Fortnite Addiction Down to the Parents, Says Ninja

An article published by Bloomberg last week has caught the eye of Fortnite streamer, Ninja. The story, entitled “Fortnite addiction is forcing kids into video-game rehab” led to Ninja blaming the inability of parents to have a more hands-on approach to their kids’ playing time. Fortnite addiction is the latest installment in a long history of video games being targeted as the cause of a host of social issues.

The latest comments from Ninja come after a slog of, perhaps not incendiary, though certainly poorly-phrased comments and acts which had him refusing to stream with women and reporting players for cheating. This time around, Ninja defended the astonishing impact that Epic Games’ Fortnite Battle Royale has had on young players. The video article from Bloomberg reports that parents were worried after their kids would sink 12 hours into the game. While a child behavioral analyst reportedly compared the game to heroin.

In a reply to Bloomberg, Ninja tweeted that the article should have been titled “terrible parents don’t know how to take their kids gaming system away.”

Bloomberg jumped on the reaction from Ninja, using it as a launching pad for a pretty worthwhile discussion about where the buck stops when it comes to the number of hours children play video games. Responses teetered of being generalizations at times, though the majority of users echo Ninja’s view. Some parents explained how they use video games as a reward for their children, while other users suggested the issue is that games have become a useful tool used “to get the kids to go away.”

There’s been a long and winding history of mainstream frenzies targeted against video games. With Congress pointing to games like GTA for playing a role in mass shootings, and the White House took steps to hold a summit on video game violence in 2017 – which ultimately led to nothing. Whether or not the reports of Fortnite addition are cause for concern or further scapegoating is something that will most likely continue to split opinion. Though it seems Ninja managed to actually instigate a wholly civilized conversation this time around.