Dark Pattern Games

I like the idea, but their ratings seem.. dubious at best. For example: Hyperrogue, which hit the frontpage a few times and which I can confidently say does not feature any dark patterns, is rated just 1.19 [0] on a 5 (best) to -5 (worst) scale.

[0] https://www.darkpattern.games/game/18554/0/hyperrogue.html

also funny how those first 3 'dark patterns' are basically just the core appeal of the genre

Yeah, can't take this site seriously when it lists some of my favorite mechanics as dark patterns.

'Competition' is listed as a dark pattern. Ya know, the core thing common to basically all games going back millenia, this site is ridiculous.

Competition is not core to all games by any means. You could argue that challenge is core to games, for a particular definition of ‘challenge.’

Solo/single player games are common now, but looking at pre computer history the majority of games are sports where you're competing against others either alone or in teams and board/card/dice games where you are competing against others (and probably gambling too).

Sure there are some solitaire card games, and toys like yo-yos, kendama and the like that could be classified as games. But competition defines most of what we consider "games" up until computers were able to simulate the other players in the form of hostile/friendly npcs, computer controlled 'players' etc.

Single-player games very much existed before computers: puzzles, solitaires, etc.

See second paragraph. 'Basically all' may have been an exaggeration, but the crux of my argument is that the concept that human beings know as a 'game' up until the advent of computer games more often than not involved competition.