Artificial Scarcity
Limited time offers with unnecessary urgency.
One psychological trick that pushy salesmen use all around the world is artificial scarcity, and they often combine this with an unnecessary demand of urgency on the buyer. This is why you often see items listed for sale saying something like "Only 4 left in stock. Order now!"
Game developers use this technique to trick you into spending more time and money on their games. This often takes the form of limited time offers. The only reason for the short time limit is to make you rush into making an uninformed decision and prevent you from comparing the value of different items.
Games may also advertise items by saying that there are only a certain number available, "Hurry, only 47 magic daggers left in our inventory!" In a game where all the items are digital, there is no reason to artificially limit the supply of an item. In fact, often these numbers aren't even real and they may sell far more than the stated limit. The only reason for emphasizing the scarcity of the item is to make you hurry up and make a purchase before you think better.
Game developers use this technique to trick you into spending more time and money on their games. This often takes the form of limited time offers. The only reason for the short time limit is to make you rush into making an uninformed decision and prevent you from comparing the value of different items.
Games may also advertise items by saying that there are only a certain number available, "Hurry, only 47 magic daggers left in our inventory!" In a game where all the items are digital, there is no reason to artificially limit the supply of an item. In fact, often these numbers aren't even real and they may sell far more than the stated limit. The only reason for emphasizing the scarcity of the item is to make you hurry up and make a purchase before you think better.
Citations and Sources • Dark Patterns in the Design of Games
• Seven Psychological Sins of SimCity Social
• Seven Psychological Sins of SimCity Social
Examples
RuneScape Mobile""Buy keys! 75 for 75!" blah blah blah. A little, yeah."
Kawaii Kitchen"There are pop-up "limited offer" ads."
Food Street - Restaurant Management & Food Game"Every event there is new items with 2 weeks limit on items"
Zombie Frontier 3: Sniper FPS"Tournament, Bundles (they called it Packages), and Advertising Offerwalls (who knows...)"
Hero Wars - Men’s Choice Epic Fantasy RPG"really a lot of limited time offers, sometimes multiple in parallel"
Baseball Superstars 2020"a lot of limited time packages and events"
DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY OPERA OMNIA"Every day"
The Walking Dead: Road to Survival"New characters are only available for 1 - 2 weeks, afterwards, they take over 2 months to appear again. Some of these characters are really overpowered. There are also limited time offers which usually read 'Limited time only' and even have a 24 hours timer (the usual), but they stay for way longer than those 24 hours, they just reset the timer but make it seem urgent. There's also battle passes which contain (new) characters or weapons."
SMASH LEGENDS"There's always some offer in the store, be it skins or packs"
Ulala: Idle Adventure"T-Mall opens every day at 7PM EST. These items are rare or high quality. Many cost pearls. Some items exist in shops for only a week."