Watching Movies in 'Fortnite' Is More Fun Than a Theater | Hacker News Reader

Watching Movies in 'Fortnite' Is More Fun Than a Theater

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48 pointselsewhen30 comments

"A crowded theater on opening night fills me with a kind of energy I don’t get anywhere else."

Wow, I couldn't be more different. I generally wait until the hype has died down around a movie before seeing it in the theater so that it'll be as empty as possible. To this day my favorite movie experiences have been in deserted theaters.

Agree. Watched Beach Bum last year with my friend in a small theatre, we were the only ones there minus another couple. It was so magical, almost like a religious experience.

This is basically an introvert vs extrovert thing.

My favorite way to tell this is to ask if someone prefers beaches or mountains. Extroverts prefer beaches, introverts mountains, and a lot of the population sits somewhere in between.

Partly, but I don't think it's that simple.

I'm about as introverted as you're likely to meet, but I enjoy the hell out of MST3K. Making fun of a movie in ways the creators didn't intend, tickles my sense of humor. Doing so in a setting where I don't need to share my physical space with my co-conspirators is just awesome.

Going to a crowded theatre sucks. Going to a popular drive-in and knowing that there are hundreds of other cars full of people enjoying the show, and if the weather's nice and the insects are -icided and the windows are down and we can hear each other laughing, is a fun collective experience.

There are some movies that prefer to be experienced alone, or with one other. There are books that need to be read from the page, not narrated by Audible.com. There are albums that crave headphones and a comfy chair and a silent room, and there are albums that thrive on the open road with windows down and hair flying. I think that's part of the art, as much as the audience.

You’re describing the difference between interacting with other people during an experience, and everyone sharing the experience together without having to interact. I believe that this is still a introvert vs. extrovert thing, although the media in question is certainly part of it.

i'm an extrovert, but the older i get the less i want crowded theaters.

the problem with crowded theaters is that people, in general, make a lot of noise. and i hate watching movies with other people making noises.

I'm very introverted and I couldn't care less how many people are in a cinema, there is no (need for) social interaction so why would it matter?

As someone who's very much an introvert, I far prefer beaches over mountains, and my top moviegoing experiences have all been with packed cinemas.

Most introverts prefer mountains, but not all.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00926...

In my opinion, both introverts and extroverts go to movies. The difference is if they are comfortable going alone to a movie (introvert).

Well, yeah. But GP was talking about full vs. empty theaters, and so was I. You’re reiterating my point.

That's a completely nonsensical test. I grew up in a small mountain town. Are you telling me that all those people who would flood in during winter weekends and holidays to drink, party and go to the packed ski resorts were introverts?

> Extending the first three studies to non-students, we found that residents of mountainous U.S. states were more introverted than residents of flat states (Study 4).

> The terrain did not make people more introverted, but introverts were happier in the secluded area than in the flat/open area, which is consistent with the person–environment fit hypothesis.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00926...

The article is behind a paywall so I'm curious as to how the authors of the paper distinguished between "introverts prefer mountains" vs "introverts prefer solitude and mountainous regions are more likely to be less populated".

I'm an introvert and I strongly prefer empty beaches.

Not impossible, but statistically less likely than preferring mountains.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00926...

It depends on the movie. The latest blockbuster? Not going to really care for the details anyway as they are so over the top, and it's great to get a high energy vibe with a packed house. The latest Haneke or Werzog? I'll pay extra for the biggest, emptiest quietest theatre around to savour each moment.

The more empty the theater, the better - I've always loved when I wound up in an empty one. It isn't even that I talk during movies or anything obnoxious. It is just a wonderful experience.

I used to do this in London when I traveled there for lectures as a PhD student; our lab wasn't in the city. So as not to waste two hours of traveling for an hour of class, I'd go and see movies afterwards. It was great - you could get the best cinemas to yourself and I liked trying out the different venues around Leicester Square. My favourite was the underground one near Piccadilly Circus (now Vue I think) - always empty midweek just after lunch and comfortable seats. I'm not a fan of the enormous screens because they tend to echo quite a lot unless the acoustics are good. Perhaps the sound gets damped when the room is full?

My wife and I spent an hour or so in the Party Royale with our young kids last night, and it was very cool. As someone who has played a lot of computer games, it feels like we're entering an exciting era of virtual connection. Being able to hang out in a virtual space that the kids enjoy, with obstacle courses and time trials that are interesting for adults as well, and everything graphically enticing...

I've spent a lot of time hanging out in MMORPGs, but something about the Party Royale felt more... real, though it's hard to explain. Maybe the movie playing offers some connection to reality, or maybe knowing that Epic is constantly adding content and making changes makes the world feel more alive... or maybe I'm just getting old. Whatever it is, it makes shelter-in-place feel less oppressive and it's one small sphere in which I'm excited for the future!

Whenever topics like Snow Crash and the Metaverse come up, I'm amused at all the comments from people talking about what it will be like when the Metaverse is invented. The Metaverse already launched. It's called Fortnite.

Epic isn't done building it, of course, but they know what they are doing and have read every chapter of Gibson, Stephenson, and Ready Player One (just as those authors have paid attention to the actual real life career of Tim Sweeney at Epic). The team at Epic also has insane amounts of money to throw at their work because they have demonstrated success in game design, economy design, and large scale low latency architectures. The fact that it's an actual real functioning product is why it doesn't look like what most people thought v0.1 of the metaverse would look like.

> I thought I’d hate all this chaos, but it was fun. I threw tomatoes at the screen and launched myself into the air with the grappling hook, trying to come down on top of the screen as Leonardo DiCaprio droned on about dreams.

So, like going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show?

The Forbes game reviewer was less impressed.[1]

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/06/26/i-am-watch...

I distinctly remember we would watch movies and music videos in Second Life. The feeling of presence was very strong.

Ok so I guess this is the level of the cinematic experience after watching movies on mobile phones.

This really is fun. And it's like an underground rave, everyone there knows it's just a matter of time before the feds show up.

Just imagine if the film industry would figure out a way to embrace this and legitimize it, instead of (wait for it) trying to sue their most innovative and diehard fans...

I'd hope covid might have scarred a couple of film execs into trying something new, but from experience they are a DINOSAUR industry.

Good luck convincing them to actually try to run with something before they understand it...

For most of them, Netflix is already a little too new and spangly for their liking

There's nothing underground about it, the film screenings are organised by the makers of the game.

But if you want something a bit more underground, try the channels on https://cytu.be/ that pull content from google drive.

This, of all things, has finally convinced me to make a Fortnite account.

That's a low bar. Even watching movies on my phone on a city bus is more fun than a theater; my headphones do a better job of blocking out other people talking, and there's less risk of somebody spilling their cola on me as they try to waddle past on the way to the bathroom.

If movie theaters finally die, I'll actually be glad. The only time I go to them anymore is when I'm socially pressured into going by friends/family/coworkers who already bought the tickets.

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