A young gamer’s dream is a nightmare for most parents

ANY parent with a child aged between eight and 18 will no doubt have heard of the latest video gaming craze called Fortnite.

Chances are if your kids aren’t playing it, they have a friend who is.

For those lucky enough to not know what it is, let me enlighten you.

It’s a popular strategic survival game that can be played on the Playstation, XBox, Windows and Mac and combines Minecraft resource collecting and building with team-based survival shooting games.

It’s currently massively popular via its free-to-play Battle Royale mode where hundreds of strangers go headto-head in a gun battle until only one person is left standing.

Sounds like a gamer’s dream doesn’t it? Sadly though, it’s most parents’ nightmare.

And you know a video game has made it when ITV daytime programme This Morning posts on its Facebook page asking parents if their kids are addicted.

And then almost 79,000 people – most of them exasperated parents – had something to say.

One woman, who went on to appear on the show, said the game had changed her 10-year-old son’s personality.

She said his attitude switches when he’s played the game. He becomes sullen and angry if he loses, and depressed if she tells him he can’t play it.

My son discovered Fortnite during the Christmas holidays. He loves it.

When he has a free night (which isn’t very often) he comes in from school and asks if he can play it, sticks on his headphones and off he goes, trying to intercept snipers, chatting away to his friends – as they compete in a duo or a squad.

Parenting comes with many conundrums.

I always swore he wouldn’t be allowed to play games which involved guns/fighting/violence on his XBox.

But when each and every single mate is playing the same game, how do you say no?

You can stick to your guns (as it were) but then that risks them feeling isolated and left out when all their peers are playing and then chatting about it at school.

So, yes, I gave in. I said he could join in.

And, when I’m calling him for his tea and he says he can’t come yet or he’ll die, it’s very, very irritating.

But, when he does eventually come, he’s usually full of beans, explaining how his character pulled off a variety of dance moves, including the Floss and the dab.

If he’s lost, he’s a bit fed up – until I remind him it’s not real life, it was him against 99 other people so a win is quite rare – and he agrees that it’s not so bad after all.

I’d originally dismissed the game as a load of rubbish, but taking the time to listen to his ramblings, and then sit and watch him actually play, my opinion has softened ever so slightly.

Sometimes taking the time to see what it taking up so much interest is the key to understanding what the fuss is all about.

Ideally, I wish XBoxes etc didn’t exist.

But they do, so I’ve tried to train myself to see the positives and make them work for – not against – us. On the plus side, the game is bright and colourful, it has cartoon-style graphics with space suits and dinosaur outifts and it seems to be all about strategy, working as a team and communication. He doesn’t sit moronically staring at a screen, but talks animatedly to his closest friends while playing. We’ve limited the amount he plays on it and he only gets to play once the homework is done, never before school and not late at night.

He has to have regular breaks and is not allowed to play marathon sessions and parental controls mean just that – that parents, not the kids, can be in charge.

No chatting to strangers, no divulging personal info, no buying little extras without our permission first.

Parenting is also about compromising constantly.

He plays by my rules so my threat of unplugging the XBox and sticking it in the attic if it gets too much never becomes a reality.

And the good news is that, as with any game, the obsession will pass.

And then I’ll no doubt find something else to worry about. Watch this space!