Fortnite Zelda

Fortnite's addictive qualities have been documented on this site before, and we imagine there are many parents out there who despair at the amount of time (and money) their children spend on Epic's popular online 'Battle Royale' shooter.

To combat this situation, experienced French psychologist (or "psygamer", as he prefers to call himself) Michaël Stora has come up with an approach which substitutes Fortnite for a different game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Stora is of the opinion that Nintendo's open-world adventure is the perfect way to remove gaming addicts from the intensely competitive mindset of Fortnite. Breath of the Wild, he says, is a more therapeutic and calming experience. You can watch a video interview with him here, and it's possible to translate the text into English using YouTube's auto-translate feature.

While Stora's approach may raise some eyebrows, he seems to have been successful with it, and has plenty of experience in this particular field; he's been working with children and adolescents suffering from behavioural disorders for over two decades and has worked as a consultant with companies like Sega, EA, Microsoft, Activision and Ubisoft. We can certainly see how a game as expansive and immersive as Breath of the Wild could provide players with an enjoyable alternative to the hectic pace of Fortnite.

In 2018, UK tabloid the Daily Mirror caused quite a stir when it ran the front-page headline "Fortnite made me a suicidal drug addict". Back in April of last year, Prince Harry attacked Fortnite and called for it to be banned, claiming that it was "created to addict, an addiction to keep you in front of a computer for as long as possible. It’s so irresponsible."

The game's allure isn't confined to kids, either. In 2018, it was reported that Epic's game had contributed to 5% of divorces in the UK.

[source nintendo-master.com, via gonintendo.com]