The Gold Scar Boys

Matt Butler and Ethan Hurlburt

Jackie Robinson changed the game of baseball forever. Kendrick Lamar changed the rap game. Redbox turned the movie industry upside down. Fortnite changed the gaming world as we know it. The game, a simple, yet complex goal. A Battle Royale game built on the support beams of skill and strategy. The concept: 100 people enter, one will prevail. Fortnite is one of those games you get the gang together on the weekends and just grind out. Think of the Hunger Games in video game form. A map that, in essence, is 25,000 square meters. 100 players drop into the map, having to worry about the dangers that lie below.

Not only are players to watch out for one another, but they have to be mindful of an unforgiving storm. A storm that which moves in closer and closer to itself to condense the map and force players closer to one another. If you get caught in the storm you take damage. Fortnite is free-to-play, and is continuing to grow in popularity as developers introduce new content and more ways to play, with over 3.4 million concurrent players playing last month. Collecting guns, finding resources to build bases, and protecting yourself from others, it adds a twist to the well-known gamemode seen throughout other games like Players Unknown Battlegrounds (PubG) and H1Z1. Victories are not easy to obtain, whether you are playing by yourself or with friends, which makes the accomplishment of obtaining a win makes it feel ten times better. To be the last one standing is a challenge, but the right loot and the ability to build and protect yourself or your squad will make your chances of winning a lot higher. With the ability to revive and work together, it makes for a fun atmosphere.

It’s gotten most of its attention from Twitch streamer Ninja who streamed Fortnite yesterday, playing with Drake, Travis Scott, and Juju Smith-Schuster. The stream went from 200,000 viewers to 647,000 viewers in the matter of an hour. The stream absolutely shattered the previous Twitch streaming record. The first record set at 388,000 viewers got demolished last night with the stream reaching a max total viewership 630,000. Fortnite has brought people together in a way nothing has been able to do for as long as I can remember. Therefore it has turned the video gaming world upside down.