As the storm approached he started to build a tower. It was a one-on-one fight, he saw as the enemy also built a tower. He sticked is head out and felt how a bullet just passed by. Trying to get a shot of him, he changed to his sniper but rapidly realized there wasn’t a clear shot. Then he watched as missile flew by and suddenly he fell to the ground. Standing behind what was left of his tower, he placed a trampoline and launched himself towards the enemy. Dodging enemy missiles he barely made it behind a tree and engaged the enemy in a gunfight. He soon changed to his shotgun, and after a few misses, he saw the message on screen: #1 Victory Royale!

This was 11th grade student Andrew Kim’s best win in Fortnite. Fortnite is a co-op sandbox survival game developed by Epic Games launched in July 5, 2017. Available for PC, Xbox, and Playstation Fortnite is rapidly gaining popularity. Along with Kim, many TCS students have fallen for the world-wide gaming trend Fortnite, not missing out on the fun.

Fortnite

Fortnite is a PvP and PvE third person shooter game in which you win by being the last one standing. It includes a Battle Royale game mode where you can compete by yourself against 99 enemy players, or gather a squad up to 4 friends to beat the odds. Originally meant to play as a zombie survival game, Fortnite soon develop other game modes such as its Battle Royale or its 50v50 gamemode.

In its most played mode, Battle Royale, the goal is to be the last standing player by killing or evading other players. Over time, the game’s safe zone will decreases in size, and players caught outside the safe zone (inside the storm) will take damage, probably dying. The storm forces surviving players into a tighter space, forcing player encounters.

What is so Special About It?

It might be the free ability to play and not only shoot, but also build and loot houses and other players. Or maybe the fact that you start by jumping off of a flying bus. Or just the fact that it is a free to play game, but there is something that hooks players inside the game.

According to Wikipedia, Fortnite Battle Royale‘s primary distinction from other battle royale games is the crafting system. Almost every object in the game can be broken down into resources, which then can be used to build fortifications like walls, stairs, and ramps. These objects can be used to protect the player from gunfire, or slow down progression of other players.

Besides the play value, most players are also left with great experiences which they can talk about later with their friends. These memories are the same ones that keep bring these players to play again and again, and get more of these euphoric, adrenaline pure experiences. These experiences act as a drug, leaving the players with an infinite desire of improving and dominating throughout the playing field.These types of games also contain an impressive set of cosmetic aspects, like skins and outfits, that players crave. Making players always coming for more. As well to wanting more of these experiences, Fortnite also makes you come back by including a reward system where you can by cosmetic items with game coins you earn from winning.

”It has so much playability value, you can play it for hours and not get bored,” stated Andres Uribe, 11th grade student.

Popularity

The famous game discussion web page Reddit, stated that Fortnite Battle Royale obtained over 10 million players two weeks after its release. By March 2018, Fortnite  became the most-viewed game on Twitch, exceeding the average-concurrent viewership numbers of League of Legends and Player Unknown Battlegrounds.

Celebrity who plays fortnite: It’s not only teen agers who play Fortnite, but also famous stars have been caught playing this game. Rapper Travis Scott  played Fortnite with famous Twitch streamer Ninja, NFL player Smith-Schuster and Drake in a stream that ended with a win. As always Fortnite created funny memories and lots of laughs as Smith-Schuster later tweeted:

“Travis Scott really my favourite rapper and i was out there getting revived by that dude… he was asking me for bandaids.(laughing emojis) What is life!!”

Lots of Columbus School Students have found great entertainment in this new video game. Almost every men at The Columbus School High School, have probably played, or play or at least know what Fortnite is. Certainly Fortnite has captured the attention of many people around the school and around the world, if everybody talks about it, it must have something special after all.

“Almost every day I play Fortnite. All my friends also play Fortnite and most of the people I know at least know what Fortnite is. Even my sister knows what is Fortnite,” Tomas Moreno, 11th grade student, said.