Social Pyramid Scheme
You get a bonus for inviting your friends and then they have to invite their friends.
Some games will give you a bonus when you invite your friends to play and link to them to your account. This bonus may be a one-time benefit, or it may be an ongoing benefit that improves the gaming experience for each friend that you add. This gives players a strong incentive to convince their friends to play. Those friends then have to sign up more friends and so on, leading to a pyramid scheme and viral growth for the game.
Often, this is combined with another Dark Pattern called Social Obligation where you and your friends can help each other in the game. This leads to a feeling of obligation and people keep playing the game even when they no longer enjoy it.
Often, this is combined with another Dark Pattern called Social Obligation where you and your friends can help each other in the game. This leads to a feeling of obligation and people keep playing the game even when they no longer enjoy it.
Examples
War and Order"Referral rewards"
Fishdom"you get free stuff for inviting people"
The Simpsons™: Tapped Out"adding friends is a mandatory quest, and interacting with friends enough times earns you exclusive rewards."
Star Stable Online"there is (or used to be) a feature that allows you to gain rewards for inviting a friend and getting them to level 10 (which in itself costs money, unless given free membership at the time of creating the account)."
Peridot"Breeding Peridots is much easier with linked friend accounts. There’s a lot of pressure to friend strange in order to breed your pets"
BitLife - Life Simulator"If you want to post on social media, share this app to someone!"
Figure Fantasy"At some point the announced a limited time offer for inviting back old players who left the game."
Hitman Sniper"you get a "free" sniper for inviting any friend"
Shadow Fight 3"referral system"
SimCity BuildIt"You can invite friends via Facebook."