Fake Games: On Dark and Deceptive Representations of Non-Actual Games

"Fake Games" examines non-actual games that are presented with the intent to make audiences believe they exist, distinguishing them from fictional games that are meant only to be imagined. The central claim is that whether a non-existent game counts as fake or fictional depends on its mode of presentation and context rather than on any intrinsic feature of the game itself. Drawing on examples ranging from a misleading The Last of Us Part II trailer to the Friends episode featuring the game Cups, the analysis situates fake games within a broader ecosystem of paraludic material such as guides and trailers and metaludic discussion such as forums and urban legends.

The analysis identifies two main categories. Darkly designed fake games aim to manipulate decisions, as with deceptive mobile game advertisements showing unsolvable or inconsistent puzzles, while deceptively designed ones aim to produce aesthetically valuable experiences. Examples include Undertale's deceptive EXP and LV mechanics. The Elden Ring subreddit's pretend-play illustrates how a playful fiction becomes fake only when readers mistake it for fact, and urban legends show that some fake games arise from trolling or entertainment rather than commercial manipulation.

The work also documents a fake-to-actual transition in advertising. Fake mobile "pull the pin" advertisements inspired a real playable game, Pull Him Out, and deceptive Merge Mansion ads containing story elements absent from the game were embraced by fans as canonical, eventually prompting developers to incorporate that content. A notable finding is the asymmetry in audience response: fake narrative elements are generally enjoyed, while fake gameplay elements provoke anger. The author attributes this discrepancy to differences in how players handle fictional inconsistency versus broken expectations about gameplay. The reference list draws on related scholarship, including Moradzadeh and Kou's mixed-methods study of fake games advertised on YouTube and Zagal et al.'s work on dark patterns in game design.