The Issue With Battle Passes

there's this little game called fortnite and this game has a huge problem and it's all to do with the very thing they popularize fortnite battle pass full battle pass review buy the battle pass and instantly get some goodies fortnite in its current state has offered six different battle passes in the last 2 months yes six passes all for one game from Festival passes Lego passes mini passes and the main pass fortnite is fighting for your attention and your time with limited care for you the player and they don't really have a clean slate there's countless issues from exclusivity crossovers costs grind culture and free content and to really understand all of this we have to work back all the way back to 2017 where fortnite would release season 2 of Battle Royale and introduce the world to the first ever battle pass the concept was new yet inherently simple and really doesn't need an explanation but in case you've been living under a rock a battle pass is a form of unlocking rewards cosmetics and content through upgrading levels or tiers passes usually have two tracks a free track that everyone can un rewards and a pay track where rewards are only for those who pay for the pass and in fortnite's instance this includes Tik Tok dances Peter Griffin and Spider-Man to gain levels and tears you play the game and the more you play the game the more you level up the pass fortnite then goes on to include challenges and secret unlocks for battle pass owners restricting playability and utilizing fomo to those who don't own the pass all while fueling a level of grind where you have to put in the hours to unlock everything you've technically paid for battle passes originally started as one every season and are tied to the seasons they from and any content or Cosmetics within the pass would no longer be obtainable after that season you can start to see where this becomes an issue especially when other major titles start to copy from Apex Cod valerant and Halo and the more battle passes you buy within a game the more inclined you are to stick to that game as you have put a lot of time and money in order to progress but there's a big issue you the player physically don't have time in the day to complete six battle passes in fortnite let alone all the other ones for all the other games you play it's impossible you see epic and other companies have created such a culture where you have to choose what you'd rather progress in either that or you just have to pay real money to unlock the whole pass this goes without even considering real life commitments like school college jobs it's a horrible model and it only gets worse exclusivity has been a Cornerstone of fortnite's at LW from literal game-changing content and mechanics being in one week then voted the next and their battle passes also follow this system you see the fear of missing out drives players to chase after elusive skins and limited time events creating a stark divide between the halves and the Have Nots whether it's the allore of Iron Man in the battle pass or the Nostalgia of John Wick hit and take the Allen junk Junction fortnite thrives on exclusivity and by extension creates a demand for stuff that is no longer available to better explain this let's take Darth Vader the tier 100 skin of season 21 I mean chapter 3 season 3 but it's just too much of a mouthful to say he was only obtainable in that season so if a player joined now and wanted to hit the gritty as Darth fader they wouldn't be able to ever and fortnite has such a problem on their hands because they can't necessarily reset Darth fader or all the other exclusives in the shop because people may have bought the battle pass on the Assumption it was exclusive and then all of a sudden they would have to compensate millions of players but with constant crossovers especially within fortnite's battle passes there comes another issue the Reliance on IP one of the main reasons fortnite is still so culturally relevant is the amount of crossovers they have the amount of stuff which is cannoned to fortnite is surreal fortnite is becoming the everything game and that's exactly what they want however core and OG players don't like battle passes being so themed around collabs it's just not what fortnite was people Miss storyline characters and the ones that were from fortnite themselves like Omega peely and Midas but instead of continuing to create these characters in battle passes they just rinse and repeat the old ones in the item shop with like 20 different banana skins there is no debate fortnite's battle pass undoubtedly relies on external IP even going as far as full Marvel Seasons with another one allegedly leaked in the files and sure it may seem amazing to get Iron Man as a battle pass skin but the real question is at what point does fortnite's identity shift away from a gaming platform to Simply a marketing machine people are tired of what fortnite has became and only play it because of previous financial and time commitments or Nostalgia but as players grapple with the realities of over stimulation exclusivity and endless grinding One Thing Remains clear in the world of fortnite things change very quickly and I'm hoping the system for battle passes is one of them

Channel: Tom Haden +

Views: 17,935

Keywords:

Id: Q_jTxydi89A

Length: 5min 16sec (316 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2024