A psychologist specialized in gaming has an explanation for the big success of Fortnite: It is probably due to the randomness in loot!
A massive success: Fortnite: Battle Royale is among the most successful games in the world. Since its launch in July 2017, around 125 million players have signed up for the battle royale title. Millions of players are online every day at any time, battling it out in intense fights.
There are many reasons for the success: The game is technically solid, regularly brings new content, appeals to many fans with its comic graphics, and has an extremely fair Free2Play system. But is that enough for success?
The true reason for the success
The psychologist has the answer: However, all of the reasons mentioned above are secondary, according to Dr. Jamie Madigan. The trained psychologist conducts research in the field of “Psychology in Games” and publishes his findings on his blog. There he explains what he believes is the true reason for the success of Fortnite.
Random rewards are better: According to Dr. Madigan, the great appeal of Fortnite lies in the rewards. He does not mean the fixed rewards from the Battle Pass. These can be easily predicted and planned. While this is a motivating goal for people, in reality, random rewards in the game are far more enticing.
Every round tempts with success
Our brain wants random loot: In his blog, the psychologist further explains why the random loot is so motivating for humans. The human brain is particularly good at recognizing and analyzing patterns:
- We are always enticed by the prospect of unforeseen deviations from the expected. The reward effect in the brain then becomes even greater.
- Predictable rewards, on the other hand, would soon become boring.
Randomness makes every match in Fortnite a little different
Fortnite is always a big random generator: And this is precisely where Fortnite comes in. Not only are the chests in the game a huge random generator that might contain a golden SCAR or just a mere gray pistol. The whole game is something new every time, which can be partially planned, but ultimately presents deviations and random events.
One more round, then I’ll surely have better luck!
Moments of luck and misfortune: In Fortnite, you never quite know what will happen next and whether luck is on your side:
- The bus sometimes flies awkwardly over places that don’t suit you
- With some bad luck, many more opponents drop over an area than you actually expected
- Sometimes you get lucky and find top gear right at the start of the game
- Sometimes an opponent ambushes you stealthily, while at other times you get an easy kill
- It may also happen that two enemies take each other out hard, allowing you to make a targeted shot and feast on tons of loot!
- A loot llama can cross your path at any time, then you won’t have to go gather anything.
A mix of randomness and planning: Fortnite seems to strike a good balance between randomness and (perceived) planability. Because when you go down, the explanation often is, “If I had a better weapon, it would have turned out differently” or “If only I had gone south instead of north, I won’t go there next time!”
This motivates Fortnite to always try again. If it goes better then, the motivation for more matches increases. You want to repeat what you just experienced and are willing to take more defeats in return.
The motivating randomness factor is thus, according to Jamie Madigan, the big secret of Fortnite’s success.
