Illusion of Control
The game cheats or hides information to make you think you're better than you actually are.
Games may make you think that you are getting better and better, when in reality you are just unlocking better tools inside the game. Perhaps the game doesn't even have a component of skill at all and it just makes you feel like you have some amount control over the outcome. If a game is doing this, it is trying to make you feel like your apparent skill is greater than your actual skill.
For example, a claw machine doesn't always grab at full force, it cheats and makes it impossible to grab an item until it decides it's time to give a prize. This makes you feel like you did a good job at aiming the claw and that you are getting better, even though it's random chance.
Another way that games manipulate information to make you feel more skilled than you actually are is by grouping players into isolated worlds. These are sometimes called "shards". In a competitive game with a single leaderboard, it would be very discouraging to have a rank of 124,204. Instead, what games do is they break people up into tiny groups or shards. Maybe only a few thousand people per shard, and you only compete with those people. Your rank may be 283 which sounds a lot better. Being the 283rd best player in the world is pretty encouraging, but the game doesn't tell you that you are only competing against a small percentage of the players. This makes you feel like you are more skilled than you actually are.
Games may also randomize the difficulty of the game to make it more interesting. This is why you may get an easy level immediately following a difficult level. If the difficulty secretly becomes easier, you may feel like your skill has increased when it really hasn't and this feeling of control may get you to play the game more often.
For example, a claw machine doesn't always grab at full force, it cheats and makes it impossible to grab an item until it decides it's time to give a prize. This makes you feel like you did a good job at aiming the claw and that you are getting better, even though it's random chance.
Another way that games manipulate information to make you feel more skilled than you actually are is by grouping players into isolated worlds. These are sometimes called "shards". In a competitive game with a single leaderboard, it would be very discouraging to have a rank of 124,204. Instead, what games do is they break people up into tiny groups or shards. Maybe only a few thousand people per shard, and you only compete with those people. Your rank may be 283 which sounds a lot better. Being the 283rd best player in the world is pretty encouraging, but the game doesn't tell you that you are only competing against a small percentage of the players. This makes you feel like you are more skilled than you actually are.
Games may also randomize the difficulty of the game to make it more interesting. This is why you may get an easy level immediately following a difficult level. If the difficulty secretly becomes easier, you may feel like your skill has increased when it really hasn't and this feeling of control may get you to play the game more often.
Examples
Arcaea"Potential scores and especially rhythm games skill, which is not common and make you feel like better than anyone else."
SimCity BuildIt"the game often puts my clan against weaker clans to boost confidence only to get matched against an obviously higher level team only to advertise in-app purchases"
Block Blast-Block Puzzle Games"Yeah with a constant "good" or "great" satisfying voces to keep you playing"
Weed Inc: Idle Tycoon"Leaderboards in events are selected out of a small handful of players, making you feel more rewarded and special within events."
Bad Piggies HD"Sometimes that when you're on a "Cake Race" there's no how it works in the cups. it searches you for a match that is better than you on lower cups. no matter how advanced you are in the bigger cups."
Fire Emblem Heroes"Standard grading system for players to add arbitrary push-pull, stronger players will go up, face stronger players, spend more, so on, so forth"
Bubble Rainbow - Shoot & Pop"Easy levels, constant compliments"
Disney Sorcerer's Arena"Bots in PvP gamemodes"
Cat Mario Run"this game doesnt exist"
Dead by Daylight Mobile"The game uses an emblem system with colours and numbers (Ash rank being the bottom and red rank being the top roster of players). This by no means is an indicator of skill, as luck, skill and map RNG play a huge part in matches to level up your emblem rating. Some players tend to use these ranks as indication of a players' skill."