games &mdash; verity's correspondance book https://wordsmith.social/verity-writes/tag:games reactions and lil posts Thu, 30 Apr 2026 01:10:33 +0000 dark patterns in stardew valley https://wordsmith.social/verity-writes/dark-patterns-in-stardew-valley <![CDATA[I finally got Stardew Valley this year. Which is about right, it seems I only play games a decade after they're released... but in a shockingly short time I've spent over 300 hours playing it. Unsurprisingly it features the dramatically-named "dark patterns" (https://www.darkpattern.games/pattern/4/psychological-dark-patterns.html) - features that incentivise playing on and on and on... I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing necessarily. But if you are anything like me and you get caught up easily in things, flow state or no, then it's worth being aware of... (take it from me with my 300 hours) games]]> I finally got Stardew Valley this year. Which is about right, it seems I only play games a decade after they're released... but in a shockingly short time I've spent over 300 hours playing it.

Unsurprisingly it features the dramatically-named “dark patterns” (https://www.darkpattern.games/pattern/4/psychological-dark-patterns.html) – features that incentivise playing on and on and on... I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing necessarily. But if you are anything like me and you get caught up easily in things, flow state or no, then it's worth being aware of...

(take it from me with my 300 hours)

#games

]]> https://wordsmith.social/verity-writes/dark-patterns-in-stardew-valley Tue, 31 Dec 2024 21:16:30 +0000