I get it now.
Fortnite is an easy game to dismiss, but a hard game to define. For my money, I wouldn't define it as a game. It is a service through and through. If you think games should be, you know, games, and not a service, like rides at a theme park that changes according to the season or how many people decide to ride, then, well, that's cool.
Most games shouldn't. Movies don't get modified after release, they make another movie. Cars don't get updated, they get recalled. Why should games be any different?
Watching the fallout from the latest Fortnite Event has me disarmed. Games are different. People don't go into the movie theatre every day to watch the same film. People don't enter the market for a new car every four weeks. Those industries created a pipeline for their product in line with customer engagement habits.
In the future, government regulation of gaming will mandate that a company release a product that they can't touch for X number of years. The reason? Class action lawsuits. I know, "Tin foil hat time," but think about it. Currently, a company can release an admittedly unfinished game to the marketplace for a fee. They call it "Early Access."
You pay $20 to play a game that is not officially released. The developers can take as long as they want to tweak, or even completely rework the game while also getting free quality assurance feedback from actual customers that are literally paying money to do the work. The only reason early access exists is that no one told the platform or developers they are not allowed to do so.
We all know by now that the gaming community is a massive shitshow replete with toxic sociopaths committed to burning down the village to feel any kind of warmth. I hope that is a not a surprise to anyone.
Now, have you ever been home in the middle of the day and seen those skeevy lawyers who have practices committed to class action lawsuits against medicine that give people the clap, or an automotive company that made a product with defective seatbelts?
When these two forces realize how much money is in class action lawsuits against gaming companies releasing unfinished products... Listen... It's bad enough for indie developers as it is, but being sued for this business practice will be fatal to the whole scene. Most big companies will be ok, they have their own lawyers for that stuff.
So where does the government come in? Well, like most things the government gets involved in, they come in a decade too late to properly solve the problem. Also, instead of going at the predatory law industry facilitating the slow strangle of the gaming industry, the highest court to field the case will attack the victim and say, "Well, the problem is that you are indeed releasing products that ain't done, so... Don't do that no more. It's illegal now."
So there, problem solved. No "Early Access," no "DLC," No world events. Too expensive. And the band plays on.
Anyway, I say all this because it will be sad to see it go now that I see what Fortnite is doing in the big picture. They are making a kid's TV show that is also a game. Storylines, events, all the good stuff. They are giving it a good amount of pepper. I feel bad because I dismiss Fortnite as a bad game because I don't like it. I didn't realize I am the one that chose to recognize it as a game instead of acknowledging what it has always been, trying its best.
Shouts to info, rip Tb rip TC rip Tall-T. Love is wise, hatred is foolish. Get out there and do great things, we believe in you. Also Jobs.
The Protoculture Mixtape : Issue : People : Quixotic
