In the very ongoing battle with Epic, Epic has tried to bring together as many Fortnite communities as possible to help them. Epic seems to be hoping that the global Fortnite community can apply enough public pressure to Apple that Apple will back down and reaffirm Epic’s demands. However, Epic does not seem to connect with the Competitive Fortnite Community.
Epic’s use of the Fortnite communities
Epic has the various Fortnite communities armed as much as they can during this fight, mostly by trying to strike a blow against Apple and get Fortnite players to take a side in a fight where they have little to gain.
But through this process, it becomes increasingly clear that Epic sees the Fortnite players not as individual people with their own values as opinions, but rather as a collective led by Epic as a cultural figure. But as far as this is concerned, it seems that Epic is overshadowing its influence over many of the people who play Fortnite.
Despite the well-coordinated campaign for public opinion, one group seems largely uninterested in the outcome of Epic’s fight.
The Fortnite Competitive Community, often forgotten, often ignored
As Epic tries to rally its game base and build twitterchat in support of Fortnite, the competing community. has expressed a different feeling. Rather than support Epic as Fortnite, or even attack Apple, many have simply rejected the idea that Epic would ask for their support if they did not offer one.
Many issues currently place Fortnite competitive, including the fact that the company running the game does not seem to care about its competitive integrity. Whether it makes abrupt changes in balance and card layout but days before major events or simply ignoring game balance altogether, the competitive community often feels like Epic thinks its main goal is marketing, not competing.
Does Epic deserve the support of its fans?
And this comes at another point. Does Epic deserve support itself? Do fans of something have an obligation to support it in its goals?
No, they do not. That is not to say that they would not have to support something they believe in, only that they should not feel compelled to do so. Fortnite, Epic, Apple, and everything else would have to sink like swimming based solely on their own merits. What should happen to these companies accused of monopolistic business practices is a discussion that should be held by society as a whole.
What this means is that regardless of the legal status of these companies, and regardless of whether everything they did falls within the strict letter of the law, we need to be able to come together and talk about what kinds of rules and regulations we want as a society place about this kind of companies.
You do not have to look to the future to see that what Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and even Epic are doing is not sustainable. At some point, success is tarnished to the point that those who came later have almost zero chance of achieving an appropriate degree of success.
For a historical analogy, you need to consider what happened to railroads. When it became apparent that a monopoly on transportation would soon ensue, the United States enacted the Sherman Antitrust Act, with John Sherman stating, “If we do not tolerate a king as a political power, we would not “King must tolerate the production, transportation, and sale of one of the essentials of life.”
Why would modern Americans, or indeed anyone with access to the internet, suffer under the almost monopolistic control of a single internet hegemony?
Published 24 Aug 2020, 12:38 IST
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