Quake Deathmatch had been the new and cool thing for us, Duke Nukem, Heretic and all the rest came and went... Pretty sure that if we had the games of today, none of us would've finished high school. If I were a parent, wouldn't have a CLUE how to save my children from wasting their life (playing games), heh. :/
3
As a young kid and young adult I played lots of video games and I can understand the the obsession with playing over and over again and every day and with your friends and more and more!
The problem I see is the young kids are entering this with out any limits and this is absolutely insane. I can see it with my own kid, if there is no stimulation on a screen there is no fun, the basketball, the football, the bicycle are just there collecting dust. I now set strong limits on video games and watch imbeciles on you tube!
Many creative minds are been lost and becoming couch potato because of the obsession of one video game.
1
You spent a lot of time in this article talking about Fortnite. I get the reason that you did this is that it is arguably the most popular game at the present time, and I agree, however, I feel like you should have highlighted some more up-and-coming games. One that I particularly would like to discuss is Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege. It is arguably one of the fastest growing games right now, and it had a solid player base, hitting 30 million players recently. It has also had some pretty large LAN (local area network, it's basically all the players are playing on local lobbies and are in one place) events. They had one just last year, with a thrilling five-map final and a 2-3 map score on an overtime 6-4 victory for PENTA sports over Evil Geniuses. There is also an upcoming final in Atlantic City that is supposed to be a major event.
This is the perfect time to be in R6S. Ubisoft has plans to release 100 operators; they currently have 38 out. Also, there have been a lot of big organizations coming into the game. You mentioned FaZe clan in this article. FaZe also has a Brazilian R6S team that has a ton of fans. EG is the biggest org in the game as of right now, but there are a lot more organizations that have started showing interest in the game.
1
What tremendous panicky venom all over the comments. Keep in mind that the average adult gamer does not exclusively game - this is not the sole leisure pursuit for some of these folks, just the most obvious one.
I'm a Millenial male and I typically spend a couple hours a day gaming (apparently that makes me a "zombie"). I also have a live-in girlfriend, a thriving career, and I play a high-intensity contact sport on the weekends (egads, we exercise!). My experience is NOT unique among my peers. I suspect most of the intellectual dishonesty regarding the supposedly harmful nature of this pursuit is coming from folks who eagerly spent hours each week sitting on a couch watching TV when they were in their teens and twenties, and likely continue to do so today while binge-watching whatever Netflix content catches the eye. Does it somehow diminish your existence? I think not.
The world will carry on despite the existence of gamers in the mainstream, I promise.
9
Computer gaming runs a distant second in the dissolution of young men's lives to the internet's unmentionable elephant in the room: pornography. Porn is even more addictive, and not only does it substitute for innocent adolescent exploration of sex and love (okay, maybe not so innocent), it teaches boys that women are to be treated as objects for gratification, brutalized and degraded, often by a group of men on one submissive female. To most grown-ups, viewing today's mainstream internet pornography is a shocking experience. Universally accessible and free of charge, its pernicious effects are rampant among young males. Just ask their girlfriends.
4
I learned from someone who travelled to Iceland that there are people who make a living serving as gaming moderators. I guess after the Icelandic financial collapse people there needed to figure out how they would contribute to the global economy. Esport referee is an interesting contribution.
As a gamer for the last 30 years, I can't tell if I'm surprised or not at all surprised by the comments here. To address multiple points:
Yes, female gamers are fewer in number than male gamers. While gaming has traditionally been a mainly-guy thing, and animosity and sexism towards women in gaming still persists (though I'd argue that's indicative of the prevalence of toxic masculinity in our society generally than the gaming community specifically), that also is changing, albeit glacially.
I follow the professional e-sport Overwatch League and have been to two "tapings." I would estimate that women make up about 35% of the audience. For those in the know, one of the OWL teams *does* have a female player. It's not enough, not by a long shot, but it's a start.
Watching people play video games is no different than watching football, baseball, soccer etc. When you understand the game, and can appreciate what someone else just did in the game to achieve their goal, it's no different than appreciating a tough-to-make catch or a well-kicked goal.
Video games are not addictive, escapism is. Video games, like any hobby, are a way to forget your responsibilities for awhile, which is totally healthy. Video games also give you positive feedback when you do something in the game. What's not healthy is replacing real-world accomplishments/obligations with in-game accomplishments. That's video game "addiction." You can do the same thing with books, TV, anything that lets you escape.
10
I play video games, I’m 23, and I can say their are fun moments in video games that can only be experienced through video games. I love video games and think they’re incredible ways to tell stories and connect to other people just like any other medium of art. A game came out recently called “God of War”. Yes from the title doesn’t sound too different from “fortnite”, but it is a beautiful single player game that follows the story of a Father and his son on a journey to spread the ashes of his mother. It is an incredibly heart wrenching story that can move you to tears just like a movie can. I think games like this need more attention, because they are art. I don’t think that fortnite is art is anyway. It is just a passing fad that will go away. It is dangerous though, just like call of duty, or battlefield. These games are toxic and suck hours into just doing repetitive actions that do nothing in terms of helping a person’s growth or giving them the wonderful experience that art can give you that makes you want to turn off the tv and live your life or even be inspired to take what you learned and make your own art. There are plenty of games that inspired my imagination when I was young and captivated me just as much as the movie beetlejuice or my first album I bought. My point is art speaks for itself and obviously the esports games are not aiming to be art and in no way could be considered as such since they only seem to be aiming at being an addictive waste of the mind.
24
See the doc film, "Web Junkie" on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtQevsY3OYw (50min)
It shows how China locks up teens who are addicted to games.
There has to be a better way to control screen addiction insanity!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2
A lot of ignorance in the comment section on this topic. A lot of Esports professionals are in extremely good shape. They work out, they eat properly. This is their job. They work on it 8+ hours a day, and then they go and live their life, just like the rest of America.
Of course there are out of shape Esports pros as well. Not every line worker at my plant is in great shape either. To call video gamers fat, out of shape, anti-social, weak, and a loser is just stereotyping which I would expect better of from a NYT reader.
And many people, myself included, are much more comfortable being social behind a computer monitor. I have a crushing case of depression and I'm just not good around people I don't know. These games are the way we socialize.
It's fine if you abhor video games, although a lot can be learned from playing them. But please don't assume a gamer is a fat, loser.
29
Jeez. New York Times commentators are all over the moral panic of new media. To quote and old movie my parents loved "We got trouble, right here in River City. With a capital T that rhymes with P and that stands for pool!"
7
That these gamers are exclusively male speaks volumes about what is destructive in this trend, and so many trends involving online or computer-based activities: it is much easier to interact with a machine which has been tuned to only reinforce those things which give us an endorphins kick.
Be it porn, or games, or the indignation machines of FB and Twit.
And so interesting to find in the comments, not one mention of how it helped them socialize face to face or more tellingly, talk to girls.
2
My own "cliche value judgment" is that this phenomenon is pathetically ridiculous and depressing.
Honestly, folks, esports?
Watching people play video games is no more embarrassing or pitiable than a group of overweight men drinking beer on their couch and watching young, fit men play basketball or baseball.
Why don't those overweight men stop watching other people play games and do it themselves?
38
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
4
I can’t think of a more pathetic way to exist.
I don’t want to call people names, but grow up.
Just what Homo sapiens need, more fake stuff.
This makes the made up pretend sports of baseball, football, and the like, seem like down right real world activities.
1
Pathetic. Watch as we kill ourselves as a productive, intelligent, healthy nation.
1
All. Boys.
4
Pathetic.
Pathetic.
Those that know, know that PUBG is better. If you don't know what PUBG is, then you better google it.
Video games are a non-destructive and environmentally friendly time sink for our society. I'm all for it. People have too much time on their hands and don't know what to do with it. No one's out hunting sabertooths or fetching buckets of water from a river. Is boredom a first world problem to have? it sure is, but that doesn't mean we don't need to address it. The alternative is a bunch of people slowly festering away as their souls are destroyed by capitalism and the never ending grind.
17
150 million people in the US are "gamers."
That's roughly half the population of the country, including children. It's over half the population of adults.
Stop pretending that people who play videogames are some weird niche culture.
We're not just mainstream; we're the norm.
9
Every time I hear about the new, latest, most popular video game, I go on Youtube and watch some clips of it.
As with every instance before, the game looks dumb, indistinguishable from all the others, involves shooting, and has unrealistic animation.
I'm off to go play kickball outside in the real world with my kids. Maybe we will post the highlight reel on Youtube.
1
Fortnite. Another (sound of a ) word ruined by tech.
1
My generation had D&D players, who sat inside rolling dice, while the rest of us played a[ctual]sports.
Looking at the photo, I see a lot of very pale young men who look like they could do with some CA sunshine.
Let's hope that they at least hop on their skateboards, after an exhausting day at the "arena."
6
Get a life people .... get out there and experience the real world. Let’s see what sort of health, social & psychological issues their behavior will bring forth.
Im not a gamer, never will be.
I rather read a book, listen to music, visit a museum, opera, film and take a class.
I find the whole thing a complete waste of valuable human energy.
I am a gamer, and always will be.
I am also an avid reader, I listen to music almost constantly, and I love classic films.
My physical health hasn't been changed by gaming. As for social and psychological issues, gaming has done for me what many years of therapy could not - it allows me experience fear and conflict in a safe way, leading to major progress in managing my PTSD. It has also led to me meeting and getting to know a far more diverse group of people than I could have otherwise.
Like books and film, games allow me to experience worlds that can only exist in the imagination. (Right now, I'm living in Howard's Hyborian Age, courtesy of the game Conan: Exiles.) And also like books and film, it has allowed me to look into corners of the real world I wouldn't have seen otherwise.
Like anything else, gaming is what you make of it. Yes, there are gamers out there who fit the unfortunate stereotype, and those who act like idiots just because they can, but most of us are just normal people who have found one more way to broaden our experiences and connect with others. It's not for everyone, of course. Nothing is. But there are literally millions of us. We're not niche weirdos.
3
Where are the female gamers?
1
How many current or future incels are in the room?
4
Instead of reading about FortNite Battle Royale, you could just download the game and play it for yourself to see what all the fuss is about. The game is free to play.
While FortNite is all the rage (spelled with a capital N, be more thorough NYT!), the gaming movement has been gathering pace for decades. Now that the video gaming industry is generating more revenue than the movie industry, you can be sure that contrary to opinions expressed in this article, Hollywood has not failed to take note. A number of attempts have been made to port video games to film and some have had decent showings at the box office, but none of the final product have been anything but forgettable.
Is there a need to be critical of young people who want to play video games? In the past, gaming used to be a solitary experience that produced socially inept pasty kids. But the franchise hits today tend to attract people because they are all about the social experience. It can be a great way for people to hang out with one another without dealing with all the complications of physical proximity. It might even become a way for some of you to actually get to know your kids better.
I don't see anyone complaining about the "lost hours" that millions in the United States and the world have spent on their couches watching baseball, football, soccer, etc.
4
Look at the lack of females in those crowds!!! Surely there must be discrimination and sexist bias that keeps females from gaming.
How many of these guys do you think will go into STEM? I will bet a large portion. But the lack of females in STEM is due to a bias toward males. Go figure.
1
Why do I feel like thousands of years of human culture and discovery just got flushed down the toilet of the future reading this? Maybe zombies are real. No wonder the recent surge in fascination of them.
Coverage of video games in major outlets like the Times seems mired in a pair of holes: "Wow, maybe video games are Serious Adult Business," and "Wow, maybe video games are Serious Adult Art" (although much less the latter than the former). It really feels like these outlets, the Times included, just don't know what to do about games, other than stand around and stare. Ms. Bowles's piece seems well written. But, when it comes to substance -- information, analysis, even tone -- there's little here that couldn't be covered with the single sentence "People are using big buildings to play Fortnite (and isn't that just a little weird?)"
If the Times wants to be a paper of general record, for a broadly informed and interested reader, then it should really have more to say about video games than it does at present. These things are a huge societal force -- not only, as the Times's coverage would suggest, because of the gaming industry's financial size, but also because of games' cultural reach.
Maybe go for some of the lower-hanging fruit in video game reporting, at least: gender disparity, or the financial structures that support these full-time players. These pictures are almost exclusively of men -- what about that? Any #MeToo angle? Or the strange intersection, only briefly mentioned here, between personality and competitor. How do these people get their money? What's it like to depend on that for a living?
I just want the Times to stop gazing at monkeys behind glass.
3
An even easier game to play? Spot the female gamer in the photos...
1
Sometimes what you need is to leave for a moment the advanced technology that we have
I feel that playing video games is a complete waste of time. However *watching* someone else play video games well is no more absurd than watching someone else play football or baseball or basketball.
1
Also, note that seemingly all the participants are young males.
I've watched my almost 30 year old son waste his life away in front of a computer screen. His addiction is now "OK" because everyone is doing it.
1
To be "fair" seems they should shut these things down until there's gender equality among gamers.
I bet none of these geek gamers know how to have an intelligent conversation with a woman. i don't even see any women in the pictures. No wonder women are fighting back. Just look at who's running our country and businesses.
Based on the images in this article, all the players are guys. Where are the girls?
I feel so very, very sorry for these boys (sorry, but those whom engage in childish games cannot very rightly be called 'men'). And when I say 'sorry', I am being sincere, not condescending.
When I think of the real-world activities that I was involved in when I was in my early to mid-20's, I shudder to think of the "life" that these boys are wasting for themselves, of the real places not traveled to; the real human beings never dated; the books they will never read.
They will never experience that heady transformation from adolescence to adulthood, and the thrill of dressing up for a night on the town or heading out to a classical music concert. They will never know the sublime satisfaction that comes with being 'worldly', 'well read' or 'sophisticated'. Men of my generation aspired to be worthy of Audrey Hepburn; the boys of this generation dream of porn stars and Hot Pockets.
This is indeed a 'lost' generation.
4
I should start a business selling vitamin D tablets to fortnite addicts, reminding them that playing the game could give them rickets like out of a Charles Dickens novel. I could roll in the dough
1
I suppose this addiction so many young men have is better than heroin or opioids, but not by much. For some, this infatuation excites them about technology and they'll pursue worthwhile careers doing or making something of value to others. But for many, the energy they spend on a desolate Earth fighting zombies is just a waste, taking them nowhere. All that can be said then is that it's better than being addicted to drugs.
14
This just makes me sad; all these young men and women looking at screens when they should be looking at each other....
2017 saw a 25 year low in movie ticket sales??? That is to say, every year between 1992 and 2017 actually showed higher theater attendance than what it was before the internet was a thing?? Has the news of the theater's death been greatly exaggerated?
The year when Basic Instinct, Wayne's World, Aladdin, A Few Good Men, Scent of a Woman, A League of Their Own, Unforgiven, etc. were in the theaters, did worse than last year? DVDs hadn't even been invented yet!!!!
Granted, 1992 was not a great year in film. But I am breathing a sigh of relief that movie theaters will be with us for a long time - it's apparent people are still going to theaters! Is it just that theater owners scream poverty if they don't get juicy 10% y-o-y income increases?
Wait - what? You can spend your time watching others play video games? Why was I not informed of this? I've been looking for a cure for my insomnia for years, and here it is right in front of me all along!
Is this a great country, or what?
I get playing video games - I play myself - but don't understand watching others play, especially live.
It is scary to see so many young involved with artificial reality. I see no love or knowledge of nature here. They are acting like a species that will soon be extinct.
From the one end, we see the rise of men who are so socially inept, so disconnected from the complex give and take of the human world, that they gather on Reddit and call themselves 'incels' (Involuntarily Celibate) and they see their loneliness as the fault of everyone but their own ability to be recirprocal partners. These men are so into their own world, so unaware of other people and their needs, that they can only understand their pain and expect women to ease it for them by giving them sex. And once in a blue moon an incel acts on his resentment and goes on a killing spree like the tragedy in Toronto.
And then from the other hand, the world of gaming, of being so removed from reality, is exploding as if it was a legitimate sport. Few seem to realize the kind of social damage this does to growing children. Especially children not born with good social skills.
As the mother of an aspie-ish kid, I'm so disturbed by the kind of social world he is growing up in. If he spends a weekend with friends, they could spend every waking minute playing and watching games. When the devices don't work, all help breaks loose. We are essentially not preparing kids to be able to form relationships, and then throw our hands up when the result is terrifying resentment and vilification of women.
35
Maybe this is how civilization comes crashing down.
Not that anyone will take a lot of notice, 'cause if it isn't virtual ... it's not real.
Whouda thunk it?
I'd be interested to see if we can make couch multiplayer gaming popular again if we turned old retail centers into gaming hotspots. Amazon's making retail a nice bargain if it can be done right.
Were are the women? I don't see any. This may be one answer to why men can't or don't know how to relate to women. #metoo should pay very close attention to these male gamers. A microcosm of the male's misogynistic world. "All we want to do is eat junk and watch each other play Fortnite." Personally, I'd rather be in my lover's arms holding each other for hours on end than to be caught dead eating junk and playing anytype of video game, never mind "Fortnite". Zombies- all of you.
1
So interacting with a screen with other people and their screens and eating junk food. Hmm................the end of
face to face social interactions continues
Writer - No one calls it "shoutcasting" anymore. :) At least not in the circles of games I play / watch.
As an "old" gamer of 33, I can confidently say that games have value beyond sheer entertainment. And games are so diverse in what they demand of a player, including - as the article points out - teammwork. Many games provide healthy challenges to problem solving, creative, and competitive abilities.
But, games these days are as sophisticated as advertising, and be sure, they are designed to try to keep you playing 24/7. Games compete in the huge open market with other games for players, and they will do what they can to keep you hooked. For example, many games add features like "daily awards" for playing every day. And I didn't even need any of these addictive bells and whistles to spend more time than I should have at my computer gaming through the night when I was young.
Those dismissing parents and teachers who voice concerns that their children or students seem addicted and can't focus on anything else either (1) don't remember what it's like to spend that much time gaming, or (2) are in denial that addiction to games, like any other addiction, is real.
The real issue - because gaming is becoming more mainstream and sophisticated - is how to maximize the benefits of gaming and minimize the risks and downsides.
As one small example, only being allowed old computers taught me to fix them on my own, and im more computer literate than most of my peers.
1
You are only talking about one segment of gamers. Gamers are actually a very diverse group, as are the games themselves. Some games are single player narrative-driven masterpieces. Some are mulitiplayer. Others, like Fortnite, lend themselves to esports. The genres themselves are extremely diverse. I invite you to look at The Last of Us, which is narrative-driven, and completely different from Fortnite. Or look at Tomb Raider, The Wolf Among Us, or any other number of games which are very different and attract a different type of gamer. I am in my mid-40s, have a wife and two kids, and a management-level career in databases. I am also a gamer going on 30 years. Again, you are talking about just one type of gamer. You should not put us all into one bucket.
1
Everything old is new again.
Video Game Arcade- usually at a shopping mall.
Bring lots of quarters.
1
My first thought: Korea does it better, with their PC Rooms.
Second, more pressing thought: as a teacher, I am concerned. I am a sixth grade teacher in the South Bronx, and I am seeing students become addicted to Fortnite, to the point where they are coming to school blurry-eyed and fatigued every day (if they come to school at all). Moreover, when they are in the classroom, their hands are always fidgeting, as if they are holding an invisible controller. With state tests just completed, Fortnite mania has come at an inopportune time. I won’t be surprised if, in certain segments of NYC, test scores are much lower this year.
Social media/technology surely have their benefits. But as a long-time educator, I can see a frightening trajectory of incredibly low attention spans, lack of critical thinking skills, and diminished capacity for delayed gratification.
19
Its been proven that gaming increases test scores. By 62% actually. Kids that fidget are most likely on the spectrum and it's a soothing technique for them.
Care to provide a source?
2
I was basically raised by a console. Being non-native of English language I can appreciate long term the skills that gaming bolstered. As I couldnt understand English when I was 7 years old, I had to dive into magazines with walkthrough guides in order to advance in the game. Games also taught me to persevere, to be curious, and be quick to solve puzzles.
25 years into the future, here I am, a highly skilled migrant in tech company working abroad. Still playing games and looking at the amazing similarities between when I was young reading a walkthrough guide to finish a game and reading a manual about a simulator or stackoverflow for scripting questions.
Due to the existance of videogames I am just where I am, learned 6 languages, take fast decisions and the most important one; being persistent about reaching the goal (or finishing the game, although sidequests are also enjoyable).
Playing videogames in overall is not bad, the thing is that all the soft skills that they develop have to be guided somehow and thats the big question. How do we as modern society take the best of the skills that playing videogames harness? Games are a real emulator of potential skills employers may desire for specific tasks.
20
I’m 40 and part of the generation that grew up gaming.
So many non-gamers seem to be here sharing their deep knowledge of the pros and cons of gaming.
This is an issue for which people of a certain age or higher simply won’t ever understand.
7
I love all the comments that gamers ‘are wasting their lives!’ It’s as if these judgemental (mostly older) commenters think that most people come home after a 40 hour workweek and learn Russian in their spare time after training for a triathlon and mastering a new bebop tune on their horn of choice. I’m sorry, but this just isn’t reality.
Relaxation is just that: relaxation. Lack of productivity in these times of rest and recharge is the whole point! It is a necessary part of human life. Personally, I’m sick and tired of justifying one of my lifelong hobbies to people who refuse to step out of the 1980s in their opinion of gaming and gamers.
44
Games can tremendously improve thinking, observation, prediction, pattern recognition, and decision making IF they are used to have their skills transferred to science and business and the other arts and sciences. If not transferred they can easily be a waste of time and maturing.
So strange to read the comments. The modern file systems owe much of their power to the ~1973 white paper on the future of file systems and data bases by Hans Reiser, a Turing finalist in the early 2000s.
That in turn was inspired by a 47-50 page booklet written as a compelling tale that was a game designing game and filesystem for games specification. Since few would normally ever read such a paper it had to be written as a seriously compelling story. That worked. I never met anyone, even those mostly uninterested in games who could put it down until they had read the whole ~50 pages tale.
When a 14 year old gamer went to UC Berkeley without having graduated from grade school nor attended high school, he emphasized that why should he go to high school when he had learned in game conventions to quickly learn rules, properties, spaces, strategies, and apply them. Was that not much of a Arts and Sciences? He was accepted and his graduating thesis was an epic poem of the future of filesystems and data bases.
Are not great hedge fund managers very much John Madden games jocks? Let us develop more such games that transfer to the real world. (My soldiers had to crawl 1,000m if they died in war games.
4
As a 40 year old man who spent at least 20 years addicted to video games, I can't help but feel for these boys who are wasting their youth away staring into the screen.
The opportunity cost of spending so much time and energy on a hobby that will provide them with zero return in the job market, and in the relationships they will need as men, will be very hard to recover as adults. I think of all the useful skills and talents that could have fostered and that could have enriched life, family, and society.
My toddler son does not watch TV (worse then video games in my opinion, but less addictive) and I know I will be fighting him though his entire adolescence, as the vulture entertainment industry bombards him with the most addictive experiences in human history.
60
Video games do not cause violence, but they can be 100% addicting. The way games are made today is creating an ever addicting environment. For example, open-world, like Skyrim or Witcher 3 (massive areas to explore) and high skill ceiling games, Overwatch and League of Legends (games requiring 100s of hours to be efficient at mechanics) are wasting our youth's productive lives
26
Still nerds, just out of the basement. I'm glad gamers are enjoying a broader social renaissance but let's be careful how we present the subject. These are not athletes. Extremely talented individuals practicing a precision sport but not athletic. Calling gamers athletes is the equivalent of calling chess masters athletes. Not true. The game is structured in a way comparable to physical sports but they are not the same thing. Admired but not athletic.
The closest thing I've seen to an athletic video game performance outside "Dance Dance Revolution" was the world record for "Snake." I guess managing bathroom breaks while playing is an endurance challenge but let's be real. That more closely resembles a poker tournament than a football game. Again, is anyone calling poker players athletes? The word "professional" is floated around sometimes but never athletic. Bowling is a better example of athleticism.
I'll stop. I think I've made my point.
31
what was the name at that "nerd" in Connecticut who killed all of those little children and his mother a couple of years ago? If i were the government, i'd spy on all of these gamers, they're a bigger threat to our safety than any Muslim.
4
I was an avid gamer, well into my late 20s. Gaming can be quite enjoyable, especially when done in the company of friends.
It is also a big waste of time. Instead of exercise, reading, or doing something like learning a language, you are spending your time manipulating points of light on a screen. It really is a pretty mindless activity, even if it does require good hand-eye coordination, spatial skills and problem solving. You can work on those abilities in more tangible ways offline and in the real world.
Most of America comes home from work and zones out in front of a t.v., so they aren't ones to judge, but there is a lot more that gamers could be doing with their time that would pay greater dividends down the line for them then the time they spend gaming.
I was in a clan (a gaming club, for those of you who don't know the lingo) for years but I eventually came to regard those gamer friends as emotionally stunted, selfish, and altogether uninteresting people and decided to leave and quit gaming for good.
Nerdy, geeky, or just plain introverted kids will gravitate towards gaming. That's fine, but beyond a certain point whatever returns they are getting from their escape from reality will outweigh the returns they could get from dealing with the life and all issues (including boredom) head on. That's how I feel about it now, anyway.
98
Great comment.
Great screen name.
4
It's difficult to read an article in a newspaper and not want to find an issue or a problem. I had that impulse here but I really don't think there's a problem. It's a bunch of guys and a few girls getting together and enjoying a participatory social event. I have my own fun memories of lugging around my PC to LAN parties, playing Quake or Counter-Strike and eating junk like lukewarm Chef Boyardee from the can.
They're not some mindless horde of addicts unless you want to count the Beatles fans of yore as addicts as well (that's what the pictures with this article reminded me of, the legions of fans crying and going berserk over catching a glimpse of a Beatle).
If there is an issue, it isn't Fortnite exactly but the prevalence of constant, never ending entertainment. In the past, entertainment might have been relegated to certain events, times, or hours because it relied on other people being available and not just your computer or smartphone. In the meantime, you created your own entertainment which more often than not involved a hobby or a course of study (reading about military history for example).
But with constant entertainment, the "mindless" entertainment of which there has always been plenty of examples of throughout history (from the Colosseum to Barnum and Bailey) is just always there and thanks to the internet every game is just as action packed and lively as the one before even at the dead of night.
9
I have a 14 year old son who, if given the chance, would spend days on end playing Fortnite. He is a super smart kid, loves to read, has tons of friends, and is great at sports, but that all vanishes once he is in front of his computer screen playing Fortnite or Roblox. Grades have fallen, apathy has formed towards studying for Spanish verb quizzes and putting 100% effort into History papers, and the basketball and skateboard gather dust outside.
Teenage boys aren't capable yet of making the best choices as far as how to balance what they WANT to do with what they NEED to do. Fortnite will win priority every time. Thus, use of the computer is at the dining room table, where I can see that he's doing his homework. He only gets to play it on weekends, after all responsibilities are taken care of. Every day, my generation faces the challenge of how to do this: how to parent in this environment. How to balance letting them lose themselves in front of a computer screen in a dark room on a sunny day with sending them outside to play and making sure they get their homework done. We're inventing the rules as we go along, and they are constantly shifting.
I'm not an old fogey by any means, but I'm seeing what is happening to these kids, and it is upsetting. I see parents who let their kids play literally all weekend without coming up for air. It is up to us to teach them how to balance their time, and for me, this is the biggest parenting challenge I'm facing right now.
135
As someone who used to, and still does, play a ton of games while generally doing well in life, I'm not sure that forcing a schedule on him is best for the long-term. Growing up, things that were forced on me were also things that I didn't really develop a habit of doing (e.g., chores). They were there, I had to do them, so I got them done.
In contrast, the importance of academics were deeply ingrained in me, and playing video games before getting my homework done was not something I even considered. Don't get me wrong: I still played a ton - way more than homework or music practice, and I took several APs, graduated top 1%, and was in several district-level and one state-level honors bands. I had a girlfriend during this time. I also played more Halo than I care to admit (I played nearly 2000 games online).
Kids need to learn how to make those choices for themselves, and telling them that "this is how it is" takes that choice away. Kids need to see the natural consequences of their actions. Show him the importance of keeping grades up and what can happen during school and after graduation if grades are kept high (e.g., unique opportunities, major scholarships). Reward him yourself if appropriate. Get him as excited about school as he is about games, and the priorities should follow. Obviously, this is an oversimplification of the issue, but self-regulation is a critical trait for success in school and life, and it can't be taught by forcing mandates upon kids.
15
I love this response, Seth, and I don't think it's an oversimplification at all. You are absolutely correct: teaching self-regulation and instilling the importance and satisfaction of doing well in school should be the main goals, not taking away games. It's all about balance. Thank you for this.
"Get him as excited about school as he is about games"--easy! My God, man, you have cracked the code.
It will be interesting to see what the health care costs are for a generation raised on playing Fortnite and sitting around with glasses on for VR. It's the opposite of the Nordic model of getting out into nature for exercise.
41
I myself, abhor video games but I did appreciate the choice of this writer, to avoid the cliche value judgements that inevitably shape the conversation on this subject.
As I was reading, scanning ahead for a paragraph, or a quote from a social scientist sounding the alarm, I started wondering about the participation of "Big Interest" in these games. The ability of moneyed interest to influence this particular conversation ought not come as a surprise. Had the Olympics come of age in another era, smoking might have been considered an emerging sport.
9
I like video games. A lot. But I hope the Olympics comes to its senses before they start handing out medals for esports. We need some boundaries in the world. If someone gets a gold medal for getting the highest score in Fortnite, why aren't we handing them out to the best crossword puzzlers or Scrabble players?
67
Becasue no one is going to watch people do crossword puzzles or scrabble?
explains the decline of young people involved in real sports, any outdoor or physical activity for that matter.
20
There are other examples of significant investment in esports from the "real world" as well. The Overwatch League, for example, has a 20-million-dollar buy-in to become a team owner. Robert Kraft is one of the people who took them up on it.
Among his already-existing acquisitions? The New England Patriots.
3
Came to echo this sentiment. I'm very surprised the article failed to mention that Blizzard turned the old Johnny Carson/Jay Leno Tonight Show studio in Burbank, CA into an e-sports "stadium" for OWL. If that isn't an example of "the times, they are a changin'" I don't know what is.