Be a Parent. Turn it OFF!

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

With tobacco, you're dealing mostly with adults making their own choices. With this, it's lack of parental supervision and action.


Parents who say their kids won't eat or shower because they're addicted to Fortnite slam Epic Games with lawsuit

Business Insider|20 minutes ago
Plaintiffs argued Epic Games was legally responsible for their children's dependency on Fortnite in the same way a tobacco manufacturer would be.

 

[Captante]

Will wonders never cease?!?

I actually 100% agree with the OP about something! (don't get used to it!)

The reason for these kids getting "addicted" to Fortnite (which is only mildly enhanced "death-match" with fancy skins) is BAD PARENTING.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Of course there's the off chance you've got a really bad kid .....

10-year-old accused of killing his mom over VR headset makes virtual court appearance in Wisconsin

During the brief virtual hearing, the boy's father appeared on the Zoom call but made no comment.

abc7chicago.com

 

[Mai72]

Its the fault of the world!!

Where is my money?

 

[JM Aggie08]

Parents want to be their kids' friends a little to much today. Don't get me wrong, my son is my BFF, but there is still a line. And that line is crucial.

 

[Mai72]

Will wonders never cease?!?

I actually 100% agree with the OP about something! (don't get used to it!)

The reason for these kids getting "addicted" to Fortnite (which is only mildly enhanced "death-match" with fancy skins) is BAD PARENTING.

but but my kid only plays Fortnite for 12 hours a day!!!! My my my baby boy needs to relax. You can't expect my baby to do homework and chores. This is 2021, not 1972.

My boy needs to chilax and relax.

 

[VirtualLarry]

However, the court didn't agree with the parents' claim that Epic Games deliberately made Fortnite addictive.

"The court finds that there is no evidence for these allegations of the deliberate creation of an addictive game," the judge wrote.

I call BS. These gamez deeveopers these days, specifically hire psychiaatrists and psychiologists to craft there games for maximum dopaamine response from the players. And it was already known that dopaine response was addictive. Ergo, they DID craft their game to be maximslly addictive for teens.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

^^^ No such programming can disable this:

 

[Captante]

I call BS. These gamez deeveopers these days, specifically hire psychiaatrists and psychiologists to craft there games for maximum dopaamine response from the players. And it was already known that dopaine response was addictive. Ergo, they DID craft their game to be maximslly addictive for teens.

ALL easily and completely trumped by effective parenting and the ability to set limits. "Really wanting to play" is NOT the same thing as being an addict even though the symptoms are similar.

The fact that the vast majority of parents are effectively illiterate in terms of tech is no excuse to sue the game company in a lame attempt to make THEM responsible for a person's inability to discipline their kids.

And comparing playing Fortnight to cigarettes which 100% DO contain something that REALLY IS physically addictive (nicotine) is insultingly dumb.

 

[PowerEngineer]

While I generally agree with the sentiments expressed in this thread so far, I cannot also help but think that some of the harshest criticisms might be coming from those who haven't experienced parenting themselves. But I could be wrong...

 

[darkswordsman17]

Yes you can turn it off but you've clearly not dealt with teenagers addicted to shit. With my nephew who got so addicted he wouldn't walk literally 10 feet to go to the bathroom (they found bottles of piss in his room), we tried all manner of things. Set time limits. If he didn't do his school/chore work they started by taking his Xbox power supply. So he then stole mine (I had an Xbox that I didn't use and I guess he found it somehow; he also bought another one that he hid). So then they blocked his Xbox from the wifi so then he got an ethernet cable and ran it to the router (which was hidden). I forget what he all did, but one other notable thing was he at one point had sold his Xbox (since he was basically grounded from it indefinitely at that point) to his younger brother (that was living with a different sister), but then didn't end up doing that (he kept the Xbox, but gave a suitcase full of like laundry or something). He did that to his own brother. I want to say they even caught him with an entire other Xbox (which he claimed he "borrowed" but pretty sure he stole it) which he would hide and then stay up at night playing. He even managed to spoof things so it seemed like it was something else so it didn't get blocked from the wifi. You'll note multiple things there is very clearly addiction behavior.

Oh and the nephew would refuse to shower. Like even if it in no way was going to enable him to get extra time playing he still would refuse. He even got to where he would run the shower but not actually shower to make it seem like he did. Its ridiculous behavior and exactly as described by those other parents.

So yes, some is parenting, but the modern world is built to be addictive. Be it food, content, or other (i.e. vapes, etc), lots of shit has been basically weaponized to be addictive and keep you consuming, and a lot of that stuff is very targeted at kids/teens, and games are no different.

Its not just made up shit either. When devs were trying to get away with their lootbox scams and that caused investigation and scrutiny, it was found out that game companies were actively researching how to make their stuff addictive in order to make more money. Fortunately because they're greedy dumbfucks, they got found out since, there's a reason there are strong laws about targeting children with gambling and their lootbox shit was definitely running afoul of that. Unfortunately, the same research they were doing for that they still were utilizing, they just ditched the exactly like actual gambling machines lootbox stuff and instead focused on ways they could legally get away with that in the core game.

 

[darkswordsman17]

^^^ No such programming can disable this:

You've never actually been around addicts before.

 

[darkswordsman17]

While I generally agree with the sentiments expressed in this thread so far, I cannot also help but think that some of the harshest criticisms might be coming from those who haven't experienced parenting themselves. But I could be wrong...

They might have been parents but they probably didn't have kids who actually got addicted to shit so its just the usual projection of "well my kids were fine so it must be you being a shitty parent" type of nonsense where people think just because they haven't ever dealt with something that other people just must be making shit up.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Reminds me of ....

 

[Red Squirrel]

Dumb to sue the game, it's not the game's fault people are abusing it. Parents should be parents.

Watch they're going to pass some law now that games need to have built in time limits or something.

For a while I was addicted to Ultima Online, I'd get home from college and pretty much play non stop. But I still found time to eat, shower, do homework etc. Some people just seem to not have self discipline. Not really the game's fault.

 

[zinfamous]

ALL easily and completely trumped by effective parenting and the ability to set limits. "Really wanting to play" is NOT the same thing as being an addict even though the symptoms are similar.

The fact that the vast majority of parents are effectively illiterate in terms of tech is no excuse to sue the game company in a lame attempt to make THEM responsible for a person's inability to discipline their kids.

And comparing playing Fortnight to cigarettes which 100% DO contain something that REALLY IS physically addictive (nicotine) is insultingly dumb.

I agree with Larry, though. Apply "effective parenting" to teenagers with smoking and drinking....the last 9+ decades or whatever, competing with those industries specifically targeting those same children.

Sure, you can imprison your kids in the house and refuse to let them out after 5 pm to hang out with their friends, but then you condemn them to a life of mal-developed, social hell where they are literally terrified of everything that they know absolutely nothing about, and prefer to just live the rest of their days out in the woods, interacting with no other human because all other humans are evil.

In that respect, it's definitely easier to set boundaries within the home with games, but they'll of course just go to their friends with more lenient parents. It's the same with every generation.

Regulation isn't the evil that conservatives want us to think it is. It is always the most essential thing in a capitalist society that wants to remain capitalist.

 

[zinfamous]

Dumb to sue the game, it's not the game's fault people are abusing it. Parents should be parents.

Watch they're going to pass some law now that games need to have built in time limits or something.

For a while I was addicted to Ultima Online, I'd get home from college and pretty much play non stop. But I still found time to eat, shower, do homework etc. Some people just seem to not have self discipline. Not really the game's fault.

Oh good. What a greatly balanced life you've had.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Oh good. What a greatly balanced life you've had.

Never said it was healthy, but also saying it's not the game's fault, it was my own, I chose to put that many hours into it. Eventually got bored with that particular server as they were behind on content, so started my own server, and my play time turned into coding time, so not sure if that was any healthier... but again it's not the game's fault.

 

[balloonshark]

You know what "cured" my nephews fortnite addiction? My sister got him a cell phone and now he has a girlfriend and he is addicted to both.

 

[zinfamous]

Never said it was healthy, but also saying it's not the game's fault, it was my own, I chose to put that many hours into it. Eventually got bored with that particular server as they were behind on content, so started my own server, and my play time turned into coding time, so not sure if that was any healthier... but again it's not the game's fault.

right, I do agree that much of this is the individual's decision, no question there....but we also have this very real precedent that a lot of that "personal choice" that we think we have is absolutely manipulated by "the product."

This is a thing that has always existed and if it didn't, we wouldn't have any advertising and the concept of addiction wouldn't be exploitable.

I do think there's a pretty solid accumulated history of game distributers (not so much the developers but the bean-counters that are increasingly influencing the final product) that are making the exact same decisions that big Tobacco made for the very same reasons, and with rather similar results. Personal health is a complex topic, and it certainly isn't just physical. We need to be better at addressing that in general, and I imagine you agree with that.

...that up there is not to be confused with the silly argument that "video games make you go out and murder people!" ...which I think is probably a difficult distinction to tease out, legally anyway; but I'm more concerned with the ability of this kind of targeted stimulation to trigger the exact same dopamine release--addiction--that you get from "the evil drugs." Which we pretty much know that is a common target with contemporary gaming/social media/digital whatever.

And here I am typing, how many posts in how much time? FML.



anyway, parents can only do so much to the best of human ability, and we all still seem to assume that all of us humans are all in this together, for everyone...or so we think. Many of us know that isn't true, but only some of us in that category actually apply that understanding holistically--meaning, "the tribe I identify with" is also possibly fucking with me? really? It takes a lot of effort for any individual human to come to that last realization. This is sort of anti-biology in the way that our brains work, which is why being human in modern society is hard and does require lots of experience and practice, and real education.

 

[Captante]

I agree with Larry, though

I experienced two teenagers personally.... both survived and are successful adults. (barely)

I credit their mother!

But I still don't believe that Fortnight is especially "addictive" or that parents "can't do anything" to prevent this sort of behavior lol.... my ex and I did.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Mutahar's take on it.

TL;DR: Exert some parental responsibility!!

 

[mikeymikec]

I'm not a parent either, but I'm pretty sure my parents in this era would have decreed no tech in the bedroom. As a kid, if I had a computer in my bedroom then they'd probably have rarely seen me either That's pre-Internet of course.

As for smartphones, I'd just supply shitty smartphones until the kids can afford their own.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Addiction is very difficult and can present itself in a number of ways. Very many of our young people have 2 full time working parents. You'll find some cases where this isn't the scenario, and there are lazy parents out there, but you cannot discount the effects of video game addiction in any scenario.

Check you feels at the door, because video games can change how your brain works

Game makers, and other tech companies (lookin' at you social media), certainly design their games to be enjoyed, but also intend to keep people coming back and wanting more.

Like all addiction, there will be similar behaviors among almost all afflicted, with a mix of mild or more extreme sufferers, and some people more prone to addiction in general.

Edit: IIRC, the OP has no children. So please excuse his arm chair parenting

 

[Kaido]

Yes you can turn it off but you've clearly not dealt with teenagers addicted to shit. With my nephew who got so addicted he wouldn't walk literally 10 feet to go to the bathroom (they found bottles of piss in his room), we tried all manner of things. Set time limits. If he didn't do his school/chore work they started by taking his Xbox power supply. So he then stole mine (I had an Xbox that I didn't use and I guess he found it somehow; he also bought another one that he hid). So then they blocked his Xbox from the wifi so then he got an ethernet cable and ran it to the router (which was hidden). I forget what he all did, but one other notable thing was he at one point had sold his Xbox (since he was basically grounded from it indefinitely at that point) to his younger brother (that was living with a different sister), but then didn't end up doing that (he kept the Xbox, but gave a suitcase full of like laundry or something). He did that to his own brother. I want to say they even caught him with an entire other Xbox (which he claimed he "borrowed" but pretty sure he stole it) which he would hide and then stay up at night playing. He even managed to spoof things so it seemed like it was something else so it didn't get blocked from the wifi. You'll note multiple things there is very clearly addiction behavior.

Future hedge fund manager?