How I Became Addicted To Fortnite.

Brandon Fassberg
Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read

A story of a passionate gamer with a little extra time and one unapologetic love for digital victories and imaginative immortality.

  • If you’re reading this, it’s because I finally found the will to put down my PlayStation 4 controller, give “Battle Royale” mode a break and write this article.

It wasn’t easy..


What Is Fortnite?

Fortnite is a FREE online multiplayer video game experience that hilariously drops you out of a flying blue school bus (held up by a large balloon) referred to as the “Battle Bus” to collect building and weapons resources used to help outsmart your opponents and be the last one standing.


The Battle Bus.

You along with 99 other creatively customizable characters travel steadily in this bus over a large, post-apocalyptic island complete with cleverly-named regions (Flush Factory, Shifty Shafts, Retail Row etc.) until you decide when it’s strategically safe enough for you to exit..

And then you dive in.. literally.


Season 5 Map.

Exit Strategy

While you either float gracefully or dive aggressively towards the island surface, your aim is to land in a region without much company and with many resources. These resources will help determine how prepared you’ll be when you inevitably encounter opponents who want to knock you out and steal everything you have. Savage.

Getting goosebumps yet?


Incoming.

The second you land with the help of a built-in parachute function, you have to move. Fast.


What’s Yours Is Mine(d)

Luckily, each character is complete with a mining tool that allows you to break down structures, trees, rocks, trucks or pretty much anything that isn’t natural ground.

By breaking down these things, you’re collecting building materials that you can use to create new structures that either help defend from other players’ attacks or lead you to places that would otherwise be obstructed.

But be careful..

This makes a lot of noise and that can lead to your detection. Or worse.. being on the receiving end of a “Boogie Bomb”.


Deadly dancing.

Sounds pretty standard right?

Wrong!

While you and 99 others are simultaneously gathering resources and weapons, building structures and attacking one another, there is a constant looming threat from above that keeps you moving and inspires you to act fast and prepare accordingly. The Storm.


Storm’s coming.

The Storm

See that very large blue, checkered wall above? That’s The Storm. From the second each match starts, a storm begins to form and slowly closes in on the community of players. The clock counts down as players rush to specific areas of the map that will be storm free after that countdown ends.

Make it to the map radius before then, you’ve still got a shot at “Victory Royale”.

Become trapped in the Storm area and it will eat away at your health bar. Stay too long and it will completely drain your health leaving you to crawl for a teammate who can revive you (if you’re playing Squads).

Pro Tip! Do everything you can to stay within that white circle..


Stay in that white circle.

Fortloose

One of the absolute best parts about playing Fortnite has got to be the dancing. Why Epic Games decided to add a dancing element to a third-person action-adventure experience is beyond me..

But it works. So perfectly well.



The Addiction

So why have I become so addicted to this game?

As a gamer since the very beginning, I’ve developed a unique appreciation for these immersive digital experiences. Opportunities to take the winning shot, beat the final boss and rescue the pretty girl in the real world don’t come nearly often enough.

Fortnite delivers on that perfect sensation of charting your own course and using your reflexes, wit and imagination to outsmart others through a colorful, vibrant, hilarious, and explosively creative environment.

With multiple game modes, virtually unlimited ways to customize your player and an accessible entrance to an expertly-designed world, Fortnite pulls you in and keeps you coming back again and again.

By the way, this is my current skin..

Want to join my Fortnite Squad? Find me at Brandonbassador.

See you on the Battle Bus!

And remember.. Mind the Storm.

Brandon Fassberg

Written by

An avocado-obsessed storyteller from Queens with an unapologetic love for bringing people together in beautifully-unexpected ways.

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