Posted on 08/01/2018 10:14:42 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Maybe it's time we stopped with the pearl-clutching over video games.
Fortnite was big news on Tuesday, when the Wall Street Journal published a feature looking at parents who hire tutors to help their kids (and themselves) get good.
The article itself is a fine example of non-biased journalism: There's no agenda, and the story works to inform and help people understand this growingly frequent practice without casting any judgments. But the response has been something else.
In 2018, folks are still freaked out by video games. The revelation that parents hire video game tutors has prompted a mixture of negative reactions from certain excitable corners of the internet: Shock, incredulity, disgust, derision, even outright horror. What have y'all been doing for the past 40 years while this was turning into one of the most popular pastimes on the planet?
Reporter Sarah E. Needleman describes Fortnite as something that's become "a social proving ground" for children. "Winning bestows the kind of bragging rights that used to be reserved for the local Little League baseball champ," she continues, using an easily relatable example for comparison....
(Excerpt) Read more at mashable.com ...
Parents enabling addiction.
I have misgivings about the game. They play it in my home office or nearby, so I hear the interaction. On plus side, they are learning teamwork. Very valuable. On the negative side, they are killing opponents. In the latter I figure it is no different than when I was young and we played Cowboys & Indians or Allies & Germans. I have though, on the Nintendo switch, limited their daily play to two hours. Great feature to keep tabs on and limit their play. Further, those two hours are conditions on doing something academic of equal time.
That’s good parenting. On a side note, I apologize for my actions and attitude vis a vis Cruz and the last election. Things got heated and emotion took over at times.
no you would not....
two hrs a day...TWO HOURS A DAY!
Define trash? For its is not trash. And their female classmates are on Fortnite, plus all of them on Minecraft as well.
Apology accepted. Everyone saked out extremes with him.
I don’t know very much about it but two of my kids, very far apart in age, have spoken of it. One is 21 and he plays it in teams with his far flung friends. the other is 6 and she only Is interested in the fortnite dance moves. So I dont have a real idea how this shooter game you play in teams, has all theses dance moves. Feeling old!
I think I’ve shown that I’m more than average behind him since Cruz dropped out.
As the next war (or the latest one) is going to be fought by remote control battling swarms of drones, its probably not bad training. The flip side is that while playing cowboys and indians we spent hours rushing, creeping, climbing and stalking through the woods which kept us fit while burning off spare energy, and sometimes even we let the girls be squaws.
Derision is appropriate
The Journal is good at being nonjudgmental about parents who do loony stuff. I remember an article about those who move around the country to get their children on the “best” sports teams.
It’s just a reminder that the paper is ultimately about money.
“Parents enabling addiction.”
That’s all I see. I guess it gets the kids out of their parents hair. If a parent can’t teach a (otherwise healthy) kid to interact socially, he has no purpose being a parent.
The games can wait until adulthood. I knew my kids would get addicted, since I would have, for certain, if I were from that generation. These seemed to have developed quite well WITHOUT this crap.
But I guess to each their own...
I have no clue what this is. Last computer game I played was Doom.
I spend about that on Battefield and The Operational Art of War IV.
TOAW is like the old Avalon Hill war games but on a computer.
The kids are learning how to read and type playing these games at least. Better than roaming the streets with cans of spray paint or worse. Parents just need to parent and supervise their playing time. I just wish this tech was around when I was a kid. Shot TV went off at midnight or there about.
Yes, there seems to be games within games in Fortnite, a little for everyone. I’d say it is likely most popular at the moment, Mincraft next. Not many other games interest them (likely because they don’t know many others maybe?). Aside from two hour cap on Fortnite, we require one hour of academic, hour of non-electronic, etc. for each hour of play. Only exception is watching video, unlimited while on treadmill, spincycle, or elliptical. We’re actually quite successful in amount of reading, writing, and arithmetic we are getting daily through the summer. Okay, barely any writing. Both do lots of reading. Fortnite has their interest, kept in check with other activities. And they’ve given up asking me to play it with them. Zero interest.
I’m late to this article but Fortnite is addicting as a slot machine is. Programmers can have their machines to learn what players want developing an addiction. Look into the psychology of this game and it is disgusting.
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