For decades, institutions like the military have tried various ways to connect with younger generations through trends, fashions, forms of entertainment, and anything outside the direct recruitment process. Nowadays, it's no different, but it's highly criticized, and this time the UK armed forces have angered the Fortnite community.
The British Army organized an event in Fortnite: Battle Royale
A few days ago, Fortnite: Battle Royale players noticed that a new and strange event was being announced on social media. From a general perspective, it was a team duel between the YouTuber and singer Yung Filly and the YouTuber Elz the Witch. So far, so good. The catch was that the event, along with its respective map, was created by the UK Armed Forces, prompting immediate criticism from the community, who considered it a blatant recruitment attempt.
The event was titled Operation: Belong, accompanied by the hashtag #YouBelongHere as part of a video shared by the official UK Army account on X. The video emphasizes military details such as discipline and order, teamwork, professional handling of weapons, and tactics on the battlefield. Additionally, parts of the map in Fortnite's creative mode feature physical training grounds, and players are invited to "uncover the mystery," as shared by the FortniteBRFeed YouTube channel:
Epic Games Responds to this Military Recruitment Attempt in Fortnite: Battle Royale
The Fortnite community's response was swift, with criticisms expressed in the comment section against the UK military's attempt to recruit young people through the Battle Royale. This led to the deletion of the post by the military's account and the accounts of the involved YouTubers from social media.
Although the event was announced with great fanfare to take place on January 24, Epic Games took note of the controversy and stated in a release that both the event and the map are still under review, making it uncertain whether it will proceed. It is believed that the company will not allow it to happen to avoid a more significant scandal.
Such actions are not unfamiliar in gaming; in 2022, it was revealed that the U.S. military had plans with Activision Blizzard to use the competitive FPS scene as a recruiting tool, but everything fell apart amid the harassment and workplace violence scandal.
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