Fortnite 堡垒之夜中的建造系统分析
在《堡垒之夜》迅速走红之后，许多人都会问到这个游戏和《绝地求生》比起来怎么样。《绝地求生》作为大逃杀式游戏的鼻祖风靡全球。尽管许多人不会拿这两个游戏的难度和技巧性来作比较，这仍然是一个非常有趣而值得探讨的问题。大多数人会认同《堡垒之夜》的建造机制使它变得与众不同，便不再继续讨论下去。有些人甚至会说，它完全改变了大逃杀类型游戏，引入了一个全新的技能。在最近的H3播客中，Ninja(Twitch知名主播)称《堡垒之夜》的建造机制拉大了玩家间的技术差距，使它成为了一个更加"具技巧性的游戏"。
我不会试图回答哪个游戏更难或更具技巧性，我所要分析的是《堡垒之夜》中建造机制所发挥的作用。关于这一点当然有非常多可以深入分析学习的东西，然而我的分析将仅停留在表面，只涉及这一机制的一般特质而不是非常细节的东西。除了我个人的观察思考外，我还采访了三位技能水平不同的《堡垒之夜》玩家，我把他们的观点放在文章的末尾，并将这些与我的看法进行比较。
最后，文章内容出于我的观察思考，并非在传递一种观念或形成论点。
1.利用第三人称视角
在交战中建造的主要优势之一是使你能够利用第三人称视角和镜头角度获得优势。竞技游戏通常会避免这一机制，因为它鼓励玩家防守作战，许多人会认为这很无聊和不公平。一个最显著的例子就是第三人称竞技游戏《战争机器 4》，游戏的整体关卡设计使玩家很难利用视角来获得优势。
建造机制使玩家在交战中随时都能获得这种优势。对于那些建造老手来说，这往往使游戏变成比谁建得更快站得更高。在对手发现你之前发现他们是一个极大的优势，经常能让你在对手做出反应、甚至是瞄准你之前朝他们开一枪。(在主机上这个现象更加突出，因为瞄准在你上方或者身后的对手所需要的时间比使用鼠标和键盘要长)然而，这种玩法并非只能用于防守，因为玩家可以利用建筑拉近与对手的距离，(当对手的瞄准能力比你更好时，这将对你极为有用)。
Building in Fortnite（from gamasutra.com）
（Ninja通过建造拉近他和对手的距离。即使对方有自建掩体，Ninja还是能够接近他们并赢得胜利。）
这种视角优势降低了瞄准速度的重要性。在短距离作战中效果尤为明显。赢得比赛不在于谁更快地打中对方，因为你的第一枪通常是从他们的背后打出，而你会躲在掩体后直到他们再次出现在视野中。
（此处，Ninja发现一个敌人正在靠近，他快速建造掩体来隐藏自己的移动。在第三人称视角下，他知道对手的准确位置，而他的对手却不知道。讽刺的是，在他取得优势的这一刻游戏卡住了。他已经准备好射击，而他的对手仍然需要时间做出反应。Ninja的操作非常快，但是一个瞄准能力低一些的玩家多花个十分之一秒也能获得类似的优势。）
（在这个例子中，注意看Ninja在接近对手的过程中建造的那面垂直墙体。他的对手无法知道Ninja会从哪个方向靠近，因此他不知道朝哪里开枪。Ninja没打中对方，但当他暴露自己时他已经处于优势地位，因为他知道对手的位置。）
2.建造机制的战略性
建造机制作为一个额外的战略工具能为玩家带来优势。然而据我观察，我认为玩家的建造速度太快以至于它不具有真正的战略性。高水平的玩家往往依靠习惯和肌肉记忆来建造保护自己。大多数的建造技巧(在当前的游戏环境下)归结为速度和操控性。我倾向于把这种技巧与其它射击游戏中的倾斜/观测（leaning/peeking）机制相比较（《绝地求生》中也有这种机制）。玩家们在进行这些动作的时候并不会思考太多，并且我认为这些决定大多出于直觉而非策略。
既然提到策略和直觉，我想在此解释一下它们的区别。我相信国际象棋和快棋的区别是一个很好的类比。在普通象棋比赛中，玩家们在落子前会考虑诸多因素，对手可能做出的选择、自己的选择，并权衡不同的结果。然而，在快棋比赛中，因为玩家没有太多的时间来做决定，他们无法进行同量的谋划。只能根据过去比赛的经验，棋局的状况，以及通常很强势的走位。这类知识就是我所说的出于直觉。它源于策略，但建立在经验和学习的基础上。
从这个角度来看，《堡垒之夜》的建造机制就没那么独特了。也许这不是一个完美的对比，但在近距离作战的条件下，它所发挥的作用和倾斜/窥探机制差不多。它们使玩家能够在自身曝光最小的情况下勘察周围情况，所要求的敏捷度也是一样的。这样看，建造机制最有趣的地方在于它对玩家来说显而易见。对于很多玩家来说，如何有效地使用倾斜/观测机制仍然是个迷，因为屏幕上看这种视觉差异十分微妙。相比之下建造物体的可视性强多了。
（这是ChocoTaco在《绝地求生》中运用倾斜技巧。发现对手后，他从门边探出身子，然后又从窗边探出身子。通过倾斜，他将自己的暴露程度降到最低，并且能够迅速后退掩护。这个机制如同《堡垒之夜》的建造机制一样拉开了玩家间的技术差距。最重大的区别在于玩家对于不同机制的理解。比起建造物体，这种移动对于观察者来说更加微妙。值得注意的是这一机制在其他的射击游戏比如《武装突袭 3》和《彩虹六号》中被玩家深入研究过。）
这里我还是要重申一下，《堡垒之夜》中的建造通常出于直觉和经验，与经过谋划和权衡后做出的选择是不一样的。游戏中，玩家也可以进行战略性运用，那便是通过建造获得第三人称视角优势。在这个游戏中，只要在对手发现你之前发现对方你就能获战斗胜利。如果你们同时发现了彼此，那么你们其中一人会死亡或者双方都死亡。游戏的重点在于谨慎地搭建墙体/斜坡掩护自己，同时尝试发现你的对手。
3.掩体的制造
第三人称视角优势大多在近距离作战的条件下才有用。而在狙击战斗中，快速瞄准更为重要，此时大部分优势都被弱化了，因为双方玩家都清楚对方的位置，并且在对手离开掩体开枪射击前总能看见对方。（和第一人称视角一样）
在远距离作战中，玩家常常需要立即建造掩体。像港口堡垒这种手榴弹式的道具，一落地立即生成一个三层楼高的堡垒，便强调了这一设计意图。这样做的目的是降低交战中地形的重要性。在战斗中玩家总是能够得到掩护，玩家不需要紧张地在地图上寻找安全区域。这一点对于理解游戏中的建造机制格外重要——它不仅影响了战斗过程、还有整个玩法。
4.建造机制对大逃杀模式的影响
正如我之前提到的，在其它大逃杀游戏中，地形是玩家战略的一部分，然而赋予玩家建造能力则降低了地形的重要性。这大大减少了玩家在地图上移动时的紧张感(至少一旦你知道如何建造之后)。而将地形这一要素从游戏中移除似乎解决了大逃杀游戏如今面临的最大问题之一。
在其它大逃杀游戏中，你可能会因为位置不好而输掉比赛。从本质上讲，这是由于游戏中的划圈是随机的，你的对手之前隐蔽的位置可能刚好位于圈内或者能够让他抵挡伤害，那么他会获得极大的优势。而《堡垒之夜》的建造机制大大消除了这种随机性对玩家的影响，通过建造机制让玩家制作掩体从而减少地形的整体影响。
地形在战斗中的重要性的全面降低引发了一个关卡设计问题。在其它大逃杀游戏中，地图的作用是让玩家进行有趣的战斗并有效搜寻物资。然而，由于建造机制降低了地形的重要性，也就减少了游戏所需的用于平衡物资分布的系统，赋予游戏设计者更多的控制权。开发者可以进一步探讨这一点，特别是空投这种动态的物资输送系统，以及提供不同物质来源的自动售货机。
大逃杀游戏中的建造机制的一个有趣的衍生是跟踪系统。在《达尔文计划》或备受期待的《独行者》发行以前，《堡垒之夜》中的建造机制被当做所有大逃杀游戏中最有意义的跟踪系统。因为你可以看到之前玩家建造的结构、其他人曾经到过的地方以及发生过战斗的地点。玩家可以根据这些信息选择加入战斗还是远离。
结论：
《堡垒之夜》中的建造系统显然为射击游戏提供了一个新的机制，并且为玩家提供了一些新鲜刺激的战斗方式。正如Ninja所说，建造机制造成了玩家间巨大的技术差距。对我来说，这种机制让我产生了两种相互矛盾的感觉。
一方面，游戏重点由射击转移到了建造上，这使得游戏更容易上手。一开始就进行射击比赛挺具挑战性的，因为你的大多数对手在别的游戏中已经练成了熟练的瞄准和射击技巧。通过推出一个新的机制作为最重要的技能，它使所有的玩家在相对较短的游戏时长内获得提升，因为所有的玩家基本上是在一个公平的环境中开始游戏。这一点在游戏生命周期初期尤为重要，因为它给玩家一个明确的目标并且让玩家们觉得有机会实现它。如果你今天开始认真打《堡垒之夜》，你可能会在一年之内成为顶级玩家。但是《反恐精英》的玩家是不可能相信这套说辞的。另一个很好的例子是《火箭联盟》，如果很早开始打这个游戏，你很容易成为最厉害的玩家之一 (不包括SARPBC的老玩家)。
通过观察如今的《火箭联盟》，也许我们可以看到《堡垒之夜》的未来。随着越来越多的玩家学会了飞行，旋转和定位又重新成为了玩家们最看重的东西，并且也是区分更高级玩家的参照因素。也许，随着玩家建造能力的提升以及游戏环境的变化，《堡垒之夜》可能也会回到传统大逃杀模式中以策略为主的状态。然而，如果策略性在游戏中只扮演次要的角色，《堡垒之夜》可能会因随机性影响力过大而丧失游戏本身的意义(这也是许多人对于大逃杀游戏的总体看法)。
另一方面，建造机制从本质上移除了大逃杀类型游戏中最具策略性的元素：交替作战和在缩小地图上寻找定位。当我观看一场高水平的《绝地求生》比赛时，我喜欢观察各个队伍在最后一轮中的所处的位置，并以此预测赢家是谁。这也是我玩《绝地求生》的方式，我会和队友们讨论我们将如何在地图上移动。这种团队思维和策略性玩法是大逃杀游戏的独特核心。我不知道现在的玩家是不是这样想的，因为大多数玩家都习惯了死亡竞赛模式，他们只想成为场上最优秀的选手。
建造是一个值得探索的有趣机制，但是我认为在一个我们更深刻理解的游戏模式下我们更能够了解它，比如团队死亡竞赛或者夺旗比赛。此外，我不认为建造机制适用于大逃杀游戏(至少当前)，因为它使这一类型游戏丧失了其有趣而独特的部分。
采访部分：
为了采集更多想法，我想和其他《堡垒之夜》玩家交谈，听听他们对游戏中的建造机制的看法(游戏邦注采访者按照游戏时长排序)。
采访1：(游戏时长少于15小时)
-你认为建造机制为《堡垒之夜》带来了什么？
玩家和地图的互动提升了，也为人们提供了更多区分游戏风格的方法。一开始我不知道如何使用这个功能，现在它成了制造掩护和占领优势位置的有效手段。
-什么叫区分游戏风格？你看过/了解哪些游戏风格，或者它们有什么不同？
嗯，我不得不说我的经验相对较少，而且我的电子游戏背景也比较匮乏。但是有些人利用建造机制长时间地掩护自己，有人用它进行攻击，有人用它在枪战中获得有利位置，有些人根本不使用它。看了一些游戏直播后我发现对于如何使用建造系统，每个人都有不同的思路，无论你是用它打进敌人的堡垒还是建造你自己的堡垒来平衡局势。显然，在任何游戏中都有主动攻击和被动防守两种游戏风格，但是建造系统为游戏增加了额外的复杂度，和另一种能够帮助你在游戏中战斗的新技能。
访谈2：(游戏时长60小时)
建造机制为游戏带来了两样主要的东西。一是它形成了一种核心机制，那些经验丰富的玩家通过建筑获得更有优势的位置。另外它提供了在地图上移动的新方式。玩家可以通过建造坡道和平台跨越一些障碍，比如山，而不需要绕过他们。这使他们拥有更多的选择，一些玩家可以选择避开战斗进入安全区。玩家甚至可以利用建造系统沿着地图边缘移动。
采访sLiniss：(游戏时长200小时)
这次采访是在他直播时进行的。
建造是游戏的全部。这就像给游戏添加了另一个维度。如果《街头霸王》是2D，而其他的射击游戏是3D的话，那么这个游戏相当于3.5D。你可能不擅长射击，但是个建筑大神，那么你将在这个游戏中比那些射击厉害的人获得更多的胜利。没有建造，就没有《堡垒之夜》，因为建造是这个游戏的核心。没有建造系统，没人会玩这个游戏。
-你是怎么掌握建造技术的？
我开始学习它是因为我被虐惨了。我的其它竞技游戏经历激励我一定要变强，而提高建造技术就是出路。我通过看YouTube视频和直播学习然后大量地练习。你认为在FPP(第一人称视角游戏)中，这种机制还能成功吗？*他在屏幕上做了一些调整展示游戏在FPP下可能的样子*这游戏没办法做成FPP。你没法看到你的对手。建造是一个新颖的机制。这就是为什么这个游戏大受欢迎。每个人开始的条件都是一样的。最近出现了很多这种拥有不同职业选择的非对称对抗类游戏。
我的看法是：
在得出了我的结论后，再阅读这些观点是很有趣的。前两位玩家的回答很相似，尽管他们的游戏时长差挺多的。有趣的是这些Youtubers能够对玩家产生影响还能使他们了解游戏的运作。
第三个采访也许是最有趣的，因为他强调了建造系统对游戏的重要性。至于他提出的3.5D理论，我的观点有些许不同。我认为《街头霸王》是2D的，但大多数射击游戏只有2.5D，因为大多数射击都是在水平方向进行，它们并没有真正利用垂直空间。而建造系统使《堡垒之夜》"接近"3D，就像《光环 5》的攀爬、高空跳跃机制和关卡设计一样。一个完全3D的战斗游戏应该像《天旋地转》（Descent）那样，你可以在无重力的环境下360度操控飞行器。
此外，关于建造系统新颖性的评论与我的观点是一致的，我之前分析过一个新的机制如何从旧机制中吸取一些技能然后吸引一个全新的玩家群体。
本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao
In the wake of the meteoric rise of Fortnite, many people ask how it compares to PUBG, the extremely popular predecessor in the battle royale genre. While many will not make a claim as to which is "harder" or "more skillful", the question is an interesting one and worth exploring. Most people defer to saying "Fortnite has building which makes it completely different" and stop the comparison there. Some will go as far to say that it changes the battle royale genre entirely, adding a completely new skill to master. Recently in his appearance on the H3 Podcast, Ninja (the Twitch super-star) has made the claim that building in Fortnite creates a higher skill gap between players, and ultimately a more "skillful game".
I won’t attempt to answer which game is harder or more skillful, but rather I will attempt to analyze how the building mechanics play a role in Fortnite. This will only scratch the surface, as there are certainly many more things that can be learned by a more in depth analysis, so I will try to cover only general properties of the mechanic without going into extreme detail. In addition to my own observations, I interviewed three Fortnite players of different skill levels about their perspective on building in the game. I will include these at the end, and compare them to my own thoughts.
Lastly, each of these sections should be treated as observations, and are not meant to convey an opinion or form an argument.
Building to Exploit 3rd Person Perspective
One of the main advantages you gain when building in a firefight is the advantage you exploit from 3rd person perspective and camera angles. This is usually avoided in competitive games because it encourages defensive play, which many consider boring and unfair. However, one notable example of a competitive 3rd person game was Gears of War 4, where the overall level design made it hard to exploit camera angles to gain an advantage.
Building allows a player to give themself this advantage at any time during a firefight. Among proficient builders, this often results in a drawn out exchange of building up quickly to be the higher player. Being able to see your opponent before they see you is a huge advantage and often will let you land a shot before your opponent has time to react and even begin aiming at you. (On console this is a bigger issue, because flicking to an opponent who is above or behind you will take longer than for a player using keyboard and mouse). However, this play is not only defensive, as players can use building as an approach tool to close distance between themselves and the opposing player (this is especially advantageous when your opponent has better aim than you).
-Ninja is using building to help close the distance between him and his opponent. Even though the other player had cover (which they built themself), Ninja was able to approach and ultimately win the fight.-
The result of this 3rd person advantage is a reduction on the importance of aiming speed. This effect is much more significant in short range combat. Winning a fight becomes much less about to be able to react to an opponent when aiming, as your first shot will usually be in their back, and you will stay in cover until you have vision of them.
-Here, Ninja sees his opponent approaching. He quickly builds cover which will hide his movement. Because of the 3rd person perspective, Ninja knows the exact location of his opponent, but his opponent doesn’t. Ironically, Ninja’s game freezes at the perfect moment to see this advantage at play. He has a perfect body shot lined up, while his opponent still needs to react to him jumping out of cover. Ninja moved quite quickly, but a player with less aiming ability could have taken another few tenths of a second and still had a similar advantage.-
-In this example of a fight Ninja is in, look at the placement of the vertical wall as he approaches the player on the building. That player can no longer tell where Ninja will appear from, and so he doesn’t know where to aim. Ninja misses the shot, but he had the advantage when he revealed himself because he knew where his opponent was.-
Strategic Building
One way to look at the 3rd person advantage gained from building is to say that it gives players an additional strategic tool. However, my observations lead me to believe that building happens too quickly for it to be truly strategic. High-level builders are using habits and muscle memory to build in a way that always protects themselves. Most of building skills (in the current meta) comes down to speed and maneuverability. I would compare this skill much more to the leaning/peeking mechanics other shooters (which are also in PUBG). These aren’t decisions that players generally think heavily about, and I would categorize these decisions as instinct rather than strategy.
As an aside, I would like to explain the difference between strategy and instinct, at least as I use them here. I believe a good analogy would be differences between chess and blitz chess. In normal chess, players are thinking many moves into the future, considering the options their opponents have, their own options, and weighing different outcomes. However, in blitz chess, because players have much less time to make decisions they cannot do the same amount of planning. They rely on their knowledge of previous games, the "shape" of the board, and positions which are generally strong. This type of knowledge is what I mean by instinct. It is a skill which derives itself from strategic play, but is built on experience and studying.
When viewed in this light, the building mechanics in Fortnite seem much less unique. While it isn’t a perfect comparison, building in the context of close range combat offers a very similar role to lean/peek mechanics. It gives players a tool to look around objects while minimizing their exposure, and requires a similar level of dexterous skills. When viewed in his light, the most interesting aspects of building are the way it makes itself visible to the player. For many players, it is unclear exactly to use the lean/peek mechanics effectively, because the visual differences on screen are much more subtle. On the other hand, building puts this skill in the spotlight with a large visual representation.
-This is ChocoTaco using leaning in PUBG. After spotting an opponent he leans out of the door, and then out of the window. By leaning, he exposes himself minimally and allows him to duck back into cover quickly. This mechanic creates a similar skill gap between players as building does in Fortnite. The most important difference here is how the player is informed about the mechanics. This movement is much more subtle to an observer than building is. It is important to note that this mechanic has been well explored in other shooters, namely Arma 3 and Rainbow 6 Siege.-
It’s important to reiterate that building in Fortnite is usually instinctive and internalized, as opposed to planned and weighed against other options. A strategic implementation of building in a game could be made with a core mechanic is building to gain 3rd person advantage. In this game, you would win any fight if you see your opponent before they see you. If you see each other at the same time, it could be a random death or you both die. The focus of the game would be carefully placing walls/ramps to maneuver in a way to stay in cover, and while trying to gain vision of your opponent.
Building for Cover
3rd person advantage is mostly only relevant in the context of close range fights. In a sniper battle, the quick aiming skills are emphasized, and most of the advantage is mitigated by both players always having a pretty good idea of where their opponent is and being able to see them come out of cover before firing a shot (just like in first person perspective).
One thing to worth noting is that this rarely happens among top players. Because of the strength of building, top players usually are using it for approaching/close range fights, because it will give them more consistent/fast results. However, it is very common to see beginning players do this type of thing.
In the context of a long-range battle, building is used to create instant cover wherever you are on the map. Items like the Port-a-fort, a grenade that instantly creates a 3 story fort wherever it lands, emphasize this design intent. The result of this is ultimately a reduction of importance to the landscape in regards to firefights. By always having cover available to you, it removes some of the tension of moving across the map into the safe zone. This becomes especially important when trying to understand how building affects not just combat, but the overall gameplay.
Building’s Impact on Battle Royale
As I just mentioned, the ability to build reduces the importance of the terrain navigation strategy found in other battle royale games. This drastically reduces the tension felt while moving across the map (at least once you know how to build). Removing this element of the battle royale genre seems to help one of the biggest problems facing these games as viable competitive: the end circle.
In other battle royale titles you can lose because of a "bad circle". Essentially this comes down to the circle centering on a random location, and can give your opponent a massive advantage by allowing them to defend the circle from their previous position. The building mechanics in Fortnite largely eliminates the impact of the random circle by allowing the creation of cover, and reducing the overall impact of the terrain.
This overall reduction to the importance of terrain in combat poses interesting questions concerning level design. In other battle royale games a map has to serve both fun combat and effective looting. However, because building removes the importance of terrain navigation, it gives the designers more control by reducing the systems they need to balance in regards to loot placement (across the map on a macro scale). This could be explored further by the developers, especially with tools like supply drops to serve as a dynamic loot delivery system, and the placement of vending machines relative to different material sources.
Another interesting result of building in a battle royale game is a tracking system. Until games like The Darwin Project or the highly anticipated Mavericks become available, building in Fortnite serves as the most significant tracking system in any battle royale game. Because you can see the previously built structures of other players, you are able to see where others have been and where fights have occurred. This information gives players the option to pursue a fight or stay clear of one.
Conclusions
Building in Fortnite clearly offers a new mechanic to master in a shooter, and offers new and exciting ways for players to fight. As Ninja put it, building creates a huge skill gap between players. For me, this creates two conflicting feelings about the mechanic.
On one hand, building shifts the focus away from shooting, which makes the game more approachable and learnable. Beginning to play competitive shooters is challenging because most of your opponents have a many hours of experience with aiming and shooting mechanics which they have developed in other games. By moving the most important skill to an entirely new mechanic, it allows new players to "get good" with relatively low playtime, because all players are essentially starting on an even playing field. This is especially important at the beginning of the lifecycle of a game because it gives players a clear goal and a realistic chance at achieving mastery. If you started playing Fortnite seriously today, you could likely be a top player within year or less, but this would not be true of the next Counter Strike game. Another good example of this was flying in Rocket League. If you could fly in the early days of Rocket League, you would easily be one of the best players in the game (excluding SARPBC veterans).
Looking at Rocket League today might give us a hint for what is to come of Fortnite. As more and more players learned to fly, the importance of rotations and positioning returned to the forefront of player’s minds, and is what separates higher ranked teams. It seems possible that as building proficiency rises and the meta evolves, the most important factors may revert to strategies inherent to the battle royale game mode. However, if strategy plays only a minor role in the game, Fortnite may be weighed down too heavily by randomness to be competitively viable (which many people believe to be true for all battle royale games in general).
On the other hand, building inherently removes those most strategic components of the battle royale genre: rotations and positioning on a shrinking map. When I watch a high level PUBG match, I love to observe how teams position themselves in the final circles, and make predictions about who will win. This carries into the way I play PUBG, as my teammates and I discuss how we want to move around the map. This mindset and strategic play is really the core of what makes the battle royale genre unique. I don’t know if this is obvious to the current player base, as many are used to playing deathmatch games and are just looking to play "the popular shooter".
Building is an interesting mechanic that deserves to be explored, but I think we could learn a lot about it in the context of a game modes we understand much better, like team deathmatch or capture the flag. Moreover, I don’t think building belongs in a battle royale game (at least at this time) because it removes a key part of what makes the genre interesting and unique.
Interviews:
As part of gathering my thoughts, I wanted to talk to other Fortnite players to hear their perception of building in the game (presented below in order of increasing experience).
Interview 1: (less than 15 hours of experience)
What do you think building adds to Fortnite?
Well there’s an increased ability of interaction with the map, and it adds ways for people to differentiate their playstyles. I didn’t know how to use it in the beginning and now it’s useful for creating cover and making it easier to get to places of advantage
What do you mean differentiate playstyles? What playstyles have you seen/know about, or in what way can they be different?
Well, again I have to say I’m relatively inexperienced and my video game background is sparse. But there are those who choose to build for protection for long periods, those who use it to attack, those who use it to gain a position of power in a gunfight, and those who don’t use it at all. When I’ve watched streamers play, there seems to be different thoughts on how you use building, whether it is a useful tool to build up to an enemy fort (and how you do so) or if you use it to make your own to even the gunfight. Obviously there are aggressive and passive playstyles in any game, but now there’s an added layer of complexity, and a new skill to pad out that can help you in fights in the game.
Interview 2:(60 hours of experience)
Building adds two main things to fortnite. One developed as a core mechanic for experienced players where players attempt to build over each other’s structures in order to obtain a more advantageous position. The other is the ability to create new ways to travel across the map. Ramps and platforms let players go over obstacles such as mountains instead of going around them. This opens up options that let some players avoid engaging in fights with others as they make their way to the circle. Building can even be used to travel along the edge of the map.
Interview with sLiniss:(200 hours of experience)
This interview was conducted while he was streaming What do you think building adds to Fortnite?
Building is everything. It’s like adding another dimension to the game. If street fighter is 2D, and other shooters are 3D, then this is like 3.5D. You can be not good at shooting, and a god at building, and you will win the game more times than the guy who is better at shooting. If there is no building it wouldn’t be Fortnite, because building is the game. No one would play this game if it wasn’t for building.
How did you learn to build?
I learned to build because I was getting owned so many times. My background in other competitive games drove me to want to get good, and building was the way. I just learned from watching youtube and other streamers and then practicing a lot. Do you think building could work in fpp (first person perspective)? *Does some shuffling around on stream to show what it might look like from FPP* This game would not work if fpp. You wouldn’t be able to see your opponents. *some time passes* Building is fresh. That’s why this game is popular. That and the way everyone starts the same. We have had so many class based asymmetric games come out recently.
My Response:
After coming to my own conclusions, it is interesting to read over these. The first two responses are quite similar, despite the players having such a different amount of playtime. It is very interesting to see how much YouTubers can influence and inform the player base about how the game works.
The third interview was perhaps the most interesting, because he emphasized the importance of building in the game. In regards to his 3.5D comment, I would like to propose a different model. I think Street Fighter is 2D, but most shooters are only 2.5D, in that they exist in a "slab" which begins at ground level and goes up to the highest elevation point. Most of the shooting happens in a horizontal direction, and they don’t really take advantage of vertical space. Building allows Fortnite to "approach" 3D in the same way Halo 5 does with it’s clambering mechanic, high jump, and level design. A fully "3D" combat situation would be Descent, where you have 6 degree of freedom control in zero gravity.
Additionally, the comment about building being "fresh" aligns with the point I made previously about how a new mechanic can take some of the skill out of old mechanics and invite an entirely new player group to the game.