Fortnite: A Retrospective
That’s right. I, in my 13 years of gaming, as a harsh critic of AAA online multiplayer titles, enjoyed the quintessential AAA game for most of 1000+ hours. I first picked up Fortnite at the end of season 4 on my iPad and dropped the game around chapter 2 season 3. I briefly returned to the game a few months ago to play for a few hours, but have since abandoned the game. It’s like a brother—one with whom I have a complicated relationship. Without further ado, let’s discuss Fortnite in retrospect from a game design perspective.
Cultural Significance
Fortnite is perhaps the most fascinating subject of multiplayer game design. What started as an experimental hodgepodge of video game mechanics became the strongest cultural phenomenon in gaming history. Therefore, cannot sufficiently discuss Fortnite’s game design through my personal experiences without considering its cultural salience. From its infancy, it spawned a torrent of memes, dance videos, challenges, animated videos, fan-made merchandise, and YouTube channels. Everyone, their friends, their parents, and their dog were playing Fortnite. With every update came a worldwide celebration and millions of discussions at school. Fortnite constructed the most powerful positive feedback loop of any videogame—ever.Admittedly, cultural virality is virtually impossible to replicate, as Fortnite’s cultural explosion was as chaotic as its characteristic Gen Z humor. That said, game developers can still learn from Fortnite’s ability to emotionally invest its players in the game. This is primarily due to its emphasis on unnecessary, but fun features—a principle which severely cost them in later seasons. One of its largest “fun features” is its colorful panoply of cosmetics. Fortnite has some of the most fairly priced cosmetics of any game. It also evokes a sense of scarcity through its item shop and battle pass, which pioneered the now boilerplate in-game purchase system. These cosmetics also include references to meme culture, minigames like rock-paper-scissors, and collaborations with other games.
Novelty
In addition to its cosmetics, Fortnite boasts the most exciting updates of any videogame to ever exist. When most games introduce a new game mode, weapon, character, or map, its fandom rejoices for a few days. When a Fortnite update released during the game’s “golden era”, the internet exploded. Items as simple as a turret could hardly modify most FPS games. But in Fortnite, every item—no matter how tame—completely disrupted the in-game meta and brought a host of inventive YouTube challenges, all while going viral. Yes, these updates were met with scathing controversies, but still act as a lesson to all game developers. Furthermore, its now-popularized, mind-boggling in-game events achieved a level of exhilaration few games could dream of. Students, office workers, and retirees alike eagerly anticipated a short event and hopped on the game hours before. Fortnite set a gold standard for player investment game developers should aspire to achieve. If that isn’t impressive, I don’t know what is.Another source of Fortnite’s success was its appeal to different groups of players. Many games struggle to craft an enjoyable experience for both competitive and casual players, but Fortnite did so effortlessly. Artists, content creators (existing and aspiring), meme connoisseurs, casuals, creative warriors, competitive players, and creative map creators alike. The youtube community as well as the separation of competitive and casual loot pools only benefit this diversity. However, the need to appeal to such a vast array of player bases has created a divide between the competitive and casual player bases. Namely, the introduction of skill-based matchmaking contributed caused many casual players and content creators to leave the game, feeling that it was “too sweaty” and that it no longer carried the same spark. Moreover, later additions to the game— such as planes, mechs, and the infinity blade—removed nearly every semblance of skill the game had. Fortnite vacillated between appeasing the casual and competitive player bases respectively.
Controversial Changes
Truthfully, the direction of the game did not have to be so controversial. Players could be provided the option to toggle skill-based matchmaking in public matches, accommodating new players and veterans alike. Although the response to some of Fortnite’s updates could not have been foreseen (game development is harder than it looks), the game has met so many egregious changes that I can’t help but observe incompetence on the part of upper management. Game developers should meticulously craft and rigorously test all planned updates ahead of time. Fortnite’s cultural decline was partially Epic Games’ fault. Personally, I didn’t care about the introduction of skill-based matchmaking. My biggest issues with the game stem from Epic Games’ incompetence in facilitating the evolution of their game. Unbalanced items, disappointing balance changes, and a struggle to balance aim assist are only a few of the other issues I won’t elaborate upon.One aspect of the game that has improved, however, is the competitive scene. Fortnite was a pioneer of esports democratization, offering regular tournaments to all players who met the rank requirements. These tournaments awarded some of the largest cash pools of any game and were open to children as young as 13 years old. This game single-handedly changed the futures of countless children worldwide, through YouTube, Twitch, and its competitive scene.
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