Fortnite Won't Go Away!



I'm sure many of you have seen Fortnite's Chapter 2, their follow up to their run of 10 seasons that were so influential in the gaming community. There's a whole new map, with recognizable locations you've seen before, while others are completely new, maybe this was done to create a sense of familiarity for players returning to see what all the hype is about (these players include myself). Now, we've seen many developers follow suit in creating their own Battle Royale modes for their games, all of which have been compared to Fortnite, which is understandable, you always compare something new to the best thing in its category. The draw to Fortnite is a mix of a friendly look to the game and an insanely high skill ceiling that many strive for, however I'm more interested in seeing how long Fortnite can captivate its audience and keep their player base. We saw a slight drop off earlier this year when Apex Legends released, however due to it's more hero based Battle Royale style, many went back to Fortnite because they preferred the look of the game and the strategy that building gives the player while out in the open, and I don't see Fortnite surrendering any more of their player base any time soon with this release, in fact I'm predicting the opposite.

Epic Games have been insanely smart with one thing about Fortnite since the beginning... It's the oldest strategy in the book and its use in the age of social media made it even more breathtaking to watch. Marketing. Epic has been masters at marketing Fortnite. Back when they first started including the rifts inside the game, teasing the next season. All of a sudden there are Fortnite llamas and giant burger heads across the world. These marketing tools created a huge excitement around the next season and drew hundreds of thousands of new players to the game, from something that was going on in our world. It's this kind of marketing and thinking that has gotten Epic so far, bridging the gap between their game and our reality, making the game seem like its consequences can affect us in our world.

Skip to the end of season 10 a few days ago. The event went a little like this. A countdown was shown for the end of the season and many hopped into a lobby to see what would happen. The "Visitor", a character responsible for the rifts we talked about previously, took off in their rocket ship and was shooting through multiple rifts, until there were multiple rocket ships, from what many are assuming are from multiple timelines. (Fortnite has toyed with time in a previous season as well.) The rockets all converged into one spot below a giant meteor (a meteor frozen in space and time) set to hit the island, which we can assume was an attempt to stop said meteor from destroying everything. The rockets created a giant shield bubble, the meteor then converges with the shield and this is where the magic happens. The meteor prevails, breaking through the barrier, everything slowly starts to explode, seemingly the meteor has destroyed the island, and everything players have known has been torn to smithereens. Until... all the matter in the island, including all the players were sucked into a black hole. Many waited and waited... and waited. Fortnite seemed to have offered their epic conclusion to their 10 season saga, in a culmination over a year in the making, by just deleting everything. LET ME TELL YOU... I would have been so happy with this being an ACTUAL ending. Epic just saying... aight ima head out.

Fortnite seemed to be deleted for almost 3 days, children across the country were enraged, controllers were thrown, tears were shed, then every thing came back brand new! The new season is called Chapter 2 Season 1, seemingly giving Epic a new start at their titan of a game. This new Chapter gives us a few new things, boats that let us traverse the rivers and lakes of the map with ease. A new fishing rod that lets players fish for items within bodies of water, and a new bandage launcher, that lets you shoot your teammates... don't worry it gives them health. These changes were enough for me... someone who switched to Apex Legends mainly because I prefer first person shooters, to give the game another try. And you know what... it's still Fortnite so if you suck at building you're still going to suck.

This new season seems like a great place for newbies to start again, a new map, same mechanics, but a more organic experience compared to jumping in Season 10, seeing a giant meteor floating in the sky and just uninstalling the game.

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