Valve itself hasn’t figured out it’s money making strategy in games so I’m not sure why you’re patting them on the back for supposedly cracking the code that Epic supposedly copied (see: Artifact). They’ve had to also backtrack on their item auctioning ambitions due to money laundering issues with CSGO keys.
And games like League (not sure of Dota 2) and TF2 actually give you a slight advantage if you’re willing to pay. In TF2 different items will allow you to perform different attacks if you pay for them and MOBAs allow you to always play certain heroes if you pay for them. This is simply NOT the case with Fortnite and is more similar to Overwatch or CSGO in that regard.
In-game purchases are also different than standard loot boxes seen in other games as others have already mentioned. I won’t repeat myself but the key takeaway is 1) the game is 3rd person view so the perceived value of the cosmetic items is higher to the purchaser and 2) they’re NOT loot boxes.
I can really go on about their battle pass implementation vs the industry standard expansion packs or season passes (that games like COD MW or Apex have copied) or how they continue to innovate and significantly change the gameplay but your mind seems to have been made.
If someone comes in and combines the traits other games have but does it better than all of the rest while continuing to innovate, it is really just copying someone else’s strategy? Games like Arma 3 required mods and ones that “borrowed” the gameplay like PUBG and H1Z1 are clunky as hell to play and go for realism vs cartoon violence that Fortnite favors. Those three games are essentially interchangeable unlike Fortnite, which runs really well on everything but really just the Switch.
And games like League (not sure of Dota 2) and TF2 actually give you a slight advantage if you’re willing to pay. In TF2 different items will allow you to perform different attacks if you pay for them and MOBAs allow you to always play certain heroes if you pay for them. This is simply NOT the case with Fortnite and is more similar to Overwatch or CSGO in that regard.
In-game purchases are also different than standard loot boxes seen in other games as others have already mentioned. I won’t repeat myself but the key takeaway is 1) the game is 3rd person view so the perceived value of the cosmetic items is higher to the purchaser and 2) they’re NOT loot boxes.
I can really go on about their battle pass implementation vs the industry standard expansion packs or season passes (that games like COD MW or Apex have copied) or how they continue to innovate and significantly change the gameplay but your mind seems to have been made.
If someone comes in and combines the traits other games have but does it better than all of the rest while continuing to innovate, it is really just copying someone else’s strategy? Games like Arma 3 required mods and ones that “borrowed” the gameplay like PUBG and H1Z1 are clunky as hell to play and go for realism vs cartoon violence that Fortnite favors. Those three games are essentially interchangeable unlike Fortnite, which runs really well on everything but really just the Switch.