Not really

No joke, I considered something like this as a JK Infiltrate level. Had imported a huge heightmap as 3DOs and used construction hax to experiment with fortification building. Obviously JK couldn’t handle it, but it was interesting to prototype.

April Fools Day blaze it

Winner Winner Womp Rat Dinner

smoking weed is less cool now that it's legal

that's why I switched to meth

*brain*

*brain lighting up*

*brain shining brightly*

*brain exploding with light*

Y'know, I just realized Fortnite is the first video-game-turned-cultural-phenomenon-by-youngsters that I can't relate to. Arguably the last one was Minecraft, but I was on board for that. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong though. Maybe the early adopters mostly nerds messing around with redstone and rail systems and the kids didn't swarm in until youtubers started making cutesy videos out of the game.

I get that someone y'all's age might not see the appeal of playing Fortnite, but surely you can... relate to it? The popularity, or kids' interest? I mean, it's an online shooter game... it's a bit of a different paradigm to ones you may have come up with, but it seems a lot easier to wrap your head around, as a JK player, than Minecraft, even.

BR is gambling with sunk costs. Shooters that have the same psychological effect as MOBAs (e.g. League of Legends). Addictive, breeds toxicity among players. Personality probably has a lot to do with it, but not age per se. Kids are maybe more likely to get a kick out of the emotional highs and lows than adults, but adults are absolutely not exempt.

Minecraft was computer LEGO. Literally everybody liked Minecraft (when it worked).

Good to know my hunch wasn't wrong. I had no idea what Fortnite was, so I went to the website, and my reaction was, "this looks like a committee sat down and devised a way to maximize profits, and arrived at gambling in a slick package for kids".

(not a whole lot worse than Pokemon cards, though?)

Sorry, I meant gambling with free time.

Watch this:

thanks, i was looking for something interesting to keep me from actually working today

My friends and I had a PUBG kick last summer, became really fun, we worked out squad tactics and calling conventions to identify targets and get fire on them as quickly as possible and laid out how we would operate. Worked pretty well, and was quite a bit of fun. Good teamwork always paid off. Though if you had one person in the mood to try hard, and another in a more goof off/silly mode, it could create some tension.

Wasn't nearly as fun solo.

Also, this.

The idea of the BR genre appeals to me. A bit of lonely time while you gather some stuff, and then you're forced into combat. There's always going to be some tension and some consequences. Not like DM where you just respawn if you die. The actual execution leaves a lot to be desired. I haven't actually played Fortnite but I watch my son play it every once in a while. The mining and the building just doesn't appeal to me at all. I'd rather play a more pure BR shooter if such a thing exists. I'd also prefer first person. Or switchable like JK.

Also curious about the gambling part of it. My son is constantly bugging me to help him buy "vbucks" which I thought were just for cosmetic items (skins, parachutes, gliders). Where is the gambling in fortnite?

Gambling with time, not money. The longer you play the more you ante up, the longer you play the worse the odds. Investing time against decreasing odds is an element of many addictive games (roguelikes, mobas, br).

I didn’t finish my thought in the previous post. Gambling = taking risk, sunk cost = the time you’ve already spent on the game. That’s all, I didn’t mean to imply real money gambling. Not that I’m saying real money gambling isn’t necessarily a part of it, it’s in most AAA games now. It’s just not the kind of gambling I meant to say is an inherent part of the BR game design.

What do you get for playing longer? Is it just that they give you some (cosmetic) rewards or something?

Just game design stuff, not extrinsic reward stuff. The game has a long build-up to conclusion. The idea is that you become more personally invested in the outcome of the game the longer you survive, giving you a higher emotional high the longer you can stay in the game. Emotional highs are how you become engaged with media. It doesn’t necessarily mean enjoyment either, you can just as easily become attached to experiences that provide frustration or anger - it depends on your personality.

In roguelikes, for example, the longer you survive the more likely you will find powerful equipment that will make completing the game possible. However, the longer you play, the more invested you are in your character (you’ve spent a lot of time on the character, you’ve found good equipment that’s let you survive so long). It’s really frustrating to die on floor 49 of a 50 floor roguelike. That frustration is part of what drives certain people to play again, drives others away, and drives some players to become toxic.

Contrast with modes like FPS deathmatch, where you receive continuous feedback. You can generally predict the outcome of the match early on, and it doesn’t really matter whether you make a mistake. You are not as invested. It’s certainly exciting to play and win deathmatch, but it’s not as frustrating when you lose. You don’t feel like you wasted any time.

PUBG is the game you're looking for. It goes for a realistic-esque military shooter mechanics and supports first person.

Have you played any of these BR games, much? Fortnite or PUBG?

Literally never Fortnite or PUBG. Closest I’ve come is Minecraft Hunger Games, which does fit what I’m describing and seems fairly similar based on the Fortnite and PUBG streams I’ve seen.

As far as playing them goes, I’m not at all interested. I understand why some people would like it.

I'm kinda sad mods aren't a big thing anymore. If I recall, the popularity of this mode is from a mod of Counter Strike.

i thought it originated in ARMA? CS doesn't have large enough maps for battle royale type games

Yeah you're right. I was thinking something else.

ARMA 3 BR -> H1Z1 King of the Kill -> PUBG -> others

is the through-line of the current crop of Battle Royale games...

I'm having a ****in' blast with PUBG. Cannae get into Fortnite though - just looks too kiddy.

Linky to a vid.

My little brother has been telling me to play PUBG with him, but I'm hesitant to get into a multiplayer game that's been out so long already. I hate being the lame guy armed only with crappy default pistol who doesn't know the maps and all the little tricks, getting killed quickly and easily. It's really not fun, and my biggest turn off from most MP games (especially since I wouldn't have nearly endless hours to play like others might). Would that be a problem with this game?

Well, if you have equal skill to everyone else in the game, you have only a 1/100 chance of winning any given match anyway. Given that you start with less skill and knowledge, your chance will be much less. My son started that Fortnite and he had better luck with Duo/teams, but they have been playing for weeks (months?) and get a win every few days I'd guess. I don't think it's common to win, so don't worry about it. Get slaughtered, try again.

Steven, you should check it out if you're interested, but are only holding back because you think you'll be at a disadvantage. There's no persistent progression or anything in the game; you'll have access to all the same weapons and armor as everyone else. You either drop where it's active, and scramble to win a chaotic 2v2v2v2v2 fight (in duos) or you drop where it's isolated and safe, and scrounge around for loot for 20 minutes. Point being that you can sorta ease into it at the pace of your choice, take or avoid engagements as you see fit, etc.

And Brian's right. The large majority of PUBG players are losing the large majority of their games. Winning or losing doesn't *really* feel like the main driver of the experience, though you are continually chasing a win. It's more about seeing what loot you get, running around and chatting w/ your teammates, trying to move across terrain strategically, winning some fights, etc.

That's good to know, thanks. I've heard it's quite fun. I think I'll give it a shot.

Our group had a ~15% win rate when we used to play, and that was insanely good. I was also rank 10,000 in solo for a while with a 3% win rate.

To me, people focus too much on the big win. If you eliminate another player/squad on average per game, you're better than average. People seem to forget that.