{"id":573,"date":"2018-06-03T16:20:46","date_gmt":"2018-06-03T16:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/?p=573"},"modified":"2020-06-26T02:21:53","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T02:21:53","slug":"fortnite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/fortnite\/","title":{"rendered":"Fortnite"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"Title\">Fortnite is the Best of Games, Fortnite is the Worst of Games<\/h3>\n<p><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iJAAo_fK5Pg\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"SectionTitle\">What is Fortnite?<\/h2>\n<p>Fortnite is the new building-combat craze from Epic. If we\u2019re honest, it isn\u2019t exactly new, per se. It\u2019s still in Early Access, but has been for the last year or so. The thing that put it on the map was it\u2019s free Battle Royal mode that Epic released in September of 2017 that has been competing with genre contender PlayerUnknown\u2019s Battlegrounds (PUBG, or \u2019PUHB-GEE\u2019, for short). Aesthetics aside, Epic elected to mix the Battle Royal formula with the building mechanic of the greater Fortnite package and set it loose upon the public.<\/p>\n<p>Having finally relented and jumped on the Fortnite bandwagon, I\u2019m here to say I\u2019ve been having fun too &#8211; with literally everything else. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"SectionTitle\">The other side (of the paywall)<\/h2>\n<p>My friend today told me that Fortnite was free and I nearly laughed him into oblivion. Fortnite is not free. As it stands, there is a hard paywall for Fortnite (the PVE entry fee) and that\u2019s, arguably, where the best part of the game resides. Fortnite Battle Royal, despite its popularity and ability to stand toe to toe with PUBG is the weakest of Fortnite\u2019s offerings. Not that it\u2019s bad, but it isn\u2019t nearly as fun to me as the PVE campaign.But, paradoxically, this entry point has been what has helped it garner so much acclaim.  <\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m thankful for that, in a way, but don\u2019t get me wrong. Fortnite is NOT Battle Royal. Fortnite is the whole package. And depending upon which side of the paywall you approach it from Fortnite can feel like the best of games or Fortnite can feel like the worst of games.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"SectionTitle\">So what\u2019s wrong with (free) Fortnite?<\/h2>\n<p>Many approach Fortnite under the assurance of its free to play nature. I\u2019ve already laid out that, presently, that isn\u2019t quite true. That\u2019s something that is slated to be dealt with in the future. But there\u2019s another monetization issue as well. Both PVE and PVP shops are revolving carousels of quickly swapped out goods. There aren\u2019t any offerings in either storefront that have any kind of longevity. PVE is better in this regard since it\u2019s split into event and standard items that can be purchased with two different currencies and updates each week at the earliest. No such luck for PVP which rotates out each 15 to 24 hours. Disparities aside, it creates an annoying sense of urgency that could use some toning down a bit with some permanent or semi-permanent offerings.<\/p>\n<p>The PVE shop does have loot boxes (Loot Llamas, to be exact). I\u2019m willing to shrug and move along, but I\u2019m sure that some are going to eventually rage against it on principle. You\u2019re likely to be given these as rewards for completing missions, which makes them essentially random loot drops. However, you also have the option to buy some of these and I\u2019m sure that\u2019ll be a sticking point with many considering the present Gaming Zeitgeist.<\/p>\n<p>As far as PVP goes, Epic is going to need to address \u201ctrading\u201d sometime soon. Now, that\u2019s a bit of a misnomer, as there is no formal trading process or infrastructure in place right now. However, there is the rudimentary \u201cfunctionality\u201d for it &#8211; dropping items on the ground for other players to pick up. Sounds pretty crude &#8211; or, daresay, easily exploitable, eh? Of course it is. The global chat is saturated daily with trade requests and complaints about scammers. Apparently, it\u2019s easy to invite someone to your base, convince them to drop some of their items to prove they have what they say they do &#8211; then kick them from the base and take the stuff. <\/p>\n<p>Moving over to the PVP side, Fortnite needs some new modes. Fortnite is the whole package, not just BR, so the essence of the game won\u2019t be diluted by adding a few new modes. For example, capture the flag, king of the hill and deathmatch modes for people to play towards objectives instead of just trying to shoot each other in face. King of the Hill and Capture the flag would offer players the chance to rely on their building skills. As for deathmatch, it would allow people to get acclimated to PVP combat by greatly reducing the turnaround time between engagements.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of acclimated, PVP needs a tutorial or training mode.  If you\u2019re on the free side of the paywall, you don\u2019t have a way to get a feel for the mechanics without diving headfirst into engagements that you\u2019re going to lose and learn nothing from. Epic does have a timed playground mode in the works. It will involve friendly fire and immediate respawns. If we aren\u2019t going to get a training mode, making this mode permanent would do the trick. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"SectionTitle\">In conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a stretch to say Fortnite earned its acclaim through its Battle Royale mode that acted as a free alternative to PUBG. I don\u2019t mean that as a dig against Fortnite or Epic. I have to give them props for their unconventional gameplay and monetization structure. However, I must also hit them for their shortcomings. Their most accessible entry point to the game cordons off roughly 95% of the game\u2019s content behind some kind of paywall. That\u2019s slated to change at some point, but we don\u2019t know when. So for the time being, paying the $40 or $60 is the only way to enjoy the optimal Fortnite experience.<\/p>\n<p>Even if PVE was free, though, there\u2019d still be some house cleaning that needs to be done. I don\u2019t want us to be so enamoured with Fortnite that we don\u2019t call it out on it\u2019s faults. PVP and PVE feel essentially like two different games, with PVP having the suboptimal progression path. I don\u2019t want Epic to draw people in with its low entry fee and then have that neck of the woods go stale on them because there only a trickle of content for them to enjoy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fortnite is the Best of Games, Fortnite is the Worst of Games What is Fortnite? Fortnite is the new building-combat craze from Epic. If we\u2019re honest, it isn\u2019t exactly new, per se. It\u2019s still in Early Access, but has been for the last year or so. The thing that put it on the map was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[7,17,9,6,184],"tags":[87,86,88],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/FortniteBanner.png","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7D5Jo-fortnite","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":575,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions\/575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}