Fortnite Battle Royale: Consistent map/weapon changes keep the game fresh and fun
As Fortnite celebrates it’s 1-year anniversary this week, it’s popularity continues to grow. It’s almost unheard of for a gaming trend to last this long without any monumental changes, additions or entirely new games, but Epic Games has found a way.
Video games have never been better than they are today and Fortnite is a prime example of this. In 2018, it’s extremely difficult to keep anyone’s attention, let alone gamers, who are constantly being presented with new and exciting games.
Epic Games and Fortnite have managed to not only grow their user base exponentially, but keep existing players on board in the process. How? By changing just enough each season to make it fun for everyone.
The original Fortnite map is laughable when you see it today. When many started this game (myself included) there were only 10 named locations. Many very popular locations did not exist and the places that were there were smaller versions of themselves (look at Moisty Mire).
Imagine landing in a map without Tilted Towers? 12-year-olds would be in the streets protesting if that spot was taken away today.
From it’s very humble beginnings, the map changed to what it is today, with named and unnamed locations added, changed and transformed to give us out current Season 5 map.
Even when big changes happened, they were often teased well in advance, almost as a way to prepare us for what was about to come and have us accept the fact that it was happening. This gave players a buffer to adjust, before they even knew what was going down.
At the end of season 3, everyone and their dog thought Tilted Towers was going to get annihilated by the meteor (or comet). Epic teased it with controller vibrations in morse code, signs in the TIlted Towers area, etc.
When season 4 arrived, it was actually Dusty Depot, an over-visited under-stocked location, that was destroyed. Tilted and other areas were hit with smaller meteors and everyone was happy. It’s moves like this that keep Epic at the forefront of battle royale gaming.
More recently, the developers took an unpopular location in Moisty Mire and created a completely new area that almost feels like a second map in the game. The badlands surrounding Paradise Palms are full of fun little unnamed locations and fun landscapes. It’s currently one of, if not the most popular location.
The other ever-changing factor has to do with the weapons. As weapons are added, removed and/or nerfed, strategy changes. It wasn’t that long ago that carrying two pump shotguns was an absolute must. Now, you’ll be hard pressed to find an area of the map that isn’t littered with pump shotguns that were left behind.
Epic is pushing SMG’s at the moment and in doing so, forcing all of us to adapt and adjust our strategies. The constant tweaking keeps users switching up their loadouts and discovering new ways to use new weapons. Change = fun.
The battle royale landscape is about to change. Established brands like Call of Duty and Battlefield are entering the battle royale genre in the coming months and the market is sure to be saturated with these games very soon (if not already).
There’s no doubt that the folks at Epic Games are prepared for this. As long as they keep doing what they are doing, Fortnite will dominate the genre and we will be the ones rewarded by their innate ability to keep the game interesting.
Must Read. Will the P90 bring an end to M16, basic burst rifles?. light