What Is Your Childs Experiance Fornite?

Please limit his time on the computer. He is a child. He may not even want to do coding for a living. Letting him game to his heart's content just because he's computer savvy will stifle him in so many other ways. He needs a well-rounded adolescent experience.

There is plenty of time to come for him to learn Fornite.

I don't know anything about Fornite.

My son (he's 19 and he's played it) says Fortnite (spelled with a t) is a very popular game - it's not too violent, and it's multiplayer.

Here is a parents guide to it:

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/mar/07/fortnite-ba...

Our son did some CodeAcademy - which teaches coding in Python and some other programming languages.

Kids play all kinds of games.
You can decide what sort of limits you want to set about that.
If he's suppose to be learning some coding but is instead just playing around all the time, then maybe he doesn't really need a whole lot of time with the computer.
You need to decide if the computers purpose has been switched to something you feel is undesirable or not.

Just make sure the computer is used in a public place in the house - so everyone can see what he's doing on it at any given time (no using it all night in his bedroom) - and take it away when he's not suppose to be using it.

A good resource for this and for other games is commonsensemedia.org

Parental opinions vary with respect to this game, mostly depending on whether or not you think it's ok for your kid to play games with fantasy violence.

I don't have a problem with this game for my 12 year old, but let me be clear that there is no coding or other educational value to it.

It's important to keep in mind the many important skills gaming helps cultivate: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/201...

My husband started out gaming, and then ended up in IT.

I don't know what Fornite is about but a friend and her kids are loving it. We've yet to check it out.

So funny I ran across your question today.
My oldest son (23) was just telling me about Fortnight, and we had a chuckle about our social paths crossing.
Synopsis of what my son told me about the game:
Fortnight is a free to play game in the battle royal genre. Goal is to beat out other players, after being dropped into a map. A last one standing game. There are building mechanics, so you can make forts and the like. It's popular because it's free and you can play with your friends. There was a crossover with the Marvel comics, involving the infinity gauntlet.

There are better coding games if you want to steer his time toward that. He's definitely old enough for more complex endeavors. There's something on Steam (a storefront) called RPG Maker. He can create small games, etc... there. Look around your community and see if there are organizations like Box of Light which provide educational opportunities for kids like your son.

My 12 year old and all of his friends are obsessed with this game! It's all they talk about. And the game makers are genius and come out with updates and new modes constantly, so it never gets old for them. They can play alone or in groups online, they love chatting through their headsets. The game itself is not gory or ultraviolent. The premise is to be the last man/team standing, so yes, you do go around shooting everyone else. But there isn't blood or gore. My only concern is the fact that they can play online with basically anyone. They can pick who they play with or they can be randomly assigned. We don't allow our kids to play with anyone they don't know. (You just never know who's on the other end, or what they're saying to your kid.) You can see on the screen who he's playing with. So, much like their friends' cell phone numbers, we know their friends' gamer tags so we can see if they're playing with someone we don't recognize. Another word of warning, it can be pretty addictive. When my son first started playing it, we had some issues when it was time to turn it off, or obsessive behavior, shirking chores, disrespect, tantrums when told he couldn't play. It was a little rough at first, but after a bit he learned how to moderate himself and that if he doesn't behave, he doesn't get to play.

Fornite is a multi-player, on-line game. The participants are dropped onto an island. They have to find weapons, ammunition and resources. It's a "last one standing" wins.

This is a very popular game. I can't tell you the number of times we heard our son's baseball coach say, "Stop talking about Fortnight, and cheer on your teammates." (This was a 12 and under league, and most of our team was 11.)

I would say ask your son to tell you about the game, but I know that can be a bit dangerous ... too much information :-)

I wouldn't be so much concerned that he's interested in Fortnight, but I would limit the amount of time he is just mindlessly playing video games. My 9 year old has done quite a bit of mindlessly playing video games this week, but he just did 4 weeks of summer school and will be going to camp for the next 2 weeks. Also, his brother is away at camp this week, so I figure this is his down time and one of the few chances for him to play whatever he wants without compromise. Hey, have fun!

I second mynewnickname's recommendation of the Common Sense Media website as an excellent resource for researching games like Fortnite.

Generally, I've discouraged my 9yo from playing Fortnite at our home b/c it just doesn't strike me as educational at all. (I also dislike the "last man standing" aspect vs collaborative, creative game objectives, and I also prefer that he avoids guns in games to the extent possible.)

You might check out my.youthdigital.com for creative coding projects and education. My son took a coding camp last year, and it included a year's access to this site. Or, if his school has computers or a computer class, you might ask the teacher for some coding game/website recommendations. Finally, I see you're located in Pittsburgh, so maybe Carnegie Mellon University or UPitt Computer Science program administrators could recommend some good kid-friendly programs.

I'd like to recommend coding camps, but frankly I'm shocked at the cost! We managed to find a Pacific Science Center week-long summer camp for under $500 (it was held at one of our local community colleges), but most Seattle area coding camps are going for well over $800 (some as high as $1200)! How on earth is pricing like that making this kind of education accessible to regular people who are just trying to teach their kids valuable skills for enrichment and future job success!?! I'm sorry -- I don't mean to get on a soapbox about affordable enrichment, but it's a real pet peeve of mine! I encourage you to dig around for an affordably priced community center coding camp in your area.

Good luck, Viola! Your kiddo sounds like a great kid :)

Fortnite is incredibly popular with that age group right now. My 11 year old and all his friends play it daily and talk about it constantly. It's pretty annoying to listen to them! The game is a lot of fun for them, as they can put on headsets and talk to each other while they play. It certainly isn't going to teach them anything though and has no coding aspects at all.
It's a shooting game but isn't overly violent or graphic.

It can suck up a lot of their time. It does seem like a lot of fun. My kids play it with their friends. My kids who play are old enough to know when to stop (monitor their time) but I know of a mother who had to put the controllers in her car when she left the house, otherwise her kids would play continuously. I hear that a lot from parents of younger kids.

There's no coding (that I know of) with the game.