These psychological tricks are in effect a form of rhetoric, a form of persuasive speech. They are trying to persuade you by applying select forms of pressure, and it is, I think, worth understanding the mechanisms of that pressure so we can recognize how and when we are being 'persuaded.
There’s a level of hostility in the design: if you don’t buy in, you’re not merely limited in your options of expression, you are actively denied control over the most basic element of how you choose to look in the virtual world.
Your gender is behind a paywall in Fortnite. Until you buy a skin, you are assigned a random default one that changes with every game.
– Dan Olsen, Manufactured Discontent
Because while it’s obviously not as important… fuck Fortnite. Fuck anyone charging real money inside a video game.