Digital Media Concepts/Fortnite

Life like model of the Fortnite bus, from a gaming event.

Fortnite

Fortnite is a well-known game created by Epic Games. It was released on July 15, 2017 and has become one of the most popular games in the world. Fortnite has two game modes; Save The World and Battle Royale. The Battle Royale game mode has become the most popular of the two. Both modes allow up to four players, who cooperate with each other to win. Save the World was the first game mode that was released, followed by Battle Royale two months later. Battle Royale caught the attention of the public, and the game started to become popular. The game comes free of cost to players on every platform including PC, mobile, Xbox, Playstation, and the Nintendo Switch.

GamePlay

Fortnite consists of two game modes, and many sub game modes. The players can pick and choose the modes they play, and play with a team of friends on their platform. Battle Royale is the most played mode. Players choose Battle Royale for two main reasons, its the most exciting to play, and its free. Though many other video games do not allow this, Fortnite players can play cross-platform through the Epic Games servers, and battle just about anyone playing on any device. The only device that restricts players to not being able to play with other platforms is Playstation. Playstation users can only play with PC and mobile players because the company doesn't want to connect servers with Xbox or Nintendo. Players who use a mouse and keyboard can play against other players who are using mobile phones or a controller if they are joined into a cross-platform server. Many players often don't play cross-platform because of the disadvantages of playing against the many players who have a keyboards and mouse while they just have the touchscreen controls on mobile phones. Playing with a mouse and keyboards is the best way to play the game because of the amount of things that have to be pressed at once, and this is extremely difficult for controller users to keep up with and impossible for many players who are just on mobile.

Game Modes

Save the World

Save the World was the first game mode that was was released, but is not one of the most played within the Fortnite community. This game mode is PvE where you can play with up to four team members to help save the world. This game mode is like the campaign of the game, there is a story line where 98% of the world population has been wiped out and it is the player's job to fight off zombie like creatures, scavenge for resources, and find allies to expand your storm shield. These shields cleared the storms from above and stopped the zombies from coming in that area. The goal is to turn earth back to the way it was. This game mode also consists of ways for the players to earn Vbucks, an in game currency to purchase things inside the game, including skins and dances. There are four different types of heroes that you can choose from in the game. Each hero can build, explore and fight just the same as the other, however each subclass has their own unique abilities and traits. The reason many players ignore this mode, and play different modes has to do with it costing 40 USD to play it.

Soldier

The soldier character of the group has combat focused abilities, they can make allies stronger and enemies weaker.

Constructor

The constructor character of the group has building focused abilities, they can make structures extra strong to make the teams defense better.

Ninja

The ninja character of the group has mobility focused abilities, they are the fastest at jumping in and out of harms way and have special combat moves.

Outlander

The outlander character of the group has abilities that allow them to find valuable loot that they need to survive.

Battle Royale

Battle Royale is a PvP, ‘survival of the fittest’ mode, where 100 players are put into a setting to battle it out to be the last to survive, and receive Victory Royale. Players can choose if they want to play with teams up to 4, against other teams, up to 4, this option being called Squads, teams of two against teams of two, called Duos, or Solo, which is every man for himself. They start off on a bus and then jump off and skydive to the location of the map they want gather all of their weapons and resources. Players need to outrun a Storm, which slowly closes in, and eliminate or run from other players. Players need to speed up their search for guns, materials, and potions, all whilst running from the storm and other players they might stumble upon. They can gather materials by destroying objects such as trees or brick and then use that to build themselves some walls or stairs for protection against the other players bullets. The potions are used to give the player extra health to make sure they don't get eliminated as fast. There are various types of guns and each are colored according to how good they are. The order of the colors are white, green, blue, purple, and golden. White being the worst and golden being the best. Battle Royale is the most popular of the game modes, and is free to play for the public. Although it is free to play people buy a battlepass that gives you skins and dances as you level up in this game mode.There are limited time sub game modes that play the same way the battle royale game modes does, however they are altered in small ways.

50v50

In this game mode instead of only having 4 players on your team you have 50. This game mode gives a player a higher chance of getting a victory and becomes chaotic once their are a bunch of players fighting at once.

Solid Gold

This game mode only has gold variants of every weapon in the game.

Blitz

This game mode speeds up the gameplay by making the storm close in a lot faster on the players, forcing them to loot and engage in battles a lot faster. This game mode also makes looting easier by increasing the amount of good weapons and the amount of materials you get from breaking each tree or car or house.

Playground

This game mode is a private lobby for players to test out things and have fun on the map without having to deal with the storm or other players trying to kill them. Many players often compete against each other to see who is the better player in this mode.

Some examples of the skins that are players are able to purchase in the game. These are people wearing the costumes in real life

This is an image from a fortnite tournament that a bunch of people from around the word came to watch their favorite pro players play live and in front of them.

Revenue

Fortnite is a free video game that players can play on any device. Even though the game is free, it has fueled Epic Games’ growth to reach $8.5 billion. Extra things are available for purchase in the game, such as skins, and dances. Players can use these to customize their characters, and even though there is no play advantage with the use of these skins, players still purchase them for their own sake. The game makers use this to their own advantage, and release ‘Limited Edition’ skins, and make them attractive to the eye, so players will purchase them. A lot of the players end up paying for these skins, and dances just for their own pleasure, which leads to Epic Games profit revenue being high. Famous players use these skins and the many viewers who watch them are encouraged to get them because their favorite pro player has them. The skins have become so popular that Samsung partnered with Epic Games to create a exclusive skin for people who buy their new products the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and the Tab 4 tablet. This skin is called a Galaxy Skin and is one of the best skins Fortnite has, which persuades many players to upgrade to the new Note 9.

eSports

Epic Games holds their own competitions, players come from all around the world, and compete for money. 100 pro players are placed into one lobby, and while they are not on the same team, they play a game together in Battle Royale where they go head to head for Victory Royale. They compete against each other, and whoever receives the most kills will win the most amount of cash. There is also an online competition that famous twitch streamers play that has similar rules as the events hosted by Epic Games. Players like Ninja, and Tfue stream themselves on Twitch competing against each other and sometimes just messing around having fun on the game, and people from all around the world watch them, and learn their techniques, and use their skills for their own.

Publicity

Since it's release, Fortnite has become extremely popular over the few months. Celebrities, including Drake, Lil Yachty, and Travis Scott have also taken an interest in the game, and have been vocal about their interests. With these types of celebrities playing the game, the number of players has increased because of their high end status. Drake teamed up with one of Fortnites best players, Ninja, to stream themselves playing together, and together they broke Twitch records for the most amount of viewers. Each of these celebrities has their own fan base, and them taking an interest in the game has peaked their followers to also test out the game for themselves, which has lead into more and more players.

External Links

http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/07/how-fortnite-became-the-most-popular-video-game-on-earth.html

https://esportsobserver.com/fortnite-esports-explainer/

https://www.polygon.com/fortnite-battle-royale-guide/2018/7/17/17581410/fornite-save-the-world-v-bucks-quests

https://adage.com/article/media/fortnite-phenomenon-turns-game-developer-into-a-billionaire/314357/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-24/fortnite-phenomenon-turns-epic-game-developer-into-billionaire

https://esportsobserver.com/fortnite-esports-explainer/

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-unlock-the-galaxy-skin-in-fortnite/

https://fortnite.gamepedia.com/Heroes

https://fortnite.gamepedia.com/Battle_Royale