How Fortnite's attempt at adding 'gender-specific' toilets backfired

Note: This Fortnite topic took place a long time ago. This article aims to recall that important event that probably went unnoticed.

Over the years, Fortnite has emerged as one of the best battle royale games of all time. The developers deserve recognition for making it interesting and full of exciting content.

Epic Games has made several changes to make the title more realistic. Some tweaks have been significant in making the game better. However, a few modifications have received considerable criticism from the community.

One such decision pushed back due to strong criticism involved toilets in-game.

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Fortnite triggered gender debate by introducing 'unnecessary change'

Epic released some iconic POIs in the inaugural chapter of Fortnite, with one such site being Flush Factory, located in the southwestern aspect of the Athena map. This area was a large toilet factory that offered decent loot.

However, the POI became popular for a different reason altogether. The publisher decided to release gender-specific toilets. Apparently, they changed their colors to blue and pink, representing males and females, respectively.

Initially, the toilets were green, signaling neutral representation. However, as soon as any gamer went near their periphery, they changed color. Even though it was quite an interesting aspect and fun to watch, the move was immensely criticized by everyone in the community.

The reason behind the complaints was quite simple. Gamers saw the move as a direct insult and misrepresentation of several genders. While Epic made the changes for only two specific genders, in real life, the figures are much more.

There are close to a hundred genders that exist. Representing each and every one of them with a specifically colored toilet was next to impossible. Also, keeping only two gender-specific toilets in-game was controversial as it intended to include people from every race, ethnicity, and gender.

Epic decided to undo the mistake it committed. Soon, the gender-specific toilets were removed, and the Flush Factory POI was also destroyed in Chapter 1 Season 7, upon the arrival of the iceberg.