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Ban Fortnite, Says Prince Harry (gamespot.com)

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is calling for the ban of popular battle royale game "Fortnite." The prominent member of the British royal family visited a YMCA in West London and spoke to mental health experts about addictive games and social media, saying that the latter is more addictive than drugs or alcohol. From a report: "[Fortnite] shouldn't be allowed," he said. "Where is the benefit of having it in your household? It's created to addict, an addiction to keep you in front of a computer for as long as possible. It's so irresponsible. It's like waiting for the damage to be done and kids turning up on your doorsteps and families being broken down." He also suggested that social media is "more addictive than alcohol and drugs." Further reading: Fortnite Creator Sees Epic Games Becoming as Big as Facebook, Google; and 'Fortnite' May be a Virtual Game, But It's Having Real-life, Dangerous Effects.

14 of 368 comments (clear)

  1. Ban royalty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's an outdated concept, a relic from when we we're uncivilized.
    It has done more damage than drugs or alcohol.

    1. Re:Ban royalty by hairyfeet · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I'd say they did pretty damn well, after all it was Shillary that pushed Trump in the first place (pied piper strategy) and after the people heard her laughing about getting a scumbag who raped a 12 year old girl off, seen her laughing about killing foreign leaders with "we came, we saw, he died ha ha ha" (and brought back slavery in that country, great going you sociopath) and saw her policies were all PRO Wall Street, Pro globalism, PRO wars, they looked and said...."Yeah...ya know what? A former gameshow host who trolls on Twitter about how hot his wife is is a HELL of a lot less dangerous than this psycho" and that is why you have Trump now.

      So I'd say if you want to blame anybody blame Shillary and Wasserman Schultz for rigging the primary against Bernie who had a damn good shot of beating Trump, Shillary had so many skeletons in her closet and was just so unlikeable all Trump had to do was play a few clips of her being smug AF, falling down and looking like a loon and just shrug and say "Crooked Hillary" and it was in the bag.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  2. Better Idea by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ban people from having kiddos if they're not up to the task of actually being a parent.

    If you NEED the Government to step in to keep your kids from playing a game, you are doing it wrong on multiple levels.

  3. The nanny state by fermion · · Score: 3, Insightful
    From the point of view of a king, there is great reason to micromanage the peasants.

    However, the nanny state has proven to have limited success. There will always be losers who can't manage their time or their impulses, and society will always have to deal with these people the best they can. Be it pot, or gambling, or video games, it all comes down to who has the coping mechanisms to succeed in the world, and who is going to waste their lives doing whatever the current cool thing is, in this case Fortnite.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
  4. lets just try this one out. by nimbius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    drug deaths per year in the UK: 247 in 2015 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34...

    alcohol deaths per year in the UK: 5,843 deaths in 2017 https://www.independent.co.uk/...

    number of kids having died from the fortnight dance: none.

    *the total count of entitled celebrity pseudo-rulers riding the coat-tails of an increasingly wasteful and arrogant theatrical monarchy into the apocalypse of Brexit remains uncounted, yet is at least 1.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  5. Re:Ban rock music by lgw · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ban rock music
    And dungeons and dragons while you're at it

    And the waltz! And pool halls - that starts with "P" and that rhymes with "T" and that stands for trouble! And hemp - oh, wait, we did that one.

    And most importantly - Blame Canada!

    There's always a moral panic over something. People seem to like them. After all, it can't be bad parenting, it must be something else making my teen act like a teenager.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  6. Ban the Monarchy! by King_TJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fortnite is FAR less of an economic drain for the U.K. than the continued waste of having a pointless "Royal Family" monarchy that doesn't even serve a real political purpose anymore!

    But that said? I gave Fortnite a try and the game held my interest for no more than an hour or two. I know they keep downloading regular updates to it, so it's possible if I got in the mood to play again, I'd enjoy another hour or so of game-play in it? But I already paid to purchase PUBG first, when it was all the rage -- and played it a bit until I got bored with it. So Fortnite *really* just felt like another PUBG after that.

    I see no reason it's any more addictive than any other online game? It just depends what an individual finds the most entertaining and compelling to play, and how much free time they have to invest in gaming. Sure, many kids or teens get hooked on video games and spend too much time on them. But the same parents who gripe about such things are often seen spending too much of their own time at casinos, gambling, or doing other things we could say are "bad for you" and should be banned. In the end, it's simply part of being human.

    1. Re:Ban the Monarchy! by Lanthanide · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Fortnite is FAR less of an economic drain for the U.K. than the continued waste of having a pointless "Royal Family" monarchy that doesn't even serve a real political purpose anymore!

      Why are you talking about this being an economic drain? Prince Harry isn't. He isn't say "ban Fortnite because it's an economic drain on the country". He's saying "ban Fortnite because its destroying people's lives, and for children damaging their education".

      Are you suggesting that the Royal Family causes people to become addicts of royal memorabilia, or something?

      I see no reason it's any more addictive than any other online game?

      Well watch this video then and learn something: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  7. Re:Come on, more addictive than drugs? by Lanthanide · · Score: 1, Insightful

    All electronic games are made to be addictive, ever since the heyday of pinball. They should have hired the people behind Candy Crush Saga or Farmville or something if that was their goal.

    Tencent bought 40% of Epic Games back in 2013, specifically to make addictive games that will bring in a lot of revenue. Fortnite brought in $2.4 billion last year in revenue for a "free to play game".

    Why would they hire the makers of Candy Crush Saga or Farmville when they themselves are BETTER at making addictive games than the makers of those games?

    And yes, it's true that electronic games are designed to be addictive and always have been, it's good business sense after all. But there's two differences here:
    1. Fortnite has decades of experience in psychological research to draw upon and a company with the money and incentive to do so
    2. You can play fortnite on your phone. You couldn't play pinball on your phone. This means you can play fortnite pretty much anywhere you want to, any time you want to. And once you've invested money in buying skins and other things for the game, you want to keep playing to "get your money's worth". And all your friends are playing too, and that's all your friend group ever talks about...

  8. Re:Oh jeez... by youngone · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They have as many propaganda issues as America...

    They have the same propaganda issues as America, largely due to the owners of the propaganda organs being the same people.

  9. You're going at it the wrong way by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Trump and the bulk of our government are all members of Royalty. We just don't call them that, but they got where they got because of enormous amounts of money and connections given to them by their parents; e.g. hereditary. Also they consistently argue that they're ordained by God (e.g. prosperity gospel); e.g. divine right of kings.

    A ruling class by any name would oppress as much.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  10. Re: Translation by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously, spend more time with your kids, stop neglecting them, play Fortnite with them.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  11. Re: Come on, more addictive than drugs? by mcl630 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Actually you can't get the full gameplay experience without paying money.

    If you don't buy a skin, then your player's appearance randomly changes between matches.

    If you don't pay money, then you stop getting rewards once you reach level 62 in a season, you also get FAR fewer rewards over that time - if you pay money, you get at least 1 reward every single level up to 62 and then beyond to 100. If you don't pay money, you get a reward every 2-3 levels up to 62 and then nothing afterwards.

    There are challenges that you need to complete any 4 of in order to earn extra experience to level up. You can only complete 3 if you don't pay money.

    None of the things you mention affects "gameplay experience" at all. You're talking about purely cosmetic skins/items, leveling up to unlock purely cosmetic items, and challenges to level up quicker to unlock purely cosmetic items. The game plays exactly the same whether you've spent $0, $20, or $500 on skins and/or battle passes.

  12. Community. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Holy shit the community on slashdot is vile.