Faraaz Arshad – Blog Post

• 24020344
• Oct 7, 2024
• 2 min read

The media product I am choosing is the video game Fortnite. Never before have I come across a piece of media that weaves together consumerism, audience satisfaction, and the conventions of a videogame so seamlessly yet so starkly. In the game, you have a barrage of different ‘skins’ (character looks) to choose from of which many are characters from popular media in collaboration with that skins respective owner brand. For example, Fortnite has had ‘Marvel updates’ in which the game is updated to include skins of all different kinds of characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe which are to be bought with an in-game currency called ‘V Bucks’. Of course, this is a way for the videogame to maintain user engagement and also becomes a platform for a company like Marvel to display its own products. There was an update recently that was made to include the Marvel villian Dr. Doom. This was following the viral news that a Dr. Doom live action movie was going to begin production with Robert Downey Jr famously taking up the role. In the Michelle Stack and Dierdre Kelly reading, they reference Hamelink and his understanding that we have become a ‘billboard society’. Children of a yound age are being sold an image. To the benefit of the company, it is an image that children are made to identify with. These ‘skins’ of superheroes and even celebrities ask the child to locate these popular media representations that they look up to in an augmented world that caters to children’s socialising with friends, near and far. It is the creation of a whole new world where, as the authors write, “belonging is not rooted in concepts of democratic citizenship but in consumerism”.