Endowed progress
Giving players an artificial head-start or visible partial progress so the urge to complete it pulls them onward.
- Code
- P6
- Category
- Psychological / reinforcement
- Severity
- Medium
- Evidence
- EmergingEndowed-progress / Zeigarnik effects; temporal-design literature and the Game-check report.
- Purpose served
- Serves gameplayPrimarily serves the player's experience — usually a standard mechanic, not a dark pattern.
- Mechanism family
- Psychological / reinforcement
- Platforms
- Mobile / F2P · Live-service
- Modes
- Manipulative
- Target Audience
- developers
- Tags
- endowed progressbadgescompletionmotivationserves gameplaytransparent but exploitativemonetary pressurecognitive pressureemotional pressurevulnerability exploitation
- Also known as
- endowed progress effect, head-start framing
How it works
Progress bars start pre-filled, badges show “almost there,” and tracked partial completion exploits the endowed-progress and Zeigarnik effects to compel finishing.
Why it can be harmful
It manufactures a completion drive from an artificial gap, channelling time and money toward goals the player didn’t independently set; paired with time limits it becomes urgent.
Examples in the wild
- Pre-stamped game loyalty progress
- Battle-pass tiers shown most of the way done
- In-game badge grids with conspicuous gaps
Illustrative genre examples to aid recognition — not allegations about specific titles.
References
- Lewis, C. (2014). Temporal dark patterns. Irresistible Apps: Motivational Design Patterns for Apps, Games, and Web-based Communities. Apress. doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4302-6422-4_9 · citing patterns
- van Rooij, A. J.; Birk, M. V.; van der Hof, S.; Oostenbach, K., et al. (2025). Game-check: Development, application and visualization of a classification system for behavioral design in games. Trimbos Institute, Eindhoven University of Technology & Leiden University (for the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations). osf.io/5qzda/ · citing patterns
Community catalogue
The community site DarkPattern.games catalogues a related pattern, “Badges / Endowed Progress”, with 10+ example game mentions captured in our source crawl, including Hatch Dragons, Paper.io 2, Plants vs. Zombies™, Pixel Starships™ Space MMORPG.
Community-contributed and votes-based; the listed game titles are page-level examples from that catalogue, not a full game-profile crawl or our assessment. View on DarkPattern.games →
Related patterns
Aesthetic / sensory manipulation
Celebratory audio-visual feedback reinforces spending and reward moments.
Collection & completionism pressure
A visible, incomplete collection — roster, index, grid — compels players to keep playing or paying to complete the set.
Variable-ratio reward / near-miss
Slot-machine-like reinforcement and 'almost won' framing drive repeated attempts.
Daily login / streaks
Escalating rewards and loss-aversion penalties punish missing a day.
Manufactured competition
Leaderboards, resetting ranks, and rivalry framing turn social comparison into a driver of compulsive play and spending.
Social obligation / guilt
The design leverages teammates' dependence to compel continued play or spending.