There\u2019s usually a song of the summer, and this year it was Fortnite, a video game that every teen in America suddenly seemed to be playing. Its popularity has turned it into a cultural phenomenon, and has made it into a multibillion-dollar business for developer Epic Games. It has also spurred a backlash against the game, with some parents concerned it\u2019s addictive for kids and encourages competition-related rage. But is Fortnite really that bad? And how much screen time is safe?<\/p>\n
The free-to-play Fortnite has a number of different modes. Its most popular is called Battle Royale, where 100 players lands on an island and fight until there\u2019s one last player standing. It\u2019s been downloaded more than 125 million times since its 2017 release, and now generates $250 million per month in revenue for Epic Games.<\/p>\n
While the gameplay is cartoonish and not bloody, it does have a high level of intensity that demands that players play for long periods of time to improve their skills and become better at surviving in the game\u2019s ever-shrinking battle zone. The game also has a single-player mode, called Save the World, that involves fighting off zombie-like creatures.<\/p>\n
Besides Battle Royale, Fortnite has added other new modes like Creative, which lets players design and build in a 3D environment with intuitive, easy-to-use in-game tools. Players can also challenge three friends to a match in Playground mode or team up with up to 15 others for competitive matches in Ranked.<\/p>\n
The game\u2019s development continues at a rapid pace, often adding new areas of the map and new features to the game, such as cannons, which let players fire projectiles from their building. It also borrows ideas from competitors, like the “ping” system from Apex Legends that indicates when a squadmate needs something, such as building materials or ammunition.<\/p>\n
Fortnite\u2019s ad model is built around in-game currencies, with players earning a variety of in-game items through gameplay and by buying or trading for them with real money. They can also purchase a \u201cbattle pass\u201d each season, which offers rewards for completing in-game activities and is the most profitable way that Epic makes money from the game.<\/p>\n
Many of these in-game activities require spending V-Bucks, the Fortnite\u2019s in-game currency. These purchases are generally not geared towards children, but some kids can still spend large amounts of their own money on the game. Parents can prevent their children from buying V-Bucks by setting limits on how long their child plays the game, and making sure that they\u2019re aware of what kind of content is available on the platform. Parents can also report an offending player in the game\u2019s menu by clicking on the three lines (sometimes called a hamburger menu) and selecting REPORTING. They can then select the reason for reporting and the name of the offending player. The player can then be blocked from playing the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s usually a song of the summer, and this year it was Fortnite, a video game that every teen in America suddenly seemed to be playing. Its popularity has turned it into a cultural phenomenon, and has made it into a multibillion-dollar business for developer Epic Games. It has also spurred a backlash against the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n