The interpretation of Malavida is that Fortnite is not an addictive game, let us explain our position.
In Fortnite, there are no rewards for playing a lot.
First of all, Fortnite is not a title that overly incentivizes "addictive gameplay," so to speak. By playing about 4-5 hours a week, it is possible to reach level 100 in each season, the last level where we receive new interesting add-ons. After this level, those who continue to play are only playing for pleasure, as they will not receive more prizes.
Moreover, in Fortnite, there are no loot boxes, an element much criticized in other games although it has not been proven that these "surprise boxes" incite young people to gamble.
With this in mind, those who play many hours of Fortnite do not do so incentivized by its creators, Epic Games, who have been able to set limits to prevent their fans from spending too much time playing.
Definition of video game addiction
It should be clarified that the WHO considers video game addiction as a disease, although it does not treat it as an addiction with a harmful substance like drug addiction. Moreover, addictions can happen with any video game, regardless of whether or not it has addictive elements.
Sometimes, this addiction occurs in players who want to improve competitively. The result of this is that in games that normally nobody plays for over 50 hours, such as Mario Kart, some end up playing for over 1,000 hours just to try to beat their records or face very good players.
In this case, the addiction has nothing to do with the video game, but with the person. Just as there are people addicted to music or chocolate, there are also those addicted to video games, but they are not the most common.
What do the studies say?
We have all read at some point that a study shows that something is good and then we read a different study that shows the opposite. With video games, it happens constantly, and the reality is that many times, there are interests involved.
To give an example, former U.S. President Donald Trump blamed video games for the high level of violence in his country. However, in a simple statistical graph shown by Reggie Fils-Aime, former president of Nintendo of America, we can see that in the countries with the highest consumption of video games, South Korea and China, the number of murders with firearms are 100 times less in proportion to those of the American country.
That said, everyone must draw their own conclusions. From Malavida, we do not believe that Fortnite is an addictive game, but we recommend parents to put limits and attention on their children, especially when they are still very young, as they are more vulnerable.
