Fortnite Live One Time Event [Happened]

The event was not only really cool, but holy shit at how Epic managed to get it to work with so many people assuredly hammering their servers trying to log in. Like that is some serious backend wizardry. Kudos to them, can't wait to see what else they have in store!

Is the crack getting bigger? I swear that one side is longer now...

I don't get it. A rocket launched and made a crack. People are freaking out like this is huge.

I must be missing something?

Abylim said:

I don't get it. A rocket launched and made a crack. People are freaking out like this is huge.

I must be missing something?

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I suppose it means that something very large will either be going into, or coming out of, that crack! ^_^

Abylim said:

I don't get it. A rocket launched and made a crack. People are freaking out like this is huge.

I must be missing something?

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It's a pretty cool thing to have one-time events change a game world/game.
This is stuff I've been wishing games would do for a long time.

Abylim said:

I don't get it. A rocket launched and made a crack. People are freaking out like this is huge.

I must be missing something?

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The fact that it happened in real time across every server in the game regardless of what you were doing is what's interesting. It basically shared world, community-wide storytelling in a competitive multiplayer game, which is a wholly new thing, and opens the door to even more insane instances of this kind of storytelling happening as the game evolves. This also also seemingly leading to gameplay/content additions too, so it's not just cosmetic.

In the past changes like this would have only appeared in an update with patch-notes telling players what happened. Looking back at (single-player) games like Half-Life, people love it when a developer changes things up with storytelling and make it more interactive/player driven.

It definitely looks like the crack has gotten bigger on one side but I could just be not remembering how big it was originally.

Happy I got a recording of it ingame. I died a few seconds after takeoff, but it was cool to see.

Spark said:

The fact that it happened in real time across every server in the game regardless of what you were doing is what's interesting. It basically shared world, community-wide storytelling in a competitive multiplayer game, which is a wholly new thing, and opens the door to even more insane instances of this kind of storytelling happening as the game evolves. This also also seemingly leading to gameplay/content additions too, so it's not just cosmetic.

In the past changes like this would have only appeared in an update with patch-notes telling players what happened. Looking back at (single-player) games like Half-Life, people love it when a developer changes things up with storytelling and make it more interactive/player driven.

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This.

It's also a very bold move doing this live in the most popular game at the moment. I love it.

Spark said:

This also also seemingly leading to gameplay/content additions too, so it's not just cosmetic.

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It's pretty wild to think how many other game modes they could add besides BR variants. The shooting is just so fun they could spread it across any other sub-genres and it would be an instant hit.

CTF with player built bases on each side......

Raiden said:

This.

It's also a very bold move doing this live in the most popular game at the moment. I love it.

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Definitely makes up for their fumbling around not releasing the playground LTM. Though I can't blame them for having unforeseen technical issues, it was pretty silly to hype it for weeks and release an amazing launch trailer for it, only to have it not be up until a week after the release date.

Dark Knight said:

CTF with player built bases on each side......

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Didn't know I wanted this until now, sounds really fun.

Would be pretty cool if someone was killed by the falling thruster... YouTube moment right there

Hentz said:

So all that hyping for.... nothing? Just a rocket cutscene?

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lol. Pretty much yeah.

This has be one of the coolest thing to happen this generation. Epic has done an amazing job.

Hentz said:

So all that hyping for.... nothing? Just a rocket cutscene?

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Context is king though. It happened live in-game for any player playing Fortnite at that specific time, and coupled with the teasing and the mysteriousness of the scene, hype reached critical mass.

It's a very clever way of creating buzz and speculation in the gaming world ahead of the start of Season 5 in just over a week, which is still shrouded in mystery.

Vareon said:

This has be one of the coolest thing to happen this generation. Epic has done an amazing job.

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I found it similar to FFXIV's end-of-1.0 event, which was pretty awesome but not as cool as this simply because that was a cutscene and this was more of an interactive game element.

Spark said:

The fact that it happened in real time across every server in the game regardless of what you were doing is what's interesting. It basically shared world, community-wide storytelling in a competitive multiplayer game, which is a wholly new thing, and opens the door to even more insane instances of this kind of storytelling happening as the game evolves. This also also seemingly leading to gameplay/content additions too, so it's not just cosmetic.

In the past changes like this would have only appeared in an update with patch-notes telling players what happened. Looking back at (single-player) games like Half-Life, people love it when a developer changes things up with storytelling and make it more interactive/player driven.

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Storytelling? Hopefully it leads to more than just a rocket cracking the sky. Cuz that's not story.

I appreciate the scope. I just don't think it's anywhere near as cool as most seem to. I thought I missed something but I guess I'm just not as into it as I need to be.

Thanks for the replies though

Abylim said:

I don't get it. A rocket launched and made a crack. People are freaking out like this is huge.

I must be missing something?

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Is it cool for people to be excited about something nowadays that don't excite you? It's cool what other game has done a real time event like this? Besides some MMOs?

RikRok said:

Is it cool for people to be excited about something nowadays that don't excite you? It's cool what other game has done a real time event like this? Besides some MMOs?

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I don't think ever said people can't be excited about it. I just don't understand why. Or what lol

Abylim said:

Storytelling? Hopefully it leads to more than just a rocket cracking the sky. Cuz that's not story.

I appreciate the scope. I just don't think it's anywhere near as cool as most seem to. I thought I missed something but I guess I'm just not as into it as I need to be.

Thanks for the replies though

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There's a difference between storytelling and story/plot/narrative. Likening it back to Half Life, the story in Half Life 1 wasn't anything to write home about (science experiment summoning monsters from other worlds, where have I heard that one before?), but the way it was told to the player was revolutionary at the time (entirely diegetic, happening in realtime to and around the player as opposed to cutscenes). Now I'm not saying this is anywhere near as close of revolutionary as Half Life (it isn't), but in a multiplayer context this way of storytelling (realtime, community-wide engagement) is a new thing and it's why people are excited about it. The fact that the story is currently 'rocket flies into sky a breaks something' is not relevant as to why people are engaged.

The story they're trying to tell (whatever is happening to the game world) is going to be shit and set up to service new content updates/MTX I'm sure, but the way it's being presented/told to the community is unheard of within multiplayer games. Like I said in other competitive multiplayer games these changes would be relegated to patch notes, literally text files players had the option to look at. And that's if the developers wanted to tell any narrative at all regarding map/gameplay changes. Compared to this, which was an real time spectacle that drew the engagement of literally the whole community as they were playing.

PUBG is on the other side of that crack.

The thing people who don't follow fortnite need to know is that pretty much each week or two, little details in the map change which help to slowly build up to big things.

This season after the meteorites crashed, buildings were destroyed and taken over by the government which changed the layouts of various locations.

You have trucks collecting samples and changing where they are positioned, all seemingly moving to one location week by week.

You had the meteorite in the centre open to reveal a life support capsule/ship and introduced a new character skin.

Then a missile base was built and a missile added later. Then the tvs displayed an ominous skull and then a countdown leading up to the launch.

None of this is broadcast to the players except the launch so as you play you start picking up clues about what's happening and where the game is going.

That's what's most impressive to me about this game. When I first played it ages ago I thought it was OK but was terrible at it so didn't play much. Came back when Thanos was introduced and have been only playing this now and have gotten much better (still not amazing or anything with about 33 wins) and I'm really invested.

I didn't expect to get this much change and regular updates that help tell a story quite organically from this game and that's what makes it so special. That and of course the variety of scenario's you can find yourself in when playing, all having unique feelings.

It sounds weird for me being so supportive of the latest multi player shooter trend since I have never been into cod or battlefield but this really is a great game and really does deserve the praise it gets due to the ever changing world, regularly updated content, fantastic pricing model and most importantly a chance to have some unique and memorable battles and scenarios with people.

After the missile launch and how successful it seems to have been based on all the hype, I'm really looking forward to what epic do for other big events since this should have solidified that it's a working strategy and seems very popular in gathering the community so we could see even crazier stuff in the future.

Dark Knight said:

It's pretty wild to think how many other game modes they could add besides BR variants. The shooting is just so fun they could spread it across any other sub-genres and it would be an instant hit.

CTF with player built bases on each side......

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Man I just had a vision of 50 v 50(or squads even) CTF with vehicles....
that would be amazing.


recently i'd also been thinking of a Solo mode where you could pick your weapon to drop with but you absolutely can't change or pick up others after that.

Abylim said:

Storytelling? Hopefully it leads to more than just a rocket cracking the sky. Cuz that's not story.

I appreciate the scope. I just don't think it's anywhere near as cool as most seem to. I thought I missed something but I guess I'm just not as into it as I need to be.

Thanks for the replies though

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Yes, storytelling. Not only did this literally impact the world of the game across platforms, but on a narrative level, players became part of the diegetic story. In a dramatic sense, Epic let players become a part of the history of their world, live. It seems minor but this sort of thing is pretty rare for pure multiplayer games anymore. MMOs used to have cool stuff like this.

As others have said, these sorts of changes usually happen instantaneously, delivered via patch notes.

Fortnite going to get people craving shared world events and kickstart an MMO renaissance. Thank you Epic.

This is pretty similar to Elite Dangerous encounter with alien. I wish more games does this.

People have such bad instincts for events like this, it seems. So many videos of people dropping immediately down or at the launch site itself and not seeing shit. I gently glided down to land on top of the Lonely Watchtower and had a perfect view the entire time.

Laserdisk said:

I scanned the thread, does anyone have an explanation for an outsider on what this was?

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Wanderer5 said:

Fortnite is currently on season 4 that started early May, and there has been bit of a story going on. At the start of the season, a meteor crashes into part of the map, and it is later revealed to have brought in this guy.

The "Visitor" then went to a secret base that contains a rocket and modified it for launch. Thus today it launched, creating a huge rift in the sky, and this is leading to season 5 which is starting July 12th.

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There's also a side plot that involves a superhero movie being made. Moisty Mire is currently a film set when before it was an empty swamp.

I never felt so unified with people in a game or a community before . Felt really cool.

ElBoxyBrown said:

There's also a side plot that involves a superhero movie being made. Moisty Mire is currently a film set when before it was an empty swamp.

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And I'm lost again.
You would think with my age and my love of Sega blue skies I would be all over this.
But I just can't.
It does feel like a less visually interesting 90-2000s Sega joint at times tho.

I do like how the crack in the sky is visibly getting bigger every day. It's nice to see they can so subtly change things on the fly like that.

Viral marketing for Red Faction ReMARStered.

Winny（๑•̀ㅂ•́）و said:

I do like how the crack in the sky is visibly getting bigger every day. It's nice to see they can so subtly change things on the fly like that.

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Yeah, it's really awesome. Fortnite is finally paying off on what games like Destiny promised for GaaS. This kind of narrative told through events and constant shifts in the game world creates real depth to the universe and makes the game much more interesting to play.

One of the buildings in retail changed into a retro-style detective agency along with the shop update last night that brought the gunshoe/noir detective skins. Also the first time they'e changed the map in that way outside of an actual update day.

This supports the time travel theory more and more. Cracks at lonely and the motel in the north of the map cold mean they might be changing as well.

The crack in the sky is getting bigger, the shimmer at Lonely Lodge has turned into a crack and seems to have erased the Lonely Lodge sign from existence, and other shimmer has appeared at the motel.

A detective agency has also sprung up in Retail Row

Kei- said:

One of the buildings in retail changed into a retro-style detective agency along with the shop update last night that brought the gunshoe/noir detective skins. Also the first time they'e changed the map in that way outside of an actual update day.

This supports the time travel theory more and more. Cracks at lonely and the motel in the north of the map cold mean they might be changing as well.

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I believe the detective agency was introduced in last week's update. It was there before Saturday's event.

How gnarly would it be if the rift just ripped open one day in the middle of season 5 to introduce a new map in an alternate dimension?

I hope a mainsteam game like Fortnite doing a shared event successful like this makes MP focused games see how this kind of thing should be done.

In my honest opinion, no other game is doing F2P better than Fortnite.

You don't have to pay a dime to play the most popular game in the world, and you don't have to pay a dime to partake in these unique live events, evolving story threads, and map changes.

When you DO pay for a Battle Pass, you not only get rewards right up front, but it also unlocks tons of new challenges and milestones to work for all season long. I love that it doesn't just give you stuff. It gives you much, much more to do.

Non-paying players also have challenges to unlock and work toward throughout the season, but those who are willing to pay for the Battle Pass are likely the players who play much more frequently, and their willingness to pay and play is rewarded with even more reasons to play. In the end, it looks like everyone is getting what they want, and the rotating modes keep things fresh.

I've played Fortntie for months now because we report on it so frequently -- it was just a part of my job -- but now I consider myself a fan. EPIC is doing such a great job with this project.

Crossing Eden said:

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Damn, that is super cool!