On Nov. 3, Fortnite—a 100-player online battle royale game—released season “Fortnite OG,” taking players back in time to a map that was part of an earlier iteration of the game in 2018 called “Chapter 1”. The season takes place from Nov. 3 to Dec. 2, with each week bringing back a different phase of Chapter 1. Players internationally feel a great wave of nostalgia with this season, including Bonita Vista High (BVH) students.
For senior Xavier Amaro, Fortnite has been a long-standing part of his life. Starting the game back in 2017, Amaro decided to play because of the unique gameplay Fortnite offered. Moreover, he found interest in watching his favorite streamers play the game.
“I have been playing Fortnite since the day of its release, back in 2017,” Amaro said. “My friends also told me to download it. I saw it was a 100-player free-for-all mode and I never thought it was possible, so it caught my eye.”
Fortnite as a whole has been a foundation for many social relationships and social involvement, especially due to the fact that Fortnite began to truly rise in popularity around the same time the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. For senior Tai Cassel Engen, Fortnite has served as a way for him to remain socially active and in close contact with friends.
“During quarantine, [Fortnite] was a great catalyst to keep me involved, active and doing things. Without it, I think I would have just sat around, been sad, depressed, lonely, but instead it kind of gave me a way to interact with other people my age, even though we did not have school,” Cassel Engen said. “It brought me together with a lot of people that I might not otherwise have been in contact with.”
Senior William Fowler shares the same feelings as Cassel Engen, expressing that even today Fortnite has been a way for him to build stronger relationships with his friends. By playing games together, they can communicate without being in-person.
“Recently, I have been able to build a lot stronger social connections and relationships with my friends through Fortnite, and it is not even really the game itself. It is just playing the game while talking to each other and building those relationships,” Fowler said.
Amaro expresses that his initial reaction to hearing that Fortnite would be bringing back its original map from years ago was disbelief. This news was unexpected and not many people expected Fortnite to bring back their old map and gameplay. However, with this news, Amaro and his friends were able to reconnect with an old pastime they shared.
“My initial reaction when I heard that the original map would be returning was laughter. I did not believe it and then I saw a repost on Instagram, I thought it was fake,” Amaro said. “I was not super excited but when I heard that all of my friends had redownloaded the game, I got excited. I had not played Fortnite with more than two or three people in years.”
Coming back to the old map after so long creates a lot of interesting moments for long-time players as they revisit old memories. For Fowler, this map gave him an opportunity to self-reflect on how he has grown as a person, just like how Fortnite has developed and changed over time.
“They change a lot of things with the newer maps. But it has also been a change of mindset and it is showing growth. It is not necessarily that huge flood of nostalgia, but just looking back, it’s like, ‘Wow, was that really six years ago?’ It doesn’t feel that long ago. There’s little changes on the map where it’s like, ‘We have changed as people and the map has changed a little bit too,’” Fowler said.
After spending so much time growing with the game and adapting to its shifting mechanics and meta, Cassel Engen expresses that coming back to relive the old gameplay was one of the most interesting things about the new season. The new season brought back original weapons and gameplay mechanics, which allowed him to recount older memories.
“For me, it was the weapons and the utility and stuff that came with the implementation of the old season. It is interesting to go back to one of the very first seasons that Fortnite had and remembering what the meta was at the time, because it changed so much over its history that I almost forgot what it was like back then,” Cassel Engen said.
Fortnite has been a huge part of many peoples’ lives and players have grown alongside the game over the years, creating memories along the way. Cassel Engen shares that having the opportunity to revisit an old piece of history has been a great and impactful experience.
“If I had any idea I was going back to the OG map, I would have been half in tears, like, ‘Man, I will have all these memories.’ There are so many times with my friends where I can vividly remember a scene when we were playing or something funny happened,” Cassel Engen said. “Being there in the same spot to relive it has a really nostalgic feel when you think about it.”
