Fortnite Battle Royale: Epic Games Explains Why Friendly Fire Was Removed
Friendly fire within games is an interesting challenge for an experienced team of players. however when it comes online play with randoms, it can be frustrating … when trolls are thrown into the mix, it turns into something that just isn’t fun anymore. This kind of toxicity is something developers and players alike are searching for answers on how best to diminish the power of trolling within these online environments. Epic Games has decided the answer for their game was to remove the Fortnite Battle Royale friendly fire entirely.
Originally, the friendly fire feature was implemented as a necessity as many similar games had this fucntionl. Ben Lewis-Evans, a user experience lead researcher at Epic, explained in a recent interview that the developer received multiple reports of players team killing for loot or just just to troll. This led to the developers then removing the feature as an experiment. Should players have absolutely balked at the idea, the plan was to reinstate it.
We had theories about what could be impacted by [turning friendly fire] on and off, but you can look at things like, ‘Did people play more field games? ‘Were they playing more with friends? ‘Was the number of accidental deaths going up or down?,’ How do you tell what’s a general team kill? Another problem with team killing is that the player thinks it’s genuine, but it’s accidental. It doesn’t matter if they were, though, because the emotional impact still carries.”
In an effort to control the amount of negative behavior a little bit in-game, the feature was left out of the shooter, “One of the good things that I’ve been a proponent of and that’s kind of been picked up is looking to game design as a solution to this rather than just reporting [players]. We turned off friendly fire and then the friendly fire toxicity problem goes away. 100 percent solved, there is no problem. That’s solving it by design.”
There are still plenty of issues to solve within Fortnite Battle Royale and games in general but it’s good to hear companies are coming up with answers to help improve the gaming community as a whole. Let us know your thoughts on the removal of Fortnite Battle Royale friendly fire and more in the comments section below. As alway,s don’t forget to follow Don’t Feed the Gamers on Twitter for 24/7 coverage of all things gaming and entertainment.
Chris Calles1560 Posts
Known as "Stash" or Yippee Calles. He's a student of everything, avid adrenaline junkie, and creator of random things. When he's not delving into a game, book, or movie - He's out teaching himself new things or taking part in some pretty epic adventures. You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.
