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
Pokémon Sleep"It give you rewards"
Soundmap: The Music Game"You get coins"
GraalOnline Era+"It actually is, the friends you make, basically determine your status in the game."
Flutter: Starlight"Getting people to join so that gifts can be exchanged is highly rewarding in game."
Albion Online"Special cosmetics only available by referring others."
Zombie Tsunami"You can invite people through Facebook, and get - small - rewards for it"
Squad Busters"Quests that are impossible to complete alone, nor do they have a lower difficulty for single players - there's an optional quest where you have to collect a huge amount of "candy" for benefitial prizes."
Dragon POW!"Inviting players will unlock rewards in the "Call Friends" section of the App"
Covet Fashion"You can get premium currency from inviting friends."
Super Snail"your encouraged to "SHARE" the game altho this can be easily side stepped by just not actually pasting the shared link and just clicking the share button to copy link to your clipboard."