“Wow another fake game from YouTube ad”: Unpacking Fake Games Through a Mixed-Methods Investigation

Mobile games have become highly popular and profitable. While much work has been done to understand deceptive patterns of games and some unethical practices they apply, little is known about fake games, an emergent phenomenon in mobile gaming. To answer this question, we conducted two studies: a walkthrough method to characterize fake games, and a thematic analysis of user reviews to gain understanding from the user perspective. We found five types of misalignments that render a game fake and identified four primary facets of player experience with fake games. These misalignments act as realization points in the users’ decision-making to define games as being fake. We discuss the fakeness of fake games, how the formation of an ecosystem helps with the circulation of fakeness, as well as challenges to governing fake games. Lastly, we propose implications for research and design on how to mitigate and identify fake games.