Kittens Rant: Fortnite Hate

So, welcome back to my rant page my fellow kittens. I am up on my litter box again with another peculiar little problem in the gaming community I want to call out. The irrational hatred and bashing of Fortnite and the putting down of those that play it! And one of the big weirdnesses in this is that it’s not the usual toxic kids that are putting this game down but grown adults who should be a bit more understanding that all games have a place somewhere and their own fan base. So let’s just jump right into this and chat.

This is something that our founder Kevin and I talk about quite often. In a world where the toxic gamer is commonplace and is usually taking the form of a 12-year-old cussing you out for stealing a kill or for not playing well enough, we find a new level of hatred in adults for the game Fortnite. Kevin is in a few dad gaming groups on Facebook and he keeps telling me about how divisive this simple shooter game is. It seems Fortnite, when you are dealing with the adult players, falls into one of two groups. You either enjoy it (whether or not you’re good at it) and see it as a fun game to pass the time with, or you completely loathe it for seemingly no good reason that we have seen yet and will put down anyone that plays it. There are a few, but very few people, who don’t like it but realize that anyone can play and enjoy any game they like to.

In gaming, a toxic fandom is quite normal, unfortunately, but here we see a toxic non-fan that will go out of their way to put down anyone who actually plays this game. We’ve heard from Kevin that the moderators of some of the groups he is in are starting to not like the game for the simple reason they are tired of having to delete all of the hateful crap that gets posted either in the group or as a response to those that enjoy the game. So what is it that these people tend to say? Well it boils down to really 2 things mostly and those two things don’t seem to be really enough to cause such hate but yet we see it. The first thing we hear a lot in this argument is that it’s a children’s game. The second argument is that the game isn’t as good as PUBG or Apex Legends so why play it. So let’s just dive into these arguments and see why they are quite honestly loads of BS.

1- It’s a children’s game.  OK this is a shooter…sure there’s no blood and gore like in some but it is still a game that’s literally saying “Hey jump in and kill everyone until you are the last one left!” and honestly, I don’t think that is a kid’s game even if it is done in a bright colorful manner. Now a teen and above game sure but let’s be honest here how many adults out there play the Lego video games, or Mario, or Smash Brothers, or Plants vs Zombies? How many adults helped a simple childish game like Flappy Bird become the huge hit it was? There are literally millions of people out there who are over the age of 20 or even 30 that play all of these games that are literally more childish than Fortnite. Hell, look how many adults are still trying to “Catch Them All!” in Pokemon after all this time and can you get any more childish than Pokemon? Yet we don’t see any of these get the hatred that Fortnite does.

2- “Get out of that shit game and play Apex!” “Oh god, you play that? Grow up and play PUBG!” So what’s the huge difference that makes PUBG and Apex Legends better than Fortnite? Well considering I have played both I have to say…well objectively nothing really. PUBG is a shooter that like Fortnite has single-player or squads of various sizes the biggest difference here is a more realistic to life setting and the lack of building mechanics. Your looks depends (at least when I played it a while back) mostly on whatever armors you pick up but as you start off running around in your underwear it’s kind of ridiculous. Honestly, I don’t see how starting off in your underwear is as bad as outlandish cartoony skins like in Fortnite. So what about Apex how is it better than Fortnite? Well, there’s no falling damage. It’s a bit more realistic looking than Fortnite though it is very Superhero-ish with the Legends you can choose from and I don’t see how that is all that much better.

So why is there really so much hate for this game? I think that the answer is simple. Building Mechanics. No other shooting game has this kind of gameplay and to be honest it’s not always the easiest mechanic to wrap your mind around. Kevin and I both don’t really build in the game and we are amazed at people who suddenly build towers in like 2 seconds after the first bullet hits them. Now Kevin is better at building than me, but neither of us is all that great at it and a lot of complaints we hear from most people who don’t like the game is simply “I suck at building.” Now I’m sure there are other problems but this is what we see the most and it makes me wonder if all the hate really worth it because you aren’t finding the game as easy as you figured it would be thanks to the bright colors and silly skins?

So here’s the thing…here’s the crux of it. Everyone is welcome to play whatever they want. Everyone is welcome to enjoy whatever games they play. Everyone else is welcome to just shut the hell up instead of being an asshole. Let people enjoy what they enjoy and stop being toxic. Let’s just celebrate gaming for gaming instead of being elitist pricks alright?

Let’s start being kind to each other and let the gamers unite!

Love to you all!

Kitten