title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Until April 2020, the Android version was originally not distributed on Google Play Store: users had to sideload an installer app from an Android application package (APK) file downloaded from the Epic Games' website (although on Samsung devices, the app was also available via the internal Samsung Galaxy Apps service). Epic Games stated that it wanted to have a direct connection to the players of the game, and did not want its microtransactions to be subject to Google Play Store's 30% revenue sharing requirement (considering them disproportionate to the types of services the store provides). Epic had tried to seek an exemption from Google from this revenue cut for in-app purchases, but Google refused, stating the need for the fee to maintain and improve the Google Play storefront. Security experts expressed concern over this decision, since this requires users to modify security settings in default Android distributions to allow third-party sites to install Android application packages (APK). This setting can make users, particularly younger players, prone to potential malware, including clones of "Fortnite" that install malicious programming. About a month after the Android release, there were at least 32 clones of the "Fortnite" installer on the Google Store, with half found to include malware. Epic's installer for Android does include a warning message following the install that users should re-enable security controls and warns users of only downloading content from trusted sources. The initial installer was found by Google to have a potential vector that would allow for malware to be installed, though this was patched within 48 hours of discovery and Epic did not believe anyone used the vector. By April 2020, Epic announced it would release "Fortnite" for Android via the Play Store and discontinue its side-loading approach, stating that Google puts third-party software outside of the Play Store at a high disadvantage.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: The iOS version of "Fortnite Battle Royale" alone brought in an estimated in microtransaction revenue within the first three days of in-app purchases being available, according to analysis firm Sensor Tower. "Glixel" considered these numbers impressive, compared to the early success rate of other popular mobile games, such as "Pokémon Go" and "Clash Royale" which earned and in their first four days, respectively. Sensor Tower further estimated that after one month, the mobile title had earned more than in revenue, surpassing revenues from any other mobile games and other several top-grossing apps during the same period.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Epic announced in May 2020 alongside its reveal of the upcoming Unreal Engine 5 that ports of "Fortnite" for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are planned to be available at the time of consoles' releases in late 2020. These will initially run on Unreal Engine 4, but the game is expected to transition to Unreal Engine 5 by mid-2021 when the engine is released. "Fortnite" finally moved to Unreal Engine 5 with the launch of Chapter 3 in December 2021.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: For the first five seasons, all ports of "Fortnite Battle Royale" supported cross-platform play with other versions, but with limited interaction in regards to the PlayStation 4. Players on personal computer and mobile versions could cross-play with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch users, or alternatively they could cross-play with PlayStation 4 users. While Epic Games had expressed interest in having full cross-platform play across all available platforms, Sony's continued refusal to allow cross-play between the PlayStation 4 and other consoles rendered this impossible, according to Microsoft. Further, while players could use a single Epic Games account to share progress in "Fortnite Battle Royale" on all other platforms, those who used their PlayStation Network credentials to establish their Epic account cannot use that account on other platforms. The account restriction was confirmed to be as a result of Sony's initial decision to prohibit cross-platform play between its PlayStation 4 and other consoles, rather than a choice Epic had made.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: By September 2018, Sony had made a decision to allow cross-platform play for the PlayStation 4 for "select third-party titles", starting with "Fortnite". A beta version of the PlayStation 4 client supporting this was released for the game on September 26, 2018, the same day as Sony's announcement. Tools to merge multiple Epic accounts as well as unlinking console accounts from an Epic account to attach to another were released in February 2019. The first full patch adding in cross-platform play support across all consoles was released in March 2019.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Solo mobile players, or squads entirely consisting of mobile players will play solely with other mobile players by default for fairness; players however can use cross-platform play to join squads on other platforms, and matchmaking will consider all available matches. With the March 2019 for cross-platform play, the game will similar matchmake PlayStation 4 and Xbox One users by default to avoid these players being at a disadvantage against computer users.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: In May 2018, Epic announced a partnership with sports apparel manufacturing company IMG to produce official "Fortnite"-themed clothing. A Hasbro-licensed "Fortnite Battle Royale"-themed version of "Monopoly" was announced for release by late 2018; the "Fortnite Monopoly" game reflects some elements of the video game, such as the money being replaced with player's lives, and the ability to protect properties on the board with walls. Further, with this deal, Hasbro produced "Fortnite"-based Nerf blasters, which reached retail in 2019. Funko released a series of "Fortnite" themed Pop! figurines in late 2018.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: "Fortnite Battle Royale" has been packaged as special bundles with both the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, each version providing redeemable codes for V-bucks and platform-unique customization options. A retail release of "Fortnite Battle Royale", called "Fortnite: Deep Freeze Bundle", was distributed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in late 2018. The package included a redeemable code for V-Bucks and unique in-game cosmetics.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: In October 2018, Epic launched its "Support a Creator" program for "Fortnite". Individual players could designate one of several popular "Fortnite" streamers, selected by Epic via an application process, to support via the game client. That creator would then earn money based on how many V-bucks their supporters spent within the game, at a rate of for every 10,000 V-Bucks (roughly, 5% of the monetary value). Though initially planned as a limited time event, Epic found by December 2018 that millions of "Fortnite" players were using the promotion to support more than 10,000 streamers, and since have made it a permanent option for "Fortnite" and hoping this would help some creators go full-time, and plans to extend this program to other games offered via the Epic Games Store, including "Tom Clancy's The Division 2".


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: In November 2018, Epic partnered with the National Football League (NFL) to make character skins for each of the 32 teams in the league available to purchase for a limited time. This was the result of the influence of "Fortnite" on NFL players, who had frequently performed "Fortnite" dance emotes as touchdown celebrations.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: One of the first professional esports competitions using "Fortnite" was the "Fortnite" Pro-Am event, held on June 12, 2018, during E3 2018, with 3,000 in attendance. This tournament was announced after the success of the March 2018 stream by Ninja where he played alongside celebrities like Drake. The event featuring 50 celebrities paired with 50 top streaming players competing for prize pool of to be given to winning teams' charities. Ninja and his celebrity teammate Marshmello were the winners of this event. Additional Pro-Am events were held at E3 2019 in June 2019.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: In May 2018, Epic announced it was setting aside to fund various tournaments throughout the year to help grow "Fortnite Battle Royale" into an eSport. The first "Fortnite" World Cup tournament was announced in February 2019, with qualifying rounds in April through June 2019, and the finals held at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City from July 26–28, 2019. A total prize pool of , including a payout to the winner of the solo and duo competitions, was given out.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: During mid-2018, Epic started running a Summer Skirmish series over eight weeks, each week having a different format, with to be offered to winners throughout the series. The series had some initial problems; the first week event was cut short due to technical issues with game servers, while the second event ended with accusations of cheating towards the winner which Epic later verified were not true. Epic launched its second competition play series, the Fall Skirmish, on September 21, 2018, with up to in prizes for winners.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Starting with the game's tenth season in August 2019, Epic plans to run various Champion Series competitions for cash prizes. Each series is expected to have a different format, such as the first one slated to use squads of three. Each will have a number of qualifying weeks and a final tournament to determine winners across several geographic regions.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Through PlayVS, Epic will sponsor high school and college-level "Fortnite" tournaments in the United States starting in 2020.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Epic and DC Comics partnered for a six-issue comic book crossover series, "Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point", to start distribution in April 2021. The story is written by Christos Gage in collaboration with Epic's Donald Mustard. Each issue will include codes to unlock in-game items for "Fortnite" with a Batman outfit code available with purchase of all six books.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: In another collaboration between Epic and DC, "Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point" received a sequel in October 2021, a standalone comic titled: "Batman/Fortnite: Foundation". It also had a redeemable code to claim a The Batman Who Laughs outfit.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: "Fortnite Battle Royale" received generally positive reviews on all platforms. Daniel Tack of "Game Informer" gave the game 9.5/10 and praised the "stylish and colorful visuals", "incredibly easy" playability, high replayability and called it an "a frenzy of fresh, fantastical fun". Michael Higham of "Gamespot" gave the game 8/10 and praised the "intuitive" building mechanics, "unexpected" challenges, "fresh" updates, though criticized its repetitive resource-gathering and map traversal and "bare" main towns. Austen Golsin of "IGN" gave the game 9.6/10 and stated, "Thanks to the freedom of its outstanding building mechanic, "Fortnite Battle Royale" isn't just a great battle royale game – it's one of the best multiplayer games in recent history."


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: "Fortnite Battle Royale" has become a phenomenon and has been compared by analysts to "World of Warcraft" and "Minecraft" for successfully drawing in people who do not usually play video games. "Fortnite Battle Royale" obtained over 10 million players two weeks after its release. By March 2018, it was estimated to have more than 45 million players. Three months later, in June 2018, Epic announced they had achieved over 125 million players in less than a year, with at least 40 million players playing the game once per month. In November 2018, "Bloomberg" reported that "Fortnite" had over 200 million registered accounts across all platforms. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney reported that the game had reached 250 million players by the time of the 2019 Game Developers Conference, with an estimated 35% of those players being female, the highest known percentage for any shooter game. By May 2020, Epic stated the game had over 350 million registered players. In August 2020, a legal battle between Apple and Epic Games disclosed that Fortnite has over 25 million daily active users, including 10% DAU on iOS. By the end of the year, "Fortnite" as a whole (including "Fortnite Battle Royale") had generated over worldwide.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Individual platform releases saw initial surges in player counts. Within a day of becoming available, the Nintendo Switch version had been downloaded over 2 million times, according to Nintendo. Epic said that "Fortnite" had been downloaded over 15 million times for Android within three weeks of its launch. On the release of Season 5 in July 2018, Akamai Technologies reported that "Fortnite" traffic neared 37 terabytes per second, the largest recorded amount of traffic for any video game that they have observed. With its quarterly financial report ending September 30, 2018, Nintendo said that "Fortnite Battle Royale" had been downloaded on about half of all Switch systems they have sold, representing about 11.5 million downloads.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: "Fortnite Battle Royale" was made available to South Korea and their numerous PC bangs in November 2018; shortly after this point, Epic reported that "Fortnite" has surpassed a concurrent player count of 8.3 million, surpassing the game's previous record of 3.4 million in February 2018.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Analysis firm SuperData estimated that "Fortnite Battle Royale" made over in February 2018, surpassing "Battlegrounds"s revenues for the same period of . SuperData estimated "Fortnite"s revenues over all platforms to exceed for the month of March. By April 2018, SuperData estimated that "Fortnite Battle Royale" had surpassed both sales and player count on all platforms over "Battlegrounds". The game generated in revenue in April, followed by in May, according to SuperData. By July 2018, "Fortnite Battle Royale" had been estimated to have brought in over in revenue. Prior to the Season 5 start in July 2018, Sensor Tower estimated that the mobile version of "Fortnite Battle Royale" made over daily; following the launch of Season 5, revenues jumped to per day. SuperData estimated that "Fortnite Battle Royale" brought in in revenue during 2018, the highest annual revenue of any free-to-play title. SuperData estimated that "Fortnite" revenues dropped by 25% in 2019 to , attributing the drop to stabilization of expenditures for the game, and was still the highest revenue-earning game in 2019.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: At the time of Tencent's investment into Epic in 2012, Epic Games had a valuation. Because of "Fortnite Battle Royale", Epic's valuation increased to . "Bloomberg" raised the estimate to around by the end of 2018 should "Fortnite Battle Royale" reach during the year. Partially due to the influx of revenue from "Fortnite Battle Royale", Epic reduced its portion of sales it collected from the Unreal Engine Marketplace from 30% to 12% in July 2018, applying that retroactively to past sales.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: "Fortnite Battle Royale" has also had record viewership on various streaming services. One of the first major streams of "Fortnite" was in March 2018, in which Tyler "Ninja" Blevins hosted a stream that included Drake, Travis Scott, Kim DotCom, and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster all playing the game. The stream broke over 635,000 concurrent viewers, making it the highest-watched stream on Twitch outside of esports tournaments at the time. YouTube streamer Rubén Doblas Gundersen held a "Fortnite Battle Royale" match with 99 other well-known YouTube streamers in late March, which drew over 1.1 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched gaming YouTube streams. The "Fortnite" Pro-Am event held at E3 2018 was estimated to have drawn over 1.3 million views across Twitch and other streaming services, making it one of the highest-viewed live-streamed event to date.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Further live events set by Epic have continued to draw record numbers of stream viewers. The 2019 Fortnite World Cup drew 1.5 million viewers, while "The End" event that closed out Season X in October 2019 had 1.6 million. Even after the conclusion of the event, during the 36-hour period that the "Fortnite" game only showed a black screen with a spot of light on it, "Fortnite" streams had up to 327,000 viewers on Twitch and 437,000 viewers on YouTube watching the idle animation. Epic reported that over 7 million total viewers across Twitch, YouTube, and Twitter across "The End" event. The Chapter 2, Season 2 ending event in June 2020 had drawn 12 million in-game players with an additional 8.4 million watching through player streams. The single largest viewed in-game concert was the Travis Scott in-game concert in April 2020, which drew 12.3 million in-game players to watch. The single largest viewed-in game event was the Devourer of Worlds Event, which brought 15.3 million in-game players and an additional 3.4 million people watching through streams.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Journalists attributed "Fortnite Battle Royale"s success over "PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds" as a combination of several factors: besides being free-to-play and available on consoles, the game was released at a time when "Battlegrounds" was struggling with game cheaters and a toxic community, and that it features a less violent, cartoonish quality to it that, like "Minecraft", was able to draw in a younger and mixed-gendered audiences to play. Further, Epic has maintained frequent updates for the game, adding new weapons and in-game tools alongside limited-time events and longer-term narrative elements that help to further draw in players. The high interest in the game within March 2018, which has been able to draw larger audiences compared to existing multiplayer games like "Grand Theft Auto Online" and "Destiny 2", has had a financial impact on competing publishers Take-Two Interactive and Activision Blizzard, their stocks having fallen during this period, according to analysts from Morgan Stanley and KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick, on their quarterly results released May 2018, stated that "Fortnite is definitely a lot of competition right now...it's been a really important catalyst in attracting new gamers to gaming", and the company is looking to develop its own battle royale title. Electronic Arts CEO Blake Jorgensen also considered both "Fortnite Battle Royale" and "Battlegrounds" as having a significant market impact. Jorgensen said " [Fortnite is] bringing younger people into the marketplace and younger people into first-person shooters, and I think that's good for the long run health of that category for all of us in the industry". Non-video game entertainment companies have also seen the impact of "Fortnite". Netflix, in reporting its Q4 2018 results, stated that their competition is more with "Fortnite", including streaming content related to the game, rather than rival television network stations like HBO.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Part of the game's success is also considered to be related to its impact on social media. By March 2018, "Fortnite Battle Royale" became the most-viewed game on Twitch, exceeding the average-concurrent viewership numbers of "League of Legends" and "Battlegrounds". Blevins has gained significant attention as one of the first major "Fortnite Battle Royale" streamers. He gained a large number of subscribers by March 2018, in part due to his skill and through promotions on Twitch that offered free "Fortnite Battle Royale" cosmetic items; by March 2018, he was estimated to be making a month from his streaming revenue. By the end of 2018, Blevins had reported he had made nearly from his "Fortnite" streaming activities in 2018 with over 20 million subscribers to his YouTube and Twitch channels. For his success from "Fortnite", "Time" included Blevins within its "Time" 100 most influential people of 2019. To acknowledge individuals like Blevins that had helped grow the popularity of "Fortnite", Epic has released a number of in-game cosmetics under the "Icon Series" based on the real-life people; in addition to Blevins, cosmetics were released for musicians Marshmello and Major Lazer, and the streamer Loserfruit, with a planned release of cosmetics related to David "Grefg" Martínez.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: A number of celebrities and athletes have said they play "Fortnite Battle Royale", such as Chance the Rapper, Joe Jonas, Finn Wolfhard, Roseanne Barr, and Norm Macdonald. For athletes, their appreciation for the game has taken on the form of recreating the various emotes in game as part of their on-field celebration dances. Such "Fortnite" celebrations were frequently throughout the 2018 FIFA World Cup event in June and July 2018, including by Antoine Griezmann after a scoring penalty kick during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final. Other notable people have expressed their fondness for the game; the Russo brothers, directors of "", stated that they often played "Fortnite Battle Royale" during breaks on the film's development, leading them to propose the idea of the Thanos LTM for the game. The Russo brothers also co-directed the introduction cinematic for Chapter 2 Season 6 that was released in March 2021. The awareness of the game from well-known celebrities has been considered a reason for further popularity and player growth of the game.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: "Fortnite Battle Royale" has been jokingly referred to as "Fork Knife" on social media, believed to have originated with people, unfamiliar with the game, described their friends and family spending time playing the game. Epic added a harvestable, non-playable "Fork Knife" food truck to the game map as the term gained popularity. In September 2018, "Fortnite" was featured as a question on the game show "Jeopardy!", and was spoofed in a skit on the September 29, 2018, episode of "Saturday Night Live". The "South Park" episode "The Scoots" featured the cast wearing "Fortnite"-based Halloween costumes. In "The Big Bang Theory" episode "The Citation Negation", Bernadette attempts to learn how to play "Fortnite Battle Royale" to beat Howard. "Fortnite" also makes an easter egg appearance in the Disney animated film "Ralph Breaks the Internet". The game was also a central focal point in the 2018 YouTube Rewind year retrospective, and included an appearance by the popular "Fortnite" streamer Ninja.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: In addition to there being a tie-in LTM for "", "Fortnite" conversely appears in the film, in which it is played by Korg in New Asgard, a village inhabited by Asgardian refugees recuperating from the devastating events of "" and "Avengers: Infinity War".


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: With the release of the mobile version, teachers, parents, and students have found that the game had become popular to younger players due to the free-to-play nature, its cartoonish art style, and its social nature. This carries over into educational institutions, where the game has been seen as a disruptive element within the classroom and affecting students' ability to complete homework assignments. Epic has since added warnings on the game's loading screens to discourage students from playing it during classes. The UK's Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport at the time Matt Hancock, expressed concern at how much time children were playing "Fortnite Battle Royale" and similar video games without a balance of physical exercise and social interactions. Other agencies, including the United States' Center on Media and Child Health and the United Kingdom's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children have cautioned parents that children may be influenced by the violent behavior due to "Fortnite Battle Royale". Prince Harry, speaking about various influences of social media on children in April 2019, proposed a possible ban on "Fortnite Battle Royale", saying, "The game shouldn't be allowed", and "It's created to addict. An addiction to keep you in front of a computer for as long as possible. It's so irresponsible." Calex Legal, a Montreal law firm, filed a class-action lawsuit against Epic Games asserting that Epic has known the game is addictive but fail to give this warning to players. Calex's suit was allowed to proceed in December 2022 after both a Superior Court and the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the lawsuit was not frivolous. A separate class-action suit filed in California in February 2021 asserts that Epic knowingly "misleads and manipulates minors into handing over ever-increasing amounts of real money for virtual things" through its V-bucks system.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: At the same time, parents have expressed appreciation for "Fortnite" to have their children engage socially outside of their core groups of friends in a game that is otherwise not excessively violent, or see offering "Fortnite" as a reward for encouraging children to do well in school, offering their children the purchase of V-bucks in exchange for good grades. Some parents see potential in their children becoming skilled in "Fortnite" as to become professional players and compete for part of the large prize pools, creating a market for tutors to help children improve their skills in the game. At the same time, as "Fortnite Battle Royale" became a social hangout for younger players, issues of peer pressure and bullying have been raised. Cosmetic skins are seen as a sign of skill and status, so younger players spend money to get the rarer skins to appear equal with their friends, or may be taunted by other players for not having such skins and using the game's "default" skins. While "Fortnite" has been successful in its monetization scheme, this approach using battle passes and rotating skin availability induces players to continue to spend money in a "Keeping up with the Joneses"-type effect.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Other issues related to children's interest in "Fortnite" have been raised. Several of the security issues raised around the game are heightened with younger players who may not easily recognize such illicit schemes and put themselves at risk to privacy invasion. There is some concern that online child sexual predators would be able to easily make contact with underage players, with at least one documented case from Florida.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: "Fortnite"s popularity has drawn a network of hackers since March 2018 that target accounts with lucrative skins and emotes as to resell those accounts to other users. Some of those hackers, speaking anonymously to the BBC, stated they were making thousands of British pounds a week through these actions. Authorities that monitor the dark web have found that "Fortnite Battle Royale" has become a popular way to engage in credit card fraud: criminals with access to stolen credit card information use that to purchase V-bucks on a freshly-made "Fortnite" account when they then sell through services like eBay players at a discount, often preying on children and young adults with these schemes.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Separately, other security experts such as Check Point have found exploits with "Fortnite" and its underlying services that allowed hackers to gain access to some accounts, enabling them to gain personal details, buy V-bucks, and listen in to the account's owner when they use the game's voice chat system. Epic closed a key exploit that enabled this by January 2019. A class-action lawsuit was filed in August 2019 over this breach, acknowledging while Epic did fix the problem, it failed to notified the users that were affected by it.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Epic has taken action against players that have used in-game hacks, like aimbots, to gain a competitive edge when these are discovered. In one notable case, Jarvis Khattri, a member of FaZe Clan, was given a lifetime "Fortnite" ban in November 2019 after he had posted a video which showed how aimbots within "Fortnite" worked, despite having cautioned his viewers to not use aimbots nor providing details of how to acquire the aimbot. The ban was controversial as Khattri had developed his esports career on "Fortnite", and FaZe Clan had started discussions with Epic Games to reduce the ban in context of the video clip.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: The popularity of "Fortnite"s dance emotes, which borrow from dance moves in popular culture, have led the creators of these dances to express concern and take legal action about these moves being sold by Epic, even though the United States Copyright Office had issued statements that individual dance moves are uncopyrightable. These include rapper 2 Milly regarding his "Milly Rock", and actor Donald Faison related to a dance move he used on the TV show "Scrubs". 2 Milly has started taking legal action against Epic with copyright infringement over the "Milly Rock"-based dance emote as well as asserting claims against personality rights under California law. Actor Alfonso Ribeiro filed a similar suit against Epic for their "Fresh" emote dance, which Ribeiro says was directly based on his character Carlton Banks' dance from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". "Backpack Kid" Russell Horning, whose dance move the Floss was popularized through live performance with Katy Perry, has also initiated legal action against Epic for copyright infringement of his dance. Another lawsuit by the parent of the child that created a popular "Orange Shirt Kid" dance has also filed a lawsuit against Epic on similar grounds; in this case, while the child had submitted the dance for an Epic-run contest for a new "Fortnite" dance emote, he did not win, but fans petitioned Epic to include the dance anyway. The lawsuit challenges that the child was not recognized or compensated for the dance move. BlocBoy JB filed another suit against Epic over his "Shoot" dance move, represented by the in-game "Hype" emote, by late January 2019. Jared Nickens and Jaylen Brantley filed a lawsuit against Epic in February 2019, seeking in damages for Epic's use of their "Running Man" dance.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: In at least one of these cases, that from 2 Milly, Epic is seeking the suit to be dismissed claiming that a simple dance move cannot be copyrighted, according to guidance issued by the United States Copyright Office.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: In March 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in "Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com", an unrelated case, that a copyright infringement lawsuit cannot commence until the Copyright office registered the copyright. As the Copyright office has refused to register some of these dance emotes as copyrights, four of the six pending suits (2 Milly, Ribeiro, Backpack Kid and Orange Shirt Kid) were withdrawn within a few days. The firm that represented the four cases, Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hect, stated this was merely a procedural withdrawal until they completed the registrations with the Copyright office.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: A seventh suit was filed by Leo Pellegrino, a saxophone player known for his dances during his performances. Unlike previous cases, Pellegrino's case accuses Epic Games of misappropriation of his trademarked likeness over an in-game emote that has a player's character dance while playing a saxophone, rather than any specific dance move. A federal district judge ruled in March 2020 that "Fortnite" sufficiently transforms Pellegrino's move from his overall likeness to qualify for First Amendment protections, and summarily ruled against all but one of Pellegrino's other claims. The claim of false endorsement was allowed to remain but still will be reviewed by the courts.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: After receiving a complaint from comedian Matt Geiler over a combination of a dance emote and cosmetic skin that he claimed infringe on his character of the "Dancing Pumpkin Man", Epic preemptively filed a request to the courts in December 2019 to rule that their emote and cosmetics do not infringe on Geiler's trademark or copyright.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Since then, Epic had worked with a dance creator to work the dance emote into the game, such as with musician Rick Astley to add a dance based on his song "Never Gonna Give You Up" (commonly associated with rickrolling).


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Similar suits have been filed against the same dance moves used in 2K Games' "NBA 2K" games, while the offending dance moves were removed in January 2019 from the game "Forza Horizon 4", though it is unknown if this was due to legal action. In the lawsuit involving Ribeiro's dance, the Copyright Office had refused to grant Ribeiro a copyright for the dance, not only because they considered it a "simple dance routine", but also because Ribeiro had created the dance in context of another copyrighted work, so he would likely be unable to claim ownership.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: On August 13, 2020, Epic announced it was permanently discounting the price of V-bucks across all platforms by 20%, except for those purchased directly through the iOS App Store and Google Play storefronts. For the mobile platforms, Epic created its own purchasing option that allowed players to purchase directly from Epic bypassing Apple and Google. Epic said that they could not offer this discount to those purchasing through Apple or Google's storefronts due to the 30% fee both took from each sale, which was seen by journalists as yet another means to challenge the 30% fee. Later that day, both Apple and Google removed "Fortnite" from their stores, both claiming that the payment system violates the store terms. The removals prevent players from downloading the game but not playing it if they already own it. The game still remained available on the Samsung Galaxy Store for Samsung devices as well as directly from Epic Games via their sideloaded app for all Android devices.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Epic immediately filed a lawsuit against Apple over "unfair and anti-competitive actions", along with releasing a short "Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite" parodying Apple's "1984" advertisement to explain the reasonings for filing the lawsuit. Epic filed a similar lawsuit against Google the same day.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: While the game remained playable for users that previously downloaded it, its removal from the iOS App Store left Epic the inability to update the game, which it used to caution players on social media that they will miss out on the upcoming new season starting August 27; Epic also cautioned macOS similarly that they would be unable to update their version as well. Epic was denied a preliminary injunction on August 24, 2020, that would have forced Apple to keep the game on the App Store, thus leaving the game unable to update on iOS. Epic had also believed that Apple was terminating the ability for users with Epic account linked through Apple to log in using their Apple ID by September 11, 2020, but Apple confirmed they would not be disabling this feature. Following the trial in May 2021, the federal judge issued a first ruling in September 2021 that included a permanent injunction against Apple that prevented from blocking developers like Epic from including links to alternative payment systems for apps on the App Store.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: BBC reported in November 2020 that Epic had worked a deal with Nvidia as to allow iOS players to play "Fortnite" through the GeForce Now cloud gaming service running within a browser, the method which would bypass the requirement for Epic to require Apple to manage the in-game purchases. The browser-based GeForce Now client for iOS was released by November 19, 2020, with "Fortnite" to be added at a later time. On May 5, 2022, Microsoft released their Cloud based gaming service, the second workaround to the Mobile platform issue. Anyone with a free Microsoft account can login in and access Fortnite via their mobile devices.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: In January 2018, Bluehole's PUBG Corp., the South Korean company behind "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" ("PUBG"), filed a lawsuit against Epic Games, claiming that "Fortnite Battle Royale" was a copyright infringement of "Battlegrounds"; they accused Epic Games of copying "PUBG"s user interface and game items. According to "Korea Times", market observers predicted that there would be little likelihood of Bluehole winning the case, as it would be difficult to establish the originality of "PUBG" in court due to the battle royale game genre, which includes both "PUBG" and "Fortnite Battle Royale", being derived from the 2000 Japanese film "Battle Royale". The case has since closed, with PUBG Corp. dropping the lawsuit in June 2018 under undisclosed reasons.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Epic has taken legal action against persons that have signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in regards to leaking information about upcoming game information. In May 2018, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against quality assurance tester Thomas Hannah after he leaked information regarding Season 4. Hannah, who had joined Epic in December 2017, breached the NDA by sharing details of the Season with Adam DiMarco. DiMarco later shared information in a Reddit post, spoiling the theme of the Season. Epic stated that Hannah "diminished the enjoyment of the people who play, or who watch others play, Fortnite by ruining the suspense that had been building in the Fortnite community in anticipation of upcoming season". Epic also sent FNBRLeaks, a group that datamined the files "Fortnite" to determine new features and events that were likely coming in the near future, a cease & desist letter in December 2018, stating that their reporting of these upcoming features were negatively harming Epic and spoiling the game for the players. FNBRLeaks complied with the terms of the letter. Epic initiated a lawsuit in October 2019 against a "Fortnite" experience tester that leaked details of the Chapter 2 transition days before the event occurred, which included details of the map and mechanics, stating the tester broke confidentiality agreements. Epic filed a second similar lawsuit in November 2019 against a tester out of Keywords Studio in Montreal over similar Chapter 2 leaks that were in breach of the terms of their non-disclosure agreement.


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: Epic has also taken action against players who have profited by profiting cheats to other players in "Fortnite". These suits include:


title: Fortnite Battle Royale

text: The company that oversees the Coral Castle structure in Miami-Dade County, Florida filed a lawsuit against Epic Games in August 2020, on trademark infringement over use of the name "Coral Castle" associated with the location the game introduced in Chapter 2, Season 3. The suit contends that the name along with the nautical theme created confusion with their landmark.


title: Virginity

text: Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term "virgin" originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern and ethical concepts. Heterosexual individuals may or may not consider loss of virginity to occur only through penile-vaginal penetration, while people of other sexual orientations often include oral sex, anal sex, or mutual masturbation in their definitions of losing one's virginity.


title: Virginity

text: There are cultural and religious traditions that place special value and significance on this state, predominantly towards unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor, and worth. Like chastity, the concept of virginity has traditionally involved sexual abstinence. The concept of virginity usually involves moral or religious issues and can have consequences in terms of social status and in interpersonal relationships. Although virginity has social implications and had significant legal implications in some societies in the past, it has no legal consequences in most societies today. The social implications of virginity still remain in many societies and can have varying effects on an individual's social agency.


title: Virginity

text: The word "virgin" comes via Old French "virgine" from the root form of Latin , genitive , meaning literally "maiden" or "virgin"—a sexually intact young woman or "sexually inexperienced woman". As in Latin, the English word is also often used with wider reference, by relaxing the age, gender or sexual criteria. In this case, more-mature women can be virgins (the Virgin Queen), men can be virgins, and potential initiates into many fields can be colloquially termed "virgins"; for example, a skydiving "virgin". In the latter usage, "virgin" means uninitiated.


title: Virginity

text: The Latin word likely arose by analogy with a suit of lexemes based on , meaning "to be green, fresh or flourishing", mostly with botanic reference—in particular, meaning "strip of wood".


title: Virginity

text: The first known use of "virgin" in English is found in a Middle English manuscript held at Trinity College, Cambridge of about 1200:


title: Virginity

text: In this, and many later contexts, the reference is specifically Christian, alluding to members of the Ordo Virginum (Order of Virgins), which applies to the consecrated virgins known to have existed since the early church from the writings of the Church Fathers.


title: Virginity

text: By about 1300, the word was expanded to apply also to Mary, the mother of Jesus, hence to sexual virginity explicitly:


title: Virginity

text: Further expansion of the word to include virtuous (or naïve) young women, irrespective of religious connection, occurred over about another century, until by about 1400 we find:


title: Virginity

text: These are three of the eighteen definitions of "virgin" from the first edition of the "Oxford English Dictionary" ("OED1", pages 230–232). Most of the "OED1" definitions, however, are similar.


title: Virginity

text: The German word for "virgin" is "Jungfrau". "Jungfrau" literally means "young woman", but is not used in this sense anymore. Instead "junge Frau" can be used. "Jungfrau" is the word reserved specifically for sexual inexperience. As "Frau" means "woman", it suggests a female referent. Unlike English, German also has a specific word for a male virgin "Jüngling" "(Youngling)". It is, however, dated and rarely used. "Jungfrau", with some masculine modifier, is more typical, as evidenced by the film "The 40-Year-Old Virgin", about a 40-year-old male virgin, titled in German, "Jungfrau (40), männlich, sucht…". German also distinguishes between young women and girls, who are denoted by the word "Mädchen". The English cognate "maid" was often used to imply virginity, especially in poetry – e.g. Maid Marian, the love interest of the legendary outlaw Robin Hood in English folklore.


title: Virginity

text: German is not the only language to have a specific name for male virginity; in French, male virgins are called "puceau". The Greek word for "virgin" is "parthenos" (παρθένος, see Parthenon). Although typically applied to women, like English, it is also applied to men, in both cases specifically denoting absence of sexual experience. When used of men, it does not carry a strong association of "never-married" status. However, in reference to women, historically, it was sometimes used to refer to an engaged woman—"parthenos autou" (παρθένος αὐτού, his virgin) = his fiancée as opposed to "gunē autou" (γυνή αὐτού, his woman) = his wife. This distinction is necessary due to there being no specific word for wife (or husband) in Greek. By extension from its primary sense, the idea that a virgin has a sexual "blank slate", unchanged by any past intimate connection or experience, can imply that the person is of unadulterated purity.


title: Virginity

text: The concept of virginity has significance only in a particular social, cultural or moral context. According to Hanne Blank, "virginity reflects no known biological imperative and grants no demonstrable evolutionary advantage."


title: Virginity

text: Medieval bestiaries stated that the only way to capture or tame a unicorn was by way of using a virgin as a lure, due to her implied purity. The topic is popular in Renaissance paintings.


title: Virginity

text: Although virginity has historically been correlated with purity and worth, many feminist scholars believe that virginity itself is a myth. They argue that no standardized medical definition of virginity exists, that there is no scientifically verifiable proof of virginity loss, and that sexual intercourse results in no change in personality. Jessica Valenti, feminist writer and author of "The Purity Myth", reasons that the concept of virginity is also dubious because of the many individual definitions of virginity loss, and that valuing virginity has placed a woman's morality "between her legs." She critiques the notion that sexual activity has any influence on morality or ethics.


title: Virginity

text: The urge of wanting one's spouse or partner to have never engaged in sexual activities is called a virgin complex. A person may also have a virgin complex directed towards oneself.


title: Virginity

text: There are varying understandings as to which types of sexual activities result in loss of virginity. The traditional view is that virginity is only lost through vaginal penetration by the penis, consensual or non-consensual, and that acts of oral sex, anal sex, mutual masturbation or other forms of non-penetrative sex do not result in loss of virginity. A person who engages in such acts without having engaged in vaginal intercourse is often regarded among heterosexuals and researchers as "technically a virgin". By contrast, gay or lesbian individuals often describe such acts as resulting in loss of virginity. Some gay males regard penile-anal penetration as resulting in loss of virginity, but not oral sex or non-penetrative sex, and lesbians may regard oral sex or fingering as loss of virginity. Some lesbians who debate the traditional definition consider whether or not non-penile forms of vaginal penetration constitute virginity loss, while other gay men and lesbians assert that the term "virginity" is meaningless to them because of the prevalence of the traditional definition.


title: Virginity

text: Whether a person can lose their virginity through rape is also subject to debate, with the belief that virginity can only be lost through consensual sex being prevalent in some studies. In a study by researcher and author Laura M. Carpenter, many men and women discussed how they felt virginity could not be taken through rape. They described losing their virginities in one of three ways: "as a gift, stigma or part of the process."


title: Virginity

text: Carpenter states that despite perceptions of what determines virginity loss being as varied among gay men and lesbians as they are among heterosexuals, and in some cases more varied among the former, that the matter has been described to her as people viewing sexual acts relating to virginity loss as "acts that correspond to your sexual orientation," which suggests the following: "So if you're a gay male, you're supposed to have anal sex because that's what gay men do. And if you're a gay woman, then you're supposed to have oral sex, because that's what gay women do. And so those become, like markers, for when virginity is lost."


title: Virginity

text: The concept of "technical virginity" or sexual abstinence through oral sex is popular among teenagers. For example, oral sex is common among adolescent girls who fellate their boyfriends not only to preserve their virginity, but also to create and maintain intimacy or to avoid pregnancy. In a 1999 study published in "JAMA" (the "Journal of the American Medical Association"), the definition of "sex" was examined based on a 1991 random sample of 599 college students from 29 US states; it found that 60% said oral-genital contact (like fellatio, cunnilingus) did not constitute having sex. Stephanie Sanders of the Kinsey Institute, co-author of the study, stated, "That's the 'technical virginity' thing that's going on." She and other researchers titled their findings "Would You Say You 'Had Sex' If ...?" By contrast, in a study released in 2008 by the Guttmacher Institute, author of the findings Laura Lindberg stated that there "is a widespread belief that teens engage in nonvaginal forms of sex, especially oral sex, as a way to be sexually active while still claiming that technically, they are virgins", but that her study drew the conclusion that "research shows that this supposed substitution of oral sex for vaginal sex is largely a myth".


title: Virginity

text: A 2003 study published in the "Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality" focusing on definitions of "having sex" and noting studies concerning university students from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia reported that "[w]hile the vast majority of respondents (more than 97%) in these three studies included penile-vaginal intercourse in their definition of sex, fewer (between 70% and 90%) respondents considered penile-anal intercourse to constitute having sex" and that "oral-genital behaviours were defined as sex by between 32% and 58% of respondents". A different study by the Kinsey Institute sampled 484 people, ranging in ages 18–96. "Nearly 95 percent of people in the study agreed that penile-vaginal intercourse meant 'had sex.' But the numbers changed as the questions got more specific." 11 percent of respondents based "had sex" on whether the man had achieved an orgasm, concluding that absence of an orgasm does not constitute "having had" sex. "About 80 percent of respondents said penile-anal intercourse meant 'had sex.' About 70 percent of people believed oral sex was sex."


title: Virginity

text: Virginity pledges (or abstinence pledges) made by heterosexual teenagers and young adults may also include the practice of "technical virginity". In a peer-reviewed study by sociologists Peter Bearman and Hannah Brueckner, which looked at virginity pledgers five years after their pledge, they found that the pledgers have similar proportions of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and at least as high proportions of anal and oral sex as those who have not made a virginity pledge, and deduced that there was substitution of oral and anal sex for vaginal sex among the pledgers. However, the data for anal sex without vaginal sex reported by males did not reflect this directly.


title: Virginity

text: Early loss of virginity has been shown to be linked to factors such as level of education, independence, biological factors like age and gender, and social factors such as parental supervision or religious affiliation, with the most common being sociodemographic variables. Along with this, sexual abuse has also been shown to have a link to later risky sexual behaviors and a younger age of voluntary sexual intercourse. Sexual initiation at an earlier age has been associated with: less frequency of condom use, less satisfaction and more frequency of non-autonomous reasons for that first sexual encounter. Adverse effects for losing virginity at an early age include lower chance of economic stability, lower level of education, social isolation, marital disruption and greater medical consequences. These medical consequences consist of an increase in STDs, cervical cancer, pelvic inflammatory disease, fertility and unwanted pregnancies.


title: Virginity

text: The first act of sexual intercourse by a female is commonly considered within many cultures to be an important personal milestone. Its significance is reflected in expressions such as "saving oneself", "losing one's virginity," "taking someone's virginity" and sometimes as "deflowering." The occasion is at times seen as the end of innocence, integrity, or purity, and the sexualization of the individual.


title: Virginity

text: Traditionally, there was a cultural expectation that a female would not engage in premarital sex and would come to her wedding a virgin and that she would "give up" her virginity to her new husband in the act of consummation of the marriage. Feminine sexual practices have revolved around the idea of females waiting to have sex until they are married.


title: Virginity

text: Some females who have been previously sexually active (or their hymen has been otherwise damaged) may undergo a surgical procedure, called hymenorrhaphy or hymenoplasty, to repair or replace her hymen, and cause vaginal bleeding on the next intercourse as proof of virginity (see below). In some cultures, an unmarried female who is found not to be a virgin, whether by choice or as a result of a rape, can be subject to shame, ostracism or even an honor killing. In those cultures, female virginity is closely interwoven with personal or even family honor, especially those known as shame societies, in which the loss of virginity before marriage is a matter of deep shame. In some parts of Africa, the myth that sex with a virgin can cure HIV/AIDS continues to prevail, leading to girls and women being raped. In other societies, such as many modern-day Western cultures, lack of sexual abstinence before marriage is not as socially stigmatized as it may be in the formerly mentioned cultures.


title: Virginity

text: Virginity is regarded as a valuable commodity in some cultures. In the past, within most societies a woman's options for marriage were largely dependent upon her status as a virgin. Those women who were not virgins experienced a dramatic decrease in opportunities for a socially advantageous marriage, and in some instances the premarital loss of virginity eliminated their chances of marriage entirely. Modern virginity auctions, like that of Natalie Dylan, are discussed in the 2013 documentary "How to Lose Your Virginity."


title: Virginity

text: The Bible required a man who seduced or raped a virgin to pay her bride price to her father and marry the girl. In some countries, until the late 20th century, a woman could sue a man who had taken her virginity but did not marry her. In some languages, the compensation for these damages are called "wreath money".


title: Virginity

text: Some cultures require proof of a bride's virginity before her marriage. This has traditionally been tested by the presence of an intact hymen, which was verified by either a physical examination (usually by a physician, who provided a "certificate of virginity") or by a "proof of blood," which refers to vaginal bleeding that results from the tearing of the hymen after the first sanctioned sexual contact. In some cultures, the nuptial blood-spotted bed sheet would be displayed as proof of both consummation of marriage and that the bride had been a virgin. Coerced medical virginity tests are practiced in many regions of the world, but are today condemned as a form of abuse of women. According to the World Health Organization (WHO): "Sexual violence encompasses a wide range of acts including (...) violent acts against the sexual integrity of women, including female genital mutilation and "obligatory inspections for virginity"".


title: Virginity

text: Researchers stress that the presence or absence of a hymen is not a reliable indicator of whether or not a female has been vaginally penetrated. The hymen is a thin film of membrane situated just inside the vulva which can partially occlude the entrance to the vaginal canal. It is flexible and can be stretched or torn during first engagement in vaginal intercourse. However, a hymen may also be broken during physical activity. Many women possess such thin, fragile hymens, easily stretched and already perforated at birth, that the hymen can be broken in childhood without the girl even being aware of it, often through athletic activities. For example, a slip while riding a bicycle may, on occasion, result in the bicycle's saddle-horn entering the introitus just far enough to break the hymen. Further, there is the case of women with damaged hymens undergoing hymenorrhaphy (or hymenoplasty) to repair or replace their hymens, and cause vaginal bleeding on the next intercourse as proof of virginity. Others consider the practice to be virginity fraud or unnecessary. Some call themselves born-again virgins.


title: Virginity

text: There is a common belief that some women are born without a hymen, but some doubt has been cast on this by a recent study. It is likely that almost all women are born with a hymen, but not necessarily ones that will experience a measurable change during first experience of vaginal intercourse. Some medical procedures occasionally may require a woman's hymen to be opened (hymenotomy).


title: Virginity

text: Historically, and in modern times, female virginity has been regarded as more significant than male virginity; the perception that sexual prowess is fundamental to masculinity has lowered the expectation of male virginity without lowering the social status. For example, in some Islamic cultures, unmarried women who have been sexually active or raped may be subject to name-calling, shunning, or family shame, while unmarried men who have lost their virginities are not, though premarital sex is forbidden in the Quran with regard to both men and women. Among various countries or cultures, males are expected or encouraged to want to engage in sexual activity, and to be more sexually experienced. Not following these standards often leads to teasing and other such ridicule from their male peers. A 2003 study by the Guttmacher Institute showed that in the countries surveyed, most men have experienced sexual intercourse by their 20th birthdays.


title: Virginity

text: Male sexuality is seen as something that is innate and competitive and displays a different set of cultural values and stigmas from female sexuality and virginity. In one study, scholars Wenger and Berger found that male virginity is understood to be real by society, but it has been ignored by sociological studies. Within British and American culture in particular, male virginity has been made an object of embarrassment and ridicule in films such as "Summer of '42", "American Pie", "The Inbetweeners Movie" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin", with the male virgin typically being presented as socially inept. Such attitudes have resulted in some men keeping their status as a virgin a secret.


title: Virginity

text: The prevalence of virginity varies from culture to culture. In cultures which place importance on a female's virginity at marriage, the age at which virginity is lost is in effect determined by the age at which marriages would normally take place in those cultures, as well as the minimum marriage age set by the laws of the country where the marriage takes place.


title: Virginity

text: In a cross-cultural study, "At what age do women and men have their first sexual intercourse?" (2003), Michael Bozon of the French Institut national d'études démographiques found that contemporary cultures fall into three broad categories. In the first group, the data indicated families arranging marriage for daughters as close to puberty as possible with significantly older men. Age of men at sexual initiation in these societies is at later ages than that of women, but is often extra-marital. This group included sub-Saharan Africa (the study listed Mali, Senegal and Ethiopia). The study considered the Indian subcontinent to also fall into this group, although data was only available from Nepal.


title: Virginity

text: In the second group, the data indicated families encouraged daughters to delay marriage, and to abstain from sexual activity before that time. However, sons are encouraged to gain experience with older women or prostitutes before marriage. Age of men at sexual initiation in these societies is at lower ages than that of women. This group includes Latin cultures, both from southern Europe (Portugal, Greece and Romania are noted) and from Latin America (Brazil, Chile, and the Dominican Republic). The study considered many Asian societies to also fall into this group, although matching data was only available from Thailand.


title: Virginity

text: In the third group, age of men and women at sexual initiation was more closely matched. There were two sub-groups, however. In non-Latin, Catholic countries (Poland and Lithuania are mentioned), age at sexual initiation was higher, suggesting later marriage and reciprocal valuing of male and female virginity. The same pattern of late marriage and reciprocal valuing of virginity was reflected in Singapore and Sri Lanka. The study considered China and Vietnam to also fall into this group, although data were not available.


title: Virginity

text: Finally, in northern and eastern European countries, age at sexual initiation was lower, with both men and women involved in sexual activity before any union formation. The study listed Switzerland, Germany and the Czech Republic as members of this group.


title: Virginity

text: According to a 2001 UNICEF survey, in 10 out of 12 developed nations with available data, more than two thirds of young people have had sexual intercourse while still in their teens. In Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, approximately 25% of 15-year-olds and 50% of 17-year-olds have had sex. A 2002 international survey sought to study the sexual behavior of teenagers. 33,943 students aged 15, from 24 countries, completed a self-administered, anonymous, classroom survey, consisting of a standard questionnaire, developed by the HBSC (Health Behaviour in School-aged Children) international research network. The survey revealed that the majority of the students were still virgins (they had no experience of sexual intercourse), and, among those who were sexually active, the majority (82%) used contraception. In a 2005 Kaiser Family Foundation study of US teenagers, 29% of teens reported feeling pressure to have sex, 33% of sexually active teens reported "being in a relationship where they felt things were moving too fast sexually", and 24% had "done something sexual they didn’t really want to do". Several polls have indicated peer pressure as a factor in encouraging both girls and boys to have sex.


title: Virginity

text: Some studies suggest that people commence sexual activity at an earlier age than previous generations. The 2005 Durex Global sex survey found that people worldwide are having sex for the first time at an average age of 17.3, ranging from 15.6 in Iceland to 19.8 in India (though evidence has shown that the average age is not a good indicator of sexual initiation, and that percentages of sexually initiated youth at each age are preferred). A 2008 survey of UK teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17 (conducted by YouGov for Channel 4), showed that only 6% of these teenagers intended to wait until marriage before having sex. According to a 2011 CDC study, in the 15-to-19-year-old age group 43 percent of males and 48 percent of females in the United States reported never having an opposite-sex partner.


title: Virginity

text: The rates of teenage pregnancy vary and range from 143 per 1000 girls in some sub-Saharan African countries to 2.9 per 1000 in South Korea. The rate for the United States is 52.1 per 1000, the highest in the developed world – and about four times the European Union average. The teenage pregnancy rates between countries must take into account the level of general sex education available and access to contraceptive options. Many Western countries have instituted sex education programs, the main objective of which is to reduce such pregnancies and STDs. In 1996, the United States federal government shifted the objective of sex education towards "abstinence-only sex education" programs, promoting sexual abstinence before marriage (i.e., virginity) and prohibiting information on birth control and contraception. In 2004, President George W. Bush announced a Five-Year Global HIV/AIDS Strategy, also known as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which committed the U.S. to provide $15 billion over five years toward AIDS relief in 15 countries in Africa and the Caribbean, and in Vietnam. A part of the funding was earmarked specifically for "abstinence-only-until-marriage" programs.


title: Virginity

text: In one study about virginity pledges, male pledgers were 4.1 times more likely to remain virgins by age 25 than those who did not pledge (25% vs 6%), and estimated that female pledgers were 3.5 times more likely to remain virgins by age 25 than those who did not pledge (21% vs 6%).


title: Virginity

text: Some cultural anthropologists argue that romantic love and sexual jealousy are universal features of human relationships. Social values related to virginity reflect both sexual jealousy and ideals of romantic love, and appear to be deeply embedded in human nature.


title: Virginity

text: Psychology explores the connection between thought and behavior. Seeking understanding of social (or anti-social) behaviors includes sexual behavior. Joan Kahn and Kathryn London studied U.S. women married between 1965 and 1985 to see if virginity at marriage influenced risk of divorce. In this study, women who were virgins at the time of marriage were shown to have less marital upset. It was shown that when observable characteristics were controlled, women who were non-virgins at the time of marriage had a higher risk for divorce. However, it was also shown that the link between premarital sex and the risk of divorce were attributed to prior unobserved differences, such as deviating from norms.


title: Virginity

text: A study conducted by Smith and Schaffer found that someone's first sexual experience has been linked to their sexual performance for years to come. Participants whose first intercourse was pleasant showed more satisfaction in their current sex lives. A different study showed that when compared with virgins, nonvirgins have been shown to have higher levels of independence, less desire for achievement, more criticism from society and a greater level of deviance.


title: Virginity

text: Human sexual activity, like many other kinds of activity engaged in by humans, is generally influenced by social rules that are culturally specific and vary widely. These social rules are referred to as sexual morality (what can and can not be done by society's rules) and sexual norms (what is and is not expected). There are a number of groups within societies promoting their views of sexual morality in a variety of ways, including through sex education, religious teachings, seeking commitments or virginity pledges, and other means.


title: Virginity

text: Most countries have laws which set a minimum marriage age, with the most common age being 18 years, reduced to 16 in "special circumstances", typically when the female partner is pregnant, but the actual age at first marriage can be considerably higher. Laws also prescribe the minimum age at which a person is permitted to engage in sex, commonly called the age of consent. Social (and legal) attitudes toward the appropriate age of consent have drifted upwards in modern times. For example, while ages from 10 to 13 were typically acceptable in Western countries during the mid-19th century, the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century were marked by changing attitudes resulting in raising the ages of consent to ages generally ranging from 16 to 18. Today, the age of consent varies from 12 years (or onset of puberty) to 21, but 16 is the most common age of consent, though some jurisdictions also having a "close-in-age" exception, allowing two adolescents (as young as 12 years of age) to have sex with each other provided their ages are not more than a specified number of years apart (typical no more then a 2 to 3 years age difference, depending on the jurisdiction). Some countries outlaw any sex outside marriage entirely.


title: Virginity

text: Historically, and still in many countries and jurisdictions today, a female's sexual experience is sometimes considered a relevant factor in the prosecution of a perpetrator of rape. Also, historically, a man who "took" a female's virginity could be forced to marry her. In addition, children born as a result of premarital sex were subject to various legal and social disabilities such as being considered illegitimate and thus barred from inheriting from the putative father's estate, from bearing the father's surname or title, and support from the putative father. Many of these legal disabilities on children born from extramarital relationships have been abolished by law in most Western countries, though social ostracism may still apply.


title: Virginity

text: All major religions have moral codes covering issues of sexuality, morality, and ethics. Though these moral codes do not address issues of sexuality directly, they seek to regulate the situations which can give rise to sexual interest and to influence people's sexual activities and practices. However, the impact of religious teaching has at times been limited. For example, though most religions disapprove of premarital sexual relations, it has always been widely practiced. Nevertheless, these religious codes have always had a strong influence on peoples' attitudes to sexual issues.


title: Virginity

text: Virginity was often considered a virtue denoting purity and physical self-restraint and is an important characteristic in Greek mythology.


title: Virginity

text: In ancient Greek literature such as the Homeric Hymns, there are references to the Parthenon goddesses Artemis, Athena, and Hestia proclaiming pledges to eternal virginity (Greek: παρθενία). However, it has been argued a maiden's state of "parthenia" (Greek: παρθένος), as invoked by these deities, carries a slightly different meaning from what is normally understood as virginity in modern western religions. Rather, "parthenia" focused more on marriageability and abstract concepts without strict physical requirements which would be adversely affected, but not entirely relinquished, by pre-marital sexual intercourse. For these reasons, other goddesses not eternally committed to "parthenia" within the Homeric Hymns are able to renew theirs through ritual (such as Hera) or choose an appearance which implies the possession of it (such as Aphrodite). Although accounts vary, the goddess of witchcraft known as Hecate has been portrayed as a virgin as well.


title: Virginity

text: In Roman times, the Vestal Virgins were the highly respected, strictly celibate (although not necessarily virginal) priestesses of Vesta, and keepers of the sacred fire of Vesta. The Vestals were committed to the priesthood before puberty (when 6–10 years old) and sworn to celibacy for a period of 30 years. The chastity of the Vestals was considered to have a direct bearing on the health of the Roman state. Allowing the sacred fire of Vesta to die out, suggesting that the goddess had withdrawn her protection from the city, was a serious offence and was punishable by scourging. Because a Vestal's chastity was thought to be directly correlated to the sacred burning of the fire, if the fire were extinguished it might be assumed that a Vestal had been unchaste. The penalty for a Vestal Virgin found to have had sexual relations while in office was being buried alive.


title: Virginity

text: The most common formulation of Buddhist ethics for lay followers are the Five Precepts and the Eightfold Path. These precepts take the form of voluntary, personal undertakings, not divine mandate or instruction. The third of the Five Precepts is "To refrain from committing sensual misconduct". Sensual misconduct is defined in the Pali Canon as follows:


title: Virginity

text: Virginity, specifically, is not mentioned in the Canon. On the other hand, Buddhist monks and nuns of most traditions are expected to refrain from all sexual activity and the Buddha is said to have admonished his followers to avoid unchastity "as if it were a pit of burning cinders."


title: Virginity

text: The 3rd of the 5 precepts in Buddhism warns against any sensual misconduct, though the exact definition of it is unclear. Buddhists have been more open compared to other religions about the subject of sex and that has expanded over time. As with Christianity, although a traditionalist would assume that one should not have sex before marriage, many Buddhists do. There are different branches of Buddhism, like tantric and puritan, and they have very different views on the subject of sex, yet managed to get along. Tantric is a Sanskrit word; it is typically translated as two things or person being bound together. In the time of Gotama, the man who came to be known as Buddha, sex was not taboo. The world the prince lived in was filled with earthly pleasures. Women naked from the waist above were in the court solely to serve the prince. Gotama's father even constructed a chamber of love. Prince Gotama and founded the beginnings of Buddhism, which included the denial of earthly pleasures in order to follow the Middle Way. The stark contrast between the way Buddha lived his life before and after rejecting the material world may arguably be one of the reasons Buddhism evolved the way it did. In the present, the mother of a Buddha does not have to be a virgin; she must have never had a child, however.


title: Virginity

text: In Hinduism, premarital virginity on the part of the bride is considered ideal. The prevailing Hindu marriage ceremony, or the Vedic wedding, centers around the "Kanyadan" ritual, which literally means "gift of a virgin," by father of the maiden through which the Hindus believe they gain greatest spiritual merit, and marriages of the daughters are considered a spiritual obligation. The purity of women is especially valued in South Asia, where Hinduism is most commonly practiced. Sex had never been a taboo in ancient India and intactness of the hymen had nothing to do with virginity.


title: Virginity

text: Premarital sex is forbidden in Judaism. In fact, the precedent for the "mitzvot" which are related in Deuteronomy 22:25-29, which regard what happens when a man rapes a virgin, may well have been set at Shechem after the rape of Dinah (cf. Genesis 34).


title: Virginity

text: There are other references in the Torah to virginity. In the first reference, in , Lot offers his virgin daughters to the people of Sodom for sexual purposes in an attempt to protect his guests (cf. Genesis 19:4-11), with the implication that the people of Sodom would be more likely to accept the offer in view of the girls' virginity than they would otherwise. This also sets the precedent for Israelites to avoid homosexual activity (cf. Leviticus 18:22, 20:13.).


title: Virginity

text: The next reference is at , where Eliezer is seeking a wife for his master, Abraham's son. He meets Rebecca, and the narrative tells us, "the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her" (in biblical terms, "to know" is a euphemism for sexual relations).


title: Virginity

text: Children born to a single woman are not regarded as illegitimate (a "mamzer") or subject to social or religious disabilities—Perez and Zerach, for example (and although their mother was a widow who was willingly impregnated by her father-in-law), were not counted as "mamzerim" (cf. Genesis 38:24-30).


title: Virginity

text: Halakhah also contains rules related to protecting female virgins, and rules regarding pre-marital sex, rape, and the effects of each.


title: Virginity

text: In Torah, a damsel who has not the sign of virginity in the early marriage shall be punished by death penalty, since the unvirgin woman among Israel is equal with a defiled whore in her father's house.


title: Virginity

text: Paul the Apostle expressed the view that a person's body belongs to God and is God's temple (, ), and that premarital sex is immoral () on an equal level as adultery. () Paul also expressed the view in that sexual abstinence is the preferred state for both men and women. However, he stated that sexual relations are expected between a married couple.


title: Virginity

text: According to classicist Evelyn Stagg and New Testament scholar Frank Stagg, the New Testament holds that sex is reserved for marriage. They maintain that the New Testament teaches that sex outside of marriage is a sin of adultery if either of the participants is married, otherwise the sin of fornication if neither of the participants are married. An imperative given in 1 Corinthians says, "Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins people commit are outside their bodies, but those who sin sexually sin against their own bodies." Those who are sexually immoral or adulterers are listed in in a list of "wrongdoers who ... will not inherit the kingdom of God." and also address fornication. The "Apostolic Decree" of the Council of Jerusalem also includes a prohibition on fornication.


title: Virginity

text: Aquinas went further, emphasizing that acts other than copulation destroy virginity, and clarifying that involuntary sexual pleasure does not destroy virginity. From his "Summa Theologica", "Pleasure resulting from resolution of semen may arise in two ways. If this be the result of the mind's purpose, it destroys virginity, "whether copulation takes place or not". Augustine, however, mentions copulation, because such like resolution is the ordinary and natural result thereof. On another way this may happen beside the purpose of the mind, either during sleep, or through violence and without the mind's consent, although the flesh derives pleasure from it, or again through weakness of nature, as in the case of those who are subject to a flow of semen. On such cases virginity is not forfeit, because such like pollution is not the result of impurity which excludes virginity."


title: Virginity

text: Some have theorized that the New Testament was not against sex before marriage. The discussion turns on two Greek words — "moicheia" ("μοιχεία", adultery) and "porneia" ("πορνεία", fornication, see also pornography). The first word is restricted to contexts involving sexual betrayal of a spouse; however, the second word is used as a generic term for illegitimate sexual activity. Elsewhere in , incest, homosexual intercourse (according to some interpretations) and prostitution are all explicitly forbidden by name (however, the Septuagint uses "porneia" to refer to male temple prostitution). Paul is preaching about activities based on sexual prohibitions in Leviticus, in the context of achieving holiness. The theory suggests it is these, and only these behaviors that are intended by Paul's prohibition in chapter seven. The strongest argument against this theory is that the modern interpretation of the New Testament, outside Corinthians, speaks against premarital sex.


title: Virginity

text: Christian orthodoxy accepts that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin at the time Jesus was conceived, based on the accounts in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox, as well as many Lutherans and Anglicans, hold to the dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary. However, other Christians reject the dogma, citing sources such as : "Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren't His sisters here with us?". The Catholic Church holds that in Semitic usage the terms "brother," "sister" are applied not only to children of the same parents, but to nephews, nieces, cousins, half-brothers, and half-sisters. Catholics, Orthodox Christians Lutherans, and other groups, such as High Church Anglicans, may refer to Mary as "the Virgin Mary" or "the Blessed Virgin Mary".


title: Virginity

text: The "Catholic Encyclopedia" says: "There are two elements in virginity: the material element, that is to say, the absence, in the past and in the present, of all complete and voluntary delectation, whether from lust or from the lawful use of marriage; and the formal element, that is the firm resolution to abstain forever from sexual pleasure" and that "Virginity is irreparably lost by sexual pleasure, voluntarily and completely experienced." However, for the purposes of consecrated virgins it is canonically enough that they have never been married or lived in open violation of chastity.


title: Virginity

text: Islam considers extramarital sex to be sinful and forbidden. Though Islamic law prescribes punishments for Muslim men and women for the act of zinā, Though in Western cultures premarital sex and loss of virginity may be considered shameful to the individual, in some Muslim societies an act of premarital sex, even if not falling within the legal standards of proof, may result in personal shame and loss of family honor.


title: Virginity

text: In some modern-day largely Muslim societies such as Turkey, vaginal examinations for verifying a woman's virginity are a clinical practice which are at times state-enforced. These types of examinations are typically ordered for women who go against traditional societal notions of "public morality and rules of modesty", though in 1999 the Turkish penal code was altered to require a woman's consent prior to performing such an examination.


title: Virginity

text: In Sikhism, sexual activity is supposed to occur only between married individuals. Sikhism advises against premarital sex, as it has a high potential of being an indulgence of lust ("kaam", or extreme sexual desire). Sikhism teaches that young women must have decent modesty ("sharam)" because the honor ("izzat)" of her family could be jeopardized. Sexual activity and even living together prior to marriage is not allowed in Sikhism. Virginity is an important aspect of spirituality and it has to be preserved before marriage, or when one is ready to move into another sacred state of being with their significant other.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population was 196,169, making it the 8th-largest city in the U.S state of Florida, and the 126th-largest city in the United States. The population of the Tallahassee metropolitan area was 385,145 . Tallahassee is the largest city in the Florida Big Bend and Florida Panhandle region, and the main center for trade and agriculture in the Florida Big Bend and Southwest Georgia regions.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: With a student population exceeding 70,000, Tallahassee is a college town, home to Florida State University, ranked the nation's 19th-best public university by "U.S. News & World Report;" Florida A&M University, ranked the nation's best public historically black university by "U.S. News & World Report"; and Tallahassee Community College, a large state college that serves mainly as a feeder school to Florida State and Florida A&M.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: As the capital, Tallahassee is the site of the Florida State Capitol, Supreme Court of Florida, Florida Governor's Mansion, and nearly 30 state agency headquarters. The city is also known for its large number of law firms, lobbying organizations, trade associations and professional associations, including the Florida Bar and the Florida Chamber of Commerce. It is a recognized regional center for scientific research, and home to the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. In 2015, Tallahassee was awarded the All-American City Award by the National Civic League for the second time.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Indigenous peoples occupied this area for thousands of years before European encounter. Around 1200 CE, the large and complex Mississippian culture had built earthwork mounds near Lake Jackson which survive today; they are preserved in the Lake Jackson Archaeological State Park.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The Spanish Empire established their first colonial settlement at St. Augustine. During the 17th century they established several missions in Apalachee territory to procure food and labor to support their settlement, as well as to convert the natives to Roman Catholicism. The largest, Mission San Luis de Apalachee in Tallahassee, has been partially reconstructed by the state of Florida.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez encountered the Apalachee people, although it did not reach the site of Tallahassee. Hernando de Soto and his mid-16th century expedition occupied the Apalachee town of Anhaica (at what is now Tallahassee) in the winter of 1538–39. Based on archaeological excavations, this Anhaica site is now known to have been about east of the present Florida State Capitol. The De Soto encampment is believed to be the first place Christmas was celebrated in the continental United States, although there is no historical documentation to back this claim.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The name "Tallahassee" is a Muskogean language word often translated as "old fields" or "old town". It was likely an expression of the Creek people who migrated from Georgia and Alabama to this region in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, under pressure from European-American encroachment on their territory. They found large areas of cleared land previously occupied by the Apalachee tribe. (The Creek and later refugees who joined them developed as the Seminole Indians of Florida. The Talimali Band of Apalachee Indians in Louisiana identify as present-day descendants of the Apalachee Indians.)


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: During the First Seminole War, General Andrew Jackson fought two separate skirmishes in and around Tallahassee, which was then Spanish territory. The first battle took place on November 12, 1817. After Chief Neamathla, of the village of Fowltown just west of present-day Tallahassee, refused Jackson's orders to relocate, Jackson entered the village, burnt it to the ground, and drove off its occupants. The Indians retaliated, killing 50 soldiers and civilians. Jackson reentered Florida in March 1818. According to Jackson's adjutant, Colonel Robert Butler, they "advanced on the Indian village called Tallahasse (sic) [where] two of the enemy were made prisoner."


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Florida became an American territory in September 1821, in accordance with the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The first session of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida met on July 22, 1822, at Pensacola, the former capital of West Florida. Members from St. Augustine, the former capital of East Florida, traveled 59 days by water to attend. The second session was in St. Augustine, and western delegates needed 28 days to travel perilously around the peninsula to reach St. Augustine. During this session, delegates decided to hold future meetings at a halfway point. Two appointed commissioners selected Tallahassee, at that point an Apalachee settlement (Anhaica) virtually abandoned after Andrew Jackson burned it in 1818, as a halfway point. In 1824 the third legislative session met there in a crude log building serving as the capitol.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: From 1821 through 1845, during Florida's territorial period, the rough-hewn frontier capital gradually developed as a town. The Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolution, returned to the United States in 1824 for a tour. The U.S. Congress voted to give him $200,000 (the same amount he had given the colonies in 1778), US citizenship, and the Lafayette Land Grant, of land that today includes large portions of Tallahassee. In 1845 a Greek revival masonry structure was erected as the Capitol building in time for statehood. Now known as the "old Capitol", it stands in front of the high-rise Capitol building built in the 1970s.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee was in the heart of Florida's Cotton Belt—Leon County led the state in cotton production—and was the center of the slave trade in Florida. During the American Civil War, Tallahassee was the only Confederate state capital east of the Mississippi River not captured by Union forces, and the only one not burned. A small engagement, the Battle of Natural Bridge, was fought south of the city on March 6, 1865, just a month before the war ended.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: During the 19th century, the institutions that would develop into what is now Florida State University were established in Tallahassee; it became a university town. These included the Tallahassee Female Academy (founded 1843) and the Florida Institute (founded 1854). In 1851, the Florida legislature decreed two seminaries to be built on either side of the Suwannee River, East Florida Seminary and West Florida Seminary. In 1855 West Florida Seminary was transferred to the Florida Institute building (which had been established as an inducement for the state to place the seminary in Tallahassee). In 1858, the seminary absorbed the Tallahassee Female Academy and became coeducational. Its main building was near the northwest corner of South Copeland and West Jefferson streets, approximately where FSU's Westcott Building is today.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: In 1887, the Normal College for Colored Students, the ancestor of today's FAMU, opened its doors. The legislature decided Tallahassee was the best location in Florida for a college serving African-American students; the state had segregated schools. Four years later its name was changed to State Normal and Industrial College for Colored Students, to teach teachers for elementary school children and students in industrial skills.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: After the Civil War much of Florida's industry moved to the south and east, a trend that continues today. The end of slavery and the rise of free labor reduced the profitability of the cotton and tobacco trade, at a time when world markets were also changing. The state's major industries shifted to citrus, lumber, naval stores, cattle ranching, and tourism. The latter was increasingly important by the late 19th century. In the post-Civil War period, many former plantations in the Tallahassee area were purchased by wealthy northerners for use as winter hunting preserves. This included the hunting preserve of Henry L. Beadel, who bequeathed his land for the study of the effects of fire on wildlife habitat. Today the preserve is known as the Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy, nationally recognized for its research into fire ecology and the use of prescribed burning.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Until World War II, Tallahassee remained a small Southern town The main economic drivers were the colleges and state government, where politicians met to discuss spending money on grand public improvement projects to accommodate growth in places such as Miami and Tampa Bay, hundreds of miles away from the capital.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee was also active in protest during the civil rights era. The Tallahassee bus boycott was a citywide boycott in Tallahassee, Florida that sought to end racial segregation in the employment and seating arrangements of city buses. On May 26, 1956, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson, two Florida A&M University students, were arrested by the Tallahassee Police Department for "placing themselves in a position to incite a riot". Robert Saunders, representing the NAACP, and Rev. C. K. Steele began talks with city authorities while the local African-American community started boycotting the city's buses. The Inter-Civic Council ended the boycott on December 22, 1956. On January 7, 1957, the City Commission repealed the bus-franchise segregation clause because of the United States Supreme Court ruling Browder v. Gayle (1956). In the 1960s there was a movement to transfer the capital to Orlando, closer to the state's growing population centers. That movement was defeated; the 1970s saw a long-term commitment by the state to the capital city, with the construction of the new capitol complex and preservation of the old Florida State Capitol building.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: In 1970, the Census Bureau reported the city's population as 74.0% white and 25.4% black. In 1971, the city elected James R. Ford to the 5-member City Commission, and he became the city's first African-American mayor in 1972 (commissioners rotated into the position serving a one-year term).


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Bobby Bowden became the head coach of Florida State Seminoles football in 1976, and turned Tallahassee into a city dominated by college football, Bowden became very successful very quickly at Florida State. By his second year, Bowden had to deny many rumors that he would leave for another job; the team went 9–2, compared to the four wins total in the three seasons before Bowden. During 34 years as head coach he had only one losing season–his first, in 1976.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: In 1977 the 22-story high-rise Capitol building, designed by architect Edward Durell Stone, was completed. It is now (2021) the third-tallest state capitol building in the United States. In 1978 the Old Capitol, directly in front of the new capitol, was scheduled for demolition, but state officials decided to keep the Old Capitol as a museum. In 1986, Jack McLean served as mayor, the second African-American to hold the position.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee was the center of world attention for six weeks during the 2000 United States Presidential election recount, which involved numerous rulings by the Florida Secretary of State and the Florida Supreme Court.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: In 2016, the city suffered a direct hit by Hurricane Hermine, causing about 80% of the city proper to lose power, including Florida State University, and knocking down many trees.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee's terrain is hilly by Florida standards, being at the southern end of the Red Hills Region, just above the Cody Scarp. The elevation varies from near sea level to just over , with the state capitol on one of the highest hills in the city. The city includes two large lake basins, Lake Jackson and Lake Lafayette, and borders the northern end of the Apalachicola National Forest.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The flora and fauna are similar to those found in the mid-south and low country regions of South Carolina and Georgia. The palm trees are the more cold-hardy varieties like the state tree, the "Sabal palmetto". Pines, magnolias, hickories, and a variety of oaks are the dominant trees. The Southern Live Oak is perhaps the most emblematic of the city.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee has many neighborhoods inside the city limits. Some of the most known and defined include All Saints, Apalachee Ridge, Betton Hills, Buck Lake, Callen, Frenchtown (the oldest historically black neighborhood in the state), Killearn Estates, Killearn Lakes Plantation, Lafayette Park, Levy Park, Los Robles, Midtown, Holly Hills, Jake Gaither/University Park, Indian Head Acres, Myers Park, Smokey Hollow, SouthWood, Seminole Manor and Woodland Drives.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee is also home to some gated communities, including Golden Eagle, Ox Bottom, Lafayette Oaks and The Preserve at San Luis; the Tallahassee Ranch Club is to the southeast of the city.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The first plan for the Capitol Center was the 1947 Taylor Plan, which consolidated several government buildings in one downtown area. In 1974, the Capitol Center Planning Commission for the City of Tallahassee, Florida responded to growth of its urban center with a conceptual plan for the expansion of its Capitol Center. Hisham Ashkouri, working for The Architects' Collaborative, led the urban planning and design effort. Estimating growth and related development for approximately the next 25 years, the program projected the need for 2.3 million square feet (214,000 m) of new government facilities in the city core, with 3,500 dwelling units, of new public open space, retail and private office space, and other ancillary spaces. Community participation was an integral part of the design review, welcoming Tallahassee residents to provide input as well as citizens' groups and government agencies, resulting in the creation of six separate design alternatives.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department implements policies aimed at promoting compact growth and development, including the establishment and maintenance of an Urban Service Area. The intent of the Urban Service Area is to "have Tallahassee and Leon County grow in a responsible manner, with infrastructure provided economically and efficiently, and surrounding forest and agricultural lands protected from unwarranted and premature conversion to urban land use." The result of compact growth policies has been a significant overall reduction in the Sprawl Index for Tallahassee between 2000 and 2010. CityLab reported on this finding, stating "Tallahassee laps the field, at least as far as the Sprawl Index is concerned."


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen "Cfa"), with long, tropical summers and short, mild winters, as well as warm to hot, drier springs and autumns. Tallahassee falls in USDA hardiness zones 8b (15 °F to 20 °F) Summer maxima here are hotter than in the Florida peninsula and it is one of the few cities in the state to occasionally record temperatures above ; the majority of years in the 1991-2020 climate normals have recorded at least 1 day with temperatures that high, with a median occurrence of 16 years out of 30. The record high of was set on June 15, 2011.