I haven't played fortnite, but Folding Idea's analysis of Fortnite [0] suggests that it does. As a specific example, it presents only a small subset of the items available to purchase any given day. This allows them to obscure the relative prices in a way that would not be possible with many more viewable for comparison. A microphone hammer is 800v today. How does that price compare to a gold hammer, or what was its price two seasons ago ?

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPHPNgIihR0

If I recall correctly, items are priced based on their rarity, which doesn’t change. So an uncommon thing is 800 vbucks (~$8) up to 2000 for a legendary item/skin.

Imo the shop isn’t as much of a dark pattern. The game is just constructed in such a way that it’s constantly engaging and fun from beginning to end, and very good at playing with friends.

You can only buy cosmetics, that’s correct. If you buy a battle pass you get extra challenges but you get no in-game advantage for spending money.

Kids love the cosmetics though and it becomes as important to some of then as having real gameplay advantages would be. So it's good for the gameplay but I am not sure it is any less nefarious.

Absolutely; I don’t think this absolves Fortnite or anything, just trying to make the details more clear.

> It doesn't even have the MMORPG hook where if you don't play, your character is weaker then of people that play more then you.

You're character isn't weaker, but it will have fewer cosmetics. I'm not sure that that's a less harsh incentive, personally.

"If you play less, you are less likely to win." is obviously harsher than "If you play less, your character won't look as cool."

Apex Legends has re-introduced me to gaming (after being AFK since the Halo 3 days), and I very much appreciate that the only 'perks' of grinding are cosmetic. As an adult with less free time, if I knew that a game would punish me stat-wise for not playing as often as my competition, I probably wouldn't play at all since I wouldn't stand a chance. But cosmetics don't affect gameplay.

Fortnite used to have loot boxes and they've changed how they worked to make them less like gambling.

You’re talking about Fortnite Save the World which as far as I know still has loot boxes. Fortnite Battle Royale (i.e. the successful one that actually matters) never had loot boxes.