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PC Gamer: How Fortnite PvE fans feel about Battle Royale taking over the game they love

https://www.pcgamer.com/how-fortnit...battle-royale-taking-over-the-game-they-love/

Here's Mighty Goat, one of the many struggling streamers uploading reams of candy-coated Fortnite: Battle Royale videos to the internet every day. His library is manicured with startling efficiency—a legion of jump-pad highlights, cross-country snipes, and garish guides informing elementary school kids how to acquire the latest skins. But last month, in the middle of all that, he tried something different. "Look, I know everyone and their mother plays Battle Royale right now, but we're gonna play the new—well I guess it's not new—but it's new to me, Save The World," he says. "It's like the campaign version of Fortnite. I've never played it. I've never even seen videos on it."

It's both funny and tragic to watch a career SEO miner play through the version of Fortnite Epic spent six years developing—the soul of what this game was long before Drake, Travis Scott, and JuJu Smith-Schuster showed up. My favorites are the comments that dot Mighty Goat's videos; they're full of surly disciples excoriating him every time he says "This reminds me of Fortnite!" as he tours the Save The World infrastructure. "This is Fortnite," they hiss. "Battle Royale is not Fortnite."

"When I first started playing Fortnite I didn't know a lot about it," says Peter, 34, originally from Ireland and now living in Canada. "In fact, I thought it was some sort of Overwatch clone. As soon as I started playing I could tell this was not your normal multiplayer game and I struggled to put the game down. I lost days and weeks in the game but I loved every second. As time went by I would put aside a little bit of money every week which I would spend on Vbucks. Over the 6 months or so since I have long finished all my quest missions yet I still play the game almost every day. The game mechanics keep me coming back, pure and simply."

I met Peter through the Fortnite subreddit, which is still called r/Fortnite, and is served with a tongue-clucking disclaimer in the FAQ that if you're looking for the Battle Royale forum, you will need to point your browser in the direction of r/FortniteBR. This wasn't my first time soliciting the tenor of a game's community through Reddit, but when I made my post, saying I was a journalist looking to interview some vanilla Fortnite superfans about the state of their nation, the intensity of the response surprised me. I'm generalizing, but it certainly felt like those who responded were desperate to say their piece on a game they're passionate about before it was too late. My inbox filled up in a way it rarely does. It must feel strange to see Fortnite on top of the world and still feel left out in the cold.

"[We] had already spent time and experience leveling [these weapons] up," says self-described Fortnite superfan Brandon. "The few times [Epic] has earned a little good will from the community such as hoverboards, they have followed it up with something like this reroll issue. For me, they have pretty much lost any good faith that I had left in them. They keep saying 'we can and will do better,' when it comes to communication, and then they do things like not release the patch notes until the patch is going live."

Unlike Peter, Brandon predicts a darker forecast for vanilla Fortnite. "I don't think people are buying Llamas, [the Save The World lootbox equivalent,] so it probably sees little financial return compared to the six year investment Epic has already made," he says. "Once Saves The World goes free-to-play, [which is scheduled for sometime before the end of the year,] it would be that much easier to sever it if Battle Royale is still a hit."

More at the link.
 

WaterAstro

Member
Well, yeah, the problem is that it's not free at the moment, and when it does go free, it will have a massive player base to play it.

No one should underestimate a casual PVE mode that's joined with a PVP mode because if Epic plays their cards right and adds really cool progression and updates it, a lot of people will play it. It's like ARAM for League of Legends, even though it's still PVP, ARAM is far more casual than summoner's rift and ranked, which is what I play because I can't keep up with the changes in League. When I lose a bunch in Fortnite, I just want a mode to win, so I end up playing something else. I haven't played Save the World because I knew it was coming for free.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Well, it’s Epics fault releasing the pvp game for free and save the worlds for cash We also know that save the world will be f2p later so no reason to buy it now.
 

NickFire

Member
I almost bought it but the generic 2018 release date put me off. I can wait a couple months to save $40-$100, and it it becomes end of the year life will go on. All that said, I think PvP's revenue will actually benefit PvE long term. As others mentioned when it launches properly it will have a massive base of players already. That almost guarantees tremendous initial interest, and if merged right the two modes could result in a massive and long term franchise.
 
If they keep V-bucks, paying for Save the World will be worth it for BR players with only a minor time investment.

A quick anecdote: years ago I went to a Comic-Con panel where Cliff Bleszinski, who was still with Epic at that time, unveiled Fortnite as a dream project—a sort-of proto-Destiny, with the whip-smart construction mechanics of Minecraft plugged in.

Maybe this is just worded poorly, but Fortnite was revealed at the Spike VGAs in December 2011. The Comic-Con panel was in 2012.
 

Redshirt

Banned
The progression in Save the World isn't fun long-term IMO. It's exploitive. It really killed what could of been an amazing perhaps even iconic game like Borderlands.

I doubt it'll happen, but I do hope there's some fundamental changes to loot drop mechanics. I'd come back in a heartbeat if it did.

I know StW will surge when it goes F2P, but I suspect most of the new players will become just as frustrated as most of the EA players.
 
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WaterAstro

Member
Maybe this is just worded poorly, but Fortnite was revealed at the Spike VGAs in December 2011. The Comic-Con panel was in 2012.
Maybe he's saying CliffyB unveiled that it was HIS dream project. lol
The progression in Save the World isn't fun long-term IMO. It's exploitive. It really killed what could of been an amazing perhaps even iconic game like Borderlands.

I doubt it'll happen, but I do hope there's some fundamental changes to loot drop mechanics. I'd come back in a heartbeat if it did.

I know StW will surge when it goes F2P, but I suspect most of the new players will become just as frustrated as most of the EA players.
I have a feeling that it's not F2P yet because they are working on big things for save the world. Remember, Fortnite Save the World is actually still Early Access, even though BR is fully free.
 
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Iam a pve Fortnite player who hates new BR. I don't like the fact I'm not getting all those cool BR hero skins into Pve, a mode which I paid 60$ at launch to support the early access version.

They released a cool Keano Reeves John Wick skin which is not available for Pve. this really pisses me off. Here's hoping BR will die soon.





Pve suppose to get new story content and new story missions for canny and twine peak maps, but there is no news on any new story content. I doubt we will get anything. Fuck BR
 
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manfestival

Member
I didnt even know there was an actual released pve component. Just about everything I googled was about the BR aspect of the game when doing some researching trying to understand the hype. I watch twitch and all I see is battle royale. I went in thinking it was something else and got greeted with 100% pvp. Even when signing up for the game it felt like everything was more directed at me playing BR and not involving myself in the paid version. Its almost like the paid version of the game is an incomplete unlock or almost even to get a ton of extra stuff for free(it does state pve but that didnt feel like the focus when going through its funnel so to speak).
 

Memnoch

Member
I'm not interested in the pve mode at all. The BR mode is fantastic and I'm having a blast with it. I'm very happy for Epic and their success.
 

Catphish

Member
I picked up the $40 StW version the other day because my it's all my friend plays these days, and I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

Holy crap. It's fun as hell. Totally fucking daunting at first, with trying to decipher the veritable fuckton of menu items that get dropped on you, but I love the gun play, and crafting a solid defense that weathers the storm feels good.

I've only been playing a few days, so who knows how I'll feel in a month, but for now, this shit is dope. 👍

edit: That said, I have zero interest in BR.
 
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