So over the last few years I have watched the steady growth of Fortnite. It's everywhere. Like a virus, it sinks it's teeth in to your home and infects people as well as emptying the pockets of players or henpecked parents who are sick of their kids asking for "V bucks". It's been in the news with stories of children, yes children, who have managed to pilfer hundreds to even thousands of pounds worth of money. Spouses who got beaten up by players just for asking them to take a break. Families being divided and even children being neglected by parents who should have known better. There has even been harrowing and tragic cases of children harming themselves because they were denied access or even children who were murdered by a parent who lost a game because they dared to make a sound or need something during a game.
The truth is, it's not the kind of game that makes me so disgusted by the game. It's just the way that it encompasses everything wrong with competitive gaming as a whole. The competitive nature of the game almost reprograms people in to competitive zombies who only live to serve the master...I mean the game. They care little about anything other than getting another kill or winning and dancing on another players avatar. It's like an addiction to drugs in a way. People get irritable when they can't get a fix and even while their on the game, they become completely different people. It turns a nice person in to a negligently cruel one who only cares about the game, not their family or friends. The way the game actually uses psychological tactics to create this kind of mindset that is similar to that of a compulsive gambler who just can't help themselves as they become so obsessed with chasing a victory or a bigger score.
I think that overly competitive games, not just Fortnite but other titles like Call of Duty or Halo, have a lot to answer to. Not just because it changes people, but it ruins lives. It ruins families. The people who are obsessed with it are almost poisoned and then they become so blinkered to what's going on around them. Like they can't see the miserable situation it's caused or the way that they behaved towards someone else. The sad thing to me is that they can't break free for some reason. Then there's extreme cases where people have actually died because of extensive game sessions, like the guy in the cafe, OK it wasn't Fortnite but it was another game where someone was so addicted that they neglected themselves to the point of death. As mentioned before, this game has led to children ending their own lives because they couldn't play on it for some reason or another.
I've watched someone try and they have struggled so much and it really saddens me to see. It was like one moment they're willing to break away and have their mind and life back and the next they're feeding the addiction. It's a truly troubling sight and it was hard to get them to see the damage it was causing, not just for them but for others who care for them. I'm proud of them for finally being able to push through it all and get through this and we have mended a lot of the issues it was causing. I'm just hoping now that it doesn't make a comeback ever again. My advice is that if a loved one is getting to an additced level of obsession with this or any other game, please don't write them off. Help them before it gets to the point where it gets dangerous.
-Sin
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