The Existential Nightmare of Fortnite

I don't understand Fortnite, and that's potentially thrilling.

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I like to think of myself as pretty au fait with all things video games, but recently I watched something that truly reminded me of how I'm getting older; of how quickly time is marching forward, and how I'm losing touch with a medium I love. On a recent family trip, I watched my nephew play a match of Fortnite—a game that has changed so much in the years since I last played it, that I could barely tell what I was looking at.

Rather than make me sad though, this got me thinking about all kinds of things—the potential for games to help people bond; the wild path of this industrial titan of a video game; how my parents felt watching me play games like Metal Gear Solid as a kid and the mechanical abstractions within; the dangers of growing up with games like Fortnite, hellbent on getting you to buy your way to popularity, and how my experience with similar crazes might help guide my nephew through the scarier aspects of this industry. Let's talk about how this daft game sent me into an existential spiral, and reminded me how much I love this medium.

0:00 - Intro
0:21 - Getting older and video games
2:44 - The rapidly shifting nature of Fortnite
3:48 - Old man can't make sense of Fortnite
5:19 - Building in Fortnite is WILD now
7:19 - The match's explosive finale
8:36 - Old man is no match for John Wick
9:40 - How did my parents feel watching me play games?
11:03 - I don't understand, and why that's thrilling
12:37 - What were the crazes of my own youth like?
13:26 - The darker side of Fortnite
15:31 - Conclusion
16:18 - Outro

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Thumbnail by hotcyder -   / hotcyder  

Intro text animation by Isaac Holland -   / drazgames