>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.
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
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.
I haven't played Fortnite, but from what I know it took a somewhat resurgant form of gameplay (battle Royale) and added some innovations to great success.
I can see Fortnite having a multi year run, but gaming is a completely different medium to a traditional 'social network'. Maybe this says something critical about social networks, mainly the fact that a successful social network must be oriented around passive consumption rather that active participation.
I'm sure folks watch Fortnite videos online and live streams, but I get the sense that a large number of folks have spent more time playing that watching. You cant really say that for most other social networks, especially when you remove 'power' users such as influencers and brand accounts.
But even traditional social networks change and shift and dont really last the same way. Facebook has had some lasting power but it has decreased and died in many ways. Vine. Snapchat. And many other things have taken huge chunks of mine shares. While Facebook owns or buys some of them. Most more traditional social networks I'd argue also aren't really lasting things either. They are probably longer half life and slower churn than a gaming social network but other than the half life they suffer same problems.
It’s interesting to me in that it gets people together as a product of a combined interest rather than just united in over-sharing.
That said I feel like most game based social networks seem more transitory than the purely “social” networks. Not out of any inherent inferiority but more just as a product of the general nature of games
Title should say Discord instead of Fortnite tbh. Nobody needs to be explained the gargantuan presence of Fortnite but where there's a game of Fortnite, there's a Discord server.
I find that gaming serving as a social space is not a new concept in any capacity.
Games that attract nearly everyone, even in just some age groups, to one social space are rare.
You won't be joining say...an "EVE Online" discord unless you have bought the game and want to play it. Fortnite is as free as Facebook and is at critical mass for many groups. It ends up becoming the lingua franca of gaming socialization.
the "bigger" play for CSGO will be the "free-to-play". I'm trash as CS, but it's my game of choice. Valve has been doing a ton to keep the game fresh this past year
I have a nephew who will mess with his brother, and play these at random from a Bluetooth speaker in their house. It is interesting, and is probably already making for an interesting study somewhere.
[+] [-] whatshisface|7 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] Klathmon|7 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] giancarlostoro|7 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] usaphp|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikestew|7 years ago|reply
But that’s just one example. :%s/Fortnite/wildly-popular game with party chat/g
[+] [-] jfarmer|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bfuller|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tzh|7 years ago|reply
After Blizzard releases WoW Classic this summer, I already know what will 2019's most important social network be :-)
[+] [-] DC-3|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cuban-frisbee|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rchaud|7 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] DanBC|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Namrog84|7 years ago|reply
Minecraft is still very popular among certain age groups. Some age out as others age into it.
[+] [-] tbihl|7 years ago|reply
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.)
[+] [-] jeremyjh|7 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] Waterluvian|7 years ago|reply
Fortnite is super popular among humans.
Humans are very social animals.
Fortnite sees a ton of social activity.
[+] [-] Reedx|7 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] ThomPete|7 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] cheschire|7 years ago|reply
If streaming starts to lose popularity, fortnite will too.
[+] [-] 40acres|7 years ago|reply
I can see Fortnite having a multi year run, but gaming is a completely different medium to a traditional 'social network'. Maybe this says something critical about social networks, mainly the fact that a successful social network must be oriented around passive consumption rather that active participation.
I'm sure folks watch Fortnite videos online and live streams, but I get the sense that a large number of folks have spent more time playing that watching. You cant really say that for most other social networks, especially when you remove 'power' users such as influencers and brand accounts.
[+] [-] Namrog84|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] olliej|7 years ago|reply
That said I feel like most game based social networks seem more transitory than the purely “social” networks. Not out of any inherent inferiority but more just as a product of the general nature of games
[+] [-] shiburizu|7 years ago|reply
I find that gaming serving as a social space is not a new concept in any capacity.
[+] [-] goobynight|7 years ago|reply
Games that attract nearly everyone, even in just some age groups, to one social space are rare.
You won't be joining say...an "EVE Online" discord unless you have bought the game and want to play it. Fortnite is as free as Facebook and is at critical mass for many groups. It ends up becoming the lingua franca of gaming socialization.
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