History Main / FreemiumTimer

* ''VideoGame/{{Duolingo}}'': If you don't have a premium subscription, the app gives you five lives. If you answer incorrectly, you lose a life. If you lose all your lives, you have to wait 1 hour for them to replenish. Recently the app has added an option to buy lives via {{microtransactions}} within the "free" version; thankfully there's also a more legitimately educational option, as you can gradually restore lives by practicing lessons you previously made mistakes in (and speed the process up a bit with AdRewards).

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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/HarryPotterHogwartsMystery https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/harrypotterhogwartsmystery_devils_snare_01.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Hope you've got your wallet on hand.]]

Many [[{{Allegedly Free Game}} Allegedly Free Games]] have some sort of limitation intentionally added or sweet perks to entice players into spending money. Unlike the usual method of [[BribingYourWayToVictory offering special premium items and/or characters]] for you to use (yet nefariously, these systems run in tandem with one another), the Freemium Timer limits how much a player can play a game over a given period, unless they are willing to pony up one of their precious game credits, or [[AdReward watch an ad]], to extend their playthrough. This is either to monetize off of impatient players, or as an AntiPoopSocking mechanic.

* ''VideoGame/{{Duolingo}}'': If you don't have a premium subscription, the app gives you five lives. If you answer incorrectly, you lose a life. If you lose all your lives, you have to wait 1 hour for them to replenish.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/harrypotterhogwartsmystery_devils_snare_01.jpg]]

* ''VideoGame/PunishingGrayRaven'' has a stamina system which regenerates one pip every five minutes, though it can also be refilled when the account gains a level, or by spending Black Cards.

* In ''VideoGame/CriminalCase'', the player is given an energy bar with a limit of 110 points. Investigating crime scenes requires 20 energy. Analyzing clues found in the crime scenes takes 3-12 hours, although cash can be used to speed things up.

* ''VideoGame/AliceInTheMirrorsOfAlbion'' is a HiddenObjectGame that uses timers to explore the various places around Albion.
** Searching a location uses up from 15 to several hundreds energy points, and it takes 1:30 minutes to replenish one energy point. Of course, the player can spend money to buy food items to refill the bar faster.

** Locations in the MirrorWorld, on the other hand, has cooldown timers that prevents the players from immediately revisiting a location after searching through them, although paying cash can speed up the process. These cooldown timers can range from 15 minutes to several hours, depending on the area.

* ''VideoGame/MergeMansion'' is a [[MatchThreeGame merge-2 game]] which requires the use of energy to generate items to merge, and once you run out, you have to wait 70 secods to gain another energy, or use diamonds to recharge the bar. The item generators also has cooldown times after generating a certain number of items (the higher the level, the more items it can produce before having to cool down), and diamonds can once again be used to skip the cooldown times.

Many [[{{Allegedly Free Game}} Allegedly Free Games]] have some sort of limitation intentionally added or sweet perks to entice players into spending money. Unlike the usual method of [[BribingYourWayToVictory offering special premium items and/or characters]] for you to use (yet nefariously, these systems run in tandem with one another), the Freemium Timer limits how much a player can play a game over a given period, unless they are willing to pony up one of their precious game credits to extend their playthrough. This is either to monetize off of impatient players, or as an AntiPoopSocking mechanic.

# '''The Timeout Timers:''' The second variety, more common in ConstructionAndManagementGames, gives individual timers to complete specific actions, and the player must pay real money to speed up the process.

* ''VideoGame/{{Vigor}}'' gates shelter upgrades and ItemCrafting behind timers of varying length. The shelter's Antenna upgrade, a facility that generates tiny amounts of premium currency every day, gets it the worst - its first upgrade level takes six hours to finish and every level thereafter takes an additional six hours on top of that (level 2 takes 12 hours, 3 takes 18 hours, and so on).

** Searching a location uses up from 15 to several hundreds energy points, and it takes 1:30 minutes to fill up one energy point. Of course, the player can spend money to buy food items to refill the bar faster.

* In ''VideoGame/HarvestTown'', producing items in the workshop and/or selling stuffs in the Goods Stall has a cooldown timer that increases with the value of the products. You can speed up the timer by either watching ads, paying with diamonds, or using a speed-up coupons, which you can buy with real money. Fortunately, the game is generous enough with diamonds and bonuses, that it's usually unnecessary to actually use cash to bypass the timer.

** Building and improving stronghold assets, on the other hand, has individual timers that range from a minute to 7 days, depending on the level of the building upgraded. Speeding up the building process requires diamonds. Oh, and did we mention that you can only build one building at a time?

* In ''VideoGame/HarvestTown'', producing items in the workshop and/or selling stuffs in the Goods Stall has a cooldown timer that increases with the value of the products. You can speed up the timer by either watching ads, paying with diamonds, or using a speed-up coupon.

** Building and improving a stronghold asset, on the other hand, has individual timer that range from a minute to 7 days, depending on the level of the building upgraded. Speeding up the building process requires diamonds. Oh, and did we mention that you can only build one building at a time?

** Searching a location takes up from 15 to several hundreds energy points, and it takes 1:30 minutes to fill up one energy point. Of course, the player can spend money to buy food items to refill the bar faster.

* Many city-building social games like ''Videogame/CityVille'' and ''VideoGame/SimCity Social'' have "energy" that is required to interact with buildings and collect their outputs. Generally in such games energy regenerates over time, and the maximum increases with level, but when you run low, it's guaranteed that a popup will appear recommending you to buy more.

** Searching a location takes up from 15 to several hundreds energy points, and it takes 1:30 minutes to fill up one energy. Of course, the player can spend money to buy food items to refill the bar faster.

These systems started life out in those [[UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash Flash-based]] Facebook games from the late 2000's, and when the Mobile market became viable enough for gaming on the go, these systems spread to the mobile market like ''wildfire''. Not surprisingly, most addicts attribute their long playtime for their game of choice to constantly emptying the Energy Bar or resetting the timers over the actual intended gameplay experience, due to them timing their lives around these timers. As such, Detractors of these systems have coined the terms "Free To Wait" or "Wait to Play" games; games that are intentionally designed with abusing these systems in mind, so as to maximise the full profiteering potential.

[[NonIndicativeName Despite the name]], these systems are not limited to Free to Play games, as many full-priced retail games also use these mechanics (much to the increasing ire of players everywhere).