History Main / FreemiumTimer

* ''VideoGame/DragaliaLost'' features two stamina meters. The first, which is simply called stamina, is consumed whenever you play a quest alone. The other meter, referred to as getherwings, is consumed when playing coop quests. The stamina meters max gets bigger the more a player levels up while getherwings always have a max of 12. Both meters, however, can be overfill past their max through use of items, wyrmite, diamantium, leveling up, or collecting from the halidom, but they won't reload on their own when they are over their current max.

[[NonIndicativeName Despite the name]], these systems are not limited to Free to Play games, heck, money doesn't even have to change hands. Many full-priced retail games also use these mechanics (much to the increasing ire of players everywhere).

* ''VideoGame/{{Duolingo}}'': If you don't have a premium subscription, the app gives you three 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.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' has an action point gauge. The player spends AP to embark on quests, and even if they quit or fail, the AP is still consumed. It recharges at a rate of one point per five minutes, but the player can use items to instantly gain some. Bronze apples for a flat ten points, silver apples for 50%, and gold apples or Saint Quartz, the game's premium currency, for 100%. As Quartz is mainly used to spin the gacha, using it to recharge AP is seen as a huge waste. Doing so is often derisively called "eating rainbow apples."

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' has an action point gauge. The player spends AP to embark on quests, and even if they quit or fail, the AP is still consumed. It recharges at a rate of one point per five minutes, but the player can ue items to instantly gain some. Bronze apples for a flat ten points, silver apples for 50%, and gold apples or Saint Quartz, the game's premium currency, for 100%. As Quartz is mainly used to spin the gacha, using it to recharge AP is seen as a huge waste. Doing so is often derisively called "eating rainbow apples."

* ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline'': The game uses a "Fatigue Points" system, which starts at 156 points and goes down by 1 for every uncleared dungeon room traversed, although the game will let players finish a dungeon if the FP bar hits 0 during a run. The sole exception is with special dungeons, which simply subtract a fixed amount of FP at the start of a run. The only free-to-play options for restoring FP are waiting until 9 AM UTC the next day or buying/crafting a "Fatigue Recover Potion". Otherwise, FP potions of varying recovery amounts can be bought with real money, or players can subscribe for "Neo Premium", which raises the daily FP limit to 273.

* ''VideoGame/Warframe'': All items being crafted in the foundry have differing time requirements ranging from minutes to hours to 3 days in the case of Warframes themselves. All of these can be rushed at the cost of platinum (in-game currency that can be traded between players but also bought with real-world currency) although this is generally frowned upon and discouraged by most of the playerbase.

* ''VideoGameDragaliaLost'' features two stamina meters. The first, which is simply called stamina, is consumed whenever you play a quest alone. The other meter, referred to as getherwings, is consumed when playing coop quests. The stamina meters max gets bigger the more a player levels up while getherwings always have a max of 12. Both meters, however, can be overfill past their max through use of items, wyrmite, diamantium, leveling up, or collecting from the halidom, but they won't reload on their own when they are over their current max.

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 the game of their choice to constantly emptying the Energy Bar or resetting the timers over actual intended gameplay experience, due to them timing their lives around it. Detractors of these systems have coined the terms "Free To Wait" or "Wait to Play" games; games intentionally designed around these systems.

* ''VideoGame/SummonersWar'', an app game, lets you start out with a certain fixed amount of "energy" so you can play. You can find more as drops from defeated enemies, you can win more on the daily prize wheel game. But once you use it all you either have to pay to refill the energy meter to keep going, or wait for it all to slowly build back up.

** You can make a DealWithTheDevil every five to ten minutes (every four hours for item crafting) for a slight boost to damage, income, speed, item crafting, or a small amount of diamonds (the game's PremiumCurrency). This is done either by watching a fifteen-second ad or by paying a bloodstone, a different kind of currency that is given out for every milestone level passed. And a regular event even makes devil deals free, so you don't even have to watch the ad.

* ''VideoGame/EmpiresAndPuzzles: Epic Match 3''

* ''VideoGame/PuzzleAndDragons'' started an excruciatingly slow refresh rate of 1 point per 10 minutes. Dungeons consume anywhere from 3 all the way up to 99 (!) to enter. Eventually the refresh rate was accelerated to 1 per 10 minutes

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' has a Stamina point which refreshed by 1 point every five minutes. The number of stamina used increases in higher difficulties. It originally had a limit of 50 stamina but was increased to 99 in an early patch. There are also which are used for the Arena which only refreshes on the next day. Both of these can be refreshed through Stamina Potion and Dueling Crest, respectively.

** Locations in the Mirror World, 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.

** Building and improving a stronghold, 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 tell you that you can only build one building at a time?

# '''The Energy Meter:''' This is when the player uses up a number of points to perform an action or to enter a stage, depending on the game. When the player runs out of energy, they must either wait for that energy bar to refill on its own--which usually takes several hours--or they can conveniently pay real money to immediately fill up the bar and skip the grind.

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

* ''VideoGame/TeamKirbyClashDeluxe'', the spinoff game to ''Videogame/KirbyPlanetRobobot'', has a "vigor meter" that will get used when you go into quest battles. If it's depleted, you'll have to either wait for the meter to replenish itself (by waiting a few minutes) or eating the Gem Apples which restores it instantly. Its sequel, ''VideoGame/SuperKirbyClash'', also uses the same system.

Many {{Allegedly Free Game}} have some sort of limitations or perks to entice players into spending money. Unlike the usual method of [[BribingYourWayToVictory offering special premium items and/or characters]] (yet nefariously run in tandem with it), 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 the impatient players or as an AntiPoopSocking mechanic.

Freemium Timers can manifest in two different ways, although many games employ both mechanics at once.

The first is expressed using an Energy (or Stamina) Bar, where the player uses up a number of points to perform an action or enter a stage, depending on the game. When the player runs out of energy, they must either wait for the energy bar to refill on its own--which usually takes hours--or pay real money to immediately fill up the bar.

The second variety, more common in ConstructionAndManagementGames, gives individual timers for each, specific actions, and the player must pay real money to speed up the process.

Commonly found in mobile and Facebook games. Not surprisingly, most addicts attribute their long playtime to constantly emptying the Energy Bar or resetting the timers over actual intended gameplay due to them timing their lives around it.

!! Games that use individual timers:

* {{VideoGame/Zombidle}}: Done relatively unobtrusively.

* ''VideoGame/AceCombatInfinity'': The "Sortie Fuel System" limits how many times you can play in either the campaign or multiplayer modes, unless you wait for supplied fuel to recharge or buy stocked fuel if you don't want to wait. The normal rate is seventy-five cents per unit of stocked fuel at best, one dollar at worst[[note]]The one-unit fuel pack is one dollar; some include free extras, i.e. the 50-fuel pack includes ten free units[[/note]], and to play the campaign past the second mission one must pay a massive amount of credits to unlock the mission on top of the fuel cost, and more credits are necessary to replay it. That said, through feedback from fans the system was tweaked for release -- you now use exactly one unit of fuel per mission (originally it was planned to use one unit for every five minutes of gameplay, though given that co-op missions only last five minutes anyway it's basically the same), and stocked fuel can be gained through challenges or random drops. There is also an Unlimited Campaign play ticket that removes the fuel and credit costs from playing missions[[note]]which, if bought from Gamestop, which has it cheaper than PSN, also technically gives you 20 stocked fuel, by way of the challenge for completing Mission 5, at a rate of about 63 cents a unit[[/note]]. In fact, it is possible for a player to receive stocked fuel via challenges and random drops faster than he/she spends it, especially after buying the Unlimited Campaign Ticket.

* ''VideoGame/TokyoAfterschoolSummoners'' uses a stamina meter that goes down any time you start a battle, whether it be a free quest, daily quest, or main quest.[[note]]It should be noted that it does not go down when doing quests where there are no battles, such as certain main quests where the story progresses without a fight ensuing or any special quests where there is absolutely no fighting.[[/note]] When the number on the stamina meter goes below the second half, a timer begins that tells you when it will fully refill. Using stamina drinks, that can mostly be acquired by logging in or playing the game, can not only help speed up the process, but it can also increase the first number to have more than the second number, allowing more opportunities to battle.

** 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 fasters.

* While not every action performed in ''VideoGame/HarryPotterHogwartsMystery'' consumes energy, the player needs to use up energy points to learn and apply their skills (e.g. taking classes) to gain experience points. Each energy takes 4 minutes to gain, and the bar automatically refills every level up.

The second variety, more common in ConstructionAndManagementGames, gives an individual timers to complete a particular action, and the player must pay real money to speed up the process.