The Fortnite fad

Oswin Oh and Erin Hutcheson are on opposing sides of the Fortnite debate.

Every few months there’s a new fad, the newest topic buzzing around the halls of Rocky or plastered all over social media. Currently, students can’t get enough of the newest game that is included in most gaming devices and is now even available on Apple’s mobile devices.

Fortnite Battle Royal was released as a free to play game early in 2018. It’s estimated that there are over 50 million people playing the game as of now and the numbers keep climbing.

Still the game is receiving some criticism.

Junior Erin Hutcheson says, “It has become such a big game that it’s been brought into every aspect of life. It’s in the classroom and every conversation; it causes people not to respond to or hang out with their friends, and those who don’t play just feel left out to dry.” She added she just misses the days she could actually see her friends and discuss the far superior, Papa’s Pizzeria.

Adrion Folse, also a junior, doesn’t play the game constantly. “I have other games that I spent my own money on, with better graphics and gameplay where the mission isn’t to just kill people. I like the game fine, but I think it’s just over hyped,” Folse said.

It’s hard to open snapchat these days without seeing at least one post of a victory on the game, or open Instagram and not see a meme about it. It’s become a lifestyle.

Junior Oswin Oh plays the game and disagrees with Erin and Adrion’s points. He says that the games popularity brings people together, and because it’s free, it does not exclude anyone who isn’t able to pay for a game. He  even went as far to say that people who don’t play are actually the lamest, it is still not known if he actually believes this.

Regardless of the game being free Fortnite has already reached a monthly revenue of $126 million.

It’s hard to know why this game took off the way it did, but whether you play the game or not, the fact of the matter is that these obsessions come and go and in a few month’s time this heated debate and possibly even Fortnite may just be a memory to joke about, like Candy Crush.