Fortnite

Game Play

Fortnite is a multiplayer online game with different gameplay modes, including a battle royale and a tower-defense shooter version. The most commonly played version of the game is Fortnite Battle Royale, where players fight each other to be the last person standing on the map. Players can try to survive on their own or join others in teams of four through the online multiplayer function. The game is a third-person shooter with a variety of maps, each of which has a slowly enclosing border to force players to get closer and closer together as time progresses. This helps in the elimination of other players until one person or team is left at the end. Fortnite is known for its skins and emotes. The emotes use dances from music videos and social media trends, and the skins use pop culture icons from real people like Ariana Grande to popular fictional characters such as Marvel superheroes and Avatar: the Last Airbender characters. The greatest appeal of the game lies in its ability to stay relevant through the add-ons and downloadable content on top of the simple and fast format. Games don’t last longer than thirty minutes, so there isn’t a heavy time investment if a player loses. 

Critical Evaluation

I am quite famously bad at video games, particularly the faster the pace and the more amount of fighting involved. I quickly get lost, distracted by the colorful landscapes, variety of abilities and weapons, and a paralyzing desire to “get it right.” This has led me to not join video game trends that have these features, such as Overwatch or Marvel Rivals. When I was playing Fortnite, however, I got a glimpse into what makes this game such a popular success. I was playing on my partner’s account because he had purchased the skins for the Avatar: The Last Airbender characters last year. I wanted to play Zuko and make him do all the fun dances. Even though I kept missing, died a number of times, and only ever won because I was mostly playing against bots, I was still happy because I had the chance to play one of my favorite characters of all time. 

Fortnite does an incredible job of integrating pop culture into the game to remain relevant, retain its player base, and invite new players in. For years, I had avoided playing the game, both due to its popularity and due to my general inability to play games even half decently. When the Avatar skins were released in April of last year, I, for the first time, considered playing the game. I didn’t end up touching the game until almost a year later, but I was hooked by the concept. The strategy of including popular characters and celebrities is one of the greatest contributing factors to the game’s continued 230 million active players (Kao, 2024). It is also a great strategy for maintaining a free game while making revenue for the company. The skins and emotes that can be bought add to the user experience, but they are not necessary to play. There are many pay-to-win games that are free at face value but require money at some point to be successful. In contrast, the skins and emotes available in Fortnite are purely cosmetic and have no active effect on gameplay. It’s a marketing strategy that even worked on me, someone who was decidedly jaded about the game until they found my greatest weakness. 

Book Talk

A third-person shooter game where you can play as your favorite character from just about any major franchise! 

Reason for Inclusion

Despite its 2017 release, Fortnite is still very popular, and I had yet to play it. I avoided playing it because it seemed like a game that only children and teens were playing, and as someone who had just turned 20 that year, I thought I was above it. Fortnite also had a lot of negative media attention attached to it due to its popularity and in-game transactions. Neither my friends nor I had any interest in it, so I never felt a need to play it. It has shown, however, that it is still popular with teens and has maintained its staying power in pop culture. I’ve seen teens playing it and talking about it both when I was teaching and while working at the library. Fortnite and Roblox are the most discussed games in my anecdotal experiences. Because of its continued popularity, I wanted to play it and include it in my collection to understand its appeal and impact on teens.