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Companies have sought to take money from parents via their children for as long as childrens' products have existed. Epic isn't doing anything new here. At lea
by theevilsharpie 8y ago
Companies have sought to take money from parents via their children for as long as childrens' products have existed. Epic isn't doing anything new here.
At least skins and other virtual assets aren't filling our landfills with plastic crap.
- my_usernam3 8y agoJust to add to that, as a fortnite player, I don't see any glaring psychological attempt to make purchases addicting. Buy shit and you unlock cool outfits, thats it.
- barbecue_sauce 8y agoWhat if you're addicted to style?
- bduerst 8y agoNot all of us are really ridiculously good looking.
- melkiaur 8y agoIt's even better than that. They key mentioning that the crap you buy gives you no competitive advantage, it's cosmetic only. In an age of loot-boxes and pay-to-win, this is super refreshing for a 100% free game.
- simongr3dal 8y agoI think if one of your classmates has a lot of different skins and plays the game for a long time most days you would likely be inclined to try and match what they have and do in the game if you want to continue to be part of this social circle. This is probably even more pronounced today than it was 5-10 years ago, because now there are youtubers and twitch streamers who can spend 4-12 hours every day playing the game and they have massive incomes to spend on virtual items.
- cma 8y agoThe same thing happens with real clothes, and those get made often by child labor. If some of that status signaling can be diverted to digital goods instead of contributing to child labor and deforestation from cotton farming it seems like a net win.
- Brockenstein 8y agoLawyer'd. Or at least let's not pretend that this 21st century version of status symbol nonsense is really any different than what kids have always been doing. Some kid has a SNES and you only have a NES... Who's got Air Jordans? Who's got the best lunch? The best toys. Whatever. It's all the same. It's always been the same. Hell I remember 1990 my elementary school installed a pencil machine. And you got like two random pencils with whatever graphics on them for a quarter (or maybe two quarters) and people were dumping money into that thing like they were going to hit the jackpot and become pencil barons of the midwest. It's always been the same song and dance, kids are morons, and they are subject to the whims of whatever fad.
- kgwxd 8y agoPopular YouTuber has a skin that's no longer available. Epic brings it back for an arbitrary limited time. It cost more v-bucks than could realistically be earned in-game. Every kid wants it.
- Brockenstein 8y ago"Hey kid, how does it feel to want?" If they want it that bad, let them go mow lawns or shovel driveways or whatever. You know, like kids have often had to do when there was something they wanted, no matter how silly it seems to adults.
- austhrow743 8y agoIs your beef with them purely that they sell things that kids want?
- kgwxd 8y agoIt's that they sell something that cost relatively noting to make or distribute, put an imaginary wall around it and charge insane access fees. The only value provided is entirely in the targeted mind, the minds of children; the uneducated; the impulsive. Maybe it irks me so much because it represents the bottom of capitalism barrel and it's wildly successful. I'm mad at Epic for making the trap, but I'm equally as aggravated at people for falling into the trap, even though it's clearly marked with giant neon lights.
- root_axis 8y agoSo what? Kids want a lot of things. Among those things, a 10 dollar video game skin seems pretty benign.