King of Dragon Pass

3.09
Good
Price: $5.99
Ads: Unknown
In App Purchases: Unknown

iOS App Store

Temporal Dark PatternsTemporal Dark Patterns

This game has 1 reported Temporal Dark Patterns. There are 6 votes indicating the absence of a dark pattern.

2.62

1 votes
Infinite Treadmill -
1 / 0 votes
Impossible to win or complete the game.

1 votes
Playing by Appointment -
0 / 1 votes
Being forced to play according to the game's schedule instead of yours.

1 votes
Daily Rewards -
0 / 1 votes
Encourages return visits every day and punishes you for missing a day.

1 votes
Grinding -
0 / 1 votes
Being required to perform repetitive and tedious tasks to advance.

1 votes
Advertisements -
0 / 1 votes
Forced to watch ads or given rewards for watching ads.

1 votes
Can't Pause or Save -
0 / 1 votes
The game does not allow you to stop playing whenever you want.

1 votes
Wait To Play -
0 / 1 votes
In-game timers that make you arbitrarily wait for something.

Monetary Dark PatternsMonetary Dark Patterns

This game has 0 reported Monetary Dark Patterns. There are 11 votes indicating the absence of a dark pattern.

5

1 votes
Premium Currency -
0 / 1 votes
Exchange rate between real money and in-game currency disguises the real price of items.

1 votes
Pay to Win -
0 / 1 votes
A player can spend real money to purchase something that gives them an advantage in the game.

1 votes
Artificial Scarcity -
0 / 1 votes
Limited time offers with unnecessary urgency.

1 votes
Pay to Skip -
0 / 1 votes
Spend money to avoid waiting for a timer to expire.

1 votes
Accidental Purchases -
0 / 1 votes
Making it easy to accidentally spend money with no confirmation or ability to undo or refund the action.

1 votes
Recurring Fee -
0 / 1 votes
Encourages players to play as much as possible to get their money's worth.

1 votes
Gambling / Loot Boxes -
0 / 1 votes
Spending real money to play a game of chance for a reward.

1 votes
Power Creep -
0 / 1 votes
A permanently purchased item in the game becomes less valuable over time.

1 votes
Pay Wall -
0 / 1 votes
The game becomes impossible to continue playing without payment.

1 votes
Waste Aversion -
0 / 1 votes
Capped inventory forces you to destroy items or upgrade inventory. Also, having small amounts of left over premium currency.

1 votes
Anchoring Tricks -
0 / 1 votes
Placing a cheap item next to an expensive item to make it look more affordable.

Social Dark PatternsSocial Dark Patterns

This game has 0 reported Social Dark Patterns. There are 7 votes indicating the absence of a dark pattern.

5

1 votes
Social Pyramid Scheme -
0 / 1 votes
You get a bonus for inviting your friends and then they have to invite their friends.

1 votes
Social Obligation / Guilds -
0 / 1 votes
To avoid letting down your friends, you are obligated to play when you don't want to.

1 votes
Friend Spam / Impersonation -
0 / 1 votes
The game sends spam to your contact list or social media account.

1 votes
Reciprocity -
0 / 1 votes
Feeling obligated to return a favor, share resources, trade an item, etc.

1 votes
Encourages Anti-Social Behavior -
0 / 1 votes
The game incentivizes players to lie, cheat, or backstab other players to get ahead.

1 votes
Fear of Missing Out -
0 / 1 votes
If you stop playing you'll miss out on something or be left behind and unable to catch up.

1 votes
Competition -
0 / 1 votes
The game makes you compete against other players.

Psychological Dark PatternsPsychological Dark Patterns

This game has 2 reported Psychological Dark Patterns. There are 5 votes indicating the absence of a dark pattern.

0.24

1 votes
Variable Rewards -
1 / 0 votes
Unpredictable or random rewards are more addictive than a predictable schedule.

1 votes
Aesthetic Manipulations -
1 / 0 votes
Trick questions or toying with emotions or our subconscious desires.

1 votes
Invested / Endowed Value -
0 / 1 votes
Having already spent time and money to improve your status in the game, it's difficult to throw it away.

1 votes
Badges / Endowed Progress -
0 / 1 votes
Reluctancy to abandon a partially completed goal, even one forced upon the player.

1 votes
Complete the Collection -
0 / 1 votes
The urge to collect all the items, achievements or secrets in a game.

1 votes
Illusion of Control -
0 / 1 votes
The game cheats or hides information to make you think you're better than you actually are.

1 votes
Optimism and Frequency Biases -
0 / 1 votes
Overestimating the frequency of something because we’ve seen it recently or memorably.

App Store Ratings

iOS:  (5.00) with 958 votes.



Recent Dark Pattern Reviews

Infinite Treadmill reported on Feb 4, 2022
In principle not, but... There are essentially three possible outcomes: you succeed in becoming King/Queen of the land, a near-miss where you survive until the first King/Queen is chosen but that is from a rival tribe, or your clan gets destroyed or chooses to desert you. These are objective, but they can be so delayed from the day-to-day game that you get drawn into the growth-treadmill part of the game. This distance to failure is much higher in the mobile game than the original PC/Mac game.
Variable Rewards reported on Feb 4, 2022
Decisions are highly uncertain and the game deliberately avoids making its game mechanics clear in all but the most overt respects. You're meant to enter the mindset of the fictional culture and be guided by the possibly mistakened advice of your counsellors.
Aesthetic Manipulations reported on Feb 4, 2022
Yes, the game tries to change the way you approach choices and deploys a range of strategies to this end.


Report a Dark Pattern

Screenshot Create your own epic saga of conflict, mythology, and community! This acclaimed game of magical storytelling blends interactive stories and resource management. It’s set in Glorantha (the world of RuneQuest, HeroQuest, and 13th Age).

It’s immensely replayable, thanks to over 575 interactive scenes and two objectives. Short episodes and automatic saving mean you can play even when you only have a minute or two. The built-in saga writes down the story for you. And advisors with distinctive personalities help you track your cows.

The gorgeous hand-painted artwork won Best Visual Arts at the second Independent Games Festival.

• Everything in the game is utterly convincing and even years after release, the possibilities seem endless. (One of the 5 best strategy games ever made) [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
• It's like they took the best parts of Civilization games and combined them with the best part of Choose Your Own Adventure style game books. … What I like most about King of Dragon Pass is the seemingly infinite possibilities that the game has. … I can't get enough of King of Dragon Pass. [Touch Arcade]
• A wholly unique adventure that has no equal on the iPhone. [Pocket Gamer]
• An interactive story with a level of complexity and brilliance that's rarely seen in video games. [Gamezebo]

Players say:
• I am really happy to have found this game. It scratches so many itches: simulator, rpg, adventure book...Great work! I find myself playing it on both my iPad and iPhone. Very addictive!
• I got this game at 6pm tonight. It's now 4am, and I've hardly scratched the surface of the depth of this game.
• I now have a fun, engaging, thought provoking RPG on my iPhone, an RPG that fits in my purse and that I can play any time I want, not having to have my computer or Xbox 360 near me to do so.
• If Bioware remade Civilization they'd be lucky to end up half as good as King of Dragon Pass.
• It's impossible to describe the emotional tug you feel when an old and trusted advisor, who you've watched grow from a young upstart, dies of old age. Or when an exploration team disappears into the wilds, never to be heard from again. Or when a cursed clansman, shunned by his peers, sacrifices himself to stop a raid. This game will never leave my iPhone. That's the only accolade possible.

The game is completely accessible via VoiceOver.

Be sure to check out Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind, the spiritual successor!