Throughout Epic’s ongoing fight with Apple, Epic has been trying to pull together as many Fortnite communities as possible to assist them. Epic seems to be hoping that the worldwide Fortnite community can apply enough public pressure on Apple that Apple will back down and acquiesce to Epic’s demands. However, Epic seems to be unable to connect with the Competitive Fortnite Community.

Epic’s Use of the Fortnite Communities

Epic has been weaponizing the various Fortnite communities as much as they can during this fight, mostly by attempting to sway fan opinion against Apple and get Fortnite players to take a side in a fight where they have little to gain.

But through this process it’s becoming more and more apparent that Epic doesn’t see Fortnite players as individual people with their own values or opinions, but rather as a collective led by Epic as a cultural figurehead. But in this regard, it seems that Epic is overestimating their influence over many of the people who play Fortnite.

Despite the well coordinated public opinion campaign, one group seems to be largely disinterested in the outcome of Epic’s fight.

The Fortnite Competitive Community, often forgotten, frequently ignored

As Epic attempts to rally its player base and build twitter chatter in support of Fortnite, the competitive community. has expressed a different feeling. Rather than support Epic or Fortnite, or even attack Apple, many have simply expressed revulsion at the idea that Epic would ask for their support when they have offered none.

Many issues currently plague Fortnite competitive, chief among them the fact that the company who runs the game doesn’t seem to care for its competitive integrity. Whether it’s making abrupt changes to balance and map layout mere days before major events or simply ignoring game balance entirely, the competitive community often feels like Epic thinks their main purpose is marketing, not competing.

Does Epic deserve support from its fans?

And this comes to another point. Does Epic even deserve any support? Do fans of something have an obligation to support it in its goals?

No, they do not. That’s not to say that they shouldn’t support something they believe in, just that they shouldn’t feel compelled to do so. Fortnite, Epic, Apple, and all the rest should sink or swim based solely on their own merits. What should happen with these companies accused of monopolistic business practices is a discussion that needs to be held by society as a whole.

What that means is that regardless of the legal standing of these companies, and regardless of whether or not everything they have been doing falls within the strict letter of the law, we need to be able to come together and talk about what kind of rules and regulations we as a society want to place on these kinds of businesses.

You don’t need to be able to see the future to see that what Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and even Epic are doing is not sustainable. At a certain point, too success becomes stifling to the point where those who came later will have almost zero chance to achieve an appropriate degree of success.

For a historical analogy, consider what happened with railroads. When it appeared that a monopoly over transportation was soon to occur, the United States passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, with John Sherman stating “If we will not endure a king as a political power we should not endure a king over the production, transportation, and sale of any of the necessaries of life.”

Why should modern Americans, or indeed anyone with access to the internet, suffer under the near monopolistic control of any single internet hegemon?

Published 24 Aug 2020, 00:38 IST