I phone me ok and youre in the street and im really could be alive today is fortnight more than just a video game we have diving into one of the biggest cultural phenomena in gaming so share your thoughts in our lives chat or you can tweet us at a. J. Stream need to get pianist. The free to play online video game for tonight is a cultural juggernaut not only is it influencing pop culture but pop culture is influencing fortnight the game boasts more registered players than the populations of canada and mexico combined it also generates roughly 250000000. 00 in revenue each month for its creator epic games but for many of the 200000000. 00 people who play it fortnight isnt just a game its a communal Gathering Place joining us to talk about this from los angeles we have jamie in the war and hes an avid gamer and founder of 256 a company that works with brands to engage with the world of play and interactivity in new york ayesha has done is a journalist who regularly reports on the game and well out in Charlotte North Carolina author psychologist and cofounder of string tank gaskill good to have you as and we also want to introduce you to one other person you will see throughout the show how they get rashid is a digital hit with the stream and an average for gamer to be playing the game during our discussions and youll be out to follow along and hes fortnight jenny is at the bottom of the screen all the way through so if you get killed early behind it. We will know no question all right. And i have never paid for it so were going to play with you what do we need lets jump right into it so here we are in the lobby screen as you can see this is where right before you jump into the game ok so real quick im going to my locker when you happen to me im going to have you choose my outfit all right im going to go through. This guy yet ok so me and monique im going to have my bling. Ring yes i want we want you to fly so now im back in the lobby and im ready to go fire up and go and im just going to game can you play until course i can play all right plain talk of course so will the loading screen takes a couple seconds and ill be probably in again probably a minute or 2 well were watching you at the bottom of the screen. So i mean we know that we have a lot of gamers in our community but this is one person who is not as and so i want to start this conversation with them this is christopher who says i heard a lot about this game for tonight and was curious to see if it was worth all the hype after trying it for a month i decided it wasnt for me love the look but spending 20 plus minutes wandering a giant World Without seeing the soul d to just get taken out from behind is not my idea of fun so james and i you know when i see you laughing in there i want to give a little teaser for our audience because mohammad before the show described the game as our version of the hunger games if youve seen the movies or you read the books describe for us based on this tweet from christopher what it is that youre actually doing in this game yeah games its actually agree. As a culture were familiar with the Battle Royale jon the kind of winner takes all format that exists in a lot of different places so you have things like dodgeball march madness for basketball so i think culturally we see. Understand what it means to be the last person standing which is really unique and revolutionary about fortnight is that if throws 100. 00 people into an environment that they all share and the last person to be standing wins theres a big ring that sits outside the world that kind of pushes people into a more and more compressed space but for you know the fellow who is feeling a little down about being lost by themselves they may want to consider playing with other people you can actually play as duos you can play with a squad so at least if its if its not as you getting taken out its the rest of your crew so its a really innovative format a really interesting twist on a very popular gaming style from the 1st time you played fortnight. What were you thinking he single for the actual goal was trying to do for you as a pro. Well ill tell you the 1st time i played it is the same experience and i was in there for 20 minutes i didnt know what it was doing even though im a dreamer and i just decided to give up and just play on my phone which which is interesting about this game is crossplatform you can do play station x. Box you name it but my claim to fame is after playing it for about a month i actually got a solo when i actually won the game on my phone which gives me a lot of street cred with some of the clients that i see but it also in playing this game with my son and Getting Better at it it was just very bonding experience it was very funny when this broke i started i could hear the theme music it made me feel like coast actually walking into my house going to hearing my 2 kids playing and it was very familiar i like that i because its the only area that people online are saying is what draws them to it because its the thing that they come back to again and again so this is gene park and he says some of the appeal its free which is a big factor its on every modern platform it being on phones was a big in a bowler and frank you just mentioned how you played on your phone jean on twitter says it enables crossplatform play the way part that way progress is always ensured no matter where you are i shall want to bring you in here with this tweeting is this different then the way other video games are played the fact that you can play it on any platform what may great but oh well so cost 5 as who dont know it basically means that no matter what pop from your on whether thats a p. S. For on mobile or a p. C. You can play with other people i would say fortnight is actually a big game that really brought this to the mainstream and sony actually caved into pressure at the end of last year to enable cost from play largely because my parents were like look we want to play with our friends let us play with them on p s 4 and stuff and as previously mentioned its free to play so that combined with the fact that its crossplatform means that the barrier to entry was significantly lowered. I do think you want to add to that is when march madness was mentioned. Whats happening culturally over the id say the last decade or more is at least in the u. S. And probably worldwide we dont have common experiences so when i was going to take myself but when i was growing up i was watching the love boat dukes of hazard and we go to school and we talk about a particular Football Game because we had a limited choice in terms of what we could entertain ourselves with this is that experience all these kids young adults adults we have the shared experience now so we can go into school or go into the workplace and talk about the time we spent together and this is just one of those rare platforms where you can actually do that. So you mean having seen all the people around the well proven scam and all about having exactly the same experiences in different parts of the walls. But the really important points about the game being able to play be played on multiple devices is that every country is a little bit different and you know access to high Speed Internet is different in every Country Access to you know p. C. Gaming rig for example which might be on the more expensive i have your multiple on which everybody has games exported it really flatten the experience for everyone around the world it is going to try it out and bought having a piece now on the part of the conversation if you want to play it with other people right if you look at other forms of viral need. A beauty or a point to read ever it might be a take off dont democrats running trouble connecting are here to talk about different kinds of connectivity in different parts the we will done in the meantime frank what is happening in your brain as youre paying for night one of what happens psychologically as a. Well as in gaming you have lots of different kinds of players that and im going to be judged severely by all your social media and the audience but i tend to be a camper which is somebody who hangs out plays back plays cautious and thats actually how i got my solo and as i got in the bush you can actually in this interview you know you you know wandered around the bush 20 minutes right was that you get in the bush for 20 minutes i mean you won the day well i had to creep along because you have to stay within the eye of the storm and then there was one other guy left and he was shooting bush is a triumph i mean i managed to kill him and it was so its a very cheap way to win but thats what i love about playing with it especially my son is hes a leader and he tells you where to go where to be and its a game that can teach leadership ship skills problem solving and its its really an. So when youre talking about the leadership skills i want to go to 100 now because id like to know who it is that you play with we know that its a 100 player game in the world gets smaller and smaller who are you playing with right now so right now i mean the solo all alone in this huge humongous world and to numberous myself im kind of doing with what the guests just did im not camping but i did land for a dinner i didnt go find smoke purposefully to fight so right here i just finished looting i have ive picked up a bunch of men ready for any battle coming my way but usually when i do play i dont i dont like playing alone i have a huge group of friends that i play with we call it we call or we call whats our group game boys and whenever someone wants to get on we just message to a group whos on guys and we jump on the game and we play together and that communal that Community Feeling is really felt because one of my friends for example lives in malaysia the other lives and some live in the west coast some live in chicago so its a great place to come together to speak and i play almost i dont want to say a daily basis to seem like such exactly to seem like such a huge 3rd but im pretty much put on a daily basis and i talk to these people almost every day so they become Close Friends and even invited them to my wedding so young you know the outside oh here heres the were here heres the funny part and i kind of feel but i knew a majority of them in real life so i invited those ones to my wedding but that one theres a bunch of them. Good friends with but i kind of felt weird inviting them to my wedding but i kind of i kind of wish i did oh and i just got killed you know i have no idea what it is. So have i did that and im going to let regroup there because you talked about friends and that communal feeling we got a video comment from a former member of the Stream Family former producer and host here Latoya Peterson shes a gamer shes also on the board of Advisors Society and she talks about that community. Im joined peterson from washington d. C. And fortnight has become a cultural phenomenon partly because the game is fun to play and it was a free to play you know huge multiplayer game and one of the key secrets to success is that it was fully customizable you could completely fix your character and change your world around you had a mission but you also just hang out with your friends and so that makes for a really compelling experience in these are very compelling multiplayer experiences and when more people start to play there are a lot of reasons to meet in the world the same way kind of people go to starbucks the 3rd place for tonight has come at their place for gamers and gaming and so its over elite other types of games like book my golf so de mint he mentions its sort of like the new starbucks its a place to meet its a place to hang out when you think about. I mean i think thats true to a certain extent i mean the reality is that theres lots of things to do in fortnight so theyve had some virtual concerts theyre experimenting with this big concert with marshmallow that millions of people attended and theres other types of game mode so theres a minecraft like game mode inside a fortnight to build things i think you know at the end of the day its one of many places that people will go i think in the same way that starbucks is one of many different coffee shops sometimes you want this big kind of big coffee Shop Experience is that people want to go to like their local kind of like grocery but the overall trend line is true that videogames increasingly are becoming a place where many different types of people spend time together thats 100 percent accurate trying to have. My my my son. Is his twitch handle is vader geek as in darth vader and he is trying to be ninja the guy that makes a ton of money playing this and hes very very good at it but i was i mean i tell him i was a little skeptical and this has been become his communities hes adding followers hes interacting with them and it its almost a game within a game a healthy way of kind of building a following and follow other people and i think its not only just a starbucks thing but theres theres this tie into Popular Culture where at least in the states weve got the n. F. L. So you could buy a skins which is sort of the customized ability of your Favorite Team and i guess maybe a year or so ago maybe longer when the Infinity Ward came out you could play as status which was ridiculous how quickly they they blend of those 2 franchises and how they can kind of tie into current pop culture stuff thats outside of the game is really impressive so frank does that in a sentence does that saying what to call those who are new to that that can church which is basically its not quite social media but its a way of following other people with similar interests and you can stream your games so i on my phone. How we get work and my phone will go off and it says my son is now streaming video and i can then click on that link and i can watch him play and i can talk to him i can interact with them is another way of be connected in a highly Digital World i see youve done so many articles for courts about full and i has one of them for night reading is taking over everything in 2019 so you can study in what is. What its blowing up and has blown up in the pasta yet can you put your finger on it audience because if you want to miss the theme of how we play youll seeing a play again with outgassing scenes in about table what. Will survive. Right so i think james and frank actually touched on a few of these things one of it is there is such a huge intersection of Popular Culture like the marshmallow concert on you know drake played that its become so mainstream that theres more to connect with as opposed to this traditional Gaming Experience where you have to be this really experienced gamer to sort of get anywhere you can be casual drop in and out and still see all these cultural references that you can talk to your friend about i think thats definitely one of the big things and you know latoya and her question earlier she talked about how for and it was so customizable and i think theres a really big parallel between not just you know a fortnight and a starbucks but fortnight and social media its free to play but all these players buy skins you know outfits emote which are like thats what you can do and theyre almost like status symbols so its like a going to instagram and posting your you know coolest new outfit thats a similar appeal to fortnight i think its a way to show like oh youre doing this or their friends are in with the latest skin or the latest weapon just kind of go off to agree with both i guess this game really capitalized and learn how to work off the hype so what they do is there are seasons for example in about every 2 months or so theres a new season with new season comes a new version of the game in new updates and new guns and they really have people on their toes with the new things and every week they bring the drop something new they drop a new game on or they jump like they said in skins so that really also played into the big factor of why for names so theres so much hype around the game and people keep coming back to it because they learned how to make sure theyre not boring to keep bringing in new things one that i love that youre in the conversation but i dont want you to die so i need to be there because what we are but i dont want you to die again weve got a comment on you tube right now from me who says i played fortnight both mohamed plenty of times and hes never left a man behind. So were. Apart from his well. Well you know if there is this is a friend i was invited to that was so i want to actually bring up another you to comment we got this is from dolly and she says do you think this online game is toxic to female gamers and streaming and i should because youre covering this whats your take on that question right so gaming has a history of not being very friendly to female gamers you know sometimes theyre theyre marginalized players in the game and there have been history theres been a history of female players being harassed right there was this phenomenon called gamer gate where female gamers were just being really violently spread online so far that hasnt materialized so badly in fortnight there have been sort of cases every now and then of Young Players being you know scanned on maybe there are some on really behavior im worried that maybe further down the lifespan of the scam that might happen but right now fortnight is built you know for young people its super goofy its its super fun that i dont think it says prevalent a problem yet but thats completely different id say to maybe the gaming industry at large which still has a long way to go in terms of diversity accessibility and being friendly to all genders and gamers. You know i read a little bit is the 1st 100. 00 shes one of my twitter followers and. You know she could you know. The thing thats fascinating to me and i dont know if this is that this could be a cultural shift at least in the states around gender because when i would play games in the ninetys 2000 that it was soul calibur and women were very objectified. And when you play the game you typically like im a guy i play as a guide for girls play she plays girl but in this game gender seems very nebulous and my son will play as somebody whos clearly a woman or a guy somebody whos a guy and thats not really ever discussed they seem more or interested in the style of the character in the skin but it i dont know if this is sort of the shift in gaming. That is are actually really positive. Like for me for example i have a bunch of skins because unfortunately i have spent to ones time on this game but my coolest skins are the characters in my pain thats why i usually play with both i mean you made me to the throw. You to my bad luck which is my bad luck skin but its ok im trying to find our so i mentioned the positives and so then i hate to follow that up with the negative but we got a video comment thats pretty interesting and this is from nate that grayson hes a reporter at taco in l. A. And he talks about the potential ethical dilemmas that we could run into with court and have a listen well one of his players have fun its all a game based on passion splits the horse right now were going to put in more wins less military professions based on the bowery games but it remains a label some place free version of that was it slightly unnerving but not entirely unsurprising the most popular game among its not ruthlessly competitive hyper taboo society tells players to see everybody else not some sort of broad system as an enemy and a struggle that can have only one. So damon its based on a fascist bloodsport from a whore her novel i was there and to nathan well i mean i think like a fair reading and criticism of the game i guess i would argue that you know thats a criticism that could be lead to lead against any kind of winner take all environments games are very good at setting up there are lots of games that feature you know you were to everybody else so i mean i think there is a good argument to be made that you know fetishizing just like winning at all costs is probably not a good thing but again i dont think that this is unique to fortnight i mentioned some other you know other things earlier dodgeball for example has no winner take all environment king of the hill there are lots of these type environment and games so i think its a its a really interesting read on it but whether or not players are actively making that connection i would argue probably not the case i said that i would 1st add to that theres ive got a lot of articles on shrimp tank about video games and violence and the research is pretty clear and the reason why i i describe it this way is i have parents. Of of clients that say well im not going to let my kids play for i cause its bio and what i say to them is some of the games that cause kids to be the most aggressive or dangerous are driving games Football Games hockey because theyve done that theyve been in a car theyve played a game so it fits in their head. Kids have never been on a floating bus landing on an island wearing these clothes its kids ability to separate themselves star wars doesnt make you violent and i think its the ability to kind of see this is your team rather than this earlier where you want to rip their brains why should that happen a couple of control surrounding fortnight and this is a couple of them where the audience and you can address them. Back pack heat doing the floss here we go. Very nice and have to mention the cult of dance here we go we have the cult and dance as well explain why these 2 we cant control the scenes in the fortnight well its right so but kid who is doing the floss dogs on the carlton dance these are accessible and the game as you note which are basically animations that your that your character can do and of those 2 people by package whose name is Russell Horning and Alfonso Ribeiro is carlton the fresh prince of belair as well as the rapper 2000000. 00 theyve all sued fortnights developer epic games for basically stealing what they allege a feeling theyre done some of and even more interesting is in the very 1st of those lawsuits 2000000 said that fortnight is explicitly appropriating the work of people of color a lot of you know eye for an africanamerican artist so this is start of this whole debate this legal debate about can you copyright a document. And then theres another debate which is like how are video games appropriating the culture of people of color so thats been a huge dialogue people like chance the rapper have chimed in like its really something that i think is present in the mind of people watching and playing for and it. For me it gives you an example of how big the game is that these conversations that were having in the real world now being started off by a video game absolutely im going to wrap up with. The community to see what shes up to hearing about these 2 comments here from you tube one person pretty positively says i played many games in my life and work night has to be the most active game ive ever come across constant updates and seasons keeps people bringing people back what someone else wants us to know and hes not alone there is old news apacs is the new top dog you guys are hot behind so thats the next game will have to do a show and just own time in the hand if youre dead right now right here and rihanna you are dead to us thank you so much for joining us thank you to the guests see you next time im always on why take care of your body. Samee aljazeera london to a cost center t. V. Special guests in conversation i have kill because of colonialism unprompted fun interrupted theres a sense of why i must but im still having some legitimacy in terms of spreading the knowledge and technology pretty go pal me still is that patrick so you clearly make a declaration for something as monumentally horrific as slavery studio to be unscripted on aljazeera when the news breaks. When people need to be hurt. And the story needs to be told 145000 prisoners under its care with exclusive interviews. And indepth reports keeping them on the not having to protect themselves aljazeera has teams on the ground and thats a story the seeing right here to bring you more Award Winning documentaries and life means. Aljazeera is Investigative Unit goes undercover in the caribbean we dont know if they were bribed would just use a token of appreciation exposing trade and diplomatic passports today just to work 50. 00 blusher the price will go up over a month involving some of the regions highest officials murder workers. Aljazeera investigations diplomats for sale. And owner and taylor in london the top stories on our jazeera at least 29. 00 people are reported to have been killed in the iraqi city of nasiriyah up to Security Forces opened fire on antigovernment protesters earlier the army dispatched commanders to provincial areas with instructions to restore order were also hearing of 9 People Killed and 800 injured in the city of najaf by protest to set fire to the rain and consulate on wednesday momentum drew reports from baghdad. In iraq a dramatic escalation hundreds of antigovernment protesters storming the compound of the iranian consulate late tuesday in the Southern City of najaf setting parts of the Diplomatic Mission on fire replacing an iranian flag with their