Comment by p1necone
10 hours ago
Yeah I think this clarifies the core issue with this kind of thinking (imo).
The venn diagram between 'mechanics that make games fun' and 'dark patterns' (as described by this site) is basically a circle. The important thing isn't the patterns themselves, it's that they're used to make you spend money on microtransactions.
Looking at just the mechanics divorced of any context of the surrounding business/marketing/monetization is missing the point.
> The venn diagram between 'mechanics that make games fun' and 'dark patterns' (as described by this site) is basically a circle.
I don't really think Daily Rewards are a fun mechanic. Nor is Friend Spam, and Social Pyramid Scheme is rarely fun either.
3/16 is not great. All good bullshit is wrapped around a grain of truth, this website might be more useful if they just concentrated on the things are dark patterns regardless of context.
Most of the dark patterns are not fun. The "psychological dark patterns" are, to some healthy degree.