This game has 45 reported Temporal Dark Patterns. There are 18 votes indicating the absence of a dark pattern.
This game has 44 reported Monetary Dark Patterns. There are 49 votes indicating the absence of a dark pattern.
This game has 21 reported Social Dark Patterns. There are 41 votes indicating the absence of a dark pattern.
This game has 29 reported Psychological Dark Patterns. There are 30 votes indicating the absence of a dark pattern.
iOS: | (4.50) with 434,778 votes. |
You can and are often expected to send "Bitizens" to your friends, and your visits to their towers earn both you and the friend an in-game currency amount.
Every few hours there's a new offer that you lose out on if you don't take advantage of it, and another replaces it which is often not as appealing, so there's a constant feeling that you have to log on NOW and play NOW.
You can pause or save, but there are always things appearing and depleting (like, every 30 seconds), so it feels like you have to have it on all the time.
Especially during events, players now have to log on every hour or two in order not to miss out on prizes that only come once you've collected the others, which only reappear once you've collected those, and have a cap.
There's no "energy" in the game, but you can skip waiting (and do other things) with "Bux", an in-game currency that's only acquired by playing the game or by purchasing with real money. This is not a major thing because it's not constant, but it can get addictive, or you can choose to use it when you're in a hurry to get back to real life (punishment for having a life)!
You can frequently "buy" things accidentally with in-game currency, and the only way to replenish that is to spend actual money.
More than one recurring fee, weekly, biweekly or monthly.
There is more and more of this, but it's couched in in-game currencies that you can only get by grinding or being on constantly or spending real money.
There is a small thing to miss out on literally every 30 seconds in the game, and larger things a few times an hour and hourly, every hour, along with other, longer-term items, rarely offered for more than 24 hours.
The main thing is the "ta-da" sounds for accomplishing something or buying something.