When I was thinking of a topic, I thought about things I enjoyed. And I really enjoyed video games created by Steam and Epic. I liked to play Paladins on the Nintendo Switch and Fortnite on my phone and Nintendo Switch. I really liked Nintendo’s games and creations. This is why I chose my topic.

Epic games was created in 1991 by Tim Sweeney who is a video game programmer and developer. He was born in 1970 in Potomac, Maryland. He enjoyed tinkering with mechanical and electrical devices, and when he was still very young he turned a lawn mower into a go cart. He created a company called Potomac Computer Systems. In 1991 he renamed his company to Epic MegaGames, and shortly after he created his first game, ZZT. ZZT is an action, adventure puzzle video game which is only available on some platforms like the DOS or the MS-DOS which are computers. He still did not have a headquarters yet ,but in 1999 he moved into Cary, North Carolina and got his own headquarters. Then in 2017 they created the world’s most known game which is Fortnite. Fortnite Battle Royale is a game in which 100 players glide into an island and battle to the death until there is only one player standing. There is a barrier/storm which will kill you if you don’t get to the safe zone which in this case is the circle. This is what Epic Games is most known for.

Epic games is one of the biggest rivals to many gaming companies. Many companies have been badly affected by the game Fortnite. Some companies that have not been greatly affected are name EA Sports (Electronic Arts) and Activision Blizzard. These companies have lost many players, but they have made some great games. EA Sports has created another Battle Royale gamed Apex Legends which is a very different type of game. Apex is a pay to win game but Fortnite is not. In Apex Legends you are able to buy guns and skins that give you a big advantage while in Fortnite you can buy skins/outfit  that do not give you an advantage. EA Sports lost many players because it was pay to win, but it has broken the world record of getting the most amount of players on the first day. But these companies have dealt with nothing compared to Steam and Valve. Epic Games has lost many partners. Before Epic Games became popular, Epic Games and Steam were partners and Epic let Steam put some of the games onto Epic’s website. Epic put Slime Rancher, a very fun farming game where you collect slimes, put them in your ranch, and feed them. You can also breed slimes to make a slime combination. This is a game that Steam,Valve  and Epic created together.

Epic Games has been gaining players every day, but there are many reasons how.

Epic Games has created many tournaments for pro players so they would compete for thousands of dollars. Many players have been creating accounts for this reason. There are also regular tournaments for anybody to join. They all have prize money but there are many rounds and you have to qualify in each game till there is only one player left who is the winner. There are some where you can play by yourself which is solos, there are also some where you can play with your friends like Duos,Trios and Squads which are game modes in the tournament.  But there was this special tournament where Ninja, a very good player and Marshmello, a DJ, participated and won the E3 charity tournament. After Epic Games held a concert for Marshmello on Fortnite. If you were not there at the tournament or did not participate in the tournament you were able to go online and dance to the music. Epic has created other tournaments like the Summer Skirmish, Winter Skirmish, Fall Skirmish and the Spring Skirmish. They happened every season. Epic is also known because it is fun to play with your friends but at the same time you can socialize with them because you have a microphone. Microphones are available on any platform even on mobile devices which use Siri. Epic Games has created a couple free games like Dauntless and Fortnite. Epic has announced that if Fortnite Battle Royale is still popular in season 11, they will give out Fortnite Save the World. Fortnite Save the World is a game where you fight zombies. Save the world is not currently free and is $60 or sometimes on sale. As I mentioned Fortnite is available on almost every platform and iis available on Xbox 1 or over to get it for free. There is also mobile, IOS and Android as well as some PC/computer Microsoft Windows and MacOS NIntendo switch and PS4 (PlayStation 4). Many other companies have been able to access Apple or Android.

Epic Games has created games that are child friendly, but fun for adults too. Epic Games has created games like Fortnite, Flower, Outer Wilds, Dauntless, Journey, Ashen and many other great games. In all these games there is very little blood or gore, but if you compare it to Steam’s games like Call of Duty, Payday 2 or GTA (Grand Theft Auto) and Paladins, Epic’s Games are more child friendly than Steam. In Call of Duty, the death effects are very violent there is blood and gore and your body will lay there with blood pouring out of yourself. While in Fortnite a drone will come and suck you up and there will be nothing left except for your loot. In Payday 2 the point of the game is to rob a bank and kill people. Epic is very child friendly because you can play with your friends wherever they are. If you wanted to play with someone in Australia, China or anywhere else in the world. The skins in the game are not inappropriate like Payday 2 where you are able to be a killer clown, while in Fortnite, Dauntless or Slime Rancher you are not allowed to use creepy skins. In Dauntless you are a normal guy with a gun or tool. That is why many parents let their children play. Many other gaming companies do not know how to create such a great game that is fun for any age.

EA Sports has been gaining a lot of players by people who played Fortnite because the controls are similar and the players are experienced in using them. Xbox, PS4 and Samsung have had more customers because Epic has released exclusive skins for Fortnite. Epic has gave Samsung the galaxy skin and the Ikonik skin. These two skins are the best and most expensive skins in the game. They are each $1000.  

There is also a bundle for the Xbox One S exclusive Eon skin bundle. In the bundle you would get the Eon (outfit) which is the white,black and green version of the oblivion or criterion. You would also get the Resonator (harvesting tool) which is a remake of the onslaught which is the season 4 omegas (harvesting) and the Aurora glider. It is the second most expensive outfits in the game. It is not a great skin though. Many people buy the bundle for the pickaxe and 2000 Vbucks. It was $299.

Last but not least they sold the Nintendo switch skin. Double Helix. When you bought the switch you would get the Double Helix (outfit)

Which was a worse remake of the Archetype which is black and green.

You would also get the Telemetry (backbling), Pinpoint (harvesting tool and the Rotor (glider). This outfit is the most expensive skin in the game.

It is $299.99 which is $.99 more than the Eon outfit.

Epic games gave Amazon a bundle for twitch prime which is the Havoc, it was in the first twitch prime bundle that came with all these items: Backup Plan (back bling), Havoc and Sub Commander outfits, Instigator (harvesting tool), Slipstream (glider) and four emotes were in this bundle, although many players do not have this because it is from season 2 which is very old.

Epic Games has been making updates every week for many of their games.

Fortnite has been making many updates. There first update they ever had was on August the 4 2017. It was the 1.4.0 update. There has been  big updates like when there is a new season coming out or there are little updates were there are new guns or a item. Many other companies start to work less hard when they lose players but Epic Games still makes at least 1 update per month. Although Epic has had some bad updates like the one were they added the Infinity Blade in season 7. Many players did not like this because there was only one on each server and the people who had it one the game.

But Epic has had some great updates like when they were giving out some free challenge guides which got you a battle pass for the next season.

Although Fortnite is a free to play game, there are many updates, which many games do to keep you interested in the game. Epic Games have done this to many games like Dauntless, City of Brass and Kingdom New lands (which will be free soon) have done many updates. Steam does not not have many games that are free to play. Paladins is free but the game it’s is kind of boring and bad. Epic has released over 100 updates in total including the seasonal updates.

There are many reasons how other companies have been affected by Epic Games.

Many gaming companies do not have the mobile platform that is why Fortnite and Epic Games are super successful.

The End

For my interview I went to Game Stop which I did my site visit at. I am doing two interviews one is at a Game Stop which is this one and the other one is Nintendo which is not a interview that I will be seeing him. When I went to Game Stop I interviewed a worker who liked to play Fortnite.

I asked her how some gaming companies that have affected them and one that she mentioned was Epic Games. She responded and said that Epic Games actually effected her store positively because it makes more customers come and by the consoles and toys. She said Epic Games has helped them because more customers come and buy the stuff. Some of the the most popular things that she mentioned were the consoles with the exclusive bundles. The Eon skim bundle had attracted many people because not many stores sell this bundle. And when I asked her how Fortnite is very popular answered and she said the reason why is because there is no blood and gore. She said that even if you don’t get the win it is still very fun because you were able to play with your friends.

Another reason why Epic Games are helping them is because they have limited time offers that you can get like the Nintendo Switch bundle. They were able to get the Nintendo to create a bundle because many people like the Nintendo Switch so many people bought it because it is the same price as the normal Nintendo Switch so many people bought it. Nintendo does not sell it though.

This was my interview at Game Stop. I will do my next interview and get more information.

Capstone Site Visit

Have you ever been to a Gamestop store where they sell all kinds of video game stuff? Well the site visit for my Capstone project was to a Gamestop store where I got some images on things they sold for Fortnite. One of the things they sold was the Fortnite deep freeze bundle which is a bundle which comes with a skin named frostbite, a freezing point back bling, a harvesting tool known as the chill-axe pickaxe, a cold front glider and 1,000 V-Bucks in game currency. The bundle was only available on Nintendo Switch PS4 and XBox + PC, and was snowy-themed. The reason why many people wanted this is because it was $30 for the whole bundle that included all of those items. Another reason why people wanted this bundle is because the Raptor, which is a more iconic yellow version of the frostbite skin is $20 just for the skin and back blink. Although the Havoc looks more alike to the frostbite skin, it is more rare and free, but not many players have it because it was a season 2 bundle. If you didn’t have the Havoc, which was in the first twitch prime bundle that came with all these items: Backup Plan (back bling), Havoc and Sub Commander outfits, Instigator (harvesting tool), Slipstream (glider) and four emotes, then the frostbite bundle was a cool thing to have.

Another thing they sold was the Xbox One S with the Fortnite exclusive Eon skin bundle. In the bundle you would get the Eon (outfit) which is the white,black and green version of the oblivion or criterion. You would also get the Resonator (harvesting tool) which is a remake of the onslaught which is the season 4 omegas (harvesting) and the Aurora glider. It is the second most expensive outfits in the game. It is not a great skin though. Many people buy the bundle for the pickaxe and 2000 Vbucks. It was $299.

Last but not least they sold the Nintendo switch skin. Double Helix. When you bought the switch you would get the Double Helix (outfit)

Which was a worse remake of the Archetype which is black and green.

You would also get the Telemetry (backbling), Pinpoint (harvesting tool and the Rotor (glider). This outfit is the most expensive skin in the game.

It is $299.99 which is $.99 more than the Eon outfit.

These were the most and best things I was able to find in the store.

Xbox, Eon skin Bundle

Fortnite, Deep Freeze bundle

        After a great deal of thinking, I decided to switch my topic from swimming to Epic Games, a gaming company who created Fortnite. I chose this because it seemed interesting and easier to research than swimming. I was deciding for a very long time till I decided to switch to Epic Games.

The reasons I chose Epic Games, is because it seemed interesting and wasn’t as hard to think of a main inquiry question but especially since I like and play their games. Mrs. Cooper gave us a sheet with around 10 different questions that had words and blank spaces that we had to fill in relating to our own topic. I reread all the sentences and the top two that I liked the most were, “How has Epic Games affected other gaming companies?” The second one was, “How has Epic Games evolved over time?” Then I decided that I liked the first one better and chose that as my main inquiry question. I started typing my inquiry question then started creating sub questions which are mini questions that are under your main question. The first one that was very easy to think of was “What other gaming companies are rivals with Epic Games and why?”. I liked this question because it was a question which I could search but then add a follow up question to explain why.

The next step was looking for some websites that I could use. It was not so hard to find websites. All I had to do was search “Who are Epic Games rivals?” There were many, many sites but the school has blocked them which made it super hard and I had to waste 20 minutes to find 8 websites that were not blocked. I read some of the paragraphs for some websites. Some were good but many were bad. I copied them and put them on a sheet on the Chromebook. I read some links and switched some for different links. I even put in some that were blocked because I could research them at home. Then I finished the links.

I am happy that I finished and I am excited to do the Capstone research.

At school we have this project called Capstone which is a project which is when you research on a topic you are interested in.Mine were swimming,fortnite and animals.But since all of them were to broad of a topic I had to think of new ones.We were supposed to find a topic that was not so broad and it was not a topic with lots of opinion.

             When I started I was thinking of doing fortnite but I was thinking it would be a hard so I thought of a topic which wouldn’t be so difficult.I was thinking of swimming.

I am good at swimming I just didn’t know the history of how and why it was created

When I chose my topic we had to make some questions that were related to our topic. You had to group the questions like math art music etc.I made some questions for math.One question was What year was swimming created.I had a few questions for culture which what country created swimming and why.I finished my topic and now we are creating a topic that is less broad from a topic like swimming.

When I finished my script I had to make a video on the person I interviewed life. I made a chart though with everything I would put into the video like the voice over pictures and text. So then I created my video and started going back and forth looking at what I had to put in. It wasn’t hard creating and putting in the text and images but when I had to do my voice over it was a nightmare.I had no place to were there was no talking or yelling.I had to work with the noise and all the screaming though.

When I had to get my pictures it was super easy because the person I interviewed were able to lend me some pictures of were she lived and her back home with her child. She was able to lend me this little wooden board which had a prayer she and her family would say every night.All I did was inserted them into my video and there my video was there.I put in some quotes she said during the interview. Then after I was done with the video all that was left was the voice over. I printed out my script and read to the mike.It wasn’t the hard part recording its just when I listened to it was trash with lots noise. But It was the last day and I wanted to finish so I didn’t mind. I did try a few times on the super trashy slides with the horrible voice over and got them to be a little better.Which I was pretty glad about.

But I was able to finish on time and that’s all I worried about that day. And when we listened to in front of the whole class it was great.It was the best out of all in my opinion!!! 

After our interview we had to make a script in our own words instead of copying what the person said when you interviewed them.We got a graphic organizer which helped us type out our slide number,images,text and narration.But first I started mine on a more simple graphic organizer.It only had two columns which were the elements columns and narrative columns. For the element column we had to write our question and for the narrative column we had to write what we had to say.

When I started typing my script it wasn’t that hard because all I had to do was take what she said, and make it into my own words.But what was difficult was when I had to try to understand what she said because she was not a fluent American so it was hard on some questions to think of what to say because she left out some words. I did try to complete and finish her sentence, so I had to listen to the recording over and over again. But, I was finally able to get them done. I had to listen to it with headphones at home to get what she was trying to say then I would go to different questions that came out with very similar answers. Then, I was able to finish the other questions.

After I finished the script I put onto the four column chart.Which then I had to think of the text and images I would have to put in my video. But it wasn’t as hard as typing it onto the four column chart. But I did finish.

On the day I interviewed Anna, I was excited but also nervous. Since English is not Anna’s first language, it was hard for me to understand everything she was saying. I video taped the interview on my iPhone so that I could listen to it more carefully after the interview. When I started the interview she could answer the first two questions,with a lot of details. Since I wrote the questions before the interview, some of the answers to many questions were kind of similar, such as what she missed in Nicaragua.

But I did lose a few questions by taking them out because some questions made her upset and sad and almost made her eyes watery. So I took out two of the questions because I knew they would upset her even more that were supposed to give me more details.At the end of the interview, she was happy,because I was able to ask a happy question which was what are your favorite parts about America and she answered some in funny ways. I was able to get a lot of detail though on the question I had to ask her on what was her favorite part about America,because she converted her cordobas into dollars which helped me understand how much less cordobas is from American dollars. I think the question that gave me the most information in the whole interview was when I asked her why she moved to America.It told me a huge part of her I didn’t even realize.

Over all the interview went very successfully and on some questions I got information that I could have used.

When I was assigned this immigration project I was nervous because I thought there would be nobody to interview. I went home and did the questions first although I did not know anybody to interview. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to create questions. I made 15 questions in total. But I realize I had to make them so that they were not like yes or no questions so I deleted all 15 and created 13 open ended questions,Which are questions that the person you interview can say something about it.

I interviewed Anna, who is the person who cleans my house.  But during the time when I had to find someone I was thinking of interviewing my friend. Then I asked my mom for some options of people to interview and she Anna my cleaner.I thought of questions to ask her like questions that I thought were important to learn about her life. In my planning, I first thought she would be a regular person who just took a plane to America for no reason. But when I thought of some questions I made them so that she could answer them in anyway. When I started making the questions I thought of questions that didn’t take so long so that I would have more time for other questions too. I did not know when to interview her so when she came to my house I  would ask her some of my questions.

I am going to interview her on Tuesday. And I am  happy about that.