A Longitudinal Analysis of Gamification in Untappd: Ethical Reflections on a Social Drinking Application
This paper presents a longitudinal ethical analysis of Untappd, a social drinking application that gamifies beer consumption through badges, streaks, and social sharing. Building on an exploratory study conducted in 2020, we revisit the platform in 2025 to examine how its gamification features and ethical framings have evolved. Drawing on traditional ethical theory and practical frameworks for Software Engineering, we analyze five categories of badges and their implications for user autonomy and well-being. Our findings show that, despite small adjustments and superficial disclaimers, many of the original ethical issues remain. We argue for continuous ethical reflection built embedded into software lifecycles to prevent the normalization of risky behaviors through design.
Sun 12 AprDisplayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change
11:00 - 12:30 | Session 2DSE at Oceania II Chair(s): Mohamad Kassab Boston University, Rui Rua New York University Abu Dhabi | ||
11:00 15mTalk | dAurora: A Prescriptive Solution based on AI to Shade Light on Dark Engineering of Fake News DSE Valdemar Graciano Neto Federal University of Goiás, Jacson Rodrigues Barbosa Institute of Informatics (INF) / Federal University of Goiás (UFG), Eliomar Araújo de Lima Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG) | ||
11:15 30mTalk | The Dark Art of Dopamine Engineering DSE Jukka Ruohonen University of Southern Denmark, Qusai Ramadan The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Adam Alami University of Southern Denmark | ||
11:45 30mTalk | A Longitudinal Analysis of Gamification in Untappd: Ethical Reflections on a Social Drinking Application DSE Jefferson Seide Molléri Simula Metropolitan Centre for Digital Engineering, Sami Hyrynsalmi LUT University, Antti Hakkala University of Turku, Kai K. Kimppa University of Turku, Jouni Smed University of Turku | ||
12:15 15mTalk | Patrones Oscuros: a Browser Extension for detecting Dark Patterns in Spanish DSE Julian Grigera LIFIA, UNLP, Leonardo Germán Loza Bonora LIFIA Fac. de Informática, UNLP / CONICET, Juan Cruz Gardey LIFIA Fac. de Informática, UNLP, Alejandra Garrido LIFIA, University of La Plata & CONICET, Argentina | ||