Fortnite has a big problem: there are too many good seasons. Each chapter has multiple great seasons in it, which makes it sometimes very unfortunate that they come and go without any chance of really coming back. The only ones that did come back have been in Chapter 1, but even Fortnite’s OG mode can’t fully solve the problem. People would love to revisit some of the most popular phases of Fortnite, like Chapter 3, Season 1, whenever they want. Soon, Chapter 5, Season 1 will be painfully nostalgic. How can players ever experience an iconic or unforgettable season again? The cyclical nature of Fortnite helps keep it fresh, but it comes at a major cost.
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Fortnite OG mode helped this to an extent. Those who yearned for the olden days got a chance to play them again. It’s not a terribly popular mode, but it is there for those who prefer that. What about those who prefer Chapter 2, 3, or even 4? Is OG mode just going to cycle through all Fortnite seasons again? That’s both redundant and not helpful given how long it’s taken to get to Chapter 1, Season 5. We could expect to land in Chapter 2, Season 5 in about a year, and Chapter 4, Season 1 almost a year after that. However, there is a solution that Epic Games should take into consideration.
Fortnite Can Fix the Seasonal Issue
Fortnite has almost perfected so many aspects of live-service gaming. It’s a big reason the game is still relevant eight years after it really took off. It’s the last big battle royale because Epic Games has figured out exactly how to manage a game like it. There’s just one problem they can’t solve, and it’s the fact that seasonal changes are necessary to keep things from getting stale, but that comes at the cost of really good gameplay, items, and more. Some seasons are great, but they’ve never lasted more than four months.
OG mode and Blitz Royale can only do so much to alleviate that. The solution, though, is another game mode. It might seem incredibly silly to suggest another mode for a game that now has eight main modes, but there’s no difference between eight modes and nine, and this one would fix one of the biggest problems Fortnite is currently and will continue to face for the rest of time. It’s an intrinsic problem with seasonal gameplay, but there’s a way to work around that for Fortnite and Epic Games.
This new mode would feature all existing seasons of Fortnite, and it would include new seasons after they’re completed. So, if in the future you want to play Chapter 7, Season 1 while it’s active, you’d play Battle Royale. If you want to play it again after it’s over, it would be in this hypothetical game mode, along with the rest of the seasons. Of course, that would get pretty unwieldy eventually, but it’s still a better idea than essentially vaulting the seasons permanently. Pretty much everything else in the game can come back in some way, so why not seasons and their gameplay?
By playing this mode, Fortnite gamers could play one match in Chapter 3, Season 1, while the next match they load would be something like Chapter 1, Season 3. That could be followed up with Chapter 6, Season 1, Chapter 4, Season 3, and so on. It might involve a little whiplash, but it would be so incredible to get to experience the glory days of Fortnite at random, which would prevent the mode from being neglected. It’s like a mystery box that players would want to keep hitting to try and get that Ray Gun (aka the season they love).
There Would Be Some Problems, Though
This is not a perfect solution, though. It has some logistical issues. First, players would probably quit out of matches in seasons they don’t necessarily want. If you’re looking for Chapter 3 Season 3 and land in Chapter 4 Season 1, you might leave and enter a new match. Plus, not every season is beloved. Players might not love Chapter 5 Season 3, which was controversial at the time, and abandon it all the time. This would hurt load times for players who do want to play it, but that might just be a necessary sacrifice. Bots would be included to help with that, too.
A big problem would also be the RNG in this game mode. Epic Games would have to ensure there could be no repeating seasons while a person plays, which is a lot to handle. At the very least, they could implement a prevention method for any of the same seasons back-to-back, but the RNG could be detrimental. A player might hop on for three matches and play Chapter 2 Season 4, Chapter 5 Season 2, and Chapter 6 Season 1. It’s not all that probable, but the next time they play three matches, it’s not impossible that they play the same three.
Unfortunately, there is no workaround to this because it would require so much work and maintenance from Epic Games to prevent that from happening. Each player would have devoted attention, and that’s just way too much to ask. It’d be a necessary but disappointing part of this game mode. However, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for Epic and Fortnite.
If I really want to play Chapter 4 Season 4, I might be more inclined to play one more match until I get there. The old adage of “you can’t end on a loss” would end up being “you can’t end on this season.” That’s not necessarily a great thing for players since it would ultimately become a roulette wheel that kind of likens itself to gambling, but it would keep players active for longer, which is good for the game and the developers.
Epic has managed to find ways to keep players engaged, though not all of them through the years. It has definitely had peaks and valleys, but Fortnite has a pretty solid player count most of the time. Eventually, though, that luck might run out, and this game mode would be a good way to push that inevitability down the line a little more.
Furthermore, the change in gameplay would be a major challenge to contend with. Play OG, which is Chapter 1 Season 5, and then go to Battle Royale, currently in Chapter 6 Season 4. It’s whiplash-inducing. The gameplay is wildly different, as are the graphics, and pretty much everything else. This would potentially be a damaging issue for this mode if it ever went into development.
The solution, most likely, would be to streamline the mechanics. The graphics don’t matter as much because the changes aren’t so monumental that you feel like you’re looking at two different games. The mechanics are the biggest issue, because you couldn’t wall kick in Chapter 2 Season 4. But in this mode, you’d be able to. Epic would have to fix the movement mechanics across the entire mode, which may mean leaving some out, to streamline it.
There’s even a really great lore explanation for this. When Chapter 4 Season OG arrived, the Fortnite lore kind of went off the rails. It was convoluted until then, but it flowed. After going back in time, it just got so muddy that Epic arguably just left it. It’s become unbelievably hard to follow and trace back to old story beats. This mode could explain why that’s happening and why the mechanics are seemingly out of order.
In Chapter 3, it was revealed that the island features a loop that The Seven were attempting to break. It’s very feasible that this loop has now grown increasingly sporadic, and it will spit players out into different points in time. Some live event could trigger this, some attack on the Zero Point, or something similar that causes major ramifications, thus leading to this mode and the never-ending random cycle of seasons.
Why Epic Games Needs to Consider This Radical Change
This would be a pretty radical change for Fortnite. The thing about Fortnite is its impermanent nature. Skins used to go away permanently once their battle pass was over, but the seasons still have that aspect. A thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts, as Vision once said in the MCU. The seasons, each being limited, add something of an incentive to play them when it’s still possible to do so. Adding this mode undermines that.
However, Epic Games should still do it. They obviously don’t care that exclusivity is less important now because they made the change to battle pass skins. Why not take it a step further with seasonal gameplay? The battle pass change brings in more money, and this change would add more players to the overall count, thus bringing in more money. It’s a win for Epic Games; they just need to consider it.
What do you think? Would you play this game mode or stick to Battle Royale? Let us know in the comments section!
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