Coding Guidelines

Game advertisements (video, image, or text) that show gameplay, graphics, or features that do not exist in or accurately represent the actual product.

Reducing the effectiveness, stats, or desirability of items or characters after players have already spent money to acquire them.

Items or cosmetics that appear different (usually worse) in actual gameplay than in their preview, store listing, or promotional image.

Content that was completed before launch but sold separately as DLC or premium content, giving the false impression it was developed post-release.

Making it psychologically difficult to quit or reduce engagement by leveraging the player's prior investment of time, money, or effort — framing leaving as wasting everything invested.

Limited-time events, exclusive items, or expiring offers designed to create anxiety about missing content that may never return, pressuring immediate action.

Achievement systems, collections, or checklists designed to exploit completionist tendencies — making 100% completion require disproportionate time or spending.

Making players believe they have meaningful influence over random outcomes (e.g., choose your box, timed button presses on random rolls) when the result is predetermined or purely probabilistic.

Presenting odds, drop rates, or outcomes in ways that exploit the player's natural tendency to overestimate their chances of positive results (e.g., showcasing rare drops prominently).

Unpredictable reward timing and magnitude designed to create dopamine-driven reinforcement loops, keeping players engaged through intermittent reinforcement rather than consistent value.

Using celebratory animations, rewarding sounds, flashy visual effects, or tactile feedback specifically around purchase moments or loot box openings to create emotional highs that encourage repeated spending.

Purchasable items, upgrades, or boosts that give paying players significant competitive advantages over non-paying players in gameplay.

Allowing players to pay real money to bypass tedious or time-consuming sections (often artificially inflated through grinding), turning frustration into revenue.

Essential content, features, or progression locked entirely behind a payment gate with no free alternative path.

Charging for fundamental gameplay features that should reasonably be part of the base experience (e.g., inventory space, fast travel, UI features).

An intermediate virtual currency purchased with real money and spent on in-game items. Conversion rates and bundle sizes are designed to obscure actual costs.

Currency bundles that don't align with item prices, forcing players to over-purchase and leaving residual unusable amounts that psychologically encourage further spending.

Purchasable containers that provide randomized virtual rewards of varying rarity and value. Players cannot choose what they receive, creating a gambling-like loop.

Mechanics that function as or closely resemble gambling with real-money stakes (e.g., skin betting, casino-style minigames with real currency input).

Displaying extremely expensive options first so that moderately expensive options seem reasonable by comparison, or using crossed-out 'original' prices to inflate perceived savings.

Limiting the availability of items or offers (limited stock, limited time) to create urgency and FOMO, even when supply is digitally unlimited.

Continuously releasing stronger items or characters that make previous purchases obsolete, requiring ongoing spending to remain competitive or current.

Selling content at prices grossly disproportionate to its value, or selling content that was completed before the game shipped as if it were additional post-launch work.

Monthly or periodic charges for continued access to the game or for competitive advantages over non-subscribers.

A paid progression system requiring both payment and significant playtime investment within a fixed season to unlock rewards, creating dual pressure of money and time.

Interface layouts where purchase buttons are placed near common interaction areas, confirmation steps are minimal or absent, or real-money actions look identical to free actions.

Requiring or strongly incentivizing players to recruit friends in order to unlock features, gain resources, or progress — creating a chain of obligation.

The game sends messages, posts to social media, or contacts the player's friends on their behalf, often without clear informed consent or through misleading permission flows.

Making players feel they are letting down teammates, guildmates, or friends by not playing (e.g., co-op tasks that penalize the whole group if one member is absent).

Gift or favor systems designed so that receiving a gift from another player creates social pressure to reciprocate, maintaining engagement through obligation rather than enjoyment.

Competitive systems (PvP, leaderboards, tournaments) where spending money provides significant advantages, turning competition into a spending contest.

Deliberately matching free players against paying players to demonstrate the advantage of spending, or matching recent purchasers favorably to reinforce spending behavior.

Requiring the player to repeatedly perform tedious, low-skill tasks (e.g., farming enemies, collecting resources) to earn progression that could be designed to come from skilled play.

The game has no achievable end state or meaningful completion point. Progression systems reset, extend, or introduce new layers indefinitely to prevent the player from ever feeling done.

The game requires play at specific real-world times or schedules. Missing the window results in loss of progress, resources, or opportunities (e.g., crops withering, raid windows closing).

Rewarding players for returning daily with escalating rewards for consecutive days and resetting or penalizing for breaking the streak, creating obligation to log in.

The game cannot be paused or saved during sessions, forcing the player to continue playing or lose progress. Creates pressure to extend sessions beyond intention.

Requiring players to wait real-world time (energy bars, stamina, timers) before they can perform actions or continue playing, incentivizing payment to skip the wait.

Ads that the player must watch to continue (mandatory) or that offer in-game rewards for watching (incentivized), blurring the line between gameplay and advertising.