Encourages Anti-Social Behavior
The game incentivizes players to lie, cheat, or backstab other players to get ahead.
Some games encourage anti-social behavior. Combat games may encourage you to kill other players in violent ways. Driving games may encourage you to drive recklessly and break the law. Other games may encourage you to lie, deceive, steal from or backstab other players to get ahead in the game. Some games may even allow or encourage some form of cheating.
Within the context of the game, these behaviors are normalized, but you still feel bad when you are on the receiving end of one of these anti-social behaviors. If you have invested time and perhaps money into a game and then lose some of that because a friend backstabs you, that's going to cause some unwanted bad feelings. If someone steals some of your in-game resources, that may make you angry and require you to spend more time and money earning those resources back.
For some players, being on the receiving end of one of these behaviors may make them feel a need for revenge. If the player is part of a team, they may be able to enlist their teammates to pick on a particular player in the game. This will cause a negative experience for that player and may prevent them from enjoying the game.
Within the context of the game, these behaviors are normalized, but you still feel bad when you are on the receiving end of one of these anti-social behaviors. If you have invested time and perhaps money into a game and then lose some of that because a friend backstabs you, that's going to cause some unwanted bad feelings. If someone steals some of your in-game resources, that may make you angry and require you to spend more time and money earning those resources back.
For some players, being on the receiving end of one of these behaviors may make them feel a need for revenge. If the player is part of a team, they may be able to enlist their teammates to pick on a particular player in the game. This will cause a negative experience for that player and may prevent them from enjoying the game.
Citations and Sources • Dark Patterns in the Design of Games
• Wikipedia :: Video Game Controversies
• Wikipedia :: Video Game Controversies
Examples
Love Nikki-Dress UP Queen"Some of the moves you can use in competitions."
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang"some events require you to get the most points and the easiest way to do that is by cheating other players to give you items without you giving back some items."
Pixel Gun 3D: FPS Shooter"The game made a lot of people cheat in the past, and you can scam people in Duels by convincing that you will gift them a chest (loot box) in a Duel match (in Duels the two playes can bet on a chest before the match starts, who wins gets the chest, the loser will have an amount of gems withdrawned from their account). Another way of scamming is pretending as a noob in a Duel match, and when you lose, in the next match with the same opponent offer them to bet on a chest."
Pokémon UNITE"Because of the ranked mode and ranked ladder you're incentivized to exclusively play with 4 other highly skilled players. This could lead to conflict within social circles as the entire aim of the game becomes rising on the rank ladder that is inevitably reset every season, thus creating an endless cycle and a constant need to swap out teammates for better players."
Destiny 2 Companion"Only in Gambit. 4 Vs 4 Vs E "Boss Race", Player vs Combatants[CPU] and Opposing team players. Actively the opposing team and strategizing against them by Killing and Stealing (Motes) dropped by killed players."
Saint Seiya Awakening: Knights of the Zodiac"Guild based PVP activities encourage selfish behaviour by providing "individual" based rewards based on who contributed the most, which"
Stumble Guys: Multiplayer Royale"The P2W kick emote (and other possibly 'bullying' emote)"
UNO!™"this is something by nature in any uno game. trickery is kind of part of the strategy and this applies to the irl card game as well as any version. its still a component though."
Clash Royale"The selection of emojis is clearly aimed at frustrating and provoking the opponent."
Tower of Fantasy"The game tries to match specific self-identified roles to each team (2 DPS, 1 tank, 1 healer). However, this sometimes leads to longer queue times for DPS players, so some are incentivized to lie about their role, and take a "healer" slot so that they get into a game faster. They then do not heal, causing problems for the other players. Also, weak players are encouraged by the game to join the hardest content, in which they cannot contribute, to hope 3 others can clear it while down a person."