video. Skins on Fortnite, the paid video game characters that emphasize social differences among children

A recent study conducted by two Norwegian researchers, Camila Knutsen Steines and Julia Reich, shows that the amount spent on free online games (for example Fortnite) has become a social marker in its own right. It’s simple, if a young player starts a game with friends without the latest new skin (paid alternative skin) that has just been released, he or she is subjected to ridicule, or even exclusion or dismissal.

In their study, two researchers refer to online video games as a new social space in its own right. “There is no clear distinction between their real life and their online life,” explains Camilla Knutsen Steines. They are just different parts of the social world that they navigate, and where looks, skins, are important markers of identity.”

To draw a parallel, it is not unlike the cases of children being ridiculed at school because of their array of school supplies, the state of their clothing. Or a young person enrolled in a sports club and who may have inherited old, damaged and cheap items or a fake jersey of their favorite team.

There are two problems. The first is that the “paying child” is the paying parent. And not all parents have the same means or the same involvement in their child’s relationship with video games. This creates enormous differences from one child to another.

Another concern is that a child, especially on shops and paid game services, is constantly bombarded with ads, pop-ups and techniques to encourage people to buy, buy, buy. And it’s hard to resist.

Two Norwegian researchers identified 13 different forms of manipulation in these games, which we call “dark patterns.” For example, for an entire period, in Fortnite, the button to try on an outfit in your collection was the same as buying it once in the store. It was very common to buy, without doing it on purpose, with muscle memory. Henceforth, the store is perceived to be less attractive.

In September 2023, the US government asked Fortnite publisher Epic Games to pay $245 million to its players, citing the manipulated design of its store.