Are Social Games the Future?

 Social Media and video games have forever been in different lanes of the internet and technological development but a shift is beginning to occur. Fortnite, a video games that is popular for its battle royale mode is starting to gain characteristics of social media apps, making it the first possible "Social Game".

Fortnite first gained popularity in 2017 as a battle royale game, where 100 players were loaded into the games map with the goal of being the last player standing while a damaging storm closes in to push the players together. The game still has these characteristics but it is always changing to stay up to date with its massive, 200 million player base. The size of the player base is where the social aspect comes into play. When players load into the game they sit in the lobby and that is where the chatting starts. They catch up with each other, learn about each others day, it has become a 3rd space that is not home or school for the players to interact. Fortnite is very oftenly live streamed on social media platforms as well and viewers are able to chat with one another about the game. Also the game has added special events for other companies such as LEGO and Netflix in order to promote their product, so they have even become an ad space. 

Basically, Fortnite is taking a new approach on how to present a video game to the public as a "social network" instead of just a game. I believe it is the first of many games to view video gaming in this light. It is likely that other games will soon come to follow.