>This thing is here to stay, as a new kind of social network.
I have a seriously hard time buying "socialization in online games" as new. In fact Fortnite is a lot less like a social network than other online games, because the interactions are more sporadic and disconnected than for example a raid group in classic WoW cira 2007.
I think the biggest difference is that now it's mainstream.
Back in the early 2000's online games were played by a faction of the population that plays them now. They were fringe, and having "online friends" was consitered to be weird and strange by most (I heard this plenty as my 2 closest friends I only met in person for the first time at my wedding in 2014! After having known them for almost 10 years at the point, and I heard plenty from even family about how it was "a bit weird").
That feeling has changed over the last few years, and now "online friends" are just friends, and the games themselves are actually almost the secondary reason many people play them. The primary being to hang out with their friends online.
How do people end up finding friends online? I spend 90% of my time online, I post on forums, but I didn't end up making even one lasting online relationship. It seems like a fun thing to do though, how does that usually happen?
Hmm. Counterpoint. First, I don't doubt that making friends online is now much, much more common. But I'm surprised at the "weird and strange".
I made some friends online as early as the 90s, in IRC for example. Some of them are such good friends, we still talk to each other every day. But I personally never remember anyone, neither family nor any of the friends that I did not meet online, giving the impression that they find this "strange" or "weird". And the majority of my friends I did not meet online. Few of them are much into computers, or active online, so I don't think there's some kind of bias.
Even when we directly talk about it, e.g. "How did you meet X?" - "Met him online", I don't recall any surprise or judgement. Come to think of it, it's not really very different from "met in a classic car club".
Having met my fiancée online, for contrast, is a bit different. Probably because it does not leave much room for a meet-cute story, and is a rather intentional thing (two people seeking a relationship) instead of a beautiful coincidence. I don't think people care very much about the "origin story" for friends on the other hand, unless it stands out on its own.
I grew up in Germany, if that matters for context.
Habbo Hotel was and still is pretty much one of the prime examples of a social network type game at least to me. Their downfall is not adopting to mobile quickly enough and the insane exploitations that happened by adults to teens there and also by teens who wrote software to exploit the servers.
It had profiles a la MySpace sorta with stickers, music players made, and even a comments section. Groups were similar. Recently they have been ditching their old web pages for profiles and groups in favor of focusing more on the general game client.
You would add friends, message them, instant message with them. Throw parties or create in-game invented games to play. People were literally social, to the point of e-dating and other things. People went to jail over Habbo Hotel. I have an online friend who was arrested in England and questioned for allegedly doing a DDoS attack on Habbo Hotel.
Then theres VMK and Club Penguin. Those were more social based games. I can also see Neopets and Gaia Online considered as such.
WoW was not as widespread as fortnite is. A lot of spotsman and celebrities are streaming it making it more widespread than other games ever were. Plus the existence of twitch...
I didn’t read anything in TFA that wasn’t already present in, say, Halo 2 ten or twelve years ago. I still play weekly with people I’ve played with for over a decade. Got a job interview at a major software company via a contact from the Halo crew.
But that’s just one example. :%s/Fortnite/wildly-popular game with party chat/g
I think the thing that makes Fortnite a game changer in this space is its ubiquity. It's free and cross-play on almost every platform, from phones to high end gaming PCs, and almost every console in-between.
Fortnite is not 'here to stay', at least, not as a mainstream product. It occupies the same position in the market that Minecraft did 6 or 7 years ago for pre-teens. In time, the bulk of Fortnite players will start going to parties, having to study for exams, and trying to talk awkwardly to girls, and the userbase will fall off a cliff.
If it really is like minecraft then it will still be here in a decade. Minecraft had 74 million active players last december out of the 150 million copies sold over the games life time. That is a stagering retention rate for an industry that is all about the next big things.
You're right, but publications have to write glowing articles about these trends because it's easy traffic and will get clicks, especially from older (non-teenager) users who feel out of touch with the youth 'zeitgeist'.
The sheer volume of articles written about Pokemon Go and the future of AR in 2016 was mind-boggling, especially as the popularity of the game peaked in less than a year.
My wife is very good about keeping up with old friends from back home; me, not so much.
Over the past year, I've been semi-consistently playing weekly fortnite sessions with three old friends, and it's been great. It's something we all do and laugh at while we're on a group phone call together, and it's good for an hour of relaxing and talking on a Sunday night.
The fact of it being free is important because none of us play outside of these gatherings (making the large-download updates problematic when they show up.)
I played Eve Online (way too much) a decade ago and there developed some friendships that are as real as any I've ever had.
Fortnite I've only played with my son, for an hour or two a week. Sometimes a friend or two of his will join us but usually its just the two of us. Its been pretty cool to share this, but I'm a little skeptical that overall its really representing something new. Yes, maybe its more mainstream, but it is also much more limited than other environments, because you can only have four people in your party. What if your buddy group is five or six? There is really no practical way to play together.
I used to play a lot of EverQuest with friends. At some point we realized it was like an elaborate chatroom - a place to hangout just as much as it was a game.
This is a big part of why Minecraft was worth buying for 2.5B. Minecraft provides an endless wilderness to explore, modify and hangout. Particularly powerful with kids since that's something they're no longer allowed in the real world.
I would say the same thing was the case for a game like World of Warcraft.
The big advantage of game-based social networks is that they have a purpose which means they have a constructive goal which is shared among the players, plus they have rules for how to win.
I would rather that my kids spend time in Fortnite than on Facebook.
I believe fortnite is popular because battle royale suits the streamer model of high community interaction during the buildup phase, and then opportunities to display significant technical prowess during the late game.
If streaming starts to lose popularity, fortnite will too.
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I have a seriously hard time buying "socialization in online games" as new. In fact Fortnite is a lot less like a social network than other online games, because the interactions are more sporadic and disconnected than for example a raid group in classic WoW cira 2007.
Back in the early 2000's online games were played by a faction of the population that plays them now. They were fringe, and having "online friends" was consitered to be weird and strange by most (I heard this plenty as my 2 closest friends I only met in person for the first time at my wedding in 2014! After having known them for almost 10 years at the point, and I heard plenty from even family about how it was "a bit weird").
That feeling has changed over the last few years, and now "online friends" are just friends, and the games themselves are actually almost the secondary reason many people play them. The primary being to hang out with their friends online.
I made some friends online as early as the 90s, in IRC for example. Some of them are such good friends, we still talk to each other every day. But I personally never remember anyone, neither family nor any of the friends that I did not meet online, giving the impression that they find this "strange" or "weird". And the majority of my friends I did not meet online. Few of them are much into computers, or active online, so I don't think there's some kind of bias.
Even when we directly talk about it, e.g. "How did you meet X?" - "Met him online", I don't recall any surprise or judgement. Come to think of it, it's not really very different from "met in a classic car club".
Having met my fiancée online, for contrast, is a bit different. Probably because it does not leave much room for a meet-cute story, and is a rather intentional thing (two people seeking a relationship) instead of a beautiful coincidence. I don't think people care very much about the "origin story" for friends on the other hand, unless it stands out on its own.
I grew up in Germany, if that matters for context.
It had profiles a la MySpace sorta with stickers, music players made, and even a comments section. Groups were similar. Recently they have been ditching their old web pages for profiles and groups in favor of focusing more on the general game client.
You would add friends, message them, instant message with them. Throw parties or create in-game invented games to play. People were literally social, to the point of e-dating and other things. People went to jail over Habbo Hotel. I have an online friend who was arrested in England and questioned for allegedly doing a DDoS attack on Habbo Hotel.
Then theres VMK and Club Penguin. Those were more social based games. I can also see Neopets and Gaia Online considered as such.
[1] https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/fortnite/2018/9/20/1788...
[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-o...
But that’s just one example. :%s/Fortnite/wildly-popular game with party chat/g
After Blizzard releases WoW Classic this summer, I already know what will 2019's most important social network be :-)
Check the player count of fortnite from November...
The sheer volume of articles written about Pokemon Go and the future of AR in 2016 was mind-boggling, especially as the popularity of the game peaked in less than a year.
Minecraft is still very popular among certain age groups. Some age out as others age into it.
Over the past year, I've been semi-consistently playing weekly fortnite sessions with three old friends, and it's been great. It's something we all do and laugh at while we're on a group phone call together, and it's good for an hour of relaxing and talking on a Sunday night.
The fact of it being free is important because none of us play outside of these gatherings (making the large-download updates problematic when they show up.)
Fortnite I've only played with my son, for an hour or two a week. Sometimes a friend or two of his will join us but usually its just the two of us. Its been pretty cool to share this, but I'm a little skeptical that overall its really representing something new. Yes, maybe its more mainstream, but it is also much more limited than other environments, because you can only have four people in your party. What if your buddy group is five or six? There is really no practical way to play together.
Fortnite is super popular among humans.
Humans are very social animals.
Fortnite sees a ton of social activity.
This is a big part of why Minecraft was worth buying for 2.5B. Minecraft provides an endless wilderness to explore, modify and hangout. Particularly powerful with kids since that's something they're no longer allowed in the real world.
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The big advantage of game-based social networks is that they have a purpose which means they have a constructive goal which is shared among the players, plus they have rules for how to win.
I would rather that my kids spend time in Fortnite than on Facebook.
If streaming starts to lose popularity, fortnite will too.