Think of Fortnite As a “place”, Not a “game”
Parents are wringing their hands over the Fortnite phenomenon. It’s not just a social survival game that kids can play for free from multiple devices (PC, mobile phone, PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo Switch). Fortnite: Battle Royale is also gaining a reputation for being quite addicting ( depending on who you ask ).
But we may all be thinking wrong. What we perceive as a shooting game that teens and teens obsessively play on the Internet for hours on end, poisoning their brains, they may simply see as a way to “hang out” with friends.
At least that’s what writer Owen Williams says :
We keep playing, but we’re really just hanging out. Fortnite has built-in voice chat, so you can easily just turn on your voice, talk about your day, life and everything that happens without even realizing it. We play the game together, getting off the battle bus every ten minutes to start a new round, but what keeps us there is that we all spend time together.
I’ve probably spent more time chatting with friends on the other side of the world on Fortnite voice chat than I’ve been calling them in the last four years since I moved overseas. Even for friends who live nearby, in the same city, we are much more likely to catch up in the game, stopping by for several quick rounds and at the same time talking about what’s new.
And Williams isn’t the only one who believes that the inherent value of Fortnite is being able to connect with friends on a regular basis. His article on tech blog Charged was inspired by this tweet from @anoopr:
Journalist Keith Stewart also wrote on Medium about the benefits he sees in social interaction for both himself and his sons. And he notes that the pastime through a video game is a natural consequence of the helicopter-borne parenting:
People who don’t play Fortnite or video games in general often say that it’s sad that today’s teens aren’t going to skateparks and rollerblading discos and are getting this educational experience online instead. In a way, I think it is, but children are not necessarily to blame for this. Teens fall into a trashy socio-cultural trap-22: adults are concerned that their children are spending too much time on smartphones and consoles, but at the same time, they constantly monitor and restrict access to the physical environment.
Our advice? Before you decide if Fortnite has real social value or is just another way to turn a person into a zombie obsession, try playing it with your kids .