Fortnite motivates players to turn on 2FA with a funky new emote

The Fortnite team today announced it’d be offering a “Boogie Down” emote to those of its consumers who enabled two-factor authentication on their accounts. This creative way of incentivizing security might help motivate some younger fans who don’t yet fully understand how to protect themselves online.

Your account security is our top priority!

Protect your account by enabling 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication). As a reward for protecting your account, you’ll unlock the Boogiedown Emote in Fortnite Battle Royale.

Get started here: https://t.co/JSyND2qWfY pic.twitter.com/4E0kyHDkBz

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) August 23, 2018

(Coincidentally, I was listening to Dazz Band’s “Let it Whip” when I first saw the above gif, and it synced so well that classic funk is now permanently stuck in my head when I see it in action.)

The announcement didn’t say if the emote would be automatically offered to those players who’d already enabled two-factor authentication. I would hope so — seems unfair to leave them out. The emote itself is based on one submitted by the winner of the “Boogie Down” contest.

The team left detailed instructions on how to enable the setting in its announcement, which you can read here. It also recommends a few authenticator apps, such as Authy, Lastpass, and Google Authenticator.

Considering there’s a very large number of Fortnite players who are minors or otherwise babes in the woods, it’s an admirable move for the company to try and educate its players on how to protect their accounts. Not that I want to pick on the young man who naively handed his password to someone promising him free skins, but he’s a good example of how a youthful fanbase might be conned into compromising their own accounts.

Two-factor authentication isn’t by any means the be-all, end-all in security. Grim as it sounds, I’m sure some of that same fanbase will fall victim to the same scams. But still, it’s a good move from Epic to give users an extra reason to protect themselves. Something’s better than nothing.