July 5, 2018
By Maven Road
“Fortnite: Battle Royale”, the popular online multiplayer phenomenon, unveiled its latest in-game event last Saturday. In typical Fortnite fashion, the event was presented in a mega-explosive way: a rocket launch!
During the event, many players ceased the fight to build a tower for a better view of the upcoming display. While all of the players stood there in awe as the rocket was launched into space, a player snuck up behind them, destroyed their tower and exterminated 48 other players.
This party pooper’s username is Elemental_Ray; and he now holds the Fortnite record of 48 killings in 5 seconds! The previous record was 33. In the aftermath, Twitter was the channel of choice for dead players to spread their frustration against the user who had taken them down in such a cowardly way.
Elemental_Ray’s mentions skyrocketed from 0 at the beginning of the month to 1730 on the day of the event (June 30).
Fortnite fans seemed to have mixed emotions after this new record was set. Many seemed furious; while others expressed admiration for the covert way in which the killing was carried out. A sentiment analysis revealed that 17.8 % of comments on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter disapproved Elemental_Ray’s strategy. On the other hand, 16.6 % of the analyzed statements backed up his actions. 65.6 % of mentions remained neutral, showing a feeling of doubt among the audience.
From a sentiment analysis point of view, we are looking to get a deeper comprehension of the attitudes of users who constantly interact with video game news and information on social media; but who spend a fortune on consoles, games, and any other video game related gear. Businesses are trying to discover wealth hidden inside social media text in order to understand their customers’ opinions and needs, and in turn to make better, more informed business decisions. These insights can be an extremely useful tool to prevent any future crisis.
Last Saturday, “Fortnite” received 668,847 mentions. This gives us an idea of the importance of this event among players. During the event, the @epicgames handle’s mentions grew from 3k in the beginning of June to 6.5k after the event. Epic Games (the company who created Fortnite) could potentially stand to benefit huge from this kind of data to apply reforms in future events.
Each of these unique events are promoted a week before, adding changes to the game’s narrative, both in survival mode and also in the battle royale mode. Maybe the players who did not have the opportunity to witness the event should not worry.
Surely, Fortnite will have another big one-time event soon, but it’s crucial for Epic Games to continue listening and understanding what their audiences are saying.