Which can only be defined subjectively. Something dark to you is not to others.
> some forms of monetization are unethical
Only ones which are fraud, which is illegal.
>Nobody is saying games have to be free and without ads.
Yes, actually plenty of people are. Subscriptions are dark. Premium games are dark. Skill games are dark. Gambling games are dark. Ads are dark. Freemium is dark. Everyone can call anything dark.
There are plenty of things that are legal but unethical. It's impractical to ban every unethical thing, and it would generally not be a good idea to try. Therefore some people can get away with being nasty, but the fact that they are not violating the laws of some particular nation isn't really a defense.
An alternative is to lobby your Congressperson to ban these unethical strategies, or otherwise regulate them. The EU is taking an in-between step by discussing whether false-advertising statutes should apply to labeling games "free" when they're actually designed to pull money out of you within the game. That has pros and cons too.
> Which can only be defined subjectively. Something dark to you is not to others.
Dark patterns aren't patterns that you don't personally like, they are those that are designed to have a significant effect in getting users to take actions or behaviors that the users did not intend to have in the first place, such as leaking personal information or making unintended purchases.
> Only ones which are fraud, which is illegal.
Fraud is certainly unethical, but there are things that are legal and also unethical, this is just being obtuse.
> Yes, actually plenty of people are. Subscriptions are dark. Premium games are dark. Skill games are dark. Gambling games are dark. Ads are dark. Freemium is dark. Everyone can call anything dark.
You are diluting what is even meant by a dark pattern here to make it meet a definition of "I don't like it". Calling a skill game dark is absurd, a user playing a game would wholly expect that their playing skill may affect their gaming outcomes.
Which can only be defined subjectively. Something dark to you is not to others.
> some forms of monetization are unethical
Only ones which are fraud, which is illegal.
>Nobody is saying games have to be free and without ads.
Yes, actually plenty of people are. Subscriptions are dark. Premium games are dark. Skill games are dark. Gambling games are dark. Ads are dark. Freemium is dark. Everyone can call anything dark.