What is "time sink"

n. (context informal English) Something that consumes a great deal of time, usually with little benefit; a waste of time.

A time sink (or timesink) is an activity that consumes significant time. A variant of this term is "time drain." Although it is unknown when the term was coined, it makes an analogy with heat sink.

In massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), time sinks are a method of increasing the time needed by players to do certain tasks, hopefully causing them to subscribe for longer periods of time. Players may use the term disparagingly to describe a simplistic and time-consuming aspect of gameplay, possibly designed to keep players playing longer without significant benefit. Time sinks can also be used for other gameplay reasons, such as to help regenerate resources or monsters in the game world.