Bear River’s phones are abuzz with legions of students playing the newly mobile Fortnite game.
Recently, students and adults alike have been entranced by the 100 player battle arena game called Fortnite. Players fly into the map from the “battle bus” and duke it out on a post-apocalyptic island in an attempt to be crowned the winner of the match. On Thursday, March 15, the previously console and PC-only game was released onto the iOS platform as a mobile game. Bruins have been playing at school ever since.
Senior Johnny Calleri said playing Fortnite doesn’t interfere with school.
“It doesn’t affect it that much; I only play it a little bit,” he said. “I don’t play it as often as other people.”
Calleri also found it weird how the game is being played by most everyone, not just a specific group or clique.
“It blew up really quick so it’s kind of weird, I guess, and everybody is playing it, not just one group,” he said.
Senior Devin Crabb said he thought the game has some real destructive power.
“I feel like it’s pretty … sick, but it ends some good relationships,” he said.
Crabb also explained how the game affects him in class.
“Yeah, (it affects me) when I play it in class,” he said. “… (I play it) when I can, cause you know you gotta set some time aside to catch the dub (win), otherwise you have to leave mid-match, that’s not good.”
Justin Kilgore, a senior, commented on what it’s like to see students playing the game in class.
“It’s funny because you go into a class and … four people would be playing a game together in the corner and it’s funny because you know they are but the teacher doesn’t know they are,” Kilgore said.
History Teacher Matt MacDonald doesn’t think that it affects his students too much, except for the classes right after lunch.
“Certainly there is a lot of trying to get people off of Fortnite after the bell rings, like people still playing from lunch, especially fifth period,” Mr. MacDonald said. “Doesn’t really affect it too much except for our fifth period. … Now that it’s mobile, I mean I think in general, people are excited for it and obviously time and place for everything.”
Despite Mr. MacDonald having to sway his students from playing the game in class, he has played the game before. His first experience with the game was self-described as “really hard … but it was super fun.”
Even though most students are having fun with Fortnite at the moment, most agree that trend will pass soon enough. Crabb had a very powerful outlook on the subject.
“No, that … is gonna end by the end of the year, mark my words,” he said. “Fortnite will be dead in 2019!”
