On Fortnite

Fortnite is the biggest computer game of all time. One hundred people recently took part in the final of the world championships in an enormous arena in the States with their gaming displayed on huge screens. The victor won $3 million.

It has been fascinating to hear some of the triumphant teenagers interviewed. One hopes to buy a new desk. Another wants to get his mum a house. A lad commented that his parents didn’t like him playing so much, but after the pay out they are kind of pleased.

Prince Harry has opined that this addictive game should be banned.

We may take Fortnite as an interesting test case in Christian ethics. Is Fortnite a sin? May / should a Christian play? Should the nippers be allowed to snipe at strangers online? Is it time for the government to step in?

Of course, the Bible does not mention the Play Station or the X-box. But it sufficiently equips us for every good work. God has given the church all she needs for life and godliness. So together we can work out both how to get to heaven (by trusting in Jesus, as the Bible says very plainly) and how to live in the meantime (becoming more like Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, which takes a bit more figuring out in some of the circumstances).

Christian liberty should lapse into neither licence nor legalism. We are free, but not merely to please our sinful selves. We are called to obey Christ’s law of love but that does not mean that the essence of Christian living is a list of DOs and DON’Ts, nor that we are seeking to build up points in some kind of moral bank account so that God will love us. As the Apostle Paul said (possibly quoting his interlocutors): “Everything is permitted [perhaps in a sense!] but not everything is beneficial.”   

Fortnite is at least questionable. The aim of the game is to kill and avoid being killed. If we take it at all seriously, we would have to spin the whole thing as a fake Just War, which takes a certain amount of imagination. The game is free to play, but it the firm behind it make money by selling in-game enhancements to pre-teens. These include dance moves and changes in appearance known as “skins”. It is hard not to see these are a terrible waste of money which feeds a woeful superficiality and a concern to be seen as on trend. Would it be better to play the piano or go for a walk? Probably.

And yet there is a snobbery against so called e-sports. The kind of worries that some people have about computer games have been expressed through history about the book, football and the telephone. Computer games can certainly develop some skills (manual dexterity, strategy and team work). Sometimes they foster community and a striving for excellence. Technology is not the root of all evil. It depends how it is used.

Christian theologians have long recognised the role of lawful recreation in the Christian life. But this should not be to the neglect of other duties. Can you love God and love your neighbour while playing Fortnite? Probably. What if you play for the eight hours a day on a school day required to become world champion? Just possibly, but it presents much more of a challenge. Anyone who wants to be the best at anything in the world probably has to treat it as their full-time job. Fortnite Player would not be a forbidden job for the Christian (as bank robber would be) but it is unlikely that your pastor or your parents would recommend it as the best way to add to the sum of your own or of human happiness in general.

For most, Fortnite is probably okay and relatively harmless. There are ways in which it might both help and hinder, to which we must be alert. I think Prince Harry is right that there is a danger of the whole thing consuming impressionable young people’s minds. But the answer to that is not a ban on Fortnite. We want to live out and compellingly hold forth a better vision by telling a better more exciting story of God the creator and Jesus the redeemer. “Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart!”