Zuckerberg is to blame. How games will evolve into metaverse with Fortnite

Most recently, Mark Zuckerberg renamed its parent company from Facebook to Meta, stating that he is now focused on creating the metaverse – the future of the entertainment industry. And while the giant is actively working on the development of something incredible, other companies are also keeping up with the trends, offering the audience their views on the latest virtual entertainment. For example, on December 1, Epic Games introduced the Party Mode to Fortnite, a great way to jump between worlds, chat, and learn new things. And after playing for only a couple of hours, I am confidently ready to declare that the mode will be an incredible success, because Epic Games has everything you need.

What is the metaverse and what is Zuckerberg’s idea

First of all, it is worth noting that absolutely all current metauniverses actually have only general outlines with the idea of ​​Mark Zuckerberg, but their essence is completely different. The head of Meta wants to create software and hardware components so that in the future people can travel between virtual worlds, communicate with other people, do a variety of things and interact with the surrounding virtual world without leaving the room (or even without getting up from the couch). Touching foliage in the forest, throwing a ball into the ring, fighting with swords, climbing rocks and so on – with full immersion at your fingertips.

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Quite expectedly, similar projects like Roblox or Zepeto do not give any full immersion – they, like “Parties” in Fortnite, borrowed only the idea of ​​communication between people, various virtual activities and travel between locations. In this case, there is no talk of full immersion, but, on the other hand, such metauniverses do not require the user to purchase additional hardware elements – a virtual reality helmet, branded gloves and stuff like that. On the contrary, these universes are good in that anyone can “touch” them – all you need is a smartphone or PC with an Internet connection.

“Parties” in Fortnite – a sea of ​​entertainment for every taste and color

Party Worlds mode partially implements the idea of ​​Mark Zuckerberg, but, of course, without physical contact and complete immersion. In “Parties” the gamer in the form of his avatar with a unique skin gets access to a theoretically infinite set of small virtual worlds, between which you can freely move. Various activities are implemented in these worlds, be it mini-games, collecting gold coins, drawing, dancing and so on, and all of them are aimed at entertainment and relaxation. And, of course, all this is based on social interaction – in loneliness such worlds look empty and boring, getting emotions from them without other people is problematic.

Mini-games are the key to never-ending fun

I was always skeptical about this kind of entertainment, but Party Worlds changed my attitude. For example, in the Walnut World amusement park, I played football on ice for about an hour – there are two arches (football goals), a sliding surface, a ball and two teams of players. It’s pretty simple, but at the same time extremely fun – especially when there are more players. And at the Late Night Lounge location, a guy and I were shooting flying balls, getting gold coins for this, and this turned out to be a very funny experience too. But the main thing about mini-games is that they do not repeat themselves, there are a lot of them and you can try anything from an ever-growing set.

The rules are very simple, and that’s the beauty of it.

Every time something new, unknown

An impressive advantage of the mode is the variety and the desire to explore each of the locations – fortunately, the developers do not miss boring crafts. You can just run around the island in search of interesting finds, jump on trampolines, climb hills, look for hiding places, make beautiful shots and more. In an hour and a half of running around Walnut World, I studied every pebble, every roof, ran all the steps and even sat on the platform at the highest point of the map. And it was enjoyable, although, of course, after a complete study, the map becomes less interesting.

Many players stand and fish corny. Sometimes for twenty minutes without even picking up the fish

Do what you want and no one will judge you

Imagine that you are tired after a hard day at work or school, but you do not want a competitive mode – shoot, build, run, kill, and so on. I would like to go in and do something for the soul, without nerves, worries and discomfort. In “Parties” you can go fishing (very cool activity), paint easels all over the map, break into a dance battle, shoot a machine with paint on walls or other players, let off steam. There are a lot of activities, but what exactly to do, Fortnite does not say – you yourself are free to do what you want to do.

And you can also look at the skins of other players (fortnite, fortnite there are tons of them)

Co-op with new and old friends

Unfortunately, Fortnite does not allow you to simply run around the map and communicate with everyone in a row – the game engine does not provide for such an opportunity. But no one bothers you to open the players menu in the lobby, add someone as a friend, and then join the voice chat in the group. Surprisingly, the audience in the “Parties” mode is very sociable – I managed to talk with a girl from Vietnam, a man from the UK and a Russian-speaking Pole. In this regard, the regime really provides a sea of ​​opportunities for communication with strangers, but you need to be prepared for the fact that almost everyone speaks English.

It is very easy to find interlocutors, but you need to know English (at least a little)

There will be more and more universes

The developers from Epic Games did a very tricky one – they give enthusiastic gamers the opportunity to create their own locations for the “Party” mode, and the most worthy and interesting ones go to the main menu at the locations showcase. Given the huge community of Fortnite fans, there is absolutely no doubt that new maps will appear every day. Already on the second day after the announcement of this mode, there are about ten impressive-sized locations, each of which is somewhat unique – there is even a full-fledged RPG game, cooperative fishing and Spot the Differences.

Some maps in the pull mode for full-fledged indie games

Who is it all for

With their task “Parties” cope with five plus – the mode allows you to relax, try something new and enjoy the process. Additionally, this mode has another great bonus – you can easily and quickly find users from all over the world with whom you can communicate in voice chat. And given that most gamers here speak English or are native speakers of this language, it turns out a convenient tool for training speech in the gaming universe. However, I could not find any other practical use of “Parties” – this is a bright attraction and nothing more.

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