Addiction to Fortnite Battle Royale forces kids back into a video game

Carson, his 17-year-old son, spends 12 hours a day playing video games, looking for weapons and resources in a post-apocalyptic world where the goal is to be the last no one standing. Teachers complain that he fell asleep in class and that his grades dropped.

"We had made some progress to convince him to reduce his fortified hours and sleep better, but he found his old habits," Vitany, who lives near Saginaw, Mich., Said in an interview. "I have never seen a game that has such control over the minds of children."

Vitany's anguish is relayed by an army of parents, teachers and bosses from around the world struggling with a game that takes a lot of time to players, sometimes at the expense of other activities. More than 200 million people have signed up to play Fortnite, which has become a billion dollar company for its creator, Epic Games Inc. Some desperate parents have sent their children to rehab.

"This game is like heroin," said Lorrine Marer, a British behavior specialist who works with children who are addicted to gambling. "Once you're hooked, it's hard to get caught."

Epic has issued warnings in the past about the need to avoid Fortnite fraudsters, but declined to comment on the problem of addiction.

Video game addiction is not new: parents and teachers are concerned about distracted children – and their hands stirred by a joystick – since the days of Atari consoles. But the omnipresence of Fortnite has created a more widespread threat. And this is occurring in the context of broader concerns over the overuse of social media and smartphones.

Fortnite, first published in its popular "Royal Battle" mode in September 2017, does not only cause problems for children. An online British divorce service reports that 200 petitions have cited this year's Fortnite and other video games as being the reason for marriage breakdown.

Professional athletes also become hooked. The Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League have had so much trouble getting players to meetings and dinners that they banished from Fortnite on the road. David Price, the star thrower of the Boston Red Sox, who won the World Series in Major League Baseball, was stricken from the May match against the Yankees, his rival, because of wrist problems exacerbated by the game Fortnite.

Randy Kulman, a child psychologist in Wakefield, Rhode Island, has seen an increase in the number of parents taking their children to counseling because of video games addiction.

"In my office, a 13-year-old said he has won 300 victories in Fortnite," said Kulman. "I had to stop a minute and calculate what he had to invest to get it."

Michael Jacobus, who runs the Reset summer camp for drug-addicted children, said that about 60% of the 120 children he'd counseled in camps in Santa Barbara California and Asheville, NC North last summer were playing excessively at Fortnite. The treatment involves a detoxification technology (their appliances are removed), combined with a healthy diet, sleep and group therapy. Next summer, he plans to enroll more than twice as many children, with additional institutions in Texas, Indiana and New York.

Fort Adnan is particularly convincing because the battle-royal version is free and available on many devices ranging from phones to game consoles, rating Cam Adair, who left high school at age 15 due to his addiction to video games and now. speak on the subject to schools and other groups. Fortnite players fight in fights of 100 people until the last one is standing – matches that make it difficult to quit work once they have started.

"His [the second world war] If a parent asks his son to come to dinner, he loses, he loses, "Adair said.

Although the game is free, Epic has created opportunities to sell hundreds of dollars worth of add-ons – including exotic weapons and "skins", such as Dark Voyager, a black reflective striped space suit, on cards credit. The company recently joined the National Football League to sell jerseys based on the players' favorite teams.

"Parents have lost significant amounts of money by not paying attention to the fact that their credit card is linked to the game console," said Marer, a behavior specialist.

In October, Epic capitalized on Fortnite's popularity by raising $ 1.25 billion from a group of investors including KKR & Co, Vulcan Capital and Kleiner Perkins. The transaction values ​​the private company at 15 billion US dollars.

Video games have already provoked negative reactions. The Grand Theft Auto series, produced by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., has been banned worldwide for its extreme violence and sexual content. The industry has also sparked criticism as a result of mass shootings involving individuals related to video games.

In April, the Dutch gaming regulatory authorities published a study that "loot boxes", in which players buy products in a game without knowing exactly what they are getting, constitute play. and can create an addiction.

For now, Fortnite is the game of choice. A recent afternoon, the game was the most watched on Amazon.com's Twitch streaming service, with 250,000 people watching others play.

According to the World Health Organization, "gambling disorder" first appeared in June, which could help parents apply for reimbursement of their treatments from an insurer, according to Paul Weigle , psychiatrist at Mansfield Center, Connecticut.

Weigle, who meets about 20 compulsive Fortnite players, recommends that parents prevent children under the age of 10 from playing video games. And parents must set limits when they play. As games become more sophisticated in their ability to attract fans, he sees that the problem of addiction is growing.

"It will be more of a problem than it is now," said Weigle.

– South China Daily Post