Welcome to The Rant

In today's edition, a father of two kids is upset about the monetization changes coming to Fortnite, a game that's otherwise been a fun and exciting space for his children.

Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash

Welcome to a new (and hopefully ongoing) feature at Crossplay: The Rant.

Every parent has something about navigating modern parenting, especially when it comes to games and tech that pisses them off. This should be a place, the kind of community, where your grievances are not just welcomed—they are celebrated.

They don’t have to be rational. They don’t have to be logical. This is from the heart.

Recently, I reported on Epic Games’ decision to alter Fortnite’s monetization. The company will soon allow creators to sell items within individual experiences. (This will not impact Battle Royale or other modes made specifically by Epic and its partners, it’s only the experiences that are built by the wider Fortnite community.)

This puts Fornite in line with Roblox, and in my reporting, I speculated this is happening because of pressure from Roblox’s success. I remain confident saying that, and the statement Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney released to me seemed to confirm it.

The change was frustrating because while it’s likely to result in more financial success for Fortnite creators, it’s going to result in a worse user experience, too. (I am not trying to deny Fortnite creators money, I want rules on how this stuff is deployed, including hiding in-app items from children who are beneath certain age thresholds.)

I’m not alone in my frustrations, and that’s where today’s Rant comes in. Peter is the father of two kids and he’s understandably sensitive to them being taken advantage of.

The floor is yours, Peter. Why are you upset about the changes that Epic is making?

“I read everything you wrote about Fortnite recently and was very disheartened. I am a parent of two neurodivergent kids, one of whom has autism and PTSD.

Last year when he was having a really hard time, he wanted to play Roblox like the other kids at school. I knew a lot of the pitfalls about the game but thought that the parental controls would be enough. I didn’t realize that the whole thing was basically a way to create FOMO in kids to get money from their parents. My son showed me that you can just go make another account without an email address and bypass all the parental control restrictions.

This is so fundamentally wrong for a game that is marketed solely to children that it was the first time that I felt like a video game company was actively “evil” in what they were doing. I should have been wiser, but ultimately Roblox resulted in a lot of pain for my then 9-year old, two broken iPads, so many arguments and a lot of money wasted.

We finally got him off of it, and now he won’t even go near it at a friend’s house because he said he thinks it is really bad for kids’ brains.

Of course I know that isn’t true for all kids and I am not one to blame video games for what is usually a parental oversight problem, but the way that Roblox is so, so unmoderated is super gross. Their business model not only preys on creators to do all the work for a pittance of the money, but it also makes every game around one single mechanic: lock players out until they pay. I really don’t think that the majority of parents understand what Roblox is or how it functions. Even if you’re not spending money, you’re just creating a very gross “spend spend spend” or miss out mentality in so many young kids minds.

Fortnite has been fine for him and I have recommended it to many other parents as an alternative to Roblox. The parental controls actually work, the Lego games are really fun, and the Roblox-style games made by Epic on there are actually good, not just brain-dead meme-slop that is churned out hoping to score some Roblox off of exhausted parents and overwhelmed children. This decision by Epic is obviously driven by greed, so no surprise there, but I also will no longer be recommending Fortnite to other parents and will start to steer my kids away from the platform.

Another very disappointing decision from a modern company that looks at something that is getting a lot of criticism and decides to just join the party.”

Thank you, Peter.

If you’d like to submit a Rant, drop me an email. You’re welcome to be anonymous.

Have a story idea? Want to share a tip? Got a funny parenting story? Drop Patrick an email.

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