Fortnite. A hugely popular game played all throughout the country and even throughout the world. It is everywhere. Whether on social media or among students in person, there is always lots of chatter around the game. It has recently become a mobile game available on Apple iOS products after initially being available only to PC and console players.

The game is very popular among students because it is free. No money needs to be spent to play this game, even with groups from 3 friends and up to 99 competitors. It is unique in a world surrounded by games that cost lots of money to play and win. Not only this, but it is very fast paced, especially compared to competitors which can only have matches that are 2 to 3 times as long. In today’s busy world, this is a huge selling point.

Marley Levy, a sophomore, said: “We discussed how long people play FortNite and someone said they don’t play long… when asked how long some people played some said only 8 hours.”

The game is unique in part because of its graphics and building system. The graphics are closer to cartoons than those of first-person shooters such as Battlefield. The building system creates a unique dynamic that leads to battles that are completely unpredictable. These build battles are an integral part of the game that promotes having to scavenge for resources and base building as quickly as possible or inevitably face defeat.

The game was initially revealed in 2011. At the time, it only featured the Save The World game type. This type was a survival mode which involved harvesting resources and surviving in a world of the undead after a massive storm appears and wipes out 98% of the population.

Battle Royale mode was launched on September 26th, 2017, only to pick up great popularity shortly after. FortNite was not the first game to hop on this Battle Royale bandwagon. Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds (PUBG) was a game that had previously been released before FortNite that some players claimed was a ripoff of.

All of these game modes originate from the movie Battle Royale which came out in 2011. Because of this, there were heated debates over whether or not any game can be a ripoff. Other games such as H1Z1 which originated as zombie game also made a battle royale mode.

I asked two players of both sides to give their opinions.

Dominic Costa said,  “The Fortnite: Battle Royale mode is absolutely a ripoff of PUBG.”

Patrick Colas replied’ “Tell me PUBG wasn’t ripped off of H1Z1.”

Costa stated that is irrelevant because “PUBG was built off of H1Z1 but the UI in Fortnite is almost identical to the UI in PUBG.”

This is a common conversation between players of both sides. H1Z1 was another popular game that would later incorporate a battle royale mode. There is no doubting in itself that FortNite was inspired by PUBG but to call it a ripoff is another thing. Even one of the developers has credited PUBG as an inspiration for the game.