), a human possibly would. Aren’t such failures the qualities that make us human after all? Yet, the players should try to not be tricked by these patterns, as their life will depend on it!