The limited-time game mode ‘Delulu’ has been removed from Fortnite, as announced by the official Fortnite Twitter account. The removal of the mode made the end of the release subtle but at the same time opened a very controversial chapter in Fortnite’s lineup of such experimental modes that are constantly changing.
For those who really weren’t aware of the whole story, Epic Games very confidently and suddenly put the Delulu mode into Fortnite and now it is as if it never existed. The official Fortnite account posted a tweet asking if players liked the mode and if they had got the limited edition ‘crashbrella’ umbrella glider or not. And the responses… well, they are definitely a trip! A crazy, messy, and sometimes distressing trip right to the core of the issue when you give 100 people microphones and a reason to betraying each other.
Let’s start with the umbrella. Most people seem to agree on the crashed umbrella. The crashbra is “the cutest glider to ever crash a battlefield,” as one player expressed it. It is adorable. People who managed to get it are like “always on,” while those who missed it are saying, “oh man, what a bummer.” Nevertheless, to get it, one had to actually take part in Delulu. And that… was the difficulty for a lot of players.
The whole idea of the mode was to revolve around the last-man-standing social deduction. Players would cooperate, but eventually, only one person (or later one team) would be declared the winner. This led to what the community is calling … total chaos. The word “toxic” comes up A LOT in the comments. Gamers were saying that they were making temporary friends only to, as one gamer put it, “stab you in the back at the very last second.” Another user simply posted a GIF of someone being betrayed with the caption “Filled with liars and backstabbing!!” which pretty much sums up about 80% of the sentiment.
But the matter is still not over. Or maybe it’s worse, depending on your viewpoint. The mode had voice chat available to all players by default which was a huge contributor to some weird situations. A lot of players were saying that “kids being loud & disrespectful” and “strange people talking and doing weird stupid stuff” were how they would describe the lobbies. One player reported it as “the most toxic game mode I’ve ever played.” Another player said very categorically, “This mode exposed me it’s hella fucking weirdos that play this.” Ouch. Just ouch. There is even a player who said that they would murder, revive, and kill again a little kid who was shooting them and making the kid cry. What a cruel move, right? Surely, the social experiment part of it went out of control for a lot of people.
However, a few players had a different opinion and were not that much against it. There was a small group of defenders who kept on supporting the mode. Some people were making 30-50k per match and thus loved the crazy XP gains. One player even called it “one of the best modes of all time,” however, they did want to be able to build. Another player said “it was more fun than BR” (Battle Royale). Despite that, a few players simply took the chance to grab the umbrella and left. For instance, one player claimed he had won in his second match during the opening weekend and then “never played the mode again.” Quite a shrewd move, indeed.
Moreover, Epic has done it again, a classic move with a strange meta-commentary this time. One of the replies pointed out that Epic’s attention was on “Enforcing FOMO to get post interactions,” which is… a valid point? The question “did you get the thing?” right at the moment of the mode’s disappearance is designed to create interaction with people who are proud to have it as well as with those who are sad that they missed it.
What do you think, what will be the final verdict on Delulu? It was a bold experiment that gave us an awesome glider but at the same time, it was a mirror reflecting the complete chaos caused by the lack of rules regarding player interactions. Every one of the unpredictable, high-stakes social gameplay lovers came along with ten who had notebooks filled with backstabbing and abusive voice chat traumatization. For many, it was a mode that was fun in theory but punishing in practice. The cute crash glider and a million betrayal tales will be its legacy. When all is said and done, Fortnite players received a unique glider and an even rarer insight into the raw, unfiltered id of the online gaming community. The mode’s removal is of no concern; the memories—and the glider—will most definitely remain for a long time.
