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It's not about friction

The Existence of "Good Game Design" necessitates the existence of a counterpart, one which we'll call "Evil Game Design"

Because "Good" and "Evil" are relative, subjective terms, "Good Game Design" doesn't have to mean that it's "good", while "Evil Game Design" doesn't have to be "evil".

Evil Games are confusing and thus hard to define properly.

When Good Game design is interested in "Core-Loops" and clear hooks, Evil Games are murky and meandering. They might have loops, but theirs are wonky, vary in lengths and sometimes get stuck in place.

Evil Games are not hostile by nature.

Evil Games have nothing to do with "friction". Games are not rollercoasters. They are rivers. A river doesn't have friction. It both follows the shape of the land and shapes the land so that it reaches its destination.

Sometimes a River ends in a Swamp.

In general, while Evil Games acknowledge the existence of a player, they are not built around them.

Evil Games are interested in mistakes.

Evil Games let players live with their mistakes.

Evil Games are interested in seeing how their players are able to get out of their self-inflicted predicaments.

Evil Games are willing to deny their players the things they want.

At the same time, Evil Games are equally okay with their players breaking them apart.

Evil Games are statements. They don't explain themselves more than they feel like it.

Evil Games are ambivalent and incoherent.

Evil Games are driven by the whims of their creators.

Evil Game Design might turn into Good Game Design if it is commercially successful.

Evil Game Design, when applied well, makes players more interested in exploring their own failures.

A game being Evil has nothing to do with it being outright mean and degrading to the people that play it.

Since Evil Games are statements, an Evil game that is also mean just expresses its designers general disdain for humanity.

To reiterate: Evil Games are interested in failure, which is why they often have a lot of different ways for their players to fail. Very often the consequences of these failures have very long tails and are obscured from the player's knowledge.

As much as they are interested in failures, they are equally interested in how they are overcome. A Failure without a way forward is nothing

Trying to translate Evil Game Design into Good Game Design will destroy the Essence of Evil.

What is mentioned here about Evil Game Design is but a fraction of what is out there. As always, the depths of evil are endless and are waiting to be explored.