It is astonishing how popular Fortnite has become. I played the game when it first came out, and it’s been through a lot of noticeable changes. But I never thought it would grow as viral as it is now. Honestly, the game isn’t that good, or at least it’s not as good as people say it is.

First off, probably the most devastating factor to this game is the amount of time you waste on striving for a win, also known as a “victory royale.”

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Imagine it’s your first time playing Fortnite. You know nothing about the game. As you play more, you learn the basic controls, the habits of other players, how to build, and many other aspects of how to play with the most efficiency. Eventually, you apply the skills you’ve learned, and you grind and grind and grind until you finally earn that victory royale you so rightfully deserve. “YES!” you scream, “I WON! This is the greatest feeling of accomplishment I’ve ever felt playing a video game!”

So now you have a win under your belt. You notice in your personal stats you have a “1” under your wins. You’re the best player out of all 100 of those players that initially entered the lobby. Do you get anything? Like a reward for finally winning after grinding for three hours? Nope. Nothing. You earn absolutely nothing. All of that time you spent grinding constitutes to zero rewards. “Oh, cool, I received a little more XP than I usually do because I won.” Isn’t that the whole reason anyone plays a video game? To have fun and to feel a sense of accomplishment towards some kind of reward? Why do the game developers build up a win to be such an awesome achievement when you don’t actually receive anything for it?

It makes me wonder how people who play this game every night continue to play it every night when they are essentially wasting their time and earning nothing. It is probably one of the least rewarding video games ever created.

The most ironic part of it all is the fact that Fortnite does indeed have plenty of skins, emotes, and other worthless items (that don’t affect the gameplay mechanics at all) that the developers could allow players to unlock, but they are insistent that you buy the in-game currency (v-bucks) in exchange for real money. And of course, players fell into this trap, and they still do. Why not earn a fair sum of v-bucks for winning? Earning and saving up v-bucks would actually make the game worth playing.

In terms of actual gameplay, 90 percent of what you do involves running and looting…nothing exciting. You repeat the same cycle every game. You could blindfold yourself, hold in the run button, and still be alive five minutes later. It‘s hard to think that a game such as Fortnite, being as repetitively boring as it is, being this insanely popular.

On a side note, you have your very own, friendly neighborhood Fortnite pros right here in Tyrone Area High School giving you “tips” on how to play a video game. If you want to be told how to play a video game, then I feel bad for you. Who wants to be told how to play a video game? Do you want a tip on how to win? Find a shotgun and learn how to use it.

Fortnite can simply be summed up as a repetitive, boring video game that only includes a minute amount of excitement and fun, and ultimately leads to no reward or accomplishment when you win.