Dark Patterns in the Design of Games

Game designers are typically regarded as advocates for players. However, a game creator’s interests may not align with the players’. We examine some of the ways in which those opposed interests can manifest in a game’s design. In particular, we examine those elements of a game’s design whose purpose can be argued as questionable and perhaps even unethical. Building upon earlier work in design patterns, we call these abstracted elements Dark Game Design Patterns. In this paper, we develop the concept of dark design patterns in games, present examples of such patterns, explore some of the subtleties involved in identifying them, and provide questions that can be asked to help guide in the specification and identification of future Dark Patterns. Our goal is not to criticize creators but rather to contribute to an ongoing discussion regarding the values in games and the role that designers and creators have in this process

Psilolechia clavulifera, a Lichen Species New to Canada

Psilolechia clavulifera is reported as new to Canada, where it was been found growing under a shaded rock overhang near Temagami, Ontario. This is the first record of the species for Canada. This occurrence represents only the fourth documented record of the species for North America since it was first discovered in 1939 by J. Lowe. This specimen was found growing with other rarely collected cryptic species found in unique microhabitats: Psilolechia lucida, Protothelenella corrosa, and Microcalicium arenarium

Inter- and intra-plate deformation at North American plate boundaries

A geodetic network which spans the region between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe has been measured 5 times completely with triangulation in 1880, 1922, 1929, 1943, 1963. A resurvey with the Global Positioning System (GPS) in 1991 allows the formation of 1 coseismic and 4 interseismic epochs. The data from this network provide a unique opportunity to examine the temporal and spatial evolution of the strain field associated with the 1906 San Francisco earthquake in particular and with the Pacific-North American plate boundary in general. Calculations of strain rate from the network data lead to the following conclusions. (1) There is no resolvable (greater than 0.05 microradians/yr) strain in between Sutter Buttes and the Sierra Nevada. (2) Throughout the time since the 1906 earthquake, a region extending at least as far east as the westernmost Great Valley has been undergoing deformation related to Pac:Nam interaction and the associated earthquake cycle. (3) In the time and space of overlap, our results agree with those from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) trilateration data. Both data sets indicate that strain must be accumulating to the east of Vaca. (4) The San Andreas discrepancy cannot be accommodated in the Great Valley at the 1 sigma level of our results. It is possible to absorb it in that region at the 2 sigma level. (5) Strain rate is elevated in the years following the earthquake and decays slowly with time. It is possible that the rate in the Coast Ranges increases until around 1950 and then decays. With the exception of one epoch, strain rate in the Coast Ranges is consistently fault parallel, shows no sign changes, and is consistent with monotonic strain accumulation

Pushing NRQCD to the limit

Lattice NRQCD has proven successful in describing the physics of the upsilon system and B-mesons, though some concerns arise when it is used in simulations of charm quarks. It is certainly possible that the NRQCD expansion is not converging fast enough at this scale. We present some preliminary results on the low-mass breakdown of NRQCD, in particular the behaviour of heavy quarkonium and heavy-light meson spectra as the bare heavy quark mass is decreased well below 1, with the aim of understanding more about the manifestation of this breakdown.Comment: Lattice 99 submission, 3 Pages, 3 eps figure