There's a difference between refining a concept or design and following a trend. CoD bunkered down and made the militaristic shooter simple yet smooth and then with 4 set big trends with customizable classes and perks. Sure those things aren't new but nothing was more popular than it already doing it.
If you made a cartoony battle royale with building mechanics that's essentially trendfollowing at this point unless you're doing more with it. ARMA has very little in common with Fortnite. It's not too hard to see that difference. Fortnite set a trend, sure it used the rising popularity of BRs and was somewhat trendfollowing but they didn't just yank shit right out of other games and mishmashed them together. They found a formula that people enjoyed and it was fresh compared to the other competitors of that genre, and it worked.
Trendfollowing is when you mindlessly plug in shit because it sold somewhere else. If you expand on it, refine it, improve it, that's not (so much) trendfollowing (as it is being inspired by something or using a new idea to your advantage). Trendsetting itself is hard to do but at least if you're going to aim for what others are doing, aim to do it better. Fallout 4 and 76's building aspect is weak and feels a bit forced/lazy. Like it really didn't work in this space and if it was going to, it needs more work or innovation on the idea. Apparently, 76 is getting a battle royale. If they just slap in a player pool picking up random loot on a map with a closing circle and the last one standing wins and that's it, that's trendfollowing. If they do different things with it, it's trendfollowing but not as bad.
Also, isn't DOTA what the WC3 mod was? So I don't think that's really fair.
If you made a cartoony battle royale with building mechanics that's essentially trendfollowing at this point unless you're doing more with it. ARMA has very little in common with Fortnite. It's not too hard to see that difference. Fortnite set a trend, sure it used the rising popularity of BRs and was somewhat trendfollowing but they didn't just yank shit right out of other games and mishmashed them together. They found a formula that people enjoyed and it was fresh compared to the other competitors of that genre, and it worked.
Trendfollowing is when you mindlessly plug in shit because it sold somewhere else. If you expand on it, refine it, improve it, that's not (so much) trendfollowing (as it is being inspired by something or using a new idea to your advantage). Trendsetting itself is hard to do but at least if you're going to aim for what others are doing, aim to do it better. Fallout 4 and 76's building aspect is weak and feels a bit forced/lazy. Like it really didn't work in this space and if it was going to, it needs more work or innovation on the idea. Apparently, 76 is getting a battle royale. If they just slap in a player pool picking up random loot on a map with a closing circle and the last one standing wins and that's it, that's trendfollowing. If they do different things with it, it's trendfollowing but not as bad.
Also, isn't DOTA what the WC3 mod was? So I don't think that's really fair.