Gaming

The Internet Is Mocking A Call For Less ‘Fortnite’ And More ‘Fort Night’

The Wall Street Journal's opinion piece on childhood and Fortnite doesn't hold a candle to the internet's reactions to the article.

by Amanda Yeo  26 June 2019
Fortnite

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Since time immemorial, older generations have looked at younger generations, shaken their heads, and muttered phrases starting with “when I was your age”. Each new generation resolves to be different, but then the printing press is invented and they find themselves saying, “When I was your age, we trusted the monks to interpret the Lord’s Word for us.”

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Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece entitled ‘A Young Imagination Beats Videogames’.

In the declaration of advanced age, attorney Mike Kerrigan expresses pity for his 10- and eight-year-old sons, under the impression that their games of Fortnite cannot possibly be as fun as “the real thing”.

“Fortnite doesn’t hold a candle to my boyhood games of ‘fort night’,” reads the article’s subheading.

Kerrigan proceeds to wistfully recall his idyllic ’80s childhood, full of things such as riding his bike to 7-Eleven for Slurpees and building forts with friends. This, says Kerrigan, is the right and proper way to have a childhood.

“I hope my boys never lose sight of life’s simple joys. I hope someday they have their own stories to tell and look back as fondly on their childhood as I do on mine,” writes Kerrigan. “But for that to happen they’ll need to play less Fortnite this summer, and more fort night.”

Readers have been quick to mock Kerrigan’s rose-coloured retrospective, as well as his apparent lack of understanding regarding both video games and children. Apparently no video game can hold a candle to any “boyhood games”, no matter what either might be.

There’s no shortage of parents wistfully remembering their younger years, and condemning video games such as Fortnite as the work of the Deceiver. However, trying to shape a 2019 childhood to look like a 1980 childhood is a futile exercise, and more likely to foster misunderstanding and resentment than a happy and well-adjusted child.

There is more than one way to have a joy-filled childhood, and makeshift forts can’t hold a candle to a parent taking an interest in their child’s passions.