Epic mods slammed for allowing racist Fortnite Creative maps
While you might think the usually family-friendly world of Fortnite is all dressing up as an anthropomorphic ice cream or building your own little LEGO kingdom, there's a concerning side to Epic Games' colourful caper. Away from the staple Battle Royale, Creative Mode has helped our creative juices flow, but unfortunately, some of those juices have turned sour.
Going by the motto of "Made by you, played by you," there are no limits to what you can make in Creative. This saw a massive boom thanks to the introduction of Creative 2.0 in March 2023. We've enjoyed everything from Only Up! homages to The Hunger Games, but what about Creative's seedy underbelly?
Fortnite players call for a ban on racist Creative maps
As highlighted by Fortnite leaker HYPEX, there's a seeming pandemic of racist Creative maps slipping through the net. While Creative is meant to be moderated, HYPEX has revealed a concerning number of maps with racist connotations - particularly the age-old slur of comparing black people to monkeys.
Although HYPEX doesn't reveal the original Twitter account promoting the "MonkeyBoxPvP map", its racist intentions are highlighted by a picture beneath it. This seems to be the tip of the iceberg, with others like "Palestine Zone Wars" mocking the current situation in the Middle East.
HYPEX has tagged the official Fortnite account in the tweet, although it's unclear whether the company will endeavour to tackle these maps head-on. Even though all of the above will likely be pulled, we're sure more will pop up in their place.
One fan cheered, "THANK YOU HYPEX FOR SPEAKING OUT ABOUT THIS! Us creators have been trying to get this issue dealt with for months, But epic doesn't seem to care about our opinions on this!" Another added, "Disgusting that these maps exists. I hope epic sort this ASAP. Glad you’ve called them out in on it. Action needs taking."
Fortnite's problem with race
This isn't the first time Fortnite has faced problems with racism. Fortnite Competitive issued a ban on a slew of skins and emotes last year, with a similar problem rearing its head. Even though they were presumably designed with good intentions, there's no escaping the small-minded prejudices of some.
It came after a worrying trend appeared on TikTok, with some players performing dances and emotes over downed skins representing people of colour. By the sounds of it, the racism has been partially stamped out in Competitive Playlists, only to run rife in Creative.
It's most worrying that this wave of racist Creative maps comes after Epic introduced age restrictions to its content. The company came under fire for its seemingly bizarre restrictions on some skins, and by the looks of it, Epic spent too much time worrying about whether you could play as Toon Meowscles and not the content of Creative Maps.
As Creative Maps are supposed to have age restrictions depending on what's inside them, you'd imagine there's a pretty rigorous verification system. It's clear something isn't working here, and now that someone as big as HYPEX has highlighted it, here's hoping Epic acts fast.
