Why Fans Are Furious At Fortnite

Epic Games’ most epic game Fortnite, recently announced that they’re adding a new mode. Standard practice for service games which crank out a steady stream each year of new weapons, special events, and flashy new skins. But the new mode has some fans metaphorically shouting obscenities from their hastily constructed ivory towers. Fortnite is no stranger to causing interpersonal strife, it is after all, involved in a shocking number of divorces. So why are fans so mad about this?

After the announcement of “Zero Build”, fans are divided about whether to rejoice, or to be totally pissed off. The new mode does not include building and a lot of players worry that this will water down the game. The argument that having a standard battle royale mode, where players use weapons, vehicles, and strategic map use to defeat opponents without building, takes away the soul of Fortnite is definitely worth considering. 

Being able to blast people away as Aquaman or dance with Beastboy on the bodies of your enemies is fun, but not a fundamentally different gameplay loop to other battle royales. People have been debating whether BR games are a dying breed for years, so taking away the one thing that differentiates Fortnite, building, might seem like a bad move. 

Building truly does make Fortnite unlike any other battle royale. Having to multitask, strategize, and manage resources while building leads to the amazing gameplay that keeps Fortnite topping the charts as one of the world’s most beloved games. Why would Epic want to take away a creative element to make their game more like Call of Duty or PUBG? Well not everyone was angry about the change. Some players (notably citing that they couldn’t compete with the quick reflexes of kids who grew up on the game) were actually turned off by the in-game building.

Good news for players of classic Fortnite: the regular build mode is still available. There’s even a violence free mode where players can build to their heart's content. Is Zero Build going to kill the creativity so beloved by the community? Not a chance. There’s enough Fortnite for everyone. Even if Fortnite fans are just being weirdly protective about their favorite game, they’re still not as weird as Nintendo fans.