Psychologist Counters Fortnite Addiction with Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Zelda: Breath of the Wild

In recent years, the rise in the popularity of video games has been used by some sectors to indicate them as a form of negative entertainment and even cases of addictive behaviors, of deeper origin, were sufficient to consider a disorder that was already recognized by WHO. Beyond truthfulness or opportunism, there are already organizations and specialists who are treating video game addiction, but one of them is doing it in a curious way: with more video games. Apparently, psychologist Michael Stora has decided to test a therapy without a groundbreaking doubt. In fact, Stora is considered a “psygamer”, since he is focused on this type of addiction. His bet is to overcome the addiction of a video game with another, the most prominent case being Fortnite with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

A few days ago, the French psychologist Michael Stora presented his method to treat video game addiction, specifically Fortnite: Battle Royale, which in addition to being one of the most successful games in recent years, also became the public enemy number 1 of some authorities and parents. In that sense, Stora revealed that many parents consulted him constantly after being alarmed by the playing behaviors of their children, who not only spend many hours playing the Battle Royale of Epic Games, but also spending a lot of money on content to get the skin or fashion dance.

When facing the case, the specialist considered the elements that could make Fortnite an addictive and stressful experience, such as constant combat and the competition to survive. From there, Stora decided to confront that experience with game sessions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a title he considers appropriate for a therapy because it gives the player freedom to advance at his own pace and although governed by a narrative, the same design does not force him to immediately fulfill the missions. Also, the psychologist, considered that the simple proposal that allows to contemplate the horizon and the impressive world of the Switch game is enough to treat the stress and anxiety of those who became obsessed with Fortnite.

Another detail that Stora highlighted from Zelda: Breath of the Wild within therapy to treat Fortnite addiction was the possibility of interaction with the characters in the story without any combat between the player and the character he sees on screen, which leads the user to concentrate on the narrative details and their connection to the world instead of reducing the interaction to simple shots.

At the moment, Stora’s proposal has been welcomed with great encouragement and is already being implemented. However, we have not received reports on its results, so we will have to wait to see if it is also successful.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is available on Switch.

Source

Rajesh is a video game enthusiast and he is also the editor here at TechPlusGame.com.