A lot of backlash occured recently when Fortnite teased players with hints of the Old Map. This made players respond in a variety of ways with the general response being that they want the Old Map back. Whilst I agree with the movement, I believe to save the game we're going to need more than just that.

The game we downloaded years ago has changed a lot since then and a lot of us aren't happy. To start I would like to touch on the atmosphere of the game and how it's changed. Fortnite used to be a communal game which encouraged communication between both your friends and those online. It had automatically enabled Game Chat and a simple to use Friend system. We would be met with weekly updates to the game which encouraged content creators to keep up their work and encouraged professional players to adapt to the changes. This is all gone now. New updates are slow to release and the game is not giving anyone any new mechanics to enjoy or experiment with. I understand that Epic Games may have found the weekly updates difficult but then there is no excuse to drop connection.

That moves on to my next point which is connection between the developers and the players. It's gone. Players have asked for many changes recently and yet Fortnite refuses to respond. As a company this is awful. They refuse to release patch notes which kept the community updated with the newest changes and whilst they are slowly releasing them to content creators, they're missing out on their biggest population of players, casuals. There is a lack of communication about competitive events and finally the largest problem is their refusal to react to the biggest problems in the game, we are yet to see a return of the old map, the return of a diverse item selection, the return of enjoyable mobility and much more. These sound like small issues but I'm sure a vast population of players would be happy with having their problems addressed by Epic, not solved but addressed. In Chapter 1, if we had an issue with something we could ask Epic for some tweaks and by the next week we would have them, now they won't even address us.

My next point is on community engagement. Currently I feel they're doing very good, the Travis Scott Event was a blast alongside many other newly added features, but how long is it going to be before they become stale too? There is no engagement when you're in a match, you find yourself repeating the same thing over and over again. You would end up with the same items and weapons, fighting the same fights, where is the intrigue?! In Chapter 1 there was a vast selection of items and you would always find yourself with a different inventory, Impulses, Shockwaves, Storm Flips, Airstrikes, Shield Bubbles, Rift-To-Gos, Junk Rifts, Grapplers, Chug Jugs, Slurp Juice and Chiller Grenades are just some of the items that allowed for more interesting encounters. Hunting Rifles, Hand Cannons, Revolvers, Tactical Assault Rifles, Combat Shotguns, Burst SMGs, Infantry Rifles, Compact SMGs, Grenade Launchers, Scoped Assault Rifles, Scoped Revolvers and Drum Shotguns were just some of the guns that allowed for fights to be more interesting. Some of them were broken, but that's what made them fun. In Chapter 2, the developers unintentionally made the selection of weapons so terribly balanced that they don't allow any more fun and we're trying to help them bring back that factor to the game.

My next point is on KISS. KISS is a commonly known acronym for the phrase "Keep It Simple Stupid" and it fits perfectly with this situation. The game has become too congested. Whilst they've taken out a lot of the variety in weapons and items, there is far too much variety in the basic necessities. The Battle Pass and our Weekly Challenges have been replaced by this confusing table, set of doors and vents. The death screen is too congested with random buttons and icons. The creative lobbies are too difficult to navigate. The main lobby is full of new icons and features that I'm not sure even matter. Achievements mean nothing and definitely don't require their own tab. Medals are useless and whilst they do give you XP, it would be far more rewarding to grant XP for challenges or kills. The leveling system also needs some tweaks, the combination of levels and tiers was an awful decision in my opinion. Tiers were easy to navigate and you would understand how to tier up through daily and weekly challenges or through levelling up. Now I'm uncertain whether or not I will level up by doing a challenge compared to knowing I was going to level up because I only needed 2 more tier points.

My second to last point will be on mobility. Mobility has been ruined. In Chapter 1 we had a vast selection of ways to traverse the map. Ziplines, Rifts, Shockwaves, Impulses, Ballers, Quadcrashers, Planes, ATKs, Shopping Carts, The Volcano, Volcano Vents and Slipstreams were just some ways of traversing. These were fun ways to move around the map with friends and allowed for varied play styles. Now we have boats, which are appreciated but have limited viability, most of the map is still above water level. We have Helicopters which are a fun way to move around, but are very scarce, only being found in around 5-6 locations and only coming in sets of 1. They also are far too balanced, Planes were broken, but allowed people to move around the map in a fast and fun way, even allowing the plane to shoot, in this vehicle, the driver has no offensive capabilities and therefore doesn't have as much fun as the other players.

My last point is my message to Epic. Please fix this game. You've probably heard that a thousand times but I mean it. This game is dying and you alone are the only ones who can save it. My advice is to reintroduce LTMs, reintroduce a lot of the vaulted items, reintroduce or introduce exciting ways to traverse, engage the community with the storyline, make it vague like in Chapter 1 and allow content creators to come up with their own theories or thoughts on the storyline. And finally, engage with your community, we are the ones that give you money for your free game so listen to us, we need you to respond to our critisism and keep people interested with weekly updates. It's not too much to ask, you kept it up for almost 3 years so don't be surprised now when we expect it. You can tell us that the game is doing better than ever and more people are playing it, but realistically would you rather an engaged community that creates new builds for The Block, comes up with skin concepts and praises your game or would you rather a larger community of people that don't. I love this game and want it to succeed but in the position it's in now it won't. Please listen to us Epic.

(oh and if all else fails just bring back the old map honestly just do it)