What are temporal dark patterns? Name examples.

Patterns that take more of the player's time than they expected or would choose, e.g. grinding (tedious, repetitive tasks) and playing by appointment (playing at times the game dictates), especially when combined with a withering mechanism.

* Temporal, financial and social dark patterns take time, money and relationships *

Guiding questions:

• Can the player get a sense of how much time it takes to play the game successfully?
• Do the player's expectations about time differ strongly from the time actually needed?
• How likely is the player to feel they have "wasted their time"?

Examples:

• Grinding: carrying out tedious, repetitive activities to progress.
• Playing by appointment: the game sets the times or dates when the player has to play (e.g. "crops ready at 8 pm").
• This becomes a problem combined with a withering mechanism: a value, resource, advantage or character continuously decays over time unless the player actively does something to stop it. Missing an appointment then costs you what you built, so the game controls your schedule.

Go deeper:

• Wikipedia: Grinding (video games) — what grinding is and why games use it.