The Real Reason #RIPfortnite Was Trending

Within the last couple of days, the hashtag "#RIPFortnite" has been trending on Twitter. This would seem to suggest that Epic Games had made some kind of major announcement regarding the future of Fortnite, but that is not the case. Instead, the hashtag comes from players of the game who feel like it just keeps disappointing them. In other words, Fortnite fans are still unhappy, and they have taken to airing their grievances on a grand scale.

It's unclear exactly where the hashtag started, but the message delivered can be heard loud and clear. It appears that #RIPFortnite is being used as a bit of a catch-all for fans who wish to vent their frustrations regarding the game. It's definitely an eye-catching hashtag, otherwise we wouldn't even be talking about it right now.

One reason why people seem to think Fortnite is on the wane is the simple fact that there are so many other competing battle royale games on the market now. When Apex Legends came out, Fortnite desperately tried to copy some of the mechanics that made it successful, like respawn points and the newer ping system. However, now we have other games like Call of Duty: Warzone and the upcoming Valorant attempting to share the spotlight. It may be hard for Fortnite to keep up, especially if the majority of the changes being made are controversial among fans.

As ComicBook.com points out, one of the more common complaints with the game has to do with the skill-based matchmaking that has been added to the game. As explained by ComicBook.com's Tyler Fischer, "The argument here is that the matchmaking feature makes the game more serious and sweaty, which in turn makes it less fun."

Another issue seen from Fortnite players on Twitter is that they simply dislike the game's current map. There's a call from players to restore some of the game's original content. As one user tweeted, "Epic games should to listen their players and bring back our old [map] and weapons."

One of the more controversial elements of the game has been the aim-assist afforded to console players of the game and folks who use gamepads instead of keyboards. Due to the cross play available to players of Fortnite, it has been observed to be something of an unfair advantage that console players have over PC gamers. Even high profile Fortnite diehards like Ninja have been critical of this aspect of the game. Ninja recently compared the aim-assist to the kind of aimbots that are commonly used by folks who have hacked the game.

The biggest question here is what people hope to accomplish by making "RIPFortnite" into a trending hashtag. While it's always good to vent your frustrations, some folks worry that the hashtag will do much more harm than good. Some fans have pointed out that talking about the game as though it were already dead is a surefire way to kill it, which wouldn't help anyone. Making casual players think that the game is on its way out could possibly discourage new people from trying it out, which would in turn hurt the game as well. You can't exactly get those fixes you're after if you send your game of choice to an early digital grave, now can you?

On the positive side, some competitive players have come out of the woodwork to offer a less scorched earth scenario for the game. Over the weekend, noted pro Fortnite player BenjyFishy tweeted, "#FixFortnite," which has been noticed and co-signed by several fans on Reddit.

As one person on Reddit points out, it's a much more constructive way to go about things. They wrote, "The game is in a really unhealthy state right now but insulting Epic isn't the way to approach the issue."

It's clear that Fortnite has plenty of issues that fans desperately hope to see addressed. However, all is not gloom and doom. There is another hashtag that has sprung up surrounding all of this negativity. Some users have taken to using the hashtag #ThankYouEpicGames to talk about why they still love the game.

It's worth speculating as to how Epic Games could capture that spark that fans felt in the early days of the game. If World of Warcraft Classic's success has proven anything, it's that there will always be a market for gamer nostalgia. Maybe adding a mode to Fortnite with the classic map isn't the worst idea, after all. At the very least, it would give some of Fortnite's more disgruntled players an isolated place where they could all hang out together.