Speaker 1: What parents need to know about Fortnite. What's going on?
Speaker 1: I'm Richdmiro. This is Rich on Tech Daily. Fortnite is
Speaker 1: one of the hottest video games out there and so
Speaker 1: many people are playing it. The full name is Fortnite
Speaker 1: Battle Royale, but everyone's pretty much just calling it Fortnite.
Speaker 1: The premise of the game be the last person standing.
Speaker 1: You're on an island with one hundred other people and
Speaker 1: you have to do what it takes to win, and yes,
Speaker 1: that means there are lots of weapons and killing involved.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Fortnite has been around on consoles for a while, like
Speaker 1: the Xbox and the PlayStation, but what really propelled this
Speaker 1: game to a new level of popularity is when it
Speaker 1: became available on the iPhone, and that was back in March. Recently,
Speaker 1: we talked to Josh oakesofsmartsocial dot com. He runs a
Speaker 1: really cool website that creates user guides for parents about
Speaker 1: popular apps so they basically better understand what their kids
Speaker 1: are doing on their phones.
Speaker 2: And it's super popular because it's short gameplay, meaning that
Speaker 2: you can play for one minute to up to twenty minutes,
Speaker 2: and you're playing with one hundred other people. Many of
Speaker 2: them are your friends that you've invited to play with you,
Speaker 2: but you're playing for a short period of time. Think
Speaker 2: of it like episodic TV instead of a whole movie
Speaker 2: where it's a big commitment. Students like it because it's
Speaker 2: very fast paced.
Speaker 1: Fortnite is free to download, but there are lots of
Speaker 1: opportunities to make in app purchases. We call this the
Speaker 1: freemium model. You can buy cooler outfits or better weapons.
Speaker 1: So one thousand v bucks as they call them, will
Speaker 1: cost you ten dollars. The other two most popular in
Speaker 1: app purchases are even more v bucks for twenty five
Speaker 1: dollars or sixty dollars, and the more you buy, the
Speaker 1: more bonus v bucks you get.
Speaker 2: In this game, you can buy different outfits and all
Speaker 2: kinds of different things, and it's a little bit more
Speaker 2: silly than just some of the other games that are
Speaker 2: very graphic and violent. This game you can actually have fun,
Speaker 2: and you can dance, and you can wear silly outfits
Speaker 2: and do all kinds of things that your friends might
Speaker 2: laugh at, and you're having fun along the way.
Speaker 1: The game is rated twelve's loss for frequent slash, intense,
Speaker 1: cartoon or fantasy violence and infrequent slash mild, medical slash
Speaker 1: treatment information, whatever that is.
Speaker 2: So this game is for mature audiences because you're killing
Speaker 2: opponents in this game. Sure there's less blood and guts,
Speaker 2: but you have an ax or a machine gun and
Speaker 2: all kinds of different weapons that you're using to defeat
Speaker 2: the other ninety nine people that you could potentially be
Speaker 2: playing against.
Speaker 1: So who are these ninety nine other people? Well, they
Speaker 1: could be your kids friends in real life, but they
Speaker 1: can also be strangers.
Speaker 2: Apps like Fortnite and many other ones have what's called
Speaker 2: multiplayer mode. That means your kid can be chatting with
Speaker 2: people that you don't know. And the biggest problem with
Speaker 2: that some parents think, oh, there's a mute button, they
Speaker 2: can mute the person that they don't like that's said
Speaker 2: the bad word. Your kids might not know that. And
Speaker 2: you've also taught your kids to be polite, so if
Speaker 2: your kids are wanting to be polite, they may not
Speaker 2: mute that person because they don't want to seem rude.
Speaker 2: So you have to be really careful and be with
Speaker 2: your kids where they're at because multiplayer mode allows you
Speaker 2: to talk, listen, chat, and for that person to get
Speaker 2: to know your kid.
Speaker 1: And This is why Oaks recommends changing a privacy setting
Speaker 1: right when your kid first sets up their account.
Speaker 2: That's why when you set up an account, your kids
Speaker 2: need to immediately set it to private so that only
Speaker 2: their friends can find them knowing a username or email,
Speaker 2: and not everybody can see them online.
Speaker 1: And we're all guilty of this, spending too much time
Speaker 1: in front of our screens. It's just kind of the
Speaker 1: way of the world right now. Oaks recommends a simple solution.
Speaker 2: Kids can lose track of time when they're on apps
Speaker 2: like Fortnite, and that's why we tell parents, go get
Speaker 2: a simple egg timer or a cooking timer and put
Speaker 2: it next to your kids so as they're playing, they
Speaker 2: can start to see and it'll buzz at the end
Speaker 2: of the game. Then parents aren't the bad person. The
Speaker 2: timer is. And it's a great way to say, oh,
Speaker 2: real life has elapsed in this amount of time, and
Speaker 2: now it's time for either to put this down or
Speaker 2: to do something different.
Speaker 1: Now, I will tell you this. We started using these
Speaker 1: timers in our house a few months back and it
Speaker 1: has been amazing. We're a big fan of them. I
Speaker 1: just set them on my Google Home. You can use
Speaker 1: Alexa or Siri to do the same, and when the
Speaker 1: timer goes off, there's really no debating. And I found
Speaker 1: that my kids actually like Google telling them that times
Speaker 1: up more so than me. Of course, they're not teens
Speaker 1: just yet, so talk to me in a few years
Speaker 1: and I'll tell you if this is still working. There
Speaker 1: you have it, the download on Fortnite, which by the way,
Speaker 1: is only going to get even more popular when it's
Speaker 1: available on Android. It's not there just yet, but apparently
Speaker 1: that's happening in the next few months, although no solid
Speaker 1: date has been announced. Thanks so much for listening to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I do appreciate it, and if you can
Speaker 1: leave me a rating and review in Apple Podcasts, that
Speaker 1: would be great because that way more people discover it.
Speaker 1: And as always, you can find links to everything I
Speaker 1: talk about here on the podcast, including a link to
Speaker 1: smartsocial dot com, where you can get family guides for
Speaker 1: many more apps. Just go to richon tech dot tv.
Speaker 1: I'm Rich Smiro. Have a fantastic day. I'll talk to
Speaker 1: you real sick