Reciprocity

Feeling obligated to return a favor, share resources, trade an item, etc.

If the game allows you to share resources, trade items or send gifts to your friends or other players then it may be using the dark pattern of Reciprocity. The person who receives your gift may feel a sense of obligation to return the favor. They may not have resources to share, and so they may feel bad that they gave something valuable away, or they may feel shame or guilt if they do not reciprocate. These unwanted negative feelings make the game less enjoyable.

If a game allows players to band together into guilds or clans, then sharing resources may be a requirement for participating in the group. Players may be punished by the leaders for not pulling their weight and helping out the team by donating valuable items.

The social pressure to donate items to other players means that you are giving up some of your own valuable resources that you have spent time and maybe money earning. This means that you have to spend more time and money to earn those items again.


Examples

Obey Me! #Shall we date? Obey Me! #Shall we date?
"you can get energy from other players"

Stardew Valley Stardew Valley
"in a way? you can have a multiplayer world with others, but you can't join anyone else's world without communicating between yourselves first"

GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE
"Social points which can be used for rolls"

Pikmin Bloom Pikmin Bloom
"you can send postcards from locations you've visited to friends once a day"

Kawaii Home Design Kawaii Home Design
"You can donate or receive materials everyday, from your guild members or friends outside of your guild. The game encourages this donate x donate system."

RuneScape Mobile RuneScape Mobile
"Yeah? It's an MMORPG with a trading system."

Food Street - Restaurant Management & Food Game Food Street - Restaurant Management & Food Game
"You can trade"

Baseball Superstars 2020 Baseball Superstars 2020
"give friends friendship tokens to summon trainers"

Trench Warfare 1917: WW1 Game Trench Warfare 1917: WW1 Game
"Allows you to create and share maps with other players. Basically a mod system. Please inform me if this does not fit the criteria."

Fer.al Fer.al
"Trading resources was a popular feature of this game. Due to the nature of season pass tasks, you were frequently required to wear or swap certain hard-to-obtain items, which would sometimes require you to lend or borrow from complete strangers."