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23 July 2021

Fortnite players feel ‘laughed at’ after homophobic creator allowed to return to game

Noted Fortnite personality AwA said a Pride event within the game Fortnite was "against nature".

By Alastair James

Words: Alastair James; pictures: Twitter/@FortniteGame

Players of the popular game, Fortnite, have been expressing their disappointment with the game’s developers after they allowed one creator back on the game after expressing homophobic views, calling it a “slap on the wrist”.

The map creator, known as AwA, was only temporarily banned after commenting on Fortnite’s first ever Pride-themed event within the game was, “against nature”.

Epic Games, who developed the game, disabled the Pro100 Map, a popular map created by AwA and removed some of his Support A Creator code, which rewards creators for bringing exposure to the game and its developers.

“Slap on the wrist”

In now-deleted tweets, AwA commented on a post by Epic Games regarding the Rainbow Royale event within Fortnite saying, “I’m not a fanatic, but this is against nature”.

The Rainbow Royale event is the games first LGBTQ event in celebration of the community. Gamers can find rainbow-coloured freebies in the game and in-game shop. It was launched on 20 July and runs till 27 July.

Following AwA’s tweets other Twitter and Fortnite users began searching through AwA – on Twitter as ‘@CODE_AWA’ – and found they’d liked homophobic tweets, such as one showing an LGBTQ flag on fire with the phrase ‘F**k F******’ above.

AwA soon issued an apology, which NME reports was deleted before another apology was uploaded on Wednesday (21 July). In it, AwA says, “I am sorry for everyone I have said about the Rainbow Royale event and the Lgbtq community. I was not trying to hurt anyone but express my opinion about the event. 

“I understand it is hurtful to the community and deeply sorry to everyone I have hurted [sic]. The reason behind it was because it is against my religion and I was grown up that way. I will try better in the future and try to continue to strive as a creator.

“I have much to learn and correct. I hope you guys give me a second chance as everyone should have. Much love, Awa.”

Sometime after, Epic reinstated AwA, allowing him his maps which some, including user @bnwkr have seen as merely a, “slap on the wrist”.

One other user said they now feel “laughed at”, while others questioned why people couldn’t keep their opinions to themselves.

Others, however, have been able to enjoy the event, with another user thanking developers saying, “My sister and I enjoy making a lot of LGBT+ content with the characters, so seeing the new sprays and emote was a wonderful surprise!”

Attitude has approached Epic Games for comment.

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