A live music concert took place recently in Elsewither, a Fortnite to host concerts, and the results have looked considerably different.
Fortnite, which has proven to be a veritable juggernaut since its release in 2017, has achieved success in the live music scene. Its first concert was held February last year, and more than 12.3 million concurrent players to the game to watch the event. This event made great use of the game's engine to achieve truly stunning and unreal events, presenting Scott at massive sizes and allowing the players to fly around the space as he performed. Fortnite has been responsible for some of the most bombastic events in the virtual music scene, but there are plenty of other venues available.
In further attempts to create an even more engaging online concert experience, artists have taken to Minecraft to entertain their fans, as reported on by Block by Blockwest, which boasted not only live performances from a variety of artists but an in-game art gallery, minigame area, and even a souvenir stand. This concert was ultimately too successful and crashed the server, leading to a rescheduled performance on May 16th. Elsewither overcame this issue by having servers with maximum player limits to prevent crashes. Despite these limits, Elsewither attracted thousands of virtual concertgoers and a second performance is already scheduled for June 6th. Twenty one artists, including feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot, performed.
While Travis Scott's Fortnite concert dwarfed Elsewither in of player attendance, there are numerous advantages that the online venue and Minecraft events like it have that Fortnite will never possess. The Travis Scott concert was an impressive display, but it was also very scripted and heavily produced. It felt more like a music video that the player got to walk around in. Minecraft, by comparison, has always stressed community and collaboration, and this is very much evident in their music concerts. Minecraft shows are much more communal events, which is a particularly major factor these days, with most physical social gatherings cancelled entirely. While performers can't create visual effects as dramatic as Fortnite's, they can foster a much more open and welcoming environment.
The video game concert is a very new art form, and it is decidedly still in development. Both Fortnite and Minecraft have shown huge potential for digitally entertaining fans on a massive scale. There is nothing necessarily wrong with the way Fortnite does their musical events - over 12.3 million people clearly thought it did just fine. But there's something more communal about Minecraft as a creative space for artistic expression. Live music concerts aren't an option right now, and they likely won't be for a very long time. But with events like Elsewither and Block by Blockwest, the concert atmosphere lives on.
Source: New York Times
