What are Experience Points in Fortnite, how do you earn them and why you might want to pursue them.
I spent the 45 minutes leading up to me writing this article rapidly texting my brother about experience points and gaming. At one point he said “I just really don’t know how you got picked to blog about gaming.” I laughed. Out loud. As a non-gamer, I’m probably not the obvious choice for a game blogger. But, as a non-gamer, I offer a fresh perspective. I can write about all things gaming as I discover them and relate them to fellow non-gamers. I was raised with gamers and I’m married to a gamer and I’m raising at least one gamer of my own. So, I sort of know gaming. I just don’t, you know, game.
This time around, I was texting my brother about experience points. Experience points, while new territory for me as a non-gamer, are commonly known amongst gamers as in-game bonus points. Although earning experience point varies depending on what type of game you are playing, the concept remains the same: experience points are points you earn in order to earn bonus experiences or levels within your chosen game.
Experience points in Fortnite: Defining XP
In Fortnite, specifically, experience points, called XP, are points used to level up your account. You play a match, you get experience toward your account, and those points, in turn, unlock account rewards, such as new skins for some of your players.
How you earn XP?
Each time you play a match within Fortnite, you get points added to your account. The concept is simple: the more you play, the more points you get.
Why you want to earn XP?
Earning XP in battle games such as Fortnite is different than earning XP in role-playing games (RPGs) such as World of Warcraft. The difference starts with the game: In Fortnite, you are playing the same game each time you log on, just against different players. In an RPG, you are building upon your game each time you log on. One Fortnite game might take you 30 minutes from start to finish, whereas you might play one RPG for months.
So adding XP to your Fortnite game gives you something to build on. Without something to build upon, you might tire of the same game after enough rounds of it. But, gaining experience in the form of XP gives you something to work toward, which, in turn, hopefully encourages you to continually come back for more.
What you can do with XPs?
In Fortnite, players can use XPs to unlock all sorts of cosmetic upgrades. These upgrades can make their players’ armor look differently or change the way a player’s weapons looks. Players can also use XP to get emotes, which are actions you can make your characters perform on screen. A popular example of an emote is the floss. You can bind the flossing motion to a specific key on your keyboard to make your character dance on screen. Lastly, you can use XP to retrieve loot boxes, which are several character bonuses at once in a virtual box.
The controversy surrounding loot boxes
I couldn’t complete this article without address loot boxes and the controversy surrounding them.
When you, as a player, are looking for upgrades for your character, you are often teased with ads for super rare bonuses you can earn with XP. However, you can also get loot boxes with V-bucks, which is Fortnite’s in-app currency that is purchased with real dollars. These I know- I sometimes purchase gift cards for V-bucks at the Kroger checkout for my kids for birthdays and holidays. You can then use these virtual dollars that were obtained with real dollars to purchase loot boxes- which only rarely contain, well, rare items.
Why is this controversial? Because this is gambling, plain and simple. Much like I might go to the store and purchase a scratch-off lottery ticket in the hopes of winning the jackpot, kids beg their parents to buy them V-bucks so they can buy loot boxes. And, much like many play the lottery but only a few win, many kids buy V-bucks in hopes of getting super rare items in their loot boxes but few do. Should we be encouraging kids to get addicted to gambling in this way?
Well, that’s an article for another time.