Many of us have heard of the latest new trend, Fortnite, a cartoony video game that pins 100 players against each fighter in a fight to the death. This is very similar to another game called Playersunknown Battlegrounds or PUBG. Again, 100 players fall down on an island for a fight to the death. It may sound simple, but playing either game for the first time can seem rather tricky.
Hearing these games on the news and memes through social media just demonstrate how popular the games are nowadays. Some think it's a bad thing, but I think a bit differently. Everything has its ups and downs, but let's remind ourselves the lessons from these games.
1. Teamwork
Fornite is fun solo, but the game is so much better when you're playing with others. When you're faced with dozens of enemies trying to eliminate you, you learn to work together to do the same thing. It's very interesting to see how teams work together especially in a game like this.
Some players specialize in one aspect of the game while others specialize in another aspect. The only way to find out is to play the game and experiment. Who knows? Maybe it's a gateway to a bigger and better talent.
2. Pressure
When you're playing a game like this, you never know what could happen. One moment you're casually walking around finding some new gear, next thing you know a bullet zips by you from who knows where. All of a sudden, your objectives change, and you're figuring out how to approach the situation while the enemy continues to catch you off guard. Or another moment you find yourself in the final two after grinding for the last twenty minutes or so.
When your heart starts racing and your hands start shaking, what do you do? Will you succeed or crumble under pressure? But more importantly, will you learn from it?
3. Creativity
Being in an open world leaves opportunities for yourself and everyone else. Especially in games like Fornite where you're building bases or in games like Playersunknown's Battlegrounds where customization is endless, the amount of imagination you can apply in them is endless. Heck, I saw a team build a massive crab sculpture on Fornite one day, and it was pretty cool. When it comes to thinking outside of the box, you can really test your thinking in games like these.
4. Strategy
With creativity, comes strategy. Limited resources, space, and health really demand a strategy when you want to win. Pressure makes doing so a lot harder, and it only gets better with practice. When it comes to strategy, knowing it is a really important life skill to have.
After all, in life, we have limited resources, space, and health. One of these days we'll have to find out what we're made of when the chips are down.
5. Fun
Honestly, sometimes we forget to have a little fun every once in a while. With the whole world going to chaos and trust being scarce, it's hard to find joy in what we're doing. Playing casual games with friends or by ourselves can easily calm the stress that life constantly decides to fill us with.
It makes the stress more manageable. Even just watching a video of some people playing can have us crack a smile which is something that is lacking nowadays.