How Fortnite Exploits Your FOMO

Hey. Mark here. So at the weekend, I watched Fortnite end. Here’s what happened. All of the game modes were suddenly completely disabled. And then me and my family were yanked out of the lobby and into an ominous waiting room above a black void. Then, in a glitzy cutscene, we watched the entire game world blip into nonexistence. This led to a... slightly tedious mini game collection about collecting "zero point" blobs, before Brie Larsen appeared and did some sci-fi magic to stitch together chunks of an entirely new world.

And so after a brief bit of server downtime... Fortnite was back, with a brand new map to play in. Iconic locations like Tilted Towers, Coney Crossroads, and Rave Cave are gone, replaced by an autumnal forest, a medieval castle, a snowy wasteland, and more. Okay - so this isn't the first time this has happened. Fortnite has actually been destroyed and remade twice already. But it's the first time since I started playing the game earlier this year.

And in the months since I've been playing it, this sort of destruction has emerged as a clear and prominent part of the game's design. As often as Epic adds new content to Fortnite, it removes other stuff. Right now I'm enjoying darting about on dirt-bikes, but in the past the game has had tanks, flying saucers, helicopters and the gravity-defying car from Rocket League. That's all gone now. The map - the one that just got destroyed - also morphed and changed over the time I played it.

It was slowly overtaken by big blobs of melted chrome, permanently changing Coney Crossroads into Chrome Crossroads. There have also been themed weeks - like Star Wars week, Bownanza week, and fire week - where content like weapons and roaming characters appear - and then disappear seven days later. There have also been all sorts of limited time events, like movie tie-ins, digital concerts, and even entire modes. In fact, so much stuff in the Fornite wiki is talked about in the past tense that it reads more like an archeological history of the game than a helpful guide.

And for me, this constant change has made Fortnite one of the most enjoyable and exciting multiplayer games I've played in years. The core of the game has pretty much remained the same: 100 people drop onto an island. They scavenge weapons and items. They get pushed into the centre of an ever-closing circular storm. And they duke it out to be the last man, or last team, standing. The only significant change since 2017 has been the welcome removal of the awkward building mechanic.

But everything else keeps shifting and changing. There are new weapons, new costumes, new areas, new boss fights, new game mechanics. This new update - chapter four - is so big that it feels like an entirely new game. That's thanks to a randomised perk system, a ridiculous pogo stick hammer, a new capture the flag mechanic, and the introduction of Unreal Engine 5 tech like Lumen Lighting. To be honest, Fortnite has probably changed more in this one update than Overwatch did in its numbered sequel.

Every week the game feels fresh enough to keep it interesting, and you never know what Fortnite will be like from month to month - whereas other, older multiplayer games have soon grown stale and boring. And by removing content over time, Epic has stopped Fortnite from being overwhelming to new players. Imagine if the current map contained four or five years worth of ideas and mechanics. It would be impossible for someone to jump in now.

But instead, the game has managed to maintain a very approachable, casual, arcade feel since its inception. Plus, having content be limited makes it feel more special and memorable, than something that's hung around forever. I’ve never put a game event in my calendar before, but I didn’t want to miss out on the one-and-done chapter finale. But. I can't ignore the fact that making content time limited and impermanent...

well, Epic isn't just doing that to make the game more fun. This can also be a powerful retention technique, designed to keep you hooked. Marketers have long known that advertising something as limited - in time or stock - can encourage people to buy stuff, simply because if they don't get it right now... they may never get it. From the McRib and Szechuan Sauce at McDonalds, to Nintendo pulling Mario 3D All-Stars from the eShop, we can be tricked into putting more value into something, simply because the seller has decided to limit its availability.

HOWARD: Excuse me. CLERK: Yes? HOWARD: I'm trying to find the Turbo Man doll. MYRON: Me too! Me too! HOWARD: Do you have any more in the back? CLERK: *Laughs in capitalism* It's playing on FOMO - or fear of missing out. That's a psychological anxiety that can arise in many ways - from the social angst of seeing people living better lives on Facebook, to a desire to purchase something before it disappears. And this fear is all over live service games.

Daily rewards, weekly quests, seasons, chapters, battle passes that expire after a month, time-limited events, double XP weekends, and streaks you have to maintain at the peril of going back to zero. And its definitely a huge part of Fortnite's design. Take the item shop - it could hold every single costume and emote that you can buy, but instead it just lists a handful of items - and will refresh with new stock tomorrow.

By limiting availability, Epic is hoping that if you see a skin you like you'll be pressured into buying it now because who knows when it will appear again? The battle pass is also built around this idea. Instead of buying a bunch of skins, emotes, gliders, and sprays that you can immediately start using - you instead buy the opportunity to unlock them over time. And so you have to keep playing, and keep investing your time, if you want to get all the stuff you paid for.

And you better hurry up, because if you don't complete the battle pass, all that content is gone. Forever. And as of this new update, the weekly quests must now be finished within that week - so if you want to keep up, you can't take time off. Now for some players, this weaponised FOMO can lead to a pretty crummy experience. There are dozens of Reddit posts from players who feel trapped by these content treadmills in various live service games.

This user, on the Destiny 2 sub, says "I feel like I'm playing to minimise missing a reward rather than playing to maximise my progression." Other players talk about feeling locked in to a single game, because time spent on other titles will put you behind on a battle pass or seasonal challenge. FOMO is also potentially a factor in gaming addiction or gaming disorder - though, studies are naturally pretty limited right now.

But we very much know that every psychological trick in the book is more effective on children and young adults - a group that Fortnite obviously tries to court. For me personally, FOMO in Fortnite doesn't really bother me. I'm not interested in collecting all the skins and emotes, or completing all the quests and challenges. Part of this comes from getting into the game so late: I've already missed so much stuff that it doesn't really matter if I miss more.

I'm also certain that I'll move on from Fortnite at some point, so who cares how much digital junk i've accrued? And I also just play Fortnite for the fun of the game - not to chase unlocks, quests, and levels. And like I sad before, it's here - in the game itself - that the constant content turnover actually works best - as the endlessly changing world has made Fortnite more fun and exciting. It's also worth noting that there are far, far worse methods to monetise a game.

Like being able to buy stuff that makes you more powerful or effective against other players. Literally everything you can buy or unlock in Fortnite is purely cosmetic. And the most disgusting one of all - randomised loot boxes. Fortnite did have them in the past, but removed them - likely because more and more countries are investigating the practice, or outright declaring it illegal. But I do see how other players might find the psychological tug of FOMO too powerful to ignore.

So it's been interesting to see other companies try to reduce its harmful effects. For example Halo Infinite's battle pass doesn't expire, so you can keep working towards its unlocks for as long as it takes. And Bungie has literally called out FOMO by name, in Destiny 2, and made some strides towards easing its negative effects - like reducing penalties on XP and bright dust for missing a given week of the game. Fortnite will be the one to watch though - as the leader in this space, it's clear that other developers are copying, well, pretty much everything it does.

There are, thankfully, things you can do, as a player, to fight back against FOMO. For example, intentionally letting yourself miss out on something can make you realise that going without... didn't actually feel as bad as you feared it might. And that can break the spell of FOMO in the future. But the most important thing to do is to simply be aware of these tactics. If you know that these tricks exist, understand how shady companies can exploit them, and acknowledge their existence in the games you play, you can stop them from subconsciously sucking you into doing stuff you don't want to do.

So be mindful and really ask yourself: are you playing this game because it's fun, or because you feel pressured to keep up with its rewards? Or because you don't want to miss out on time-limited content? Or because your pals will make fun of you if you don't have the latest skin? If so, play something else. And get some new friends. What do you reckon? Does Fortnite exploit the fear of missing out to make money? Or is it an exciting part of live service games?

Or a little bit of both? Let me know, in the comments down below.