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. |
There are more and more of these over the years, things that populate every 10 minutes to every eight hours to once a day or once a week.
There seems to be no longer a sense that one must have a taller tower than others, but definitely a competition for most "Bux", most "Legendary Bitizens" (long-term and/or expensive), and most "Golden Tickets", which are all either an incentive to play constantly or spend 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.
The top purchase price for the many in-game currencies/perks is outlandish, so it makes the lower-priced one look enticing, and then there are items that can be periodically "purchased" with fewer "Bux", which affects decisions to take offers NOW, and there are many ad "opportunities" to get a paltry few of these, which makes watching offensive, inane, or violent ads seem more palatable.
There are now daily and weekly tasks that award small amounts of in-game currencies for doing more of the thing you were already doing. It feels important to finish these now.
They added "Legendary Bitizens" a couple of years ago, and I'm still far from completing those collections, even playing for hours daily (unless I spend money), and now they're hinting that they'll be adding more soon. A lot of people, including me, find them irritating (they're in the way in your tower), but many are still spending big money to complete their collections. There are also seven extra towers you can build to earn extra points and such, and I'm sure there will be more of those.
There are really only badges for one-time achievements, but they take enough time to acquire to get one hooked on the game.
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.
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.