A timelock in a game refers to a point in the plot when the game's world clock is frozen at a particular time. This may be in order to present a particular atmosphere for a specific mission or quest; for example, a night-time mission to infiltrate a building can be considered more atmospheric and realistic that attempting infiltration in the middle of the day. This mechanism can only be implemented in games with day/night cycles, such as Fable, The Elder Scrolls, Saint's Row and Grand Theft Auto, as in other games, like Clancy's Splinter Cell, the particular time of the day must be preprogrammed by the developers.
Etymology[]
The term timelock may have originated from the concept in Doctor Who, where specific moments, such as the Time War, are frozen in time, and cannot even be accessed by time travellers. Time-lock
