You probably clicked on this article to learn more about the new sensation that has recently caused all of your boyfriends, best friends, lab partners, and other guys that you know to fall off the face of the Earth. Fornite is the free online video game that has almost all guys playing for hours on end and skipping class in attempts to be the last one standing. But how much do us girls know about Fortnite? Unless you sit with your guy friends while they play – which I know the majority of us probably don’t – you probably have no idea what the purpose of Fortnite is and why guys are playing it. In order to help you all out, I took the time to interview two guys on our campus and ask them the important questions about this game.
Charlie, 20, has diagnosed himself with a mild addiction to the game. He and his friend Jeremy, 21, were kind enough to answer some of my important questions about Fortnite.
Her Campus: If you had to explain Fortnite in only a few sentences how would you explain it?
Charlie: Highly competitive, highly addictive.
Jeremy: Fortnite is a video game basically like the Hunger Games where the goal is to survive and kill all the other 99 players.
HC: How often have you played Fortnite in the past week (or watched your friends play it)?
C: Twice a day on average, so 14 times in the past week.
J: I have watched a ton and played about 20 games.
HC: How many of your friends play Fortnite?
C: At least 50.
J: All of my friends.
HC: Why is it so exciting/addicting?
C: It is like being a hunter/gather. You run around and try to gather loot, then when you run into another person you have to kill them. It becomes highly competitive and feeds a desire to win. When in team mode it becomes a pack mentality in the same manner.
J: It’s really hard to be the last one standing, so you play over and over again without achieving your goal, making it more addicting.
HC: What is the end goal of Fortnite?
C: Kill everyone else, be the champion, run victory laps around campus.
HC: Why do you think so many people are playing it?
C: It taps into the human competitive nature, and being 1/100 makes it very easy to loose which just makes you want to play more. It only gets more frustrating the closer you get to winning because you already put so much time into getting that far. I almost punched a hole through a wall yesterday when I got second place.
J: I think so many people are playing it because it’s becoming famous on social media.
HC: Is it hard to get the hang of?
C: There is a slight learning curve, but if you are bad you will lose a lot, thus you can play a lot of games, and therefore get better in the process.
J: I think it’s hard to get the hang of, but I never played video games much.
HC: What other games could you compare it to?
C: It’s like Call of Duty, with GTA style game controls, in an environment that is like the Hunger Games movies/books.
J: I’d compare it to Call of Duty and Minecraft.
HC: Any other comments about Fortnite or the culture that has formed around it?
C: This is the reason spring semester grades will drop.
So you’ve heard it here ladies, Fortnite is just a free and addicting game due to its competitive nature and the fact that you are playing against other people, not computers. The hunger to be the last one standing is what keeps everyone playing, so if you don’t want to get addicted, don’t start playing because you won’t be able to stop until you win (which might take a while)!