(Image via twitter.com)
Staff Writer: Jesse Magnifico
Email: jmagnifico@umassd.edu
Fortnite’s “cosmetic gating” — Epic Games’s words, not mine — is receiving mega backlash from the community.
On November 16th, Epic Games released a post announcing a new feature that rates Creative Island experiences based on the principles of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), Pan-European Game Information (PEGI), or other rating authority of a player’s region.
With this update, Epic Games requests Creative map developers to rate their islands. This raises concerns because relying on the community to apply ratings is impossible to moderate effectively on the developer’s end.
There are millions of islands, meaning there will be slip-ups and ratings applied too loosely and liberally. It’s already happening: I’ve spotted numerous E-rated islands featuring guns on the thumbnail, which should be outright upgraded to T.
The worst hit, though, comes with Epic Games blocking a hefty number of cosmetics — not just limited to skins — in experiences rated E and E10+. Players with skins not “age appropriate” for those 12 and under in such islands will appear as a default skin.
Players are furious, calling it the worst update in Fortnite history. There is even a change.org petition with over 5,600 signatures to revert it.
The update wouldn’t be so bad if Epic Games didn’t block nearly all cosmetics. Or roll the update at all. Assigning ratings to islands is ludicrous, considering Fortnite as a whole is rated T by the ESRB.
Epic Games was too liberal with banning cosmetics. The gating applies to all items except emotes: outfits (skins), back blings, pickaxes, trailers, gliders, and loading screens. Yes, loading screens are blocked as well, even though nobody but the player can see it on their own device.
“[A]bout 7% of Fortnite Outfits can only be equipped in islands rated Teen,” the developer clarifies.
Logging into my account, I noticed that any skins that wear a weapon (e.g., Midas, Leon Kennedy) or have a theme of horror (e.g., Oro, Predator) are restricted. Somehow, though, Michael Myers is allowed.
Pickaxes resembling knives are banned, too, and back blings with any sort of weapons or ammunition are gated.
But inconsistencies exist across skins.
My favorite character of all time, Midas, has multiple guns and is gated as expected. John Wick, however, holds a silenced pistol, yet he is available to use.
The two Marshmello skins, Marshmello and Marsha, wear the same sorts of ammunition across their chest and two little Marshmello-themed grenades along their belt; however, Marshmello is gated in islands for 12 and under. The same issue carries over to Turk Vs. Riptide and Centurion: both wear shotgun shells, yet the former is the one who’s blocked from islands.
Nobody understands why Epic has introduced this, nor how they’ve managed to implement it so poorly.
Fortnite’s Creative mode has been out for five years… Why is Epic suddenly rolling out an age restriction?
The game is advertised as a battle royale — its selling point is guns and cartoon violence. Now all of a sudden, Epic wants to be “age inclusive” and censor guns, knives, grenades, etc.? They can’t pull the rug from under players’ feet like that.
Fortnite is not intended for younger audiences.
Sure, the game is expanding beyond battle royale, but regardless, the base game is rated T. Fortnite has been and still is targeted toward teens because it features cartoon gun violence, user interactions, and in-game purchases. The game is not solely Creative mode nor Battle Royale; it is both; thus, the T rating can’t specifically tailor to one aspect of the game.
That’s not how game ratings work.
Tailoring to kids who play a lot of Creative experiences is counterintuitive and unfair to the intended player base. Players spend their (or parents’) money to flaunt their style, share their interests (if the skin is a collab from another game developer or show/movie creator), and have fun. Now Epic decides to spontaneously block players from wearing the cosmetics they earned from the battle pass or bought from the shop?
Epic can’t be held accountable for online interactions, nor are they at fault if parents are upset about the content their children below 13 years of age are “exposed” to from Fortnite’s collaborations with other video game developers and show/movie creators. Epic is accountable for preventing and removing inappropriate players and Creative Islands.
Thankfully, Epic has “been deep in the comments” addressing players’ concerns. The developer plans to disable cosmetic gating starting in the next update coming December 3rd, but they are still interested in keeping the feature, attempting to find a better long-term solution.
Rather than affecting every user through the current server-side implementation, perhaps Epic will consider installing a client-side system that can be turned on or off through parental controls. This would only affect a player’s own visuals rather than every player.