I get it. You’re in games publishing, and you’re tired of being demonized for just doing your job. Like journalists, YouTubers and redditors, you grew up on Nintendo consoles, and arrived in your current place because you were passionate about Mario, Link, and Smash Bros.

When you were just a player, you’d get into console war discussions, and things could get heated, but it wasn’t like social media discourse is today. Now, gaming is often tied to identity. Gamers want things the way they’ve always been. Meanwhile, your bosses want you to maximize revenue, and your ability to hit key performance indicators defines the size of your annual raise.

Nobody has ever complained when a game didn’t sell premium currency bundles or loot boxes. In fact, saying a game doesn’t have these things now get publishers claps and cheers from players.

You get that. You are adding stuff that people would greatly prefer didn’t exist. Frankly, you don’t like microtransactions, either, and personally stopped spending money on them years ago. But in-game cash shops still persist, and their offerings have only gotten more expensive.

And yet you can’t speak out! It’d feel so good to tap that “X” button on your phone, and let the world know that you’re with them on hating aggressive monetization. But doing that would surely get you fired. Even if it didn’t, it might make it harder down the line to get through the vetting process of HR teams when you’re looking for new jobs.

The options to dress up your character with real money feels tacky and greedy when you look at how games like Super Mario Odyssey or Spider-Man 2 manage the process: awesome costumes, all unlockable for free-in-game, at a pace that’s meant to excite, not break your spirit. It’s a better way to do these things. You’ve suggested in the past that the product managers should consider this approach – but that conversation has never gone anywhere, and you’re always reminded that people need to get paid – including you.

And if it was just about snagging a few extra bucks here and there, you could live with that. But you’ve been asked to trick people into spending thousands of dollars in your game, every year, when they thought they were getting everything for $70. And your bosses know that asking players for thousands of dollars up-front won’t work, so they’ve taught you how to hide the pricing through selling proprietary currencies and loot boxes. It’s considered a best practice to use dark patterns against players, and to get them to spend far more than they ever intended to. And doing that has slowly been burning a hole in your soul.

You’ve been doing this with the same people for years, and it’s always felt borderline forbidden to talk about how your work might be construed as price gouging. One guy at the office casually compared your game’s loot box sales to gambling two years ago, but after being overheard by the wrong person, he never described the mechanic that way again. He even corrected someone else who used the “G” word.

The company line is “personal responsibility”. Those two words are supposed to solve everything. To shield the whole team from any guilt. It’s on the customers themselves to keep from overspending. Yes, you’re taking a data-driven approach to breaking down a player’s defenses, but still… it’s their fault, not yours. Your team is using techniques designed to pressure and confuse… but don’t worry, if a customer actually falls for your schemes, it’s their fault. They can’t expect you not to try and trick them, can they?

That canard actually put you at ease the first time you heard it. But in the end, you know it’s nonsense. The truth is painful, but you are deploying techniques that hurt people. “Personal responsibility”doesn’t cover it. That’s not a reasonable position.

Chris Lewis’ book “Irresistible Apps”was the real eye-opener for me. I’d heard of dark patterns – this is how they are defined in Wikipedia:

But it took reading Chris’ book to understand that the in-game monetization techniques that were making me feel so uneasy also fell into the dark pattern bucket:

It’s a bitter pill to realize that you’ve been using dark patterns on people. But once you see it, you can take steps to move past that. But the first step is a doozy; it’ll force you to ask yourself tough questions about your own future.

Most likely, you’ll want to keep working in games. You probably won’t want to start your career from scratch, and besides, games are what you love. But there are almost no publishers who will hire you if you make clear that you won’t use dark patterns in your work.

So what can you do?

First off, know that you aren’t alone. A lot of people in the games industry are upset that they’ve been asked to use dark patterns in their work. You don’t hear people say much about it due to a fear of getting blackballed for stating the obvious: that it’s wrong to use dark patterns.

Second, be patient. Nobody would expect you to quit on the spot. Getting out of using dark patterns altogether can take time. In the meantime, make sure you are honest with yourself and your family. Accept what you are doing is not victimless, even if others in your company cannot. If somebody is a card dealer, or a bartender, they know they’re participating in a business that hurts people. They aren’t kidding themselves – or their family members. You have to take personal responsibility. Never push that responsibility on the players, and don’t delude yourself or others into thinking that dark patterns are ok.

There are some publishers that do distribute games without any dark patterns. Devolver Digital comes to mind, as does Apple Arcade. Those are opportunities. So if your life’s mission is to stay in publishing while leaving dark patterns behind, it’s not impossible. Difficult, but not impossible.

Another path is to focus on publishing for all-new platforms, which are still building a gaming ecosystem. Whale hunting requires a big audience. New platforms – like VR – have audiences that are too small or make those dark patterns work.

If you are ok with leaving publishing, but also want to stay in the field, remember that there are a lot of roles that live alongside the games industry, that support it without actually being reliant on business models with dark patterns baked in. Media. Hardware. Technology.

A career shift is challenging, and if you’re not ready to do that, there are still things you can do.

Ensuring players are aware of dark patterns is key. If you have close family members – a spouse, a parent, a sibling – that overlaps your social media presence, you can ask them to post articles that might get you in hot water if you posted them personally. Feeds from content creators like James Stephanie Sterling, Skill Up, Bellular News, and Yong Yea can help parents and vulnerable players better understand what to be wary of in games.

If you are in the hiring loop at a game company, you can lean towards candidates that love games, and away from candidates that don’t know much about the medium. Where possible, focus on candidates that recognize the medium as an art form first.

Keep a journal. When you eventually leave the industry, you’ll be able help everybody by telling your story honestly, without fear that doing so will make you unemployable.

As a customer, commit to never buying premium currency bundles in games. Don’t allow your kids to buy currency bundles. Discourage friends and extended family from buying those bundles.

When games you love are using dark patterns, write a note to the company. It can be anonymous. But let them know that you’re disappointed that the company is not treating you with the respect you deserve.

Finally, let your voice be heard in Metacritic user reviews, IGN user reviews, YouTube comments, and elsewhere. If you hit a nerve, others will jump in and amplify your note. This is not about ‘review bombing’ – be polite, and specific about what you find alienating. But you’ll often find that there is a community manager that will actually see that note, and will add it to a list that goes to the development team.

Finally, in a professional capacity, you can help let others know it’s ok to speak out against dark patterns by doing so yourself.