Pay to Skip
Spend money to avoid waiting for a timer to expire.
There are a number of ways that this dark pattern can be used, but they all rely on spending money to skip over something in the game that you don't want to do.
1) You may have a limited amount of "energy" or "turns" that you can use before you are no longer allowed to play the game. You then have to wait for that energy to recharge, or you can pay to instantly recharge it.
2) You may start an activity in a game (building, researching, hunting, etc) and the game starts a timer that indicates how long it will take for this activity to finish before you can collect the rewards. You have to wait, or you can pay money to skip the timer and collect the rewards right now.
3) The game show you advertisements, but will allow you to spend money to skip the ads. This is how you can trade money for your attention.
In these examples, a game designer intentionally puts an undesirable blockage into the game that prevents it from being played unless you wait or pay money. This causes the player some discomfort which can be overcome by paying money. If the player chooses to wait instead, this turns into a different dark pattern called Wait to Play.
1) You may have a limited amount of "energy" or "turns" that you can use before you are no longer allowed to play the game. You then have to wait for that energy to recharge, or you can pay to instantly recharge it.
2) You may start an activity in a game (building, researching, hunting, etc) and the game starts a timer that indicates how long it will take for this activity to finish before you can collect the rewards. You have to wait, or you can pay money to skip the timer and collect the rewards right now.
3) The game show you advertisements, but will allow you to spend money to skip the ads. This is how you can trade money for your attention.
In these examples, a game designer intentionally puts an undesirable blockage into the game that prevents it from being played unless you wait or pay money. This causes the player some discomfort which can be overcome by paying money. If the player chooses to wait instead, this turns into a different dark pattern called Wait to Play.
Citations and Sources • Dark Patterns in the Design of Games
• You Shall Not Pass! The 4 Types of Paywall in Mobile Games
• You Shall Not Pass! The 4 Types of Paywall in Mobile Games
Examples
Asphalt 9: Legends"You can skip timers with tokens"
The World of Magic"Dungeons can be redone with premium currency, revivals can be bought instantly with premium currency (skipping the need to buy the item), Cash Shop has the only way to enchant items aside from events that come every 4 to 6 months"
GraalOnline Era+"You can pay to skip the many hour grind long, to get an actually good gun."
GraalOnline Zone+"You can pay to skip the many hour grind long, to get an actually good gun."
Zenless Zone Zero"You spend money to replenish energy, called Battery Charge."
Board Kings™️"You can buy rolls that are locked behind wait-to-play."
Zombie Tsunami"During time-limited events, you can use Premium Currency to maintain your streak or play the next event a day earlier."
Warframe"Although they allow you to skip using premium currency it is optional and isn't heavily required or pushed to do so."
Bloons Pop!"Microtransactions allow you to skip the timer for if you run out of lives."
Dragon POW!"Receive more Stamina by watching 30 second ads"