Definition: A gaming dark pattern is something that is deliberately added to a game to cause an unwanted negative experience for the player with a positive outcome for the game developer.
Learned about it from another lemmy user! it’s a newer website, so not every game has a rating, but it’s already super helpful and I intend to add ratings as I can!
While as an adult I think it’ll probably be helpful to find games that are just games and not trying to bait whales, I feel like it’s even more helpful for parents.
Making sure the game your kids want to play is free of traps like accidental purchases and starting chain emails with invites I think makes it worth its weight in gold.
EDIT: Some folks seem to be concerned with some specific items that it looks for, but I’ve been thinking of it like this:
1 mechanic is a thread, multiple together form a pattern. It’s why they’ll still have a high score even if they have a handful of the items listed.
Like random loot from a boss can be real fun! But when it’s combined with time gates, pay to skip, grinding, and loot boxes… we all know exactly what it is trying to accomplish. They don’t want you to actually redo the dungeon 100 times. They want you to buy 100 loot boxes.
Guilds where you screw over your friends if you don’t play for a couple days because your guild can’t compete and earn the rewards they want if even a single player isn’t playing every single day? Yeah, we know what it’s about. But guilds where it’s all very chill and optional? Completely fine.
Games that throw in secret bots without telling you to make you think you’re good at the game combined with a leader board and infinite treadmill, so you sit there playing the game not wanting to give up your “top spot”? I see you stupid IO games.
But also, information is power to the consumer.
Back in uni, most of these dark patterns were taught as “game design fundamentals”.
Now as I work on my indie games, I avoid using what I learned in uni.
Game design all boils down to “is it fun?” and anything else is bullshit sales tactics.
I wish the site also focused on real games, and not just mobile games.
I think the focus on mobile is due to the fact that very few people would choose to make a fun game on mobile unless they were deliberately chasing money. Indie devs don’t want to use and make customers use an inferior device with more hoops to jump through. Publishing for PC is easy, publishing for Console has a higher bar to clear for quality. Publishing for mobile is more difficult than PC and makes it more difficult to build a quality game, so the majority of mobile games are unrewarding trash so the only incentive to make them is pure monetization.
Also because the install base for mobile devices is just about everyone everywhere, and yes, a fair amount of people, particularly young people, would much rather play something on their phone than a PC or even console.
The difference in potential customer base is orders of magnitude larger.
grinding
glances at my 300 hours of OldSchool Runescape
You should try a healthier hobby, like heroin.
Literally just found out yesterday my wife has been spending on average 100$ a month on one of these games yesterday, thanks for the helpful site.
Now I guess I get to figure out how to have conversations with her that I never thought I’d have to have.
Oh no! That’s so annoying, maybe can help her quit by finding a better version of the game.
Like stupid match 3/candy crush trash has a million free clones.
Thanks for the advice. I’m honestly trying to wrap my head around the appeal or what it does for her. The app is called Gold and Goblins, and it’s an idle game. I’ve never understood idle games as a genre but I want to try to come from an understanding place. I’m a PC gamer myself (factorio currently) and I’m used to paying once for a game and being able to play forever.
I mean I have my own problems as well, my addictions are caffeine and nicotine. So I’m definitely not a saint. But it’s hard to talk to her about it when she pulls the whataboutism on my vices. I get it, my stuff is wasted money as well. I just don’t really see it as the same thing, Noone is compelling me with a time limited event or something to get me to smoke more.
Edit: I’m also actively quitting both my vices, while hers are getting worse. I just worry so much about how it’s affecting her and her mental health.
Do you have a “vices” budget? Maybe that’s one approach. You both get $100 or whatever and she blows hers on mobile games, while you’re cutting back and have money for other things.
It’s sad that the most unhealthy games are the ones ranked as most played on the google play store 😮💨
It’s not sad, there is a direct connection.
They are the top games because of the psychological manipulation being successful.
I mean… It’s also sad
Tbf, last time I checked the site it had stuff like ”random loot” listed as a dark pattern. Gacha sucks, but random loot from a boss is IMO valid game design.
There’s a spectrum, but if I were to map all and every dark pattern, random loot surely qualifies.
If a fight is compelling it has its own reward, random drop chances (especially abysmal drop-rate) will have you mindlessly repeating it no matter the quality of the boss design.
Boss fights definitely, your sentiment reminds me of Warframe. Don’t miss farming bosses. However, there are a lot of ways randomized loot can be implemented, and I wouldn’t call all of them dark patterns
I like the strategy most Terraria bosses go for: You always get something good, it just might not be exactly what you’d wanted in that exact moment, but the re-spec to use it effectively will be pretty easy.